Whatever It Took: An American Paratrooper's Extraordinary Memoir of Escape, Survival, and Heroism in the Last Days of World War II
About this ebook
Now at 95, one of the few living members of the Greatest Generation shares his experiences at last in one of the most remarkable World War II stories ever told. As the Allied Invasion of Normandy launched in the pre-dawn hours of June 6, 1944, Henry Langrehr, an American paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne, was among the thousands of Allies who parachuted into occupied France. Surviving heavy anti-aircraft fire, he crashed through the glass roof of a greenhouse in Sainte-Mère-Église. While many of the soldiers in his unit died, Henry and other surviving troops valiantly battled enemy tanks to a standstill. Then, on June 29th, Henry was captured by the Nazis. The next phase of his incredible journey was beginning.
Kept for a week in the outer ring of a death camp, Henry witnessed the Nazis’ unspeakable brutality—the so-called Final Solution, with people marched to their deaths, their bodies discarded like cords of wood. Transported to a work camp, he endured horrors of his own when he was forced to live in unbelievable squalor and labor in a coal mine with other POWs. Knowing they would be worked to death, he and a friend made a desperate escape. When a German soldier cornered them in a barn, the friend was fatally shot; Henry struggled with the soldier, killing him and taking his gun. Perilously traveling westward toward Allied controlled land on foot, Henry faced the great ethical and moral dilemmas of war firsthand, needing to do whatever it took to survive. Finally, after two weeks behind enemy lines, he found an American unit and was rescued.
Awaiting him at home was Arlene, who, like millions of other American women, went to work in factories and offices to build the armaments Henry and the Allies needed for victory. Whatever It Took is her story, too, bringing to life the hopes and fears of those on the homefront awaiting their loved ones to return.
A tale of heroism, hope, and survival featuring 30 photographs, Whatever It Took is a timely reminder of the human cost of freedom and a tribute to unbreakable human courage and spirit in the darkest of times.
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About the author
HENRY LANGREHR served in Europe in World War II with the 82nd Airborne Division. He is the recipient of two Bronze Stars, two Purple Hearts, and the French Legion of Honor. After the war, he founded a successful construction company, building schools and other civic structures. He lives in Iowa with his wife, Arlene.
Jim DeFelice is the author of sixteen NY Times best-sellers, including American Sniper, the basis for Bradley Cooper’s blockbuster movie of the same name. Some of his other credits include Every Man a Hero, a best-selling account of Ray Lambert’s heroics at D-Day in World War Two, and They Called Us Lucky, the story of Lima 3/25, the Marine Corps’ hardest hit unit in the Iraq War, and the life of Congressman Ruben Gallego, a Harvard undergrad who joined the Corps to serve as an enlisted grunt.
