Up until the counterinsurgency in Afghanistan, the Vietnam War was the longest armed conflict involving the USA. It remains a complex and misunderstood war, framed for many by a succession of arguably misleading (albeit entertaining) Hollywood movies. In his new book Sign Here for Sacrifice, author and historian Ian Gardner focuses on the story of one battalion, an outfit tasked with living up to the prestigious legacy of the 101st Airborne. Gardner describes how the 3rd Battalion, 506th Airborne (3/506) was formed from volunteers, and put through rigorous training before shipping out to take on the Viet Cong in the unrelenting jungles on the frontline. A former Para himself, Gardner recounts the 3/506’s first search and destroy missions, as the battlefield tactics and military theory of veterans such as the inimitable Lieutenant Colonel John Geraci were put to the test. Here Gardner discusses his new book and what drew him to the story of the 3/506.
What initially interested you in the story of the 3rd Battalion, 506th Airborne?
The enigma surrounding airborne soldiering has always been of deep interest for me. Growing up near Aldershot in Hampshire, we often saw recruits from Browning Barracks or Depot Para wearing their camouflage peak caps, being tested to the limit either in training or on Pre-Parachute Selection known as P Company. This fascination grew until eventually I stepped up and qualified as a reserve paratrooper in 1988.
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Denne historien er fra Issue 117-utgaven av History of War.
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NAUMACHIA TRUTH BEHIND ROME'S GLADIATOR SEA BATTLES
In their quest for evermore novel and bloody entertainment, the Romans staged enormous naval fights on artificial lakes
OPERATION MANNA
In late April 1945, millions of Dutch civilians were starving as Nazi retribution for the failed Operation Market Garden cut off supplies. eet as In response, Allied bombers launched a risky mission to air-drop food
GASSING HITLER
Just a month before the end of WWI, the future Fuhrer was blinded by a British shell and invalided away from the frontline. Over a century later, has the artillery brigade that launched the fateful attack finally been identified?
SALAMANCA
After years of largely defensive campaigning, Lieutenant General Arthur Wellesley went on the offensive against a French invasion of Andalusia
HUMBERT 'ROCKY'VERSACE
Early in the Vietnam War, a dedicated US Special Forces officer defied his merciless Viet Cong captors and inspired his fellow POWs to survive
LEYTE 1944 SINKING THE RISING SUN
One of the more difficult island campaigns in WWII's Pacific Theatre saw a brutal months-long fight that exhausted Japan’s military strength
MAD DAWN
How technology transformed strategic thinking and military doctrine from the Cold War to the current day
BRUSHES WITH ARMAGEDDON
Humanity came close to self-annihilation with the Cuban Missile Crisis, Broken Arrows’ and other nuclear near misses
THE DEADLY RACE
How the road to peace led to an arms contest between the USA and USSR, with prototypes, proliferation and the world’s biggest bomb
THE MANHATTAN PROJECT
Einstein, Oppenheimer and the race to beat Hitler to the bomb. How a science project in the desert helped win a war
