Our Salvation: The 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment’s Legendary Fight at Altavilla

“DESTINATION PAESTUM SALERNO” a young parachute officer scrawled across the bottom of his plane’s manifest just before boarding the aircraft, beginning what remains one of the greatest emergency airborne deployments in modern military history. Drawing on personal interviews, primary-source records, and dispatches from the foxholes, Tyler Fox shares the hair-raising tale of paratroopers in action during the critical days of the Invasion of Italy, Operation AVALANCHE. The 1st & 2nd Battalions of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, with eight hours notice, jumped into the beachhead and three days later attacked to turn the tide of battle above Altavilla in a last-ditch effort that has largely been forgotten.