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All the Way to Berlin. A Paratrooper at War in Europe
Infantry Magazine, May-June, 2004
All the Way to Berlin. A Paratrooper at War in Europe. By James Magellas. Ballentine Books, New York, 2003. 309 pages. $24.95. Reviewed by Christopher Timmers.
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When offered the opportunity to review this book, I simply could not refuse. As a former rifle platoon leader in B Company, 1st Battalion, 325th Infantry, I knew I would have a certain bond with James Magellas that would be difficult to explain to those who had never served in an airborne unit or commanded young Soldiers. Historically, the 325th Infantry was a glider regiment in the 82nd Airborne Division and made many of the same assaults that a young First Lieutenant Magellas did as a member of H Company, 504th Parachute Infantry. My "battles" were in the early '70s, a good 30 years after Magellas had earned a number of valor awards, including the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, Bronze Star, and Purple Heart. By the time I had joined the 325th, the regiment had been transformed from a glider unit to a parachute one. Both First Lieutenant Magellas and First Lieutenant Timmers had one thing in common: 48 jumps. None of mine had been in combat, but I think I was close enough to my men to feel an immediate empathy to a former platoon leader who had made such jumps.
Magellas's prose is smooth and moves quickly. It is the best in historical writing in that it makes actual events more interesting than fiction could ever be. Magellas fought in virtually every type of infantry unit action imaginable: from amphibious landings (Anzio) to parachute assaults (Market Garden), to sustained ground combat action (Italy, Belgium, Holland, Germany). The scope of his narrative takes the reader from North Africa to Italy to England, then to Holland, then France, and, eventually, into the heart of the Nazi empire, Germany. We all know of the heroics of the 82nd Airborne, but Magellas lets us in on the price these victories demanded. Casualties were constant and high. After the amphibious assault at Anzio, he tells us that "1LT Roy Hanna who had landed at Anzio as the leader of the machine gun platoon, was sent down to command I Company after it had lost all its officers." War is hell, Magellas agrees, but adds later, "War is the most brutal form of human endeavor, and those who choose to view it as a glorious national venture dishonor the memory of those young men who suffered and died in combat."
Magellas comes down hard on the higher ups, particularly in the intelligence community. British and American commands disregarded intelligence reports in 1944 from the Dutch underground as to the presence of two SS Panzer divisions in the vicinity of Arnhem. By ignoring these warnings, Allied commanders ensured that Operation Market Garden would be an unmitigated disaster, particularly for the British 1st Parachute Division. Another intelligence failure was to occur just a few months later when the Germans launched a massive strike in the Ardennes forest against a thinly manned front line of four U.S. infantry divisions. Two of these (the 99th and 106th) were green, largely untested units. The German attack, launched on December 16, 1944, resulted in the complete rout of these American units and the taking of more than 8,000 U.S. prisoners. But perhaps Magellas's most scathing expose of higher ups completely out of touch comes late in the book (p 251). His platoon is encamped on the Rhine River when he receives word that an assistant division commander is about to visit his unit's positions. "Sir, I am Lieutenant Magellas. Welcome to H Company." Magellas was filthy and unshaven and wore no insignia of rank, a practice common to front line officers. The newly minted brigadier asks, "Are you an officer?" And again, "When was the last time you shaved?" The brigadier general adds: "expect officers to set a good example for the enlisted men." Magellas comments: "To me that was more than an offhand expression. I took it as a personal insult." As well he should have.
The Epilogue to this work is just as important as the narrative of battle. Magellas gives us a detailed account of what many of these young paratroopers ended up doing. Some became police officers, others career military men, still others executives in industry or leaders in academia. In other words, these young men who took to jumping out of airplanes in the 1940's and fighting their country's biggest war ever, returned to being what they really were all along: loyal U.S. citizens who loved their country and contributed to its growth and prosperity.
This story of a heroic young man and his comrades needed to be written and deserves to be read.
COPYRIGHT 2004 U.S. Army Infantry School
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group
