Parachute Infantry - by David Webster (Paperback)

About the Book

Webster wrote this book a short time after the war, relying on his letters home and recollections he wrote right after his discharge. His memoirs are threaded with novel-type narrative and conversation, and they have never been published. photo insert.

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

"Webster left this gutsy, sometimes bemused and sometimes angry memoir behind.... It bites and hangs on."--The New York Times"Beautifully written... perfectly evokes life and battle in a parachute infantry company."--The Washington Post Book World

About the Author

David Kenyon Webster worked as a reporter and writer after the war. The Saturday Evening Post published a portion of his memoir, but book publishers rejected his manuscript, seeking sensationalized novels of the war rather than authentic memoirs. He died in 1961 in a boating accident while shark fishing.