The Filthy Thirteen: From the Dustbowl to Hitler's Eagle's Nest—The True Story of the 101st Airborne's Most Legendary Squad of Combat Paratroopers

The true story of the 101st Airborne Division's most notorious squad of combat paratroopers. The Filthy Thirteen were the real-life inspiration for the classic WWII film The Dirty Dozen. Primarily products of the Dustbowl and the Depression, they became legendary within the elite Screaming Eagles for their hard drinking and savage fighting skills. From D-Day until the end of the war, the squad's heart and soul was Jake McNiece, a half Native American soldier and the unit's toughest member. McNiece made four combat jumps and was in the forefront of every fight in northern Europe, yet never achieved the rank of PFC. The Filthy Thirteen offers a group portrait of hardscrabble soldiers whose saving grace was that they inflicted more damage on the Germans than on MPs, the English countryside, and their own officers.