Forum Members,
After toiling for nearly 14 years on this book while I schlepped around the world with the military, the book, Blood on the Talon, 139th Airborne Engineer Battalion 1943-1945 Volume I: Unit History is ready! The 139th AEB was the Engineer Battalion assigned to the 17th Airborne Division. They were activated on 15 April 1943, trained with the 17th at Camp Mackall and were rushed into combat near Bastogne where they engaged in several weeks of combat. They rode in gliders across the Rhine River as part of Operation VARSITY and pressed the attack into the industrial heart of Germany.
The book is available through Castraponere Publishing and you can use a secure link to purchase through Paypal ($39.95) or purchase through Amazon.com, although there price is $5 higher. Details about shipping, packaging and mailing times are on this site. I know how collectors and historians are about their books, so great care will be taken in packaging to remove nearly all possibilities of damage in transit. Here is the link to the publisher, which will allow you to get to either Paypal or Amazon:
http://www.castraponere.com/index.php?id=2
My philosophy in publishing this book is a bit of a departure from the standard convention, and the motivation for doing so was to drive the cost of the book way down. I've watched over the years as the large-format, picture laden book prices climb to near the $100 price range. I realize publishing is expensive. By self publishing I was able to reduce the cost significantly and not lose control over the project to a staff of editors who were not necessarily interested in history. Blood on the Talon is filled with many unpublished photographs from my collection, from veterans and their families. There are numerous battle maps produced on the topographical maps of 1944. The research is quite extensive, and well documented.
I invite you to read the book before buying and post your comments here. If you are like me, you want to thumb through a book, look at the pictures and get a feel for the content before buying. The entire book is on my blog site as a .pdf. Here is the link. Just click on the book cover image on the site:
http://castraponere.com/bloodonthetalon/book-update/
I look forward to hearing your reviews and comments. Please post them as part of this thread. I'll let the chips fall where they may, but I am confident that you will find the book to be the suitable culmination of an ambitious project aimed at documenting the history of an unsung unit.
Cheers
oz
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