82nd Airborne Infantry
In mid-1943 James Megellas, known as “Maggie” to his fellow paratroopers, joined the 82d Airborne Division, his new “home” for the duration. His firstborn taste of combat was in the rugged mountains outside Naples.
In October 1943, when most of the 82d departed Italy to prepare for the D-Day invasion of France, Lt. Gen. Mark Clark, the Fifth Army commander, requested that the division’s 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, Maggie’s outfit, stay behind for a daring new operation that would outflank the Nazis’ stubborn defensive lines and open the road to Rome. On 22 January 1944, Megellas and the rest of the 504th landed throughout the beach at Anzio. Following basi success, Fifth Army’s amphibious assault, Operation Shingle, bogged down in the face of heavy German counterattacks that threatened to drive the Allies into the Tyrrhenian Sea. Anzio turned into a fiasco, one of the bloodiest Allied operations of the war. Not until April were the remnants of the regiment withdrawn and shipped to England to recover, reorganize, refit, and train for their next mission.
In September, Megellas parachuted into Holland along with the rest of the 82d Airborne as share of another star-crossed mission, Field Marshal Montgomery’s vainglorious Operation Market Garden. Months of hard combat in Holland were followed by the Battle of the Bulge, and the long hard road throughout Germany to Berlin.
Megellas was the most prettified officer of the 82d Airborne Division and saw more action for the duration of the war than most. Yet All the Way to Berlin is more than just Maggie’s World War II memoir. Throughout his narrative, he skillfully interweaves stories of the other paratroopers of H Company, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment. The result is a remarkable account of men at war.
From the Hardcover edition.
From Publishers WeeklyWhat World War II Lieutenant Megellas’s essay lacks in narrative strength and elegance it makes up for in it is unvarnished contribution to the historical record. Megellas was a senior at Ripon College in Ripon, Wis. for the duration of the Pearl Harbor attack; hardly six months later, he had reported for responsibility and soon was enlisted in the storied 82nd Airborne Division. Landing in Italy on the eve of the Anzio invasion in the fall of 1943 and fighting his way through the mountainous Italian terrain, Megellas was wounded and then hospitalized (“I’m very fortunate to be alive,” he wrote in a letter home. “I’m not sure as to how a heap of Germans I killed but in my mind the minimum is at least 10″). In September 1944, Megellas’s unit parachuted into Holland to take share in the bloody Operation Market Garden, in which the Allies lost more men than they would for the duration of the Normandy invasion. Megellas’s description of his unit crossing the Waal River in rowboats under point-blank German fire is harrowing; that the soldiers reached the far shore and took the German positions is not one thing short of a miracle. From there, Megellas and his men proceeded into the thick of the Battle of the Bulge and onward to the Rhine, fighting as they made their way toward Germany. Just as revealing as the battle accounts are Megellas’s stories of the numbing boredom that soldiers in rear positions waiting for orders to the next engagement experienced, as well as the innumerable little acts of bravado and the daily hardships. Foregoing the romanticized hero-worship of a lot of wartime accounts, Megellas recalls his two years of obligation in the 20th century’s deadliest war with admirable restraint.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From BooklistLeading his H Company in a victory parade, the author remembers thinking how few of the men marching were with him in combat. Only half pulled through one of the battles recounted in this memoir, the September 1944 assault all over the Waal River, immortalized in A Bridge Too Far (1974) by Cornelius Ryan. The attrition Megellas witnessed over months on the front line, at Anzio and in the Battle of the Bulge, shapes his narrative, but his observations regarding the craft of killing lend it a distinguishable tone. In the firefights the author describes, the role of the combat leader is central, for he will have to both take orders from higher command and give orders to his platoon. Alongside his brother lieutenants in this role, Megellas was merely an fantastically effective and brave leader, which is reinforced by his laconic, factual writing. Nor is authenticity lacking, as Megellas is viciously honorable in admitting his hatred for German soldiers and his gratification in killing them. Strongly put and unsentimental, this essay is a ought to for the World War II collection. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
From the Inside FlapIn mid-1943 James Megellas, known as ?Maggie? to his fellow paratroopers, joined the 82d Airborne Division, his new ?home? for the duration. His introductory taste of combat was in the rugged mountains outside Naples.
