Currahee!: A Screaming Eagle at Normandy

Second book by Burgett I’ve read. Nothing like hearing from one who was there and fought.

So we've all seen Private Ryan now and think we know something about the horrors of war, but I would suggest that there is no way that anybody who was not there can truly understand it. This great book, written by an American paratrooper about his experiences leading up to and then at D-Day, makes us realize that the visceral horror of war is something that probably can not be conveyed. It is a rather short read and is in three parts: the first is at training camp in Georgia; the second in England preparatory to the assault; and the third is the terrifying jump into France, and the grim, terrible battle which followed. To say the least, it makes for very compelling reading. The training aspect was remarkable for its undisguised brutality. The men were told in no uncertain terms that the paratroopers did not want them; they were going to try to make them quit. The first day, for example, several men collapsed during the morning's six mile run. They were left by the side of the road, to crawl back as they could, with one of them not arriving until after midnight. He quit. Treatment, as well as being harsh, was also intentionally unfair. The narrator, after his first night jump, broke his ankle. He was left out there as well, in the darkness, to crawl back to the barracks as best as he could. "If I knew how to cry," he said. "I would have." The men were told that their likelihood of surviving combat was very poor, and that they should expect to die. The men accepted this. Most died. Their mission was to jump behind enemy lines the morning of D-Day. Each company was given specific tasks to accomplish, but one gets the sense that all it was really hoped they would do was to create as much chaos as possible. This is exactly what happened after the chaotic, haphazard way in which they were dropped. Nobody was dropped where they should have been. Entire planeloads of men were actually dropped at sea, where they drowned. The author witnessed one cowardly pilot, fearful of anti-aircraft fire, drop the men from an altitude of 100 feet. Every one of them was killed before his chute could open. The battle scenes are horrific, almost beyond comprehension. The way one killed one's enemy was by creating situations in which there were large amounts of flying metal in the enemy's area. This was done with bombs dropped from planes or fired from cannons and mortars, tanks, bazookas, grenades, machine guns, rifles and pistols. With such firepower on both sides, one realizes that getting killed was likely not a matter of if, but when. The author, diving into a hole, finds two German soldiers apparently hit by a bomb. Their faces, hands and feet are all blasted away but incredibly, they are still alive. The author shoots them, and prays that if the same were to happen to him, the Germans would show the same mercy. After a time the Americans are able to establish some order. The author is sent behind with communications, and retreats

If you havn't read this book you are in for a treat!With the recent release of Ambrose' 'Band of Brothers' on HBO there has been an overdue increase of interest in the Screaming Eagles of WWII. This book is what first interested me. This is the first in a series of four books written by a regular trooper of the 101st...And what a series it is. This set is considered by most to be one of the best memoirs ever written about war. Here is exposed the fear and tradgedy of a real battlefield. Burgett has you on the edge of your seat for the entire ride from the unbearable training in the hot Southern sun to the terrors of D-Day and the battle around Carentan. This is no holds barred, exposed in all its raw detailed writing at its best!Please be sure to couple this book with the next three, including the number one WWII book (in my opinion), Seven roads to Hell. Together this set allows an unforgettable glimpse into the life of a WWII paratrooper!If you want the complete experience, read 'Rendezvous with Destiny' (see my review) for the complete unit history of the 101st, and do so before this memoir.

This was an outstanding book! The author tells his story with almost a "dry-biscuit matter of factness" about his experience starting with jump school in Georgia, training in the British Isles, Combat in Normandy and finally back in England recuperating from his combat wounds.Just reading this book makes you feel like you are actually with him in combat, although of course you are not, seeing the horror of combat first hand. It goes without saying that no book or movie can ever truly describe the reality of combat but this book goes far enough to make the reader realize that combat is probably the most horrific thing a human can experience.The book is loaded with very vivid descriptions throughout and a number of them stick in my mind: In the early morning of D-Day the author had just landed in his parachute and was on his back getting himself organized when another C-47 flew over at a very low altitude and he saw every single paratrooper jump to their deaths before their chutes even had a chance to unfurl. "They sounded like ripe pumpkins hitting the ground and bounced" quite horrifying! Another C-47 dropped all of its troopers into the English Channel. The first man out landed in waist deep water and was the only one out of his plane that lived. All of the others drowned (the paratroopers carried around 100lbs of equipment with them which no doubt took them straight to the bottom of the sea.) In another place the author describes how they saw some Germans who had just butchered a cow and put some steaks on a makeshift grill. The author and his comrades promptly killed all of them and then finished cooking the steaks and ate them themselves.The battlefield descriptions are straight to the point and are not for the faint of heart. The author describes with brutal honesty throughout the book his entire experience.I would recommend this book to everyone. It is an excellent read and very fast paced (I read it in a few hours cover to cover). Five stars most definently!

an excellent book as are all of mr. burgetts.it gives you the sense of some of our country's best fighting men, their ability to carry out the mission in spite of being mis-dropped and scattered. if you ever have wondered what it was like for paratroopers ,you should read this book.

I read Currahee! for the first time as a teenager in the early 1970s then a second time just after touring Normandy in 1975. It was then and remains to this day a historical treasure. The book motivated me to go on to become a paratrooper (now a master parachutist.) Nearly a quarter of a century later I'm serving as a U.S. Diplomat and Special Forces Reserve Lieutenant Colonel. Now living in Europe, I visit the 101st's battlefields often and try to pass on the lessons of history to my children. I like to think that guys like me are carrying on in the spirit of Burgett and his band of brothers to whom mankind owes a debt of gratitude.