Four Hours of Fury: The Untold Story of World War II's Largest Airborne Invasion and the Final Push into Nazi Germany
Written by James M. Fenelon
Narrated by Arthur Morey
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
On the morning of March 24, 1945, more than two thousand Allied aircraft droned through a cloudless sky toward Germany. Escorted by swarms of darting fighters, the armada of transport planes carried 17,000 troops to be dropped, via parachute and glider, on the far banks of the Rhine River. Four hours later, after what was the war’s largest airdrop, all major objectives had been seized. The invasion smashed Germany’s last line of defense and gutted Hitler’s war machine; the war in Europe ended less than two months later.
Four Hours of Fury follows the 17th Airborne Division as they prepare for Operation Varsity, a campaign that would rival Normandy in scale and become one of the most successful and important of the war. Even as the Third Reich began to implode, it was vital for Allied troops to have direct access into Germany to guarantee victory—the 17th Airborne secured that bridgehead over the River Rhine. And yet their story has until now been relegated to history’s footnotes.
In this viscerally exciting account, paratrooper-turned-historian James Fenelon “details every aspect of the American 17th Airborne Division’s role in Operation Varsity...inspired” (The Wall Street Journal). Reminiscent of A Bridge Too Far and Masters of the Air, Four Hours of Fury does for the 17th Airborne what Band of Brothers did for the 101st. It is a captivating, action-packed tale of heroism and triumph spotlighting one of World War II’s most under-chronicled and dangerous operations.
James M. Fenelon
James M. Fenelon served for twelve years in the military and is a graduate of the US Army’s Airborne, Jumpmaster, and Pathfinder schools. His next book after Four Hours of Fury is Angels Against the Sun: A WWII Saga of Grunts, Grit, and Brotherhood, which tells the story of the 11th Airborne Division’s campaign through the Pacific and that division’s eventual landing in Japan in the vanguard of the Allied occupation forces. An alumnus of the University of Texas at Austin, Fenelon lives with his wife in Texas. For more information, visit JamesFenelon.com.
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Reviews for Four Hours of Fury
41 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Concise coverage of a major campaign well written very captivating
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5So many first hand accounts and experiences! Loved it .
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Well pieced together start to finish of the invasion, hard to follow individuals but overall covers the massive scale & bravery/organization required by these heroes.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fascinating read on the last major push before the end of war on the western front