Four Stars Of Hell

Book excerpt: The wartime exploits of the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment are told here in the most vivid and appropriate way; by one of the men who experienced their battles firsthand – Captain Laurence Critchell. The author fought with the men of the Screaming Eagles from the tough training at camp Toccoa, Georgia to their hellish night drop on D-Day and all the way to the capture of Hitler’s mountain retreat at Berchtesgaden. During 1944-1945 the author and his comrades soldiers would be involved in some of the heaviest and bloodiest fighting in Europe, during the Operation Market Garden at Njimegen and the Battle of the Bulge at Bastogne. A gripping read of the Second World War as told by a decorated combat veteran. “It is fitting that the story of the 501st Parachute Regiment of the famed 101st Airborne Division should be told by a parachute captain.”—The New York Times “A personalized record, told in terms of the men of all ranks, of how they trained and fought and died... the story has an authentic ring.”—U.S. Quarterly “The greatest airborne operation of this or any other war.” —Lewis H. Brereton, Former Lt. General, First Allied Airborne Army, World War II