Parachute Infantry: An American Paratrooper’s Memoir of D-Day and the Fall of the Third Reich

410 Pages·2002·54.28 MB·English

by  David Kenyon Webster

BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY
Copley Square
Boston, toA 02116
PRAISE FOR DAVID KENYON WEBSTER'S
CLASSIC WORLD WAR MEMOIR
II
PARACHUTE INFANTRY
"I never had the privilege of meeting David Kenyon Webster,
but I admire him without stint. He was a good soldier and a
wonderful writer, one ofthe brave thousands ofAmerican com-
bat infantrymen who helped win the war and thus preserve our
freedom, and one ofthose very few with the talent and energy
to write about the war in a way to help those of us who came
later to understand it."
—
Stephen Ambrose (from the Introduction)
"I join Stephen Ambrose in recommending this book to anyone
ofany age with an interest in the exploits ofthe airborne forces
and ground combat in the European Theater ofOperations, as
told by a truly gifted narrator."
—Clay Blair, The Washington Post Book World
"[PARACHUTE INFANTRY] merits a place among the classic ac-
counts ofmen in battle."
—
Page Smith
"In this first-rate, skillfully written soldiers story, Webster
achieves a perfectlypitched sad sack sarcasmthat is an authen-
tic witness to the combat experience. The best of 1994 s D-Day
anniversary books."
—
Booklist

PARACHUTE
INFANTRY
An American Paratrooper's
Memoir of D-Day and the
Fall of the Third Reich
David Kenyon Webster
A Delta Book
Published by
Dell Publishing
adivisionof
Random House, Inc.
1540 Broadway
NewYork, NewYork 10036
Copyright © 1994, 2002 byTrusteesofthe Embree FamilyTrust
Letterscopyright © 2002 by David Kenyon Webster
Coverdesignby RobertodeVicqde Cumptich
Coverphotograph byCarl Rosenstein
Bookdesign by Virginia Norey
Unlessotherwisenoted,allillustrationsarefromtheauthor'spersonalcollection,
nowinpossessionofMrs. Charles B. Embree,Jr.
Photograph onpagev, TheAmerican Cemeteryin NormandybyVirginia Norey.
PortionsofChapter 1 firstappeared in somewhatdifferent formas "The Night
Before D Day," Saga (October, 1959). Portions ofChapter 4 first appeared in
somewhat different form as "We Drank Hitler's Champagne," Saturday Evening
Post, May 3, 1952, and are reprintedwith permission.
All rights reserved. No part ofthis book may be reproduced ortransmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, includingphotocopying,
recording,orbyanyinformationstorageandretrievalsystem,withoutthewrit-
ten permission ofthe Publisher, except where permitted by law. For informa-
tion address: Louisiana State University Press.
Delta® is a registeredtrademarkofRandom House, Inc.,and
the colophon isa trademarkofRandom House, Inc.
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Webster, David Kenyon, d. 1961.
Parachuteinfantry:anAmericanparatroope—r'smemoirofD-Dayandthefall
oftheThird Reich/ David Kenyon Webster. Rev.ed.
p. cm.
"A Delta book."
Containsletters home fromthe author.
ISBN 0-385-33649-7
—
1. Webste—r, David—Kenyon, d. 1961. 2. WorldWar, 1939-1945
Campaigns France Normandy. 3. UnitedStates.Army. Parachute
—
Infantry Regiment, 506th. Company E History. 4. WorldWar,
— —
1939-—1945 Personal narratives,American. —5. Soldiers United
States Biography. 6. Normandy (France) History, Military. I. Title.
D762.N6 W43 2002
940.54'2142—dc21 2002067265
Reprinted byarrangementwith Louisiana State UniversityPress
Manufactured inthe United StatesofAmerica
Published simultaneously in Canada
November2002
9876543
BVG 10
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Most of this book is based on letters written duringthe war
and on recollections put down at length right after the war.
Whenever possible, the facts were verified in histories of the
period, especially Leonard Rapport andArthurNorthwood, Jr.'s
Rendezvous with Destiny: A History ofthe 101st Airborne Division
(New York, 1948). The United States Army was quite helpful,
providing maps, photographs, and historical works. Special
thanks are due Pat Christenson, Bob Rader, Virginia and
Leonard Rapport, Burr Smith, and Hans Wesenhagen.

