Descending From The Clouds: A Memoir of Combat in the 505 Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82d Airborne Division

by Gayle Wurst and Spencer Wurst

Wurst, a rifleman, spent the most of World War II in the European Theater of Operations as a squad leader or platoon sergeant in Company F, 505. He made three of the four regimental combat jumps,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1932033319
• Release Date: February 2005
• Publisher: Casemate
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.0" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

Best WW2 infantry tactics book you'll ever read!

I really enjoyed this book. I've read dozens and dozens of books about World War Two. What distinguishes Descending from the Clouds from most of the others is the feeling and passion contained in the pages. Col. Wurst recounts not only what he saw, heard, and felt, but also the impression it left on him for the rest of his life. When I finished reading this book I took some time to reflect on what I had read. I came away thankful for the sacrifices men and women like Col. Wurst have made in the history of our nation that allow me to live free and relatively safe. Honestly, this book is the best first person account of infantry tactics relating to World War Two that I've ever read. I highly recommend it.

Must Read

One really needs more than 5 stars to rate this book. It deserves 7 or 8 stars. I have read many personal accounts from veterans of the 82nd Airborne Division and this is by far the best. If one is interested in knowing what it was like to be a WWII paratroopoer day by day, battle by battle one absolutely has to read this book.

Couldn't put it down

Lucky for me that I'm retired and can spend a whole day doing nothing but read. Lucky for me that I found this book at the local library. I went cover to cover in one day and part of a night -- This really is a top-notch first-person story of life as a grunt. Strongly recommended.

Priceless Record

Over the past several years, I have communicated with the author about his experiences in the paratroops and have long awaited this book. I was not disappointed, and read each page with great interest. There are plenty of generals' perspectives to be found on World War II, but too few from the enlisted man's level--in this case a sergeant squad-leader. My husband jokes that I am earning myself a doctorate in World War II, and IF I am, it is because of priceless records like "Descending from the Clouds." Sidenote: The PFC in Spencer Wurst's squad named Arthur Lemieux was from my city of Marquette, Michigan, and finding his grave is what sparked my interest in World War II.

Growing up with the Airborne

Reading Spencer Wurst's book: Descending From the Clouds, brings both the serious and casual reader of World War 2 history, into the mind of a young paratrooper. Vivid in detail, Mr. Wurst, is able to weave his early life in Erie, Pa, and set it in relationship to the events happening in Pre-War America. His enlistment in the National Guard at a very young age, and subsquent service in the 82nd Airborne, remind the reader of the many young men, who "grew up" in the military during the war. What makes this story so compelling is the fact that Mr. Wurst and the idea of airborne warfare, "grew up" together. Clearly written, Mr. Wurst takes the reader into the life of a paratrooper from Italy, through D-Day and into Bulge. His rememberances of comrades lost, and his own fears confronted, are balanced by the accounting of his somewhat rebellous actions during his downtime. All of which, serves to remind the reader, that this war was not fought by the John Wayne types that we might won the war, but by the young, and in this case very young men, who endured and suffered, and gave their lives for each other, and us. This book brings to light, the face of combat as seen by one young man, and the impact that experience had on him and his friends. Wurst does not blow his own horn, but his actions on the battlefield and his matter of fact delivery only serve to underline the heroes of this war, are the young men, now grown old, who can tell what it was really like to be on the line. As the voices of this generation pass into history, books like this, will serve as a touchstone for those who want to know what it was like to be a common soldier, in a world gone mad.