David Kenyon Webster (1922–1961)

This is perhaps the best written book I have read about the men in Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division. These men are recognized as the soldiers from the HBO series rel="nofollow" target="_top">Band of Brothers. Parachute Infantry: An American Paratrooper's Memoir of D-Day and the Fall of the Third Reich by David Kenyon Webster (2008-03-01) is written by David Kenyon Webster, an original Taccoa man. Webster was a very gifted writer who has brought his part of the story to life. Read more… (meer)

This was a good book for learning day to day operations of soldiers, and how many of them felt, or at least acted like they felt, during WWII. It had lots of Webster's memories of how conversations went, down to the swearing and bantering. Webster was in a lot of action so overall the book detailed a pretty big chunk of war time life, but it got a little repetitive and prolix on the mundane daily life. What's weird is that Webster apparently went to war with the idea of writing a book afterwards, but then ends up writing about how much he "hated" the military, and officers, etc. etc. ... so was he writing like that because he was trying to get across the general feeling of the soldiers? It sounded pretty ingenuous actually, especially since he over and over wrote of how much he hated it. It got old... fast.

Overall, any war buffs will probably like this detailed account of day-to-day WWII life but I found the over emphasis on negative dishonest and boring. Without that emphasis I think it would have been better. But, hey, I suppose in historical terms it's good to have a record of the mundane daily life.… (meer)

I can see why this well-written war memoir was rejected by publishers just after WWII -- Webster is simply too honest about his feelings about the army, the Germans (whom he hates, but whose industriousness he comes to admire), the French, officers and war.

It's a fairly gritty look at life in one of the most-decorated units in WWII -- yet one written from a fairly realistic (or perhaps jaded) -- perspective.

Those who read or watched "Band of Brothers" will recognize many of the combat situations, yet they're told from a subtly different perspective.

Sadly, Webster died in 1961 (lost while shark fishing from a small boat off the California coast) so this memoir offers some holes (he details his D-Day drop in Normandy, but we read almost nothing of the battles that came in the days after).

Still, it's interesting reading from someone who was being as frank as he could be about war and soldiering, and it's an engrossing read.… (meer)