Parachute Infantry: An American Paratrooper's Memoir of D-Day and the Fall of the Third Reich | 
 enlarge | Authors: David Kenyon Webster, Stephen E. Ambrose
Publisher: Delta
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  50 reviews
Sales Rank: 66061
Media: Paperback
Edition: Rev Rep
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6.1 x 1
ISBN: 0385336497
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.542142
EAN: 9780385336499
ASIN: 0385336497
Publication Date: October 29, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Initial inside front cover otherwise looks unread - no creases
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Product Description
David Kenyon Webster’s memoir is a clear-eyed, emotionally charged chronicle of youth, camaraderie, and the chaos of war. Relying on his own letters home and recollections he penned just after his discharge, Webster gives a first hand account of life in E Company, 101st Airborne Division, crafting a memoir that resonates with the immediacy of a gripping novel.
From the beaches of Normandy to the blood-dimmed battlefields of Holland, here are acts of courage and cowardice, moments of irritating boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror, and pitched urban warfare. Offering a remarkable snapshot of what it was like to enter Germany in the last days of World War II, Webster presents a vivid, varied cast of young paratroopers from all walks of life, and unforgettable glimpses of enemy soldiers and hapless civilians caught up in the melee. Parachute Infantry is at once harsh and moving, boisterous and tragic, and stands today as an unsurpassed chronicle of war—how men fight it, survive it, and remember it.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 45 more reviews...
 The honest perspective of a paratrooper May 29, 2008
Its a good book, far from the best, but it covers all the issues a paratrooper had to deal with, both physically and mentally. Combat is not the main focus in this book, but rather the entire situation he was in.
 Best Band of Brothers Autobiography May 18, 2008
This book is the best autobiography written by a member of the "Band of Brothers." If you have seen the mini-series, then you are undoubtedly familiar with David Kenyon Webster, the Harvard English-lit major who could have probably been an officer or at minimum, a clerk but who chose to join the Paratroopers so he could fight the war first hand and write about it.
What is great about this book, as opposed to the others written by the members of this famed unit is the fact that it was still written during his youth without a lifetime of, well, life to diminish the memories. He speaks frankly about what he felt and admits to the fear, boredom and camaraderie from fighting in war.
When reading, one will notice several differences between his experiences and what was on the Band of Brothers mini-series and one that comes to mind was in the mini-series when a bunch of troopers crossed a river to get a prisoner. In the movie, Webster was there but in the book, he states that he didn't go (mainly because he didn't volunteer to do it!)
He speaks frankly and honestly about this disdain for officers (how Generals don't know how to speak on an enlisted-man's level and how they associate their speeches to football) and even mentions how Nixon was kind of bragging about going to Yale but he kept his mouth shut but could have told him that he went to Harvard.
I would rate this book up there with the other "must read" from an airborne's perspective, that being Curahee by Donald Burgett--a book also written soon after the war's end.
Please get this book immediately--you will not regret it.
A Very Good Book May 1, 2008
I was interested in this book because it was written long before the fanfare and pop culture status that Easy Company gained from the Band of Brothers movies. This book gives a fresh and down to earth view of what it must have been like to be a member of the 506 PIR. It is a great first person account of life on the front and really conveys the turmoil that Weber experienced. If you are looking for a story about the 506th that is far and apart from the contempory accounts, this is a book for you.
Takes you there.. March 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've read Band of Brothers, and I have the HBO series on DVD. Both excellent pieces of work. I've read Beyond Band of Brothers by Dick Winters, and also Brothers in Battle/Best of Friends by Guarnere and Heffron - both books are fascinating, in different ways. Winters fleshed out details of events I'd become familiar with, but his relatively impersonal style left me often wishing for more, while the Guarnere and Heffron memoir had the immediacy and personality of spoken recollections transcribed.
I'm sure none of the men in Easy Company could have possibly imagined that 60 years down the track their names and deeds would be known to millions, and that many of them would be celebrities, writing best-selling memoirs, and travelling the lecture circuit.
It's fascinating to have all of these different eye-witness accounts of the same shocking events.
David Kenyon Webster wrote his memoirs long ago, and was never able to attract a publisher in his lifetime. Reading them now, I think I understand why. I can easily imagine his account seemed too blunt and unvarnished for the audience of the time.
His writing seems very fresh and 'contemporary' - it's full of revelations and admissions that seem typical of a current-day author, whereas Winters, Guarnere, and Heffron all reflect the values and attitudes of men of that era. I have tremendous respect for all of these men, and I've been thoroughly engrossed reading all of the accounts of Easy Company, but Webster seems to have the clearest eye for, and ability to recall, important detail. He simply is the best at taking you deeper into the locations we have become familiar with via the Stephen Ambrose book, and the HBO series.
He wasn't the best leader, or the best killer, or the most unflinching freedom-fighter, but for mine, he is the best story-teller in this amazing group of men. It's a real pity he didn't live to enjoy some recognition of this work.
Parachute Infantry: An american paratrooper's memoir of D-Day and the fall of the third Reich December 27, 2007
A first hand account of WWII, its strains, its successes, its miseries, its eventual triumphs. A plea against the horrors of wars.
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