A plane with a stick of A Company
troopers, with Lt. Rex Combs as the Commanding Officer and Jump Master, took
flack which caused its right engine to smoke. While the pilot struggled to
keep airborne, another hit knocked off the tip of the left wing . Lt Combs,
who was standing in the door, was hit in one leg from the same blast, and
staggered back from the door. Some of his men caught him and pulled him
back, and said, "Pappy, you have to be there to lead us out of here."
The plane was too close to the ground to make a safe
jump. Lt. Combs could see troopers coming from planes above them. The
parachutes of two troopers were struck by the leading edge of the left wing,
which caused the pilot to turn the plane on its side, pull away from the
parachutes and gain altitude. By this time, they were over the town of
Wyler, Germany. When the plane reached a safe jumping altitude, the pilot
turned on the green light, and Combs led his stick out of the plane.
As Rex Combs descended, he saw a German with a
Schmeisser machine pistol shooting at him and running toward his landing
place. Combs tried to get his Thompson sub-machine gun ready to fire back,
but was on the ground before he had time to fire. Fortunately he was able to
unfasten his parachute harness quickly, and immediately, he rolled away from
his landing area. He then raised his head a little above the hay crop in the
field, and spotted the German moving in the direction of his abandoned
parachute. With a quick burst of his Thompson, he eliminated that threat.
Combs began to gather his stick together, and another
German started running toward them, waving his arms vigorously, yelling
about something, which they could not understand, and approaching them
without any sign of fear. Combs ordered the men to hold their fire. The
German had a metal can hanging by his side, and as he got closer, he raised
the lid of the can and took out some old crusty looking bread. Combs then
understood that the man was hungry and wanted food. By this time. Combs was
feeling very sore from the shrapnel in his leg, so he used the hungry German
as a crutch, and kept going.
Moving into Wyler, the small group of paratroopers
found a chaotic situation - Germans running, vehicles with flack crews and
weapons scurrying about. The paratroopers fired at the German soldiers and
their trucks, and began to take prisoners. They came upon a building with a
considerable number of German inside. A man ran from that building toward
the troopers, who was stripped to the waist. Combs said, "I knew he was an
American officer by his pink socks."
He was badly burned on his upper body and face, but he
was very happy to see the American paratroopers. Combs had his men to tend
to his burns and bandaged them with strips of parachutes cloth. The man was,
as Combs deduced, an American Air Force officer.
They soon picked up two troopers from another stick, who reported that Lt.
Schlesinger had been killed. Combs told them, "Go pick up the body, and have
the Germans to carry the body, because we are not going to leave him there."
Combs recalls seeing Lt. Schlesinger's body. He could
even see his brains exposed, and he thought he was dead. As they passed by a
barn, Combs spotted a ladder, which he confiscated and used as a litter for
Schlesinger's body. They had the German prisoners drape some of their coats
over the ladder, tie the body on the ladder and carry it.
The group moved out from Wyler toward Groesbeck. They
advanced with the prisoners in front of them, and when they were attacked by
Germans, the paratroopers shifted positions to place their prisoners between
them and the enemy as human shields. The first time the prisoners were fired
on, they hit the ground. Then Lt Combs had his men to fix bayonets, and
ordered his men to urge the prisoners up and moving with the points of their
bayonets, which proved to be an effective strategy
.
Soon after crossing into Holland, the paratroopers came
upon a glider. A couple of glider men were struggling to raise the nose of
the glider. "We helped them get the nose of the glider up and their jeep
out." Combs recalled, and he believed, but was not sure, that the burned Air
Force officer boarded the jeep and was taken to an aid station by the glider
troops.
The paratroopers continued moving and checked some
houses in Den Heuvel, where they rescued two wounded troopers. One was
Anthony Cianfrani. Combs could not remember the name of the other. (Mrs.
Cianfrani, A Co, is on our roster.) The wounded troopers were prisoners of
four German soldiers. The two older Germans had wanted to kill their
prisoners, but the two younger ones had talked them out of it, lest they
suffer the same, if captured. Comb's group increased by six in Den Heuvel -
two paratroopers, and their four German guards, who were captured and
treated with mercy.
From Den Heuvel, the troopers
moved on to Vox Hill. There they saw one man with a big two-wheel horse
drawn cart, picking up bundles of equipment that had been dropped by
parachute on the DZ. (That could have been Bill Giegold, F Co. Bill still
corresponds with the farmer who loaned him horses and a cart on the DZ.
Bill used his borrowed equipment to transport ammo and other supplies to A
Co at the base of Devil's Hill. He turned the horses loose at that point,
and learned later, that one was killed just short of the owner's house. The
other horse made it safely home.)
The troopers found an aid station
on Vox Hill and left Lt. Schlesinger there. Combs said that his leg was
hurting badly from the shrapnel, and he was having difficulty walking. As
they moved toward Berg en Dal, his scouts located a house in the woods. A
fine Dutch family lived there named Vissar, who fed the troops milk, cheese
and bread, and it was there that Combs took time to have his leg bandaged.
Not far from the Vissar home
toward Berg en Dal, they came to the 3rd Bn. Command Post. Lt. Combs turned
over his prisoners, and checked into the aid station, where he had his leg
bandaged again.
Combs was very proud of his men
and their accomplishment that day, Sept 17, 1944. He was able to assemble 18
men from his stick, pick up a few more from other planes, rescue several
wounded, and knock out four antitank weapons near the DZ. This was
accomplished without losing a man. All this time, Lt. Rex Combs was
suffering from a shrapnel wound in one leg, which he received even before he
left the airplane.
Note: Lt Schlesinger was evacuated and did not return to
the unit. The extent of his injuries are not known, he lived for
another 40 yeas before expiring in April 1984.
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