82nd Airborne Vet 505th PIR

[STALAGLUFT1]

I recently talked to a veteran my grandpa knows on the phone for a half hour. Here is some of what he told me.

 

Ed enlisted in New York City in 1941. He volunteered for the paratroops but was turned down because he had lost his four front teeth playing football. So, he went into an army tank battalion and trained at Fort Bragg for 12 weeks. Then he was transferred to Michigan for 10 more weeks of training followed by 6 months of training at Camp Hood in Texas. It was then that he was allowed to join the paratroops because the physical requirements to join the paratroops had been lowered. He trained at Fort Benning, Georgia and was then sent to North Carolina. At that time he was an NCO and wanted to be transferred to go overseas. The camp commander told him that he was only transferring the privates so Ed asked to be knocked down to private. In England he was put into the artillery branch of the 82nd Airborne, the All Americans. He jumped on D-Day at 2 am with the unit goal of capturing St Lo. The 75 mm Howitzer he was assigned to was dropped by parachute in 3 parts which he had to assemble. There were no losses in his stick although he wasn’t dropped in his assigned drop zone due to the fact that his C-47 took ack-ack fire. The unit held St Lo for 3-4 days before being relieved by ground forces. In total he spent 32 days in the area. He was then sent back to England.

His next jump was for Operation Market Garden. He said that this jump was easier because the paratroopers were more experienced and the fact that more paratroopers were partaking on this jump helped (it was the largest paratroop drop of the war). The goal of his unit was to capture and hold Nijmegen Bridge. His unit made a clean sweep of the krauts in the area but the British had a tough time. While in Holland he went with his friend to watch the World Series in A company’s HQ when they came under artillery fire. Ed and his friend dove to different sides of the road and his friend was hit by shrapnel but Ed was left unscathed. Ed found out after the war that his friend survived the war.

During the battle of the Bulge, Ed’s unit was part of a five mile advance into enemy lines. To avoid being encircled they were ordered to retreat but Ed and seven men were ordered to stay with their howitzer and harass the Germans. They finally got orders to retreat on Christmas Eve and they found a hayloft to sleep in. They went to a Christmas service when they rejoined their unit; the service was given by a protestant minister. Ed kept repeating about how bad the weather was during the Battle of the Bulge. He said at certain times the snow was up to their belly-buttons. Ed also talked about the great number of tanks his artillery unit had to face but said that his unit kept beating them down. His unit kept beating back the Germans until they reached Belgium. To keep in shape Ed’s unit was taken off the front lines and had to go on long hikes in the snow.

Near the end of the war Ed was in Hamburg and his unit met with Russian troops. He was then transferred to Berlin where he was housed be a mother and a daughter. Ed had spent a total of two years and combat and fought in some of the most important battles of the European Theater.

Ed was a souvenir hunter: his souvenir of choice was the German P-38 he said by the end of the war he had fifteen of them which he carried on this old belt he had. He only brought two home from the war since the rest were used to barter. One he gave to his father which he doesn't know where it went and one to his son.

Hope you enjoyed this story.

Regards,

Brian

[alphie5002]

That is a great story Brian. Thanks for sharing!!!

[J_Andrews]

How about Ste-Mere-Eglise instead of "St. Lo"?

[STALAGLUFT1]

That's true after researching the 505th it said their goal was Ste-Mere-Eglise but for some reason the vet thought it was St. Lo. I guess after all those years the names of towns just get jumbled up.

Regards,

Brian