Currahee!

Rating:
Summary: 5 Mega Stars
Review: Donald Burgett is one of my favorite authors. He puts you smack in the middle of the action with his superb writing ability. This book deserves more than 5 stars, so 5 Mega Stars is my rating. An EXCELLENT read!

Dr. Michael L. Johnson author of "What Do You Do When the Medications Don't Work?--A Non-Drug Treatment of Dizziness, Migraine Headaches, Fibromyalgia, and Other Chronic Conditions".

Rating:
Summary: Riveting first-hand account of paratroopers in Normandy
Review: Donald Burgett served as a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division and gifts us with this remarkable account of his experience during the Allied invasion of Normandy. The first part of the book about the formation of the paratroopers and their early training will be familiar to those who have read Stephen Ambrose's "Band of Brothers" or watched the HBO miniseries. From D-Day forward, however, the stories are very different. In comparison to "Currahee!", BoB appears to be an almost sanatized version of the invasion and fighting in Normandy. In "Currahee!" Burgett does not hesitate to vividly describe the horrors of war - excrutiating wounds, rotting corpses, moments of incredible fear and agony. Even if you think that you are prepared to face these grim realities, you will still find Burgett's frankness disturbing. However, I encourage you not to let this put you off reading this book. Burgett's experience in Normandy was extraordinary, and he does a masterful job of conveying all the terror, exhilaration and grief he experienced. Since this is just one man's story, it necessarily captures only one perspective about a limited part of the invasion, but Burgett's skillful storytelling successfully conveys what many of the troops must have been thinking and feeling during those remarkable days.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Account of the 101 in the Normany Campaign
Review: Excellent read, however those not versed in the WWII military venacular (e.g. B.A.R., D.Z., O.P., etc.) may have problems following some aspects of the book. Those who have read other accounts of the Normandy campaign (or other millitary history of the european theater) will tear through this easy and enjoyable read. Burgett was a very hard man, who killed 27 germans in one fire fight, and scores of others during the war. He proclaims to not understand the need for his colleages to mourn the loss of a buddy when there were still more nazis to kill! This book is a perfect compliment to Band of Brothers, it details the same training and battles of the same regiment only A company instead of E company.

Rating:
Summary: burgett is a great author
Review: honestly its been three or more years since i read this burgett book, but it only took me two days to finish it. it just sucks you in and im a very slow reader. burgett is very matter of fact about his training and war time experiences. from training accidents to killing men so badly burned there was no alternative to relieving them of their suffering. truley powerful.

Rating:
Summary: No pretense
Review: Horrific depictions of what it was like for the men on the ground. Burgett's account gives a good glimpse, but civilians like us can never fully experience what it must have been like. Reads easy; only took two days for me.

What i didn't like was all the typos i found in my edition. There were glaring problems with the language and spelling. One of Burgett's buddies is alternately listed as "Brinninstool" and "Brennenstool." Not the most efficient editing job...

Overall, a good piece of memoirs. Hard to believe no one wanted to read this book when it was originally published. Must have been way before its time.

Rating:
Summary: WAIT A MINUTE!!!
Review: If you havn't read this book you are in for a treat!
With the recent release of Ambrose' 'Band of Brothers' on HBO there has been an overdue increase of interest in the Screaming Eagles of WWII. This book is what first interested me. This is the first in a series of four books written by a regular trooper of the 101st...And what a series it is. This set is considered by most to be one of the best memoirs ever written about war. Here is exposed the fear and tradgedy of a real battlefield. Burgett has you on the edge of your seat for the entire ride from the unbearable training in the hot Southern sun to the terrors of D-Day and the battle around Carentan. This is no holds barred, exposed in all its raw detailed writing at its best!
Please be sure to couple this book with the next three, including the number one WWII book (in my opinion), Seven roads to Hell. Together this set allows an unforgettable glimpse into the life of a WWII paratrooper!
If you want the complete experience, read 'Rendezvous with Destiny' (see my review) for the complete unit history of the 101st, and do so before this memoir.

Rating:
Summary: Without fanfare
Review: Just like the real thing, the author tells his story without fanfare. No Hollywood special effects, music, embellishments, etc., this reads just like you're sitting with Burgett over a cup of coffee and a game of checkers as he recounts the horrors he and his "buddies" went through to rid the world of fascism. I agree with the other positive things said about this book on his page, so let me let the author speak for himself in a few quick, unforgettable excerpts, as this book has many:

After breaking his leg on his first practice jump: "The only way I could travel was to lie on my side, throw the chute forward, crawl to it, and repeat the procedure over and over again. Finally another jeep came up and this time a sergeant leaned over the steering wheel and said, 'That's the spirit we like around here,' and then drove off. I crawled for what seemed to be hours."

