Published by
CASEMATE
908 Darby Road, Havertown, PA 19083
United States of America
and
17 Cheap Street, Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 5DD
United Kingdom
© 2003 by Richard Killblane
Reprinted September 2010
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Hardcover Edition: ISBN 978-1-932033-12-0
Paperback Edition: ISBN 978-1-932033-46-5
Digital Edition: ISBN 978-1-935149-81-1
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PRINTED AND BOUND IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
CONTENTS
Preface
Introduction Jake McNiece
Chapter 1 Creating a Legend
Chapter 2 Fuel for the Myth
Chapter 3 A Bridge in Normandy
Chapter 4 Surviving Holland
Chapter 5 Rescue of a Division
Chapter 6 End of the War
Chapter 7 Get-Together
Epilogue The Moral of the Story
A Soldier’s Prayer by Jack Agnew
Notes
Bibliography
PREFACE
I had known of Jake McNiece for a number of years before I considered writing his story. He and a friend, Truman Smith, were favorite guest speakers at local schools and social organizations, and both were always willing to speak at any veterans’ event I coordinated. Both of them truly gifted speakers, Truman finally put his own words into print with The Wrong Stuff: The Adventures and Mis-Adventures of an 8th Air Force Aviator. It was subsequently at the urging of Jake’s friend and fishing buddy, Richard Sherrod, that I agreed to personally record Jake’s own version of the war.
Sherrod, probably the biggest fan of World War II veterans, originally had a notion that every soldier’s story should be recorded, though without realizing exactly how much work oral history entailed. Yet it was thanks to his encouragement that with Jake I finally took the first monumental step. The hours of effort required far exceeded my initial expectation, but I was overwhelmed with what I discovered. I had heard Jake speak to audiences before, but in one-on-one sessions I encountered the full uncensored version. With me as his sole audience, I was at the mercy of his unique talent for storytelling. Jake has a way of leaning back with his laugh; that grin just spreads across his face. He looks at you with that gleam in his eye and knows when and how long to pause before hitting you with his punch line. At times, he fed on my laughter. Sherrod, who had also heard all the stories fit for print, again became instrumental when I sat down to chronicle the accounts to see if I had missed anything. With his help I recorded them all.
Jake is one of the most gifted storytellers I have known. This is not to imply that any of his descriptions are untrue, but only to say that he is a skillful practitioner of the American art of first-person narrative that extends back to the days of Davy Crockett. This tradition continued with Samuel Watkins after the Civil War and Samuel Clemens (later Mark Twain), and in that same eighteenth century the famed frontier trapper and army scout, Jim Bridger, who attracted people from as far away as Europe to hear him spin his yarns of adventure. Storytelling is a talent which takes life’s experiences and relates them in an interesting manner. Like a fairy tale they often have a moral at the end, or like a joke they end with a punch line. There is no way I could ever tell the story of the Filthy 13 better than the man who inspired and led it. Even when Jake’s words are captured in black and white they do not quite convey his gifted original style.
After innumerable interviews to record Jake’s personal recollections, the second part of my task was to ground his accounts in the context of the broader campaign in World War II Europe, and to crosscheck them with the stories of other survivors of the Filthy 13, or men who fought alongside them. On occasion I have placed the stories of other veterans within Jake’s narrative in order to flesh out events. More commonly, the additional context and analyses are in footnotes for each chapter.
There are places where Jake’s memory of an incident differs in varying degrees from other veterans’ or what has been described by official histories. For anyone searching for the truth, no matter how fresh the memory or how recent the event, versions are going to differ depending on the perspective of the individual and what he felt was important. For example, Virgil Smith and Jake McNiece, who both live in Ponca City, Oklahoma, tell nearly identical versions of the same stories, though with different emphases. When Jake ate in the officers’ mess in England, Jake concludes with how Virgil introduced him as a major. That was funny enough for Jake. Since Virgil’s neck was on the line if Jake’s cover was blown, he finished with the fact that Jake kept going back to the mess. Otherwise the stories were identical. By and large, the accounts from the various veterans of Regimental Headquarters Company were similar.
