Four Stars of Valor: The Combat History of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment in World War II

by Phil Nordyke

Hailing from the big cities and small towns of America, these young men came together to serve their country and the greater good. Preparing for war, they came of age in what arguably became the best parachute infantry regiment to descend upon a Europe beset by World War II. They were the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division (the All Americans), and their story is told here by their official historian Phil Nordyke. Drawing on interviews with surviving veterans and oral history recordings as well as official archives and unpublished written accounts from over 300 veterans of the 505th PIR and their supporting units, Nordyke brings the history of the regiment to life, conveying with remarkable immediacy and power what it was like to be to liberate the first town in France; to spearhead the invasion of Sicily in the first American mass combat jump to fight at the forefront of six major campaigns (Sicily, Naples-Foggia, Normandy, Rhineland, Ardennes, and Central Germany); to jump into Normandy as the only U.S. parachute regiment with combat experience. This is history as it was lived by the men of the 505th, from their pre-war coming of age in the regiment, through the end of World War II, when they marched in the Victory Parade up Fifth Avenue in New York, to the post-war legacy of having been part of an elite parachute regiment with a record unsurpassed in the annals of combat.

Genres: History, World War II, Military Fiction, Nonfiction

480 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Mark D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here’s the bottom line: if you have a reason to love the 505th, and you care about the Regiment’s history, then this book is indispensable.

If you don’t? You can give it a pass. You are likely to be confused by it.

I say that as a guy who loves this book, because I served in the Regiment myself. Its scope is impressive, its interviews comprehensive, its worth obvious. Men like me are going to scour every page, looking for the exploits of their own companies and even platoons, and they’re likely to find plenty because Phil Nordyke is granular enough to write about those very platoons. So I was able to relate to the accounts of the units I’d served in: F Company’s 3d platoon (now 3/C/2-505), the second battalion’s 81mm mortars, and the first battalion’s S2 shop.

Such a gift, to learn about those men, and the struggles they went through!

And yet, for the popular audience, it’s unlikely to engage them because Nordyke gets bogged down in tactical minutiae. He also has a tendency to repeat himself, and there are various glaring proofing errors here and there.

[Frederick · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is exciting but the multitude of details about conversations and events on the battlefield are very suspicious. Many of these dialogues and reminiscences can't possibly have been written down at the time and without supporting evidence from more than one person make me wonder. It is great combat stuff but I am hoping that the author is accurate in his portrayals and quotes. One thing that disturbed me was the reference to the famous episode of the paratrooper hanging from the church steeple with a citation being a hometown newspaper. That does not give me confidence.

[Daniel Patitz]

Slightly excessive detail with names and ranks but a thorough recap of the paratroopers involvement in WW II. The detail included reports of strategy, of officers, and of front line soldiers with their experience in view of the significance of the action towards the objective of the unit. Certainly a must read.

[Joseph F McLean · Rating 5 out of 5]

The words from those who were there

This is the real deal. It is a sequence of interviews of the people who lived it, uncensored in brutal truth.

[John Allgood · Rating 3 out of 5]

A history of the 505 PIR that is heavily based on interviews and personal accounts. As I read this I was struck how many superlatives were used "the best..." "The greatest..." The unit was in more invasions than any airborne unit so some of this is to be expected. The author is very close to the subject and clearly impressed by the men who served. Recommended to anyone who wants to know more about the 82nd during WWII, especially if you like first hand accounts. Personally, I would have liked more critical analysis of the unit, tactics and leadership, thus my lower rating.

[Josh Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good read for anyone who enjoyed band of brothers. heavy on personal accounts, however, it seems as if the editor went on vacation at times and left their assistant to keep the story straight