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Breuer's well-written, throughly researched, and balanced history...-- Booklist
Here is the full, exciting story of the invasion that marked the beginning of the end of Hitler's hold on Europe. Special action photos tell how young, raw American paratroopers faced gale force winds to make the first regimental-scale airborne assault on Axis territory.
Operations during the invasion and conquest of Sicily and the military diplomacy that led to Italy's surrender.
The Small Scale Raiding Force (SSRF) was formed in February 1942 by Gus March Phillips with Major General Gubbins SOE European chief's approval. March-Phillips and his Maid of Honor Force had just had complete success with their operation (POSTMASTER) off West Africa.??Equipped with a specially adapted motor torpedo boat, the SSRF immediately started planning for operations. Op FROUDESLEY, with the aim of destroying the battleship Tirpitz ran into technical problems and was delayed but, in August and September, three daring cross Channel missions were successfully carried out without loss. The author describes these and the disastrous fourth operation (ACQUATINT) when all 10 SSRF men, including March-Phillips were killed or captured.??Despite this hammerblow, SSRF now commanded by Geoffrey Appleyard made two raids on Sark a week later. Again their story is fully told in this fascinating book along with those of three further 1942 raids.??Inter-service rivalry ('the war within') led to the break-up of the SSRF in early 1943. The Author describes the many colourful characters who made up this special force including Anders Lassen VC, Graham Hayes and Andre Desgranges, the Free Frenchman whom the Gestapo 'turned'.??This superbly researched book lifts the veil on a little known but highly effective special force unit and the gallant individuals who served in it.??As seen in Dorset Magazine.?Book of the Month - Britain at War Magazine, April 2014
Leading the Way to Victory is the official history of the 60th Troop Carrier Group, featuring unpublished first-person accounts by participating veterans and expertly written by retired USAF Colonel Mark C. Vlahos, combat veteran and former Vice Wing Commander of 314th Airlift Wing at the Little Rock Air Force Base. The December 7, 1941, surprise attack on Pearl Harbor thrust the United States into World War II. Just six months later in May 1942, flying new C-47 transport aircraft, the 60th Troop Carrier Group led the way as the first U.S. TCG to deploy to England and the European Theater of Operations in World War II. Leading the way to victory, the 60th TCG’s first mission—dropping U. S. paratroopers outside of Oran, North Africa—was not only the first combat airborne mission in U.S. Army history, but also the longest airborne mission of the entire war. This drop spearheaded Operation TORCH, also known as the Invasion of North Africa, by taking key Axis airfields just inland from the amphibious landing zones. The 60th TCG went on to fly some of the first combat aeromedical evacuation missions and the first combat mission towing CG-4A “Waco” gliders during Operation HUSKY—the Invasion of Sicily. As the new airborne, air land, aeromedical evacuation, and glider missions matured in World War II, the 60th TCG continued to play a major role, paying in blood for valuable lessons learned in the school of hard knocks. The group later flew dramatic missions into Yugoslavia, supporting Partisans as part of the secret war in the Balkans, an episode of World War II history still all but unknown today and dropped British paratroops in the airborne invasion of Greece. The Group was inactivated at the end of the war. Drawing on official United States Army Air Forces microfilm records, operational records in the National Archives, photographs from both collections, published historical materials, and many personal accounts, author Mark C. Vlahos’ expertly written and highly readable volume is certain to become the standard history and go-to reference for the 60th TCG. This work offers scholars and lay readers alike an authoritative, informative, and engaging saga of the Group’s battles, adversity, hardships, and triumphs from inception through the Allied victory in Europe.
This is the story of the 320th Glider Field Artillery Battalion (GAFBN). It is also the story of virtue of the 105 mm howitzer. The 320th Battalion was one of several battalions in the Eighty-Second Airborne Division. There was the 319th, 320th, 325th battalions as well as the kitchen and headquarters battalions. Also, included in the Eighty-Second Airborne Division were several paratrooper battalions numbered in the five hundreds. The 320th was composed of six gun crews to man the 105 mm howitzers. Each crew consisted of a gun crew chief as well as five or six crew members. The 320th gun crew chiefs were Sergeant Tuzzie, the first gun crew, Sergeant Sackett, Sergeant Swain, Sergeant Sword, Sergeant Parker, and Sergeant Rehenquist. In each crew, there were two breech men and a soldier in charge of the lanyard. There were several sizes of howitzers. There was the 75 mm pack mule howitzer, the 105 mm howitzer, the 155 mm howitzer, and the 220 mm long-barrel howitzer. The 105 mm howitzer was the only one adapted to fit a glider to make it airborne. It was shortened to fit into the glider. It was at the infamous Mt. Casino in Italy, which had a sharp cliff with a drop of about nine hundred to a thousand feet, which the snub-nosed 105 mm howitzers were dug in, with their barrels pointing almost straight up. This cliff gave the enemy a complete view and control over the valley below. Their positions along the top made it almost impossible to shoot or hit either the men or emplacements. The small arms fires or shells would go over the ridge and land beyond their positions. From this angle at the base of the cliff, the artillery shells of the 105 mm snub-nosed howitzers could be landed along the ridge which made the Krauts, as they were called, scramble to get away from the devastating fire so accurately hitting their positions. It was learned later that the Germans had no idea where the shelling came from or why it was so accurate.