I have benefited from the fact that following the 1979 101st Airborne Division Reunion, the veterans of the company began to hold their own annual “get-togethers.” At these they told and retold stories, allowing me to compare accounts and often gain greater detail. While Jack Agnew and Jake are reputed to have the best memories in the unit, their stories differ more in the details. Jack lives in Pennsylvania and Jake in Oklahoma. On average they meet once a year at the reunions and communicate a little more on the phone. Without a doubt this storytelling process by the group has had influence on the similarity of the stories and it has also helped validate the events. In some ways the telling of war stories at the reunions filled in lost details by others and performed the function of the long awaited group after-action review.
Jake’s narration is not just another view of the war through the eyes of a paratrooper. Jake and the Filthy 13 played key roles in some of the critical battles of the war. At first it may be hard to believe that any one unit could have been in the thick of so much combat, but one must remember that the Filthy 13 was one of only three demolition-saboteur sections in the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Unlike other infantrymen, they received special missions in accordance with their training, such as wiring or removing demolitions from bridges, or clearing mines and booby traps, all at the forefront of the attack. On top of that, their transfer to the Pathfinders and fortune would place these men in the path of even greater adventure.
After interviewing other members of his company, including two of his company commanders, Hank Hannah and Gene Brown, I found that Jake’s reputation has if anything exceeded his personal estimation. Although he was but one of the many interesting characters in Regimental Headquarters Company—and for that matter, the entire 506th Regiment—he may well have been the wildest. This was in no small measure due to his sometimes anarchic sense of humor. In addition, almost everyone agreed that Jake was the toughest man in the company.
When comparing Jake’s and other company veterans’ stories with the official histories there are significant discrepancies. Jake’s account of the fight on the bridges on the Douve Canal below Carentan differs from the official report compiled by the History Division under S. L. A. Marshall. Marshall, himself the pioneer of the group interview, has come under criticism for not being uniformly accurate in his research, particularly regarding the maelstrom of airborne melees during the Normandy campaign. Marshall admitted to historian Mark Bando that he did not use the group interview on the action at the Brevands bridgehead but instead referred to official reports. From the writings it
appears that the officer who commanded the action at the bridge, Captain Charles Shettle, may at least have been consulted.
Shettle admitted that the demolition men reached the bridge first and wired it, but from there the stories differ widely. The official report says that Americans had crossed to the other side and established a bridgehead. All the demolition men who reached the bridge tell essentially the opposite story. The Germans held one side of the canal and the Americans the other. The paratroopers were pinned down on their side. Jake says that he never saw Shettle anywhere near the bridge. Jack Agnew says he saw him but Shettle never left his foxhole. He did hear that a lieutenant managed to get men across a wooden foot bridge further downriver from them.
The veterans are not certain whether it was the second or third day when the USAAF bombed the bridge. Shettle claimed it was the second day. The official history, veterans, and even a follow-up interview in the Stars and Stripes, differ on whether the planes were P-47s or P-51s. Jack Agnew and Eugene Dance knew the difference and agreed with Jake that they were P-51s. The report claimed that the men on the canal were relieved on the third day. The regimental journal states only that the 327th Glider Infantry was sent to relieve them on the third day. Most of the veterans do not remember being relieved by anybody and that they left the bridgehead some time after the third day. Jake is adamant that he spent five days on the bridge.
A turning point in the history of the Filthy 13 came after Holland when Jake McNiece, followed by most of the survivors of the section, decided to join the Pathfinders—the most dangerous job in the airborne. Typically, Jake analyzed this move pragmatically, saying that while he realized his officers were only trying to get rid of him, the war was nearly over so it was he who would have the last laugh. But then came the Battle of the Bulge, which the Allied chain-of-command hadn’t expected. The role of the Pathfinders at Bastogne has in the years since been obscured. According to standard histories, the heavens parted and the planes found their drop zones clear on Christmas