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Title details for Four Hours of Fury by James M. Fenelon - Available

Four Hours of Fury

The Untold Story of World War II's Largest Airborne Invasion and the Final Push into Nazi Germany

by James M. Fenelon
ebook
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"Compellingly chronicles one of the least studied great episodes of World War II with power and authority...A riveting read" (Donald L. Miller, New York Times bestselling author of Masters of the Air) about World War II's largest airborne operation—one that dropped 17,000 Allied paratroopers deep into the heart of Nazi Germany.
On the morning of March 24, 1945, more than two thousand Allied aircraft droned through a cloudless sky toward Germany. Escorted by swarms of darting fighters, the armada of transport planes carried 17,000 troops to be dropped, via parachute and glider, on the far banks of the Rhine River. Four hours later, after what was the war's largest airdrop, all major objectives had been seized. The invasion smashed Germany's last line of defense and gutted Hitler's war machine; the war in Europe ended less than two months later.

Four Hours of Fury follows the 17th Airborne Division as they prepare for Operation Varsity, a campaign that would rival Normandy in scale and become one of the most successful and important of the war. Even as the Third Reich began to implode, it was vital for Allied troops to have direct access into Germany to guarantee victory—the 17th Airborne secured that bridgehead over the River Rhine. And yet their story has until now been relegated to history's footnotes.

In this viscerally exciting account, paratrooper-turned-historian James Fenelon "details every aspect of the American 17th Airborne Division's role in Operation Varsity...inspired" (The Wall Street Journal). Reminiscent of A Bridge Too Far and Masters of the Air, Four Hours of Fury does for the 17th Airborne what Band of Brothers did for the 101st. It is a captivating, action-packed tale of heroism and triumph spotlighting one of World War II's most under-chronicled and dangerous operations.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    May 21, 2019

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781501179396

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781501179396
      • File size: 49641 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 22, 2019
      Fenelon, a former paratrooper, examines Operation Varsity, a little-known but massive operation near the end of WWII, in perhaps too fine detail. On March 24, 1945, more than 16,000 Allied paratroopers landed around the German city of Wesel over a four-hour stretch, protecting bridgeheads seized by ground troops, in “the culmination of Allied airborne experience earned the hard way over the past three years.” Nearly 55,000 German troops, from battle-hardened SS veterans to old men and boys corralled into Volkssturm units, were dug in to defend their homeland, but the concentration of Allied firepower, air support, and a well-trained, fully supplied fighting force was overwhelming. Testimony from surviving veterans provides gripping detail, but the minutiae of the operation (recommended size of base camps, the number of weapons in a regiment) are meticulously noted, nearly to a fault, which can make for slow passages and a lack of clarity about the larger context. Readers interested in granular detail of military operations and individual combat accounts will appreciate this most. Agent: Jim Hornfischer, Hornfischer Literary.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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