D-Day in Normandy as seen through the eyes of Private
Fayette O. Richardson (Pathfinder) and 1st Lt Rex G. Combs, 508th Parachute
Infantry Regiment, US 82nd Airborne Division. Details two young soldiers of the
82nd Airborne and their fight for survival at and after D-Day
Based on the written testimonies and personal archives of two
veterans of the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment attached to the famous
US 82nd Airborne Division, this book
tells the story of two young Americans who unwittingly became actors in one of
the greatest crusades against tyranny the world has ever known.
In order to better understand the motivations of those young men, the
author describes their family upbringing, taking us through the youth and
adolescence of these heroes in an America directly hit by the crisis of
the 1930s. He then vividly describes -almost on a day-to-day basis - the
rigorous training undertaken by a trainee parachutist in different camps
throughout the USA, before finally pinning the
much-sought-after Wings on his chest.
Finally the big day arrived - D-Day. We follow the emotions, fear,
but also the feat of arms of our heroes. Together, we jump from a C-47 rocked by
the explosions of shells and machine-gun fire, and find ourselves in the hostile
Normandy
woodland crawling with the enemy, and at times far from the planned Drop Zone.
With the help of original plans and unpublished photos, the author discovers
unknown details and specifies precisely the movements between June 6th and 10th
1944 of small elements of the 82nd Airborne Division, principally between the
two bridges over the flooded valley of the Merderet at La Fière and
Chef-du-Pont.
The epilogue tells how these fierce warriors, still alive after three
years of war and innumerable battles, returned to their homeland, readapted - at
times with difficulty- to civilian life, married and in time had children. This
is a worthy addition to the available literature concerning the 82nd Airborne
Division and its key role in the Normandy invasion of
1944.
