The General and His Daughter: The War Time Letters of General James M. Gavin to his Daughter Barbara (World War II: The Global Human and Ethical Dimension)

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 DivisionAmericas first airborne division and the first to fight in World War II. In 1944 Slim Jim Gavin as he was known to his troops at the age of thirty-seven became the 82nds commanding generalthe youngest Army officer to become a major general since the Civil War. At wars end this soldiers soldier had become one of our greatest generalsand the 82nds most decorated officer. Now James Gavins letters home to his nine-year-old daughter Barbara provide a revealing portrait of the American experience in World War II through the eyes of one of its most dynamic officers. Written from ship decks foxholes and field tentsoften just before or after a dangerous jumpthey capture the day-to-day realities of combat and Gavins personal reactions to the war he helped to win. And provide an invaluable self-portrait of a great general and a great American in war and peace. The books more than 200 letters begin at Fort Bragg in 1943 and continue to December 1945 as Gavin came home to lead the 82nd at the head of the Victory parade in New York. This correspondence constitutes the majority of Gavins private wartime letters but except for rare appearances in regimental newsletters it has never before been published. In her Introduction Epilogue and Notes Barbara Gavin Fauntleroy gives a privileged glimpse of the private man. Edited by Gayle Wurst the book features historical overviews by Starlyn Jorgensen a preface by noted Gavin biographer Gerard M. Devlin and a foreword by Rufus Broadaway Gavins aide-de-camp.