INTRODUCTION
Stephen E. Ambrose
David Kenyon Webster may have been the only Harvard
"English lit" major who volunteered for the parachute infantry and who
then fought through the campaign in northwest Europe as a combat in-
fantryman. He didn't have to do it. His family was moderately wealthy
and had influence, so he could have had a commission ifhe had wanted
one, or a cushy job far behind the front lines. But he wanted to see the
war firsthand, to be a participant, to do his part in crushing Hitler and
the Nazis. He insisted on fighting from a foxhole rather than typing up
reports at Company Headquarters or handing out footballs and base-
balls at a rest area in the rear.
His motives for insisting on being a member ofa parachute infantry
regiment went beyond patriotism. Webster wanted to be a writer. Heav-
ily influenced by the literature ofWorld War I, he wanted to experience
and then describe combat. He had a flair for writing, a keen sensitivity,
and a well-developed ability to observe and comment. With those tal-
ents, and using the perspective of a paratrooper, he produced an out-
standing memoir of the war. It is rich in detail and rewarding in its
revealing anecdotes about men at war. Webster is scathing in his de-
nunciation of officers who were "chickenshit," whether in barracks or
on the front lines. He is full ofheartfelt praise for noncoms and enlisted
men who did theirjobs. He is honest about the actions ofhis fellow sol-
diers, in camp, in combat, as conquerors.
Webster's book has all the features that make for a classic wartime
memoir. He describes training; the relationships that develop within a
squad, platoon, and company; the first combat jump into Normandy;
the experience ofkilling and getting shot at (and hit); attitudes toward
civilians, whether friendly as in France and Holland or unfriendly as in
Germany; grousing about the army and its ways; and more. Webster
x David Kenyon Webster
manages to show us the general and the particular, the universal expe-
rience and the unique detail, in a flow of words that the most profes-
sional writer would envy.
Overall, I recommend this memoir to anyone who wants to know
more about World War II, about combat, about being a paratrooper,
about discovering oneselfand being involved when the whole world was
being tested and threatened. It brings back a place and a time, a sense
ofcommitment, the feeling of"we are all in this together" as the United
States and her allies fought for freedom.
MOST GIs IN WORLD War II found that their service in the army was
a broadening experience. Webster was no exception. The soldiers met
men they never would have known otherwise, men from all over Amer-
ica, men from different economic, social, and ethnic backgrounds. In
the novels aboutthe war, the typical squad is made up ofa Jew from New
York, an Indian from Montana, a Swede from Minnesota, a Pole from
Chicago, a Cajun from New Orleans, and so on. At the beginning ofthe
novel, they hate one another. The shared misery oftraining pulls them
together, as does the common hatred of their drill instructors and ju-
nior officers. Combat strengthens the bond, to the point that they be-
come a band of brothers, trusting and loving one another as they had
never before trusted or loved anyone. And the truth is that this hap-
—
pened in fact before it was written up as fiction in this case at least art
truly imitated life.
Webster was a man of books and libraries, a reader and a writer,
thrown into an intimate and life-dependent relationship with ill-
educated hillbillies, southern farmers, coal miners, lumbermen, fisher-
—
men, and other typical paratrooper enlisted men in short, with a
group of men with whom he had nothing in common. He would not
—
have particularly liked or disliked them in civilian life he just would
not have known them. Yet it was among this unlikely group ofmen that
Webster found his closest friendships and enjoyed most thoroughly the
sense ofidentification with others.
He was wounded in Holland, in October, 1944. He rejoined his squad
in January, 1945, and later he recalled his feelings: "It was good to be
back with fellows I knew and could trust. Listening to the chatter, I felt
warm and relaxed inside, like a lost child who has returned to a bright