In combat with the 82nd Airborne in the Second World War * A
revealing account of one of America’s most talented Second World
War airborne officers.
Col. Mark James Alexander was the only airborne officer to lead three
different battalions into combat in Second World War, successively commanding
the 2nd and 1st Battalions, 505 Parachute Infantry Regiment, and the 2nd
Battalion, 508 PIR, of the 82nd Airborne Division. A legend in his own time, he
fought in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, and France, and even after being seriously wounded in
Normandy, insisted on playing a role in the
Battle of the
Bulge.
Airborne Generals Gavin and Ridgway recognised Alexander’s superior
battle skills and were more than happy to use him to plug holes in the ranks.
His reputation excelled among the rank and file, right down to the lowest
private. He led from the front, pressing the attack while simultaneously looking
out for his men. In Sicily, Alexander’s battalion landed 25 miles
from its drop zone, into a network of Italian pillboxes, upon which the Colonel
personally directed fire. Dropped into the desperate inferno at Salerno, he refused to
give ground against German counterattacks, forming his paratroopers against
enemy efforts to push Allied forces back into the sea. At Normandy one seasoned
lieutenant, John "Red Dog" Dolan, 505 PIR, called him "the finest battalion
commander I ever served under," after Alexander had led the 1/505 for ten days
through the bloody battle for La Fière Bridge and Causeway.
This memoir is based on the transcription of hundreds of hours of
recorded interviews made by Alexander’s grandson, John Sparry, over a period of
years late in his life. Providing valuable insight into the beloved commander
who led three of the most infamous battalions in the US Army, Jump Commander
also contains a wealth of new detail on 82nd Airborne operations, and casts
insight on some of the most crucial battles in the ETO. This highly readable and
action-packed narrative may well be the last remaining memoir to be written in
the voice of a major airborne officer of the Greatest
Generation.
