To D-Day and Back: Adventures with the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment and Life as a World War II POW: A memoir for $12.99

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This is a good first-person account of one American's adventures and escapades as he goes from being a member of the Texas National Guard in 1940 at the tender age of 17 to becoming several years later a (mortar) squad leader in the famous 82nd Airborne Division as a member of H Company, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment.

As a member of the 82nd Airborne Division, the author parachutes into Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Unfortunately, at D-Day plus 2, he is captured, along with several others, including a Colonel, after being surrounded and running out of ammunition. (It is the Colonel who orders the men to surrender.)

The author then spends the next several months being shuttled to various German prisoner of war camps, finally ending up in one for American NCOs near the Oder River that is liberated by the Russians in their march toward Berlin. Although the author's experiences as a POW were traumatic, after liberation by the Russians he and his fellow prisoners were left to fend, and forage, for themselves, as the Russians were too intent on exacting revenge on the Germans to assist the freed prisoners.

Incredibly, the author, while simply trying to get back to his own troops, becomes a prisoner of war of the Soviets and then has to escape from a Soviet POW camp, fortunately making it back to his own troops and, eventually, home.

The book, despite its grim tales and subtext, is an enjoyable read as it is written in a first-hand, almost conversational style that makes you feel you are right there in the action. It is an excellent addition to the personal histories of World War II, especially from the perspective not just of the horror and chaos that was D-Day but from the unusual vantage point of someone who was a prisoner of war.

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"To D-Day and Back: Adventures with the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment and Life as a World War II POW: A memoir" Overview

In the predawn hours of D-Day, June 6, 1944, which would become immortalized as the Longest Day, Bob Bearden and his comrades in the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment jumped into the inky skies over Normandy. Their mission: defend the west bank of the Merderet River against German counterattack. After long months of training they were finally taking the war to the Germans. Beardens time in combat proved shortlived, however, when he was captured on D+2, June 8.

This was only the beginning of a new war for his very survival through multiple German POW camps and ultimately on an epic journey that would take him largely on foot all the way to Moscow on his journey home, all of which makes for exciting reading in this remarkable memoir.

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