The Rise and Fall of the 11th Infantry Division

When General Douglas MacArthur fled the Phillipines in the beginning of World War Two, he swore to return, and did so in 1944 in an epic battle in which the Allies faced banzai charges, jungle warfare, and the block-by-block battle to retake Manila. Critical players were the 11th Airborne Division, one of five of America’s paratrooper divisions, who battled a fanatical enemy but also the sweltering tropical landscape, insects, and disease. To share their story is today’s guest James Fenelon, author of Angels Against the Sun: A WWII Saga of Grunts, Grit, and Brotherhood. The Pacific theater of WWII pitted the 11th Airborne against the merciless Japanese army and the combined enemy of monsoons, swamps, mud, privation, and disease. These rowdy paratroopers, serving under General Joseph Swing answered the call and fought in some of the bloodiest campaigns of the Pacific War.

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