On the early morning hours of June 6, 1944, having just dropped behind enemy lines: "Another plane came in diagonally over the field....then I saw vague, shadowy figures of troopers plunging downward. Their chutes were pulling out of the pack trays and just starting to unfurl when they hit the ground. Seventeen men hit the ground before their chutes had time to open. 'That dirty SOB pilot,' I swore to myself, 'he's hedgehopping and killing a bunch of troopers just to save his own ass. I hope he gets shot down in the Channel and drowns real slow.'"

War is hell: "The two German prisoners tried to climb the steep bank behind them, but just as they got to the top, Brininstool fired his tommy gun. Both of them slid down, whirled around, and were slammed back against the bank so hard by the .45 slugs that their eyes popped out of their sockets and hung down on their cheeks. What kept them standing is a mystery to me, but neither one fell. They just stood in a leaning position, side by side against the dirt wall, with arms hanging loosely at their sides. From the expressions on their faces they must have just looked through the open gates of hell."

Near the end of his time in Normandy: "Suddenly a strange smell came to our noses and wisps of a funny looking smoke crept over the hedges from our left. It clung close to the ground and moved slowly toward us. Phillips looked back at me. His eyes were round and wide. 'Gas,' he exclaimed. 'What'll we do now?' 'Nothing,' I said. 'Just stay here and die, I guess. I wish I had my gas mask now.' 'So do I,' said Phillips and Benson together. They had been the first things we had thrown away."

I did not preselect the above excerpts. I literally spent a very few minutes leafing through the book, finding a striking passage, and typing it for you. Burgett's experiences are all as rich as the above, about 200 pages' worth in paperback packed with such horrific stories that make one truly appreciate the sacrifices and bravery of such men in that era and, by extension, the current one.

My only nitpick with the book is that the author several times mentions an event without giving the result; for example, the two paratroopers who got into a drunken knife fight and were taken to the hospital by the MPs. Their fate is never revealed beyond being taken from the bar, and surely the camp was abuzz with stories about them; for some reason, we don't know whatever became of them. This is still a five-star book, however, because of the matter-of-fact tone and unmistakeable realism with which Burgett tells his remarkable tale. Very highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: One of my most favorite books of all time!
Review: Nobody but a combat soldier can answer the question: "What was it like?" For those of us who have never experienced battle we can only try to imagine it. Mr. Burgett urges us to hunker down into his foxhole as the carnage of noman's land drops onto our laps like a screaming mortar shell. His unbelievable experiences make for a series of WWII memoirs unsurpassed in their vivid telling. I have read all four of his books-in chronological order-and I cannot imagine a more genuine and descriptive account of a trooper's brutal experiences in the European theater of WWII. I wish I could meet the man to shake his hand. His dedication and sense of honor and sacrifice make me proud to be an American, and very grateful indeed for having known of such combat men as Donald R. Burgett.

Rating:
Summary: Combat Memoir
Review: So we've all seen Private Ryan now and think we know something about the horrors of war, but I would suggest that there is no way that anybody who was not there can truly understand it. This great book, written by an American paratrooper about his experiences leading up to and then at D-Day, makes us realize that the visceral horror of war is something that probably can not be conveyed.

It is a rather short read and is in three parts: the first is at training camp in Georgia; the second in England preparatory to the assault; and the third is the terrifying jump into France, and the grim, terrible battle which followed. To say the least, it makes for very compelling reading.

The training aspect was remarkable for its undisguised brutality. The men were told in no uncertain terms that the paratroopers did not want them; they were going to try to make them quit. The first day, for example, several men collapsed during the morning's six mile run. They were left by the side of the road, to crawl back as they could, with one of them not arriving until after midnight. He quit. Treatment, as well as being harsh, was also intentionally unfair. The narrator, after his first night jump, broke his ankle. He was left out there as well, in the darkness, to crawl back to the barracks as best as he could. "If I knew how to cry," he said. "I would have." The men were told that their likelihood of surviving combat was very poor, and that they should expect to die. The men accepted this. Most died.

Their mission was to jump behind enemy lines the morning of D-Day. Each company was given specific tasks to accomplish, but one gets the sense that all it was really hoped they would do was to create as much chaos as possible. This is exactly what happened after the chaotic, haphazard way in which they were dropped. Nobody was dropped where they should have been. Entire planeloads of men were actually dropped at sea, where they drowned. The author witnessed one cowardly pilot, fearful of anti-aircraft fire, drop the men from an altitude of 100 feet. Every one of them was killed before his chute could open.

