The Filthy Thirteen: From the Dustbowl to Hitler's Eagle's Nest - The True Story of the Dirty Dozen

First my excuses for my poor english. I'm Dutch. This book is somewhat diffent from other memoires. But the great power of this book is the individual story. I guess that for people who do not know european culture, geopraphy and history this will be a strange book. But I can follow the whereabouts off these men every step he writes them out. To (older)people in Holland these men were angels from the sky and after that heroes and normal men. Best Parts in the book. -Jump in Normandy. The psychological lonelyness that he discribes, the chaotic anarchy, determination, succes of failure, brillant. (unbelievable, never read it so honest, disobbeying orders and so forth) -Holland, operation market garden Disaster. (also read the road to berlin, by Megallis) -Best part, the enormous after-war vacüum. -In general the human discription of man needs in the 'wild'. Shelter, good food, a drink and..... Three drawbacks, the lightness which is used to talk about heavy dramatic scenes is 'strange'(but still natural) Futher a lot of detail is skipped. Last thing is that you never get feeling that death is all around, sometimes it feels like a walk over. But the graves are still here. OVERALL INIQUE DOCUMENT, Greetings drs.H.I.J.Versteegden

is one of the genuine crazies in the 101st Airborne's family tree. I met him at the Toccoa, GA, reunion of the 506th PIR after I came back from Iraq and he was happy to sign my copy. Yes, the writing is crude, yes, Jake loves to tell a good story, but if you want a dry day by day account of the 506th's doings, sit down with Rendezvous with Destiny instead. One, Bob Sink wasn't quite as stuck-up as Dale Dye played him, and second, why do you think Jake never got promoted and spent half his time at Toccoa in the stockade? There's a reason the pic of the old stockade there at the camp is captioned "Jake McNiece's command post" in the county historical society literature, his antics have been a running joke in Division circles since 1943. I think it was the pics of the Mohawked, face-painted guys with the Thompsons when I was a real little kid that got me started on all this in the first place. Now I know the story behind it all, and I'm glad I met a genuine hero of an earlier time.

I read most of this book but I was most interested in the pictures. I was told of this book buy my step mother. She told me that her farther's picture was in this book. She was right he was standing next to Jake McNiece. Man I have to say my grandfarther and his friends were filthy guys and have the number 13 put upon them was realy on lucky. My grandfarther never made it to Hitler's eagle's nest he was taken pisoner buy the german army some time later, after geting lost. 13 mabe unlocky but this guys are the toughest I have ever seen. altough my grandfarther has died now. I just wanted to let him know Thank You, and God Bless You,...

One of the most famous photos of WWII is that of 101st paratroopers with Mohawk haircuts and war paint preparing to board C47 aircraft for D-Day. This book is the story of those men, before and after D-Day. The squad was part of the 506th of the 101st Abn Div and this book is co-authored by a member of the squad. The book also includes interviews with others who were part of the squad or their officers and is well researched from numerous articles on the squad that appeared in the Stars and Stripes and other magazines that made the squad, for awhile, as famous as Carlson's Raider's or the Black Sheep. These were tough men from America's depression dust bowl and did not take well to Army displine. They formed the 506th demo squad and were encourged to be independent for the behind the lines work that paratroopers operate in. Before D-Day the squad built a reputation for not saluting officers or taking showers, their filth was their badge of membership of the squad. The men returned from D-Day and found that they were famous from the "Mohawk" photo and stories of the "Filthy 13" were picked up by US papers. Some of the squad were interviewed for other stories but were off for Holland before they could read the results. When the squad fought at the Bulge they had been trained as pathfinders and this book tells of the little known work that pathfinders did to bring supply drops into Bastone. After the war the squad went their own ways and over the years stories were published in magazines like "True Magazine" and in the early sixties Hollywood became interested in their story. The surviving squad members where not interested and would not allow their name "Filthy 13" be used. In 1967 the hit movie "The Dirty Dozen" came out. The novel, "The Dirty Dozen" was published in 1965 by E.M. Nathanson. Nathanson's story was inspired by WWII OSS officer Aaron Bank. In 1944 Major Bank was given the job of selecting anti Nazi German POW's and then lead them on a mission to whipe out Hitler's high command. The mission was scrubbed but Nathanson used the idea for a novel, only he changed the prisoners from German POWs to GI convicts. The title of his novel seems to have been borrowed from the "Filthy 13". Like the 13 the "Dozen" refuse to shower and are a bane to the 101st Abn brass, also in the book/movie the dozen take out a 101st HQ and have a party prior to D-Day. Regardless of the "Dirty Dozen" connections this is a good book about the conduct of WWII style airborne warfare.

Being a big fan of the movie The Dirty Dozen, and a WWII buff to boot, I could not wait to read this book. It took me just three days to finish it because once you begin, you cannot put it down.Jake McNiece, the leading member of the Filthy 13, tells the tale in a folksy, homespun way, but does not pull any punches about his antics, behavior, or just what a bad dude he was in his early 20s. This guy drank, stole, assulted, and offended his way through early life. He was just plain mean--with a kind streak that shows up from time to time. And hilarious. His sense of humor will have your belly-laughing out loud.The early chapters about training, etc. are great because you meet all the other characters in the book--and there are lots of them to meet. The end notes are great because they expound further on the men and their fate. The book really picks up when the guys cut their hair, paint their faces, and load up for the trip to Normandy. Prepare to not eat for hours at a stretch because you can't put the damn book down.The details of war are horrific, and McNiece pulls no punches. He talks about men jumping from plains and being sucked into propellers, guys getting their heads blown off, and just what it was like to kill the enemy up close and personal. I hope the statute of limitations for murder has passed, because he tells in gruesome detail how he and another guy killed wounded Germans. Sure it was war, and of course they did it to us, but all the same, it is disturbing.Jake's handling of his relationship with the men is wonderfully told. He saved many lives and lost lots of friends. What I especially enjoyed was that the other author who helped McNiece pen the book interviewed lots of 101st Airborne guys, and they confirmed and expounded on Jake's stories. The gallow's humor that runs throughout will make you cringe, like digging through the dead's boots for coffee, standing up corpses in doorways, etc. After Normandy, he jumped into Holland in Market Garden, then Bastogne in the Battle of the Bulge, and then along the Rhine. The Holland chapter was exceptionally amazing. They were in combat for almost 80 days, and many of the men you have come to meet in the book are killed there. Ultimately, this book made me shed a tear. The final reunion scene 50 years later is heartbreaking when you think of the young strapping guys who saved the world against Nazism as old men on canes barely able to walk. This is a must read, and I think will be one of those classics that will stand the test of time.