| Seven Roads to Hell - A Screaming Eagle at Bastogne
(1999)
|
| Front Cover |
Book Details |
|
| Genre |
Non-Fiction |
| Subject |
Burgett, Donald R. (Donald Robert), 1925-; United States. Army. Airborne Division, 101st.; United States. Army - Biography; Ardennes, Battle of the, 1944-1945; World War, 1939-1945 - Personal narratives, American; Soldiers - United States - Biography |
| Publication Date |
4/14/1999 |
| Format |
Hardcover (8.8
x
6.0
mm)
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| Publisher |
Presidio Press |
| Language |
English |
| Extras |
Dust Jacket; Dust Jacket Cover |
|
| Description |
| The Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne Division, the fictional Private Ryan's unit, had just finished the battle for the bridge too far, Field Marshal Montgomery's ill-fated Operation Market Garden. As Christmas 1944 approached, the division was settling in for some hard earned rest and recuperation. Despite its failure to hold the Rhine River bridgehead at Arnhem a few weeks earlier. Eisenhower's Allied juggernaut appeared unstoppable.Then, Hitler ordered a massive Nazi counterattack through the supposedly impenetrable Ardennes Forest. The overwhelming, armor-heavy Wehrmacht forces cut through the thinly-manned Allied lines, racing for Antwerp and the coast. German success would split the Allied armies, cripple their attack against the Reich, and lengthen the war, perhaps by years.The author and the rest of the Screaming Eagles were rushed to Bastogne, a small Belgian crossroads town. It was the key to the battle that has become universally known as the Bulge. The lightly armed paratroopers of the 101st immediately found themselves in close combat. Without enough ammunition or food, in freezing weather with deep snow they even lacked winter clothing. Yet, for eleven days they held out against the best the Nazis could throw at them, buying the time needed for Patton's Third Army to redeploy from the south.Private Burgett's memoir (he was not yet twenty years old at the time of the battle) is an exciting and enduring testament to the Screaming Eagles and their epic defense of Bastogne. |
| Personal Details |
| Store |
Powell's City of Books |
| Purchase Price |
$11.95 |
| Acquire Date |
10/30/2020 |
| Condition |
Very Good/Very Good |
| Rating |
0 |
| Links |
Library of Congress
|
|
| Product Details |
| LoC Classification |
D756.5.A7 .B87 1999 |
| Dewey |
940.54219348 |
| ISBN |
9780891416807 |
| Cover Price |
$24.95 |
| No. of Pages |
225 |
| First Edition |
No |
| Rare |
No |
|
| Notes/Review |
Although not published until 1999, the author wrote his account shortly after the war. It, therefore, doesn't suffer (or is much less likely to suffer) from the inaccuracy of memory.
It tells the story of roughly a month in combat in the encircled area around Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge. His unit was rushed in to defend the town in the first days of the campaign and he wasn't relieved until mid-January, 1945.
They fought in fog and snow and freezing rain, marched through snow sometimes up to their shirt pockets, sometimes covering the same ground two or three times, always outnumbered and typically outgunned. At times the story gets somewhat repetitive, but there are only so many ways to describe combat. What the author and his brothers in arms experienced is almost unimaginable. That's why it's important for them to tell their stories, and for us to read them.
For the most part, this book is a personal narrative. He tells us what he saw and did. But he also manages to give us a little bit more than that. In many places, he tells us what the units adjacent to his were doing. Surely, this information had to come from other sources, as he was not an eye-witness to it.
As I'd expect in a memoir, there are no source notes, no bibliography, and no index. There are about twenty photographs and several clearly drawn maps to aid the reader in following the action.
He has written a few other books about his experience. They are now on my to-read list. |
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