The battle scenes are horrific, almost beyond comprehension. The way one killed one's enemy was by creating situations in which there were large amounts of flying metal in the enemy's area. This was done with bombs dropped from planes or fired from cannons and mortars, tanks, bazookas, grenades, machine guns, rifles and pistols. With such firepower on both sides, one realizes that getting killed was likely not a matter of if, but when. The author, diving into a hole, finds two German soldiers apparently hit by a bomb. Their faces, hands and feet are all blasted away but incredibly, they are still alive. The author shoots them, and prays that if the same were to happen to him, the Germans would show the same mercy.

After a time the Americans are able to establish some order. The author is sent behind with communications, and retreats through fields of dead. For a quarter of a mile, they litter the ground so thickly that he is literally able to step from body to body. Finally coming to the end of this, he describes the experience as of coming from some hideous darkness, back into light.

Eventually the author is wounded, first surviving a grenade blast which deafens him, then a piece of shrapnel which rips away the muscle of his forearm, exposing four inches of naked bone. He is sent behind to recover only so that he can come back and fight again.

The narrative is written in a candid, matter-of-fact way, remarkable for its lack of sentimentality. This, we realize, is the way he was supposed to be. This is how he was trained. Gentility, kindness, thoughtfulness, and feelings were emotions wiped clean from the consciousness of these young men, trained as they were to kill and to die. This fine book is a sobering reminder of the sacrifice made by them, most of whom met a gruesome end at an age when Americans today are graduating from high school or going to the martini bar to meet girls. They instead lie in cold graves dug hastily for them in the north of France.

Rating:
Summary: Setting the Precedent for All Combat Memoirs!
Review: The successful book and mini-series _Band of Brothers_ prompted a re-read of Donald R. Burgett's timeless classic: Currahee: A Screaming Eagle in Normandy (the subtitle was added to the reprint editions). First published in 1967, Burgett was ahead of his time in paving the way for a no holes barred narrative and chilling memoir. Some of the more recent World War II memoirs will attest that there are several pit-falls awaiting the well intentioned autobiographer. For example, a combat veteran's world was very small. He was rarely aware of events transpiring outside the realm of his squad or platoon. He oftentimes knew not where he was, nor was he aware of the grand strategy of which his unit was a small yet intricate part. All he knew was that he had to keep going on to victory, not so much for his country as a whole, but for his buddies who depended on him, as he relied on them for survival. Also, there is a tendency for the humorous memories to over-shadow the horrors of war in many recent accounts. The result is often a personal anecdotal approach. Although this style is significant to understanding the culture of the World War II veteran, it can also bore the reader quickly. Not so with Burgett's first effort. Burgett blends the anecdotal with the overall picture splendidly. He made a smart decision to have a military historian edit his manuscript and fill in the holes with facts Burgett could not possibly have known at the time. This collaboration is done with finesse, lending just enough factual military history to Burgett's personal experiences to make for a riveting read (This delicate ingredient will become more abundant in Burgett's subsequent installments). Burgett takes the reader from paratrooper training, overseas deployment, and eventual night drop into Normandy on the eve of the D-Day invasion. His attention to detail is remarkable. Every facet of training from the technical to the ironic is covered with crystal clear prose. If it were not for an injury suffered during Burgett's first qualifying jump, he would have crashed and burned with his original stick in an unfortunate training accident. Burgett's acclimation to combat appears to occur rapidly. He soon learns to think like an infantryman: is this ditch a safe place to spend the night, he wonders, or does the enemy have it zeroed-in? Burgett soon learned to trust no one outside his circle of squad buddies in the second squad, second platoon of A Company, 506th Parachute Infantry, 101st Airborne Division. He would make the grateful French citizens drink the wine and cider they happily offered their liberators first to insure it was not poisoned. Thinking three moves ahead in the game of survival became a way of life for Burgett. Burgett's re-telling of the sporadic fire fights among the hedgrows of Normandy are vital to a thorough understanding of the Airborne operations on D-Day. The reader may wonder whether the paratroopers preference for screaming frontal assaults directly into the mouths of German machine guns and deadly artillery is the result of elite combat training or youthful bravado (Burgett was only nineteen). Burgett makes no bones about his macabre desire to scalp the blond locks from a dead German soldier he felled with his M-1 Garrand. Only intense enemy machine gun fire prevented him from performing this gruesome deed. Burgett comments on the one topic no one likes to talk about: friendly fire. Burgett tells us that not only were his comrades killed by mishaps during Allied air and artillery support missions, but also short rounds fired from ships off-shore as well. Without a doubt, Burgett's tell-it-like-was memoir will become a timeless classic. All veterans contemplating preserving their experiences to paper should consult Burgett as a model.