Combat Jump

by Ruggero, Ed

• ISBN13: 9780060088767
• ISBN10: 0060088761
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-01-01
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

Combat Jump is the exciting story of valiant a??tizen soldiersa??ho risked their lives during the dramatic paratrooper invasion of Sicily in July 1943 that set the stage for the ground troop invasion of Fortress Europe. The hairraising, frontline account of the first American airborne invasion of World War II and of the young paratroopers who risked their lives for freedom. By 1943, the war in Europe had reached a turning point. General Dwight Eisenhower was given orders to invade Sicily and head north. To achieve this, Ike had a new weapon: U.S. paratroopers. Their mission was to seize the approaches to the invasion beaches and to hold off German attacks. Combat Jump tells the littleknown story of these paratroopers and how they changed the American way of war. It takes readers on their journey from civilians to citizen soldiers, through training in the United States and later in North Africa, and then shows their daring jump into the darkness over enemyheld Sicily. By first light on Dday, July 10, 1943, it looked as if the mission would fail. Inexperienced pilots, lost or blown off course, dropped 80 percent of the troopers from one to sixtyfice miles from their targets. The American commander, James Gavin, landed so far from his objective that he was not even sure he was in Sicily. Arthur Gorham, commanding 500 men of the First Battalion, encountered two surprises when the sun came up. He and just over 100 of his men were the only GIsout of 3,400 droppednear their objective. He discovered that the Germans on Sicily had tanks. The lightly armed paratroopers, with their rifles and hand grenades, were not equipped to take on the fortyton panzers. But against all odds, they did. The costly lessons they learned shaped the war in Europe, for without Sicily, there might have been no airborne invasion of France in June 1944. Combat Jump recounts the extraordinary contributions these young men made when their country called them to war, and it tells a classic tale of military action and remarkable courage.

Author Biography

Ed Ruggero is the author of Duty First: West Point and the Making of American Leaders, in addition to five novels about the military. He is an experienced keynote speaker on leadership and leadership development, and was an infantry officer in the United States Army for eleven years

Table of Contents

Prologue	p. 1
In Theory	p. 7
From Every Corner of the Land	p. 30
The Oh-Five	p. 46
The All-Americans	p. 71
Two Steps Back	p. 93
The Hour Upon Them	p. 109
Dove Palermo? Dove Siracusa?	p. 127
Small Battles	p. 145
Wrong Place, Right Fight	p. 174
The Road to Gela	p. 188
Landings	p. 211
Mission First	p. 243
Seventy-Two Hours	p. 258
A New Mission	p. 280
Desperate Hours	p. 305
"It was a Good Fight"	p. 330
Epilogue	p. 340
Author's Note	p. 351
Casualty List	p. 355
Endnotes	p. 359
Works Cited	p. 369
Acknowledgments	p. 373
Index	p. 377
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