Following weeks of arduous training, the 508^th PIR moved to an airfield and prepared to jump at Tournai, Belgium. However, the drop at Tournai and an alternate drop at Leige were canceled. Patton's Third Army was racing through France into Belgium and overran both objectives. We returned to our tents in Nottingham with sighs of relief.

Our stay in Nottingham was brief. In mid-September, we rolled equipment bundles, packed our gear and moved again to the airfield.

After several briefings and equipment inspections, we were ready to go. 

At 1100 o'clock on September 17, 1944, a bright Sunday, after a break-fast of eggs and bacon (no grits), we loaded into C-47s and flew to Holland.  About 1300 hours after running a gauntlet of antiaircraft and small arms fire, we parachuted into a field south of Nijmegen. The field was occupied by German antiaircraft guns and infantry. As our planes covered the sky with descending parachutists, the Germans ceased firing and our 508^th PIR troopers killed or captured those Germans that did not abandoned their positions and weapons.

We gathered up our equipment, assembled rapidly, and moved quickly to capture our initial objective.  

That night a task force comprised of Company A & B supported by the Hq1 Mortar Platoon, a section of Light Machine Guns and communications personnel moved to Nijmegen to try and capture the strongly held highway bridge over the Waal River.”

Note. Capturing the Nijmegen Bridge would permit the British forces to move through Nijmegen to Arnheim.  After taking Arnheim and turning east, the British could bypass the Siegfried Line.  Some analysts believe that if the maneuver had succeeded, the war in Europe would have end-ed by December 1944.