The general and his daughter

About this book

"James Maurice Gavin left for war in April 1943 as a colonel commanding the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division - America's first airborne division and the first to fight in World War II. In 1944, "Slim Jim" Gavin, at thirty-seven, became the 82nd's commanding general and the army's youngest Major General since the Civil War. Always leading from the front, this soldier's soldier became one of our greatest generals, and the 82nd's most decorated general officer.". "Now James Gavin's letters home to his nine-year-old daughter Barbara capture the day-to-day realities of combat in Europe and Gavin's immediate, personal reactions to the war he helped to win. Often written in dangerous circumstances and sometimes just before or after a jump, they begin at Fort Bragg in 1943 and continue to December 1945, just before Gavin returned home to lead the 82nd in the Victory Parade in New York." "Consisting of more than two hundred letters, this correspondence constitutes the majority of Gavin's private wartime letters. The General writes about his unique airborne command, about battles from Sicily through Germany, about the fears and hardships he shared with his soldiers, and about America's new responsibility as a world power.". "In her prologue, epilogue, and notes, Barbara Gavin Fauntleroy gives a glimpse of the private man. Historical overviews by Starlyn Jorgensen set the letters against the background of Gavin's campaigns. Edited by Gayle Wurst, the correspondence also includes photographs, an introduction by noted historian and Gavin biographer Gerard Devlin, and a foreword by Rufus Broadaway, Gavin's aide-de-camp."--BOOK JACKET.