Jankowiak, Loic Five-O-Niners. 509 Parachute Infantry Battalion. Band 1: Afrique, Italie

This first volume traces the history of the battalion at a time when it still retained the identity of its first generation, which had emerged from the first American paratrooper formations. As the Army's first paratroopers to see combat during Operation Torch, they were the pioneers, the first in the nation to try this unusual method of warfareand the first to pay the price. Although new members joined until March 1944, the unit remained under the influence of its veterans, who ensured continuity and cohesion. After their brilliant performance in North Africa, Lt. Gen. Mark W. Clark developed a special affection for the 509th and entrusted them with some of the 5th Army's most demanding missions: capturing the Salerno bridgehead, taking the strategically important mountain position of Venafro, and the amphibious landing at Anzio. It took courage to carry out these missions against the best units of the German army in those early years. But the 509th triumphed. They braved the desert temperatures, the merciless mountains of the Apennines, the humid plains and the persistent rains of the Pontine Marshes: in the air, on land and at sea.