Beyond the Rhine - Donald R. Burgett

"I was nineteen years old and now had three major campaigns under my belt. I had been wounded three different times, and, in seniority, was one of the oldest of the old men..."

In 1945 the paratroopers of the 101st Airborne came staggering out of the frozen killing fields of Bastogne. Tired, ragged, and hungry, the Screaming Eagles had proven their valor from D-day through horrendous battles in France, Holland, and Belgium. Now it was time for a lethal strike against the Nazis, and an all-out assault on Germany itself.

This powerful memoir chronicles the death throes of World War II in Europe as witnessed by a young soldier grown old before his time. From daring night raids behind enemy lines to river crossings and assaults on die-hard pockets of resistance, Burgett recounts acts of courage, cowardice, and anger in the face of a splintered but still dangerous enemy. Most of all, Beyond the Rhine is an unforgettable portrait of war’s aftermath. For as the Screaming Eagles fought on through sniper-infested towns, through the Black Forest in Bavaria to Hitler’s famous mountaintop retreat, they would come face-to-face with the unspeakable horrors the Nazis left behind... Beyond the Rhine.