masterskvm.blogg.se - Currahee! by Donald R. Burgett

Currahee!: A Screaming Eagle at Normandy, the story of Able Company of 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment.

Some were based on unpublished accounts he wrote immediately after the war, while others were compiled in later years. Bibliography īurgett wrote several memoirs of his time serving in the United States Army during World War II. Howell mayor Nick Proctor also proclaimed June 14 as "Donald R. On Friday June 14, 2019, the Howell Post Office was renamed the "Sergeant Donald Burgett Post Office Building" in his honor. He wrote four books and appeared in History Channel specials on World War II. While in action with the 101st, Burgett was wounded three times and had his M1 rifle shot out of his hands at least twice.īurgett lived in Howell, Michigan.

Burgett went on to fight through Operation Nordwind, on into Germany to the Ruhr Valley, the Rhineland, and Bavaria, where he helped capture Hitler's mountain retreat in southern Germany. 10th Armored Division and the all-African-American 969th Artillery Battalion (Cld)(155mm How Trac-D) held out against nine German armored divisions during the siege of Bastogne.

After just a few weeks' rest, he was again sent into combat, this time at the Battle of the Bulge, where the 101st, along with Combat Command B of the U.S. Burgett parachuted into the Netherlands, his second combat jump, as part of Operation Market-Garden with the 1st Allied Airborne Army, and fought for 72 days behind the German lines. On May 3, 1943, he reported to the Induction Center where he officially volunteered for the Paratroops, signing the statement "I do hereby volunteer to jump from a plane, while in flight and land on the ground via parachute." He went through Basic Combat Training in Kansas, completed Airborne training in Fort Benning, Georgia, and joined the 101st at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana.īurgett participated in Operation Overlord, parachuting into Normandy as a member of the 506th PIR, 101st Airborne. Burgett volunteered to be called up as soon as he turned 18 the following year. In the opening paragraph of his memoir Currahee!, he wrote that he was determined to follow his older brother Elmer, who had joined the Paratroops in 1942. Burgett served in Company A, 1st Battalion, 506th PIR as both a rifleman and a machine-gunner.īurgett was born in Detroit, Michigan, and grew up on the city's west side. He was a member of the 101st Airborne Division, ("The Screaming Eagles"), and the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. He was among the Airborne troopers who landed in Normandy early on the morning of D-Day. Burgett (Ap– March 23, 2017) was a writer and a former World War II paratrooper.