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wanting when the chips were down. It
was a dramatic transition from the friendly environment of
England to the sky full of tracer bullets we encountered at our
jump altitude of 400 feet. Standing in the door, I really
understood the meaning of the phrase "a sea of tracers." we took
them thru the wings and thru the fuselage with that peculiar
color and sound as they passed thru. We were all grateful for
the green light and more than willing to take our chances on the
ground. I have never forgiven the allied intelligence for not
telling us what a hedgerow was really like in Normandy. The fact
that you could be having a life and death struggle in one of
those 50x50 fields and someone in the next field could be taking
a break not knowing what was going on next door. Each one of us
who was there had his own story to tell. We were scattered, but
we accomplished our mission. There were acts of heroism and
bravery beyond belief. Lou Mendez got the DSC for his action at
Pretot and it should have been the congressional medal of honor.
We had the terrific shock of seeing our comrades killed and
wounded and we all matured far beyond our years that day and in
the days that followed, and names unknown to us a few days
earlier would become part of our life...St. Mere Eglese, Hill 30
and 95, the Douve and Merderet rivers, Chef du Pont, Baupte,
Beauziville la Bastile, Pont l'Abbe, and Picauville. Whenever I
think of that time, I think of Churchill’s comment about his RAF
pilots during the battle of Britain "uncommon gallantry was a
common virtue."
On the 15th of July, the 508, or what was left of it, loaded on
two LSTs and returned to Nottingham. Of the 2056 men who had
jumped on D Day, 918 returned to Wollaton park. One happy
footnote was that many were captured and wounded and not KIA. In
fact, I did not see ten men from my platoon that jumped into
Normandy until the reunion in Chicago some 32 years later.
Following a week's leave, the 508 came together and reorganized.
We had great replacements waiting and were soon into training
for our next action. After an "almost jump" into Belgium we
became part of Operation Market Garden and jumped into Holland
on the 17th of September 1944. How different from Normandy... It
was a daylight jump and I landed about 50 yards from the point
that was shown on the sand table in England. The 82nd was to
capture and secure the bridge over the Waal river near Nijmegen.
The Dutch people were grateful and always helpful and tried to
assist us in every way. As always, we had more than our share of
action and each one of us who was there remembers vividly our
part of the story. We accomplished our mission as always with
much individual and unit bravery and professional skill. Once
again, names unknown to us before the Holland jump would remain
with us forever... Nijmegen, Berg en Dal, Beek, Devils Hill,
Groesbeek, Wyler, Den Heuvel Woods, And Voxhill. One interesting
sidelight was the discovery in 1985, quite by accident, of a
young man, Bert Jakobs, who in 1944 was hiding out in an attic
of a farm house in Den Heuvel woods with his mother, father, and
sister. They had been in the attic for 25 months. It had a
skylight and they saw us coming down that Sunday morning "like
angels from heaven."
North of the river we were attached to the British 50th division
and soon got to know meat and kidney stew and treacle pudding.
On the 11th of November we were relieved and sent to Sissone,
France. Of 2000, 696 were KIA, MIA, or wounded. |