In October 1943, when most of the 82d departed Italy to prepare for the D-Day invasion of France, Lt. Gen. Mark Clark, the Fifth Army commander, requested that the division?s 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, Maggie?s outfit, stay behind for a daring new operation that would outflank the Nazis? stubborn defensive lines and open the road to Rome. On 22 January 1944, Megellas and the rest of the 504th landed all over the beach at Anzio. Following primary success, Fifth Army?s amphibious assault, Operation Shingle, bogged down in the face of heavy German counterattacks that threatened to drive the Allies into the Tyrrhenian Sea. Anzio turned into a fiasco, one of the bloodiest Allied operations of the war. Not until April were the remnants of the regiment withdrawn and shipped to England to recover, reorganize, refit, and train for their next mission.
In September, Megellas parachuted into Holland along with the rest of the 82d Airborne as share of another star-crossed mission, Field Marshal Montgomery?s vainglorious Operation Market Garden. Months of hard combat in Holland were followed by the Battle of the Bulge, and the long hard road all over Germany to Berlin.
Megellas was the most prettified officer of the 82d Airborne Division and saw more action for the duration of the war than most. Yet All the Way to Berlin is more than just Maggie?s World War II memoir. Throughout his narrative, he skillfully interweaves stories of the other paratroopers of H Company, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment. The result is a remarkable account of men at war.
From the Hardcover edition.
82nd Airborne Infantry Pic
82nd Airborne Infantry Pic
82nd Airborne Infantry Image
82nd Airborne Infantry Image
Most helpful client reviews
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful.
 Just an honorable paratrooper
By Antonio B. Ooka Jr.
Some may say Megellas is self-congratulatory, brutal, tasteless.
Others will say he is an uttermost hero. His own account indicates
to me he is like galore men, someplace among hero and villain.
And his account is above all else, frank and honest.
Megellas was not a cook, senior officer, engineer. His
Military Occupational Specialty was as he says merely to “kill
Germans”. Megellas makes it clear that persevering amid so
much death required an unpleasing “kill or be killed”, “war is
hell” mentality. Megellas admits he was brutal but that so were
the Germans and that killing may get personal if a buddy is killed.
If you like the clean Patton, Ike, Hollywood portrayals of D-Day
and Market Garden, this book is not for you. He doesn’t hide his
grunt’s contempt for higher-ups (Colonels and higher) or rear
echelon help types. Nor does he hide the savage conduct of
war-hardened troopers: looting dead Germans, his own stealing of wine from a church.
The book is good for authentic accounts of patrols, army jargon,
equipment (US and German), tactics, etc. Those who liked Band of
Brothers may like this. I sure did.
Is this book a glorification of war or a condemnation of its
brutality?? It’s hard to tell! The author disliked patriots at
home who had an innocent view of war but he says without doubt or question that
the Germans and Italians deserved what they got.
11 of 11 humans found the following review helpful.
One from Ripon
By Tom Brahe
As one of the six Ripon College Grads who went to Ft. Knox with Jim noted in the book, I cherished the Authors story. I am proud of Jim and all of his accomplishments. It was a great book, and dandier story of a lot of young men who saved the World.
11 of 11 humans found the following review helpful.
So enjoyable…it deserves a second read
By G. Hyman
A mile a minute account of the 82nd airborne in combat. Filled with stunning combat scenes that leave you on the edge of your seat. His sensations for the German civilians and reflections on higher command give a distinctive perspective not scene in the war movies. This is the kind of book that you will call in sick to work just to stay home and read…its that good! WARNING, this book will get you hooked on war memoirs
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