Henry explained that his mother and father were immigrants from Po-land. In 1939 while they were visiting Poland, Henry’s parents were killed during the German invasion. Henry yearned to avenge his parents’ death, and the best way was to become a paratrooper and fight the Germans.  

The trio completed jump school and qualified as parachutists. A short time later, they arrived in Nottingham, England assigned as replacements to the 508^th Parachute Infantry Regiment (508^th PIR).  Earl Carson was assigned to Company C, and Tom Broderick and Henry Wardenski were assigned to the Hq1 Light Machine Gun Platoon. 

The Hq1 Light Machine Gun Platoon was comprised of two sections with four squads per section. Kenneth (Rock) Merritt commanded Tom’s section. Rock recalls. “In the two months I knew Tom Broderick he was al-ways clean shaven, wearing a pressed uniform and polished boots. How-ever, during those few days in Holland before he was wounded, Tom had not had a chance to shave and clean his clothes and to his astonishment I told him: Tom, you now you look like a paratrooper.” 

Rock Merritt continues. “Tom Broderick’s search for adventure culminated on September 17, 1944, a sunny Sunday afternoon, as we parachuted into a field occupied by German infantry and antiaircraft guns a few miles south of Nijmegen, Holland.

Tom landed without a scratch, the German anti-aircraft guns were destroyed or abandoned, and the infantry was killed or captured.

Our machinegun section was assigned to support Company A. We were ordered to establish a roadblock on a major highway approach to Nijmegen.  At dawn, I discovered we were alone, Company A had gone into the city without notifying us.

After a guarded tour of the city looking for A Company or any friendly troops, we made our way back to the drop zone. There we learned our battalion had engaged in a furious fight to wrest the drop zone from Ger-man infantry and antiaircraft guns.  These forces were determined to destroy the arriving 82nd Airborne Division gliderborne artillery and the divisions heavy engineer equipment. The Germans were killed or captured and 19 of the 20 anti-aircraft guns were destroyed. All the gliders landed safely. 

Later in the day, Company A was ordered to seize ‘Devils Hill’, the highest terrain feature in the area. My section was assigned to support Company B.