This gripping, fully illustrated title follows the story of the men of
3rd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, the comrades of the
Band of Brothers, from their formation to their involvement in the D-Day
landings, their part in the bitter fighting to hold Bastogne during the
Battle of the Bulge, and finally their occupation of Berchtesgaden,
Hitler's mountain retreat.
Following on from the success of Ian Gardner's critically acclaimed
trilogy on the exploits of the 3rd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry
Regiment, 101st Airborne Division in World War II, Sent by the Iron
Sky tells their exhilarating story for a new readership. From the
moment they entered the war in June, 1944, the men of 3rd Battalion were
faced with brutal fighting against horrendous odds. Later in the year,
nearly five months in combat with no relief led to heavy losses which
reduced them to the size of a company. Their heroic defense of Bastogne
saw their division awarded a Unit Citation, a first in the history of
the US armed forces, and they subsequently fought on across Europe,
finishing the war occupying Hitler's mountain retreat of Berchtesgaden.
Drawing on years of research and interviews with veterans of some of the
toughest battles of World War II, together with full-color maps and over
200 images, Ian Gardner brings to life some of the most bitter fighting
of the war in Europe, laying bare the horrors of war, the deprivations
of day-to-day living, and the chaos of the front line. Additional
material includes a chapter on the fate of the men captured in Normandy
and a foreword by Lee Wolverton, the grandson of the commander of 3rd
Battalion, Col Robert Wolverton.
