Four Stars of Valor

The Combat History of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment in World War II

Phil Nordyke

• Publisher: Zenith Press
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN:
  9780760326640
• eBook ISBN:
  9781610600729
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World War II
• Index: History

Hailing from the big cities and small towns of America, these young men came together to serve their country and the greater good. They were the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division (the All Americans). Phil Nordyke, their official historian, draws on interviews with surviving veterans and oral history recordings as well as official archives and unpublished written accounts from more than three hundred veterans of the 505th PIR and their supporting units. This is history as it was lived by the men of the 505th, from their prewar coming of age in the regiment, through the end of World War II, when they marched in the Victory Parade up Fifth Avenue in New York, to the postwar legacy of having been part of an elite parachute regiment with a record unsurpassed in the annals of combat.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: “As Tough And Intelligent A Group Of Fighting Men As Ever Pulled On Jump Boots”
• Chapter 2: “If You Fell Out, You Were Dismissed From The Regiment”
• Chapter 3: “Africa Was A Living Hell”
• Chapter 4: “The Eyes of the World Are Upon You. The Hopes And Prayers Of Every American Go With You.”
• Chapter 5: “A Blazing Hell Of Mortar, Artillery, And Small Arms Fire”
• Chapter 6: “The Italians Were Something Less Than Enthused About Fighting”
• Chapter 7: “A Scene I Would Carry With Me Always”
• Chapter 8: “An Irresistible Force That Nothing Could Stop”
• Chapter 9: “A Small Unit Performance That Has Seldom Been Equaled”
• Chapter 10: “The 82nd Airborne Division’s Undiscovered World War II Equivalent Of Sergeant Alvin C. York”
• Photo Gallery
• Chapter 11: “I Would Rather Have A Platoon Of Those Men Than A Battalion Of Regular Infantry”
• Chapter 12: “The Sky Is Full Of Silk”
• Chapter 13: “All Of The Men Worshipped Him”
• Chapter 14: “You Fired Fast And Straight Or You Were Dead”
• Chapter 15: “We Were Not Going To Pull Back . . . If They Take Us Back, They’re Going To Have To Carry Us Back”
• Chapter 16: “Boy, I Feel Sorry For The First Germans Those Guys Get Ahold Of”
• Chapter 17: “The Krauts Are All Around Us”
• Chapter 18: “The Company I Came to Know and Love No Longer Existed”
• Chapter 19: “Is This Armageddon?”
• Chapter 20: “Fugitives From The Laws Of Averages”
• Epilogue: “Invisible Pathfinders”
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index to Maps
• Index
• Copyright Page