Sword of St. Michael: The 82nd Airborne Division in World War II

by Guy LoFaro

Overview

The 82nd Airborne Division spent more time in combat than any other American airborne unit of World War II, and its fierce battlefield tenacity earned it the reputation of one of the finest divisions in the world. Yet no comprehensive history of the 82nd during World War II exists today. The Sword of St. Michaelcorrects this significant gap in the literature, offering a lively narrative and thoroughly researched history of the famous division.

Author Guy LoFaro, himself a distinguished officer of the division, interweaves the voices of soldiers at both ends of the chain of command, from Eisenhower to the lowest private. Making extensive use of primary sources, LoFaro offers a work of insightful analysis, situating the division's exploits in a strategic and operational context.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780306820243
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	05/01/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	786
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Guy LoFaro is an 82nd Airborne Division combat veteran and former West Point history professor. He lives in Atlanta.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Table of Equivalent Ranks xiii

Maps xiv

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 Our Whole Future is in the Air 7

Chapter 2 A Breed Apart 15

Chapter 3 Men of a Particularly High Order 27

Chapter 4 A Whole New Dimension to Soldiering 45

Chapter 5 A Small Phalanx in a Vast, Strange Land 55

Chapter 6 A Self-Adjusting Foul-up 77

Chapter 7 A Very Rugged Delivery 103

Chapter 8 Taking off for the Gates of Hell 125

Chapter 9 A Force upon which the Fifth Army could Depend 147

Chapter 10 A Terrible and Handsome Sight 175

Chapter 11 Alles Kaputt! The Americans are Killing Everybody! 199

Chapter 12 You Crossed that Causeway 221

Chapter 13 Can't Anything Stop those Men? 243

Chapter 14 A Lasting and Firm Faith in the Airborne 263

Chapter 15 We'll need Two Divisions to do that 279

Chapter 16 A Sunday Drive in an Airplane 301

Chapter 17 The Germans were Everywhere 325

Chapter 18 The Finest Division in the World Today 351

Chapter 19 Even the Gods were Weeping 377

Chapter 20 You are Looking at the Survivors 409

Chapter 21 To Turn the Tide 433

Chapter 22 Singing the Blues about the Right Flank 457

Chapter 23 Making Monkeys out of the Germans 469

Chapter 24 Another Nasty Job 495

Chapter 25 Present at the End 525

Epilogue: Soldiers Recently Engaged in War 553

Notes 561

Bibliography 713

Index 727

Editorial Reviews

Kirkus Reviews, September 2011
“A comprehensive history of the 82nd Airborne Division in World War II, from an officer of that famed unit…A tour de force for military historians and WWII buffs, and a lesson on the leadership skills required to effectively conceive and coordinate a mission.”

Booklist Online, 9/27/11
“An established military historian proffers a massive volume on the 82d Airborne Division in WWII…This tome is so massive that it holds material on everything from grand strategy to developments in tactics and equipment to the colorful personalities in which the airborne troops abounded. Military specialists are not the only ones likely to find this book absorbing and valuable.”

Asbury Park Press, 10/23/11
“[A] scholarly and really interesting account…Talk about detailed! The author…seems to know his stuff, and then some.” 

Tucson Citizen, 11/6/11
“This book brings into sharp focus the struggles and triumphs of WWII’s most famous fighters.”

From the Publisher

A comprehensive history of the 82nd Airborne Division in World War II, from an officer of that famed unit.

Wartime Chief of Staff George Marshall viewed airborne troops, at the division level, as a means to transform the battlefield as a whole, and incorporated the idea in his 1941 draft invasion plan for April 1943. He backed the officers like Matthew Ridgway and James Gavin who brought the division into existence and organized its tactics and supplies. However, after the unit's first mission in Sicily, Eisenhower, who was unsure of a deployment based on relatively independent small units acting on their own initiative, wanted the division units disbanded. Marshall prepared a "Plan C" for Eisenhower's consideration for D-Day in 1944, suggesting a proposal to drop two or three divisions of airborne troops into the Orleans Gap 85 miles inland from the Normandy beaches to cut German supply lines and communications. Marshall called this proposal "vertical envelopment." As LoFaro ably shows, this strategic conception was subordinated to both staff caution and inter-allied intrigue, which limited the application of the unit's potential but not the heroism of its troopers in combat against the Germans. They were never deployed in the way Marshall envisioned. LoFaro singles out as exemplary both Ridgway and Gavin, who led their troops from the front.

A tour de force for military historians and WWII buffs, and a lesson on the leadership skills required to effectively conceive and coordinate a mission.

Kirkus Reviews