Fighting with the Screaming Eagles: With the 101st Airborne from Normandy to Bastogne

Robert Bowen was drafted into Company C, 401st Glider Infantry, 101st Airborne Division, as World War II broke out, and soon afterwards found himself storming ashore amid the chaos on Utah Beach, through unfamiliar terrain littered with minefields and hidden snipers. He was wounded during the Normandy campaign but went on to fight in Holland and the Ardennes where he was captured and his "trip through hell" truly began.

In each of Bowen’s campaigns, the 101st “Screaming Eagles” spearheaded the Allied effort against ferocious German resistance or, as at Bastogne, stood nearly alone against the onslaught of enemy panzers and grenadiers. His insights into life behind German lines, after his capture, provide as much fascination as his exploits on the battlefield. An introduction by the world’s foremost historian of the 101st Airborne, George Koskimaki, further enhances this classic work.

Written shortly after the war, Bowen's narrative is immediate, direct and compelling. His account, one of the few by a member of a glider regiment, provides a brutal insight into the battlefields of World War II and a vivid recreation of just what life was like in an elite unit. From the horror of D-Day and the despair of captivity, to the taste of C Rations and the fear of soldiers under fire, this memoir tells the full story of one man's total war.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
List of Maps
Foreword by George E. Koskimaki
Introduction

CHAPTER 1: You’re in the Army Now
CHAPTER 2: Marking Time
CHAPTER 3: The Reluctant Transport
CHAPTER 4: Atlantic Convoy
CHAPTER 5: No Milk or Honey
CHAPTER 6: The Calm Before the Storm
CHAPTER 7: D-Day: Operation Overlord
CHAPTER 8: Evacuated as a Casualty
CHAPTER 9: Windmills and Wooden Shoes
CHAPTER 10: The Fight for Veghel
CHAPTER 11: The Island
CHAPTER 12: Debilitation
CHAPTER 13: Bitter December
CHAPTER 14: Into the Frying Pan
CHAPTER 15: Siegburg to Hoffenstahl
CHAPTER 16: The Bottom of the Pit
CHAPTER 17: Hell Train
CHAPTER 18: Bremervorde: Stalag IOB
AFTERWORD: And Yet So Far

Bibliography
Roll of Honor