Seven Roads to Hell: A Screaming Eagle at BastogneThe Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne Division, the fictional Private Ryan's unit, had just finished the battle for the bridge too far, Field Marshal Montgomery's ill-fated Operation Market Garden. As Christmas 1944 approached, the division was settling in for some hard earned rest and recuperation. Then, Hitler ordered a massive Nazi counterattack through the supposedly impenetrable Ardennes Forest. The author and the rest of the Screaming Eagles were rushed to Bastogne, a small Belgian crossroads town where seven roads met. The lightly-armed paratrooper became 'the cork in the bottle' of the Nazi onslaught; Bastogne became the key to German victory. Private Burgett's memoir (he was not yet twenty years old at the time of the battle) is an exciting and enduring testament to the Screaming Eagles and their epic defense of Bastogne. |
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101st Airborne Division 10th Armored 10th Armored Division 3d Battalion 53d Wings ahead ammo Armored Division artillery asked attack Bastogne battle bazooka began Benson body Bois Jacques Bourcy Brininstool bullet close Cobru Colonel combat commander Company convoy dark dead dirt ditch Dobrich driver east enemy tanks exploded feet fields fight flank forward foxholes front German tanks ground half-tracks head heavy hell helmet hole Houffalize jeep jump K rations killed knew Krauts Liddle Lieutenant looked Luzery machine gun McAuliffe mortar Mourmelon Mourmelon-le-Grand moved night Normandy Noville Operation Market-Garden Opheusden ordered panzer paratroopers perimeter Phillips platoon positions pulled rear regimental rest rifle road running Savy screamed seaborne rolls shells Sherman side small-arms small-arms fire snow Speer squad stood tank destroyer took town trees trench trench knife troopers troops trucks vehicles waited walked watch weapons woods wounded yelled