I loved this book about the 101st Air Borne during WWII. Also known as the Screaming Eagles. And a unit that is very much still around and active today.

I found this to be an interesting book and for the most part a good telling of the Airbourne Units of WWII. The author does not just go into the 101st but also speaks of the 82nd, the 17th, and the drop in the Pacific. For the most since I read all of WWII that I can get my hands on I did not find anything new for me, yet this was still a good book since my father fought with the 82nd in WWII. Worth the read.

Great writing style, heavily researched and engaging to read. Lots of excellent quotes throughout.
However I did find the author is chopping and changing between elements far too often which makes it hard to follow the events chronologically.

A comprehensive historical account of the birth of parachute regiments and airborne assault troops. Mainly focusing on the American army’s 101st Airborne unit and the pivotal role in WW2, liberating Europe.

I was drawn to this book as I absolutely loved the book and TV series Band of Brothers that covers much of the same ground. That focused on the memories and firsthand accounts of the men themselves.

This book, American Eagles, is a more widely researched historical work with a cross-section of sources, detailing a wider perspective of the events. Placing the action of the unit in preparation, training and combat into context. Detailing the skirmishes, battles and deployments into the overall timeframe of the unfolding war.

Drawing from wide research, documents, first-hand comments and memoirs often with facts checked back with sources and those who lived through these events.

I really valued and appreciated the sections at the end of the piece that tell of the memorials and places where the gratitude to those that fought this war can be found. It is a chilling experience to stand and stare within an American cemetery adjacent to the D-Day beaches. To see the straight lines of crosses and the occasional Star of David.

It is good to experience this in person and to visit the sites of battles, touch memorials and visit museum to gain an understanding and assist our remembrance.

Good balanced historical accounts like this one help in our education of events before our personal memories and it was a moving experience to remember once. Especially so close to Memorial Day and the anniversary of the D-Day landings.

Charles Whiting adds to the body of work on the 101st Airborne's exploits in this book, "American Eagles". They were without a doubt an interesting unit and they are legendary. They are also just part of the broader picture of the Army that helped liberate first France, then Europe from Hitler's deadly regime. There is new information for those who follow the history of the 101st. Anyone who likes WWII history will find this book helpful in studying the overall picture of the war.

The American 101st Airborne Division is admittedly a difficult military outfit to write about. So much has been made of their heroics from 1944 onwards that one wonders whether the reissue of a book from two decades ago would add any value to the saga of the Screaming Eagles.

Whiting's book is one that gets the broad facts right, and then proceeds to call J.O.E. Vandeleur a Brigadier (no Commanding Officer of a battalion/regiment can be a Brigadier, not in the British Army, not in the US Army). He describes a gap of thirty years as being "nearly half a century", patently ridiculous by any sane standard. Whiting goes on to term a German defeat a "holocaust", which raised eyebrows because, well, you can't really call German defeats in World War 2 that. In describing the guests at Berchtesgaden pre-war, he terms then-British PM Neville Chamberlain and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor as being "Hitler's victims": most historians, even in the early noughties, would've contested the pitying Chamberlain, a man to whom history has been far kinder than his contemporaries were, and the Windsors went to SS training establishments. And were known to be sympathetic to the Nazis. Whiting proceeds to "class shame" Hitler and his acolytes, and while I'm all for shredding Hitler to pieces, to be dismissive of him based on the social strata he occupied before rising to power is typical British upper-class snobbery.

And if all of that was not bad enough, Whiting's book is dull. It is not so much an introduction to the 101st as it is a lot of fragments held together by a non-existent narrative thread. It's as much a problem with the format (producing "short histories" reeks of being little more than a way of making a quick buck), but the writing is stultifying. Nobody cares just how Martin Bormann built up Berchtesgaden, especially not when you've spread through pretty much every place preceding the Eagle's Nest. Whiting lacks the verve to keep you hooked to his telling just as much as he rogers history, and for that alone, "American Eagles" is best avoided.

An interesting account of the 101st’s exploits in the Second World War. Whiting seems to add more of the story from Band of Brothers so it is nice to see a chronicle of US airborne operations during this war.

A great book on the history of the US Airborne during WW2. The author provides good detail on the various actions the soldiers were in as well as the political struggles behind the scenes. The use of first-hand accounts adds to the realism of the action and makes you feel as if you are there. A very engrossing read.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

A must-read for those studying WWII, or anyone interested in the history of the American airborne. Naturally very American focused, but not too narrow that it feels limited. There was quite a bit of newer information as well, which felt like a refreshing change from reading the same information in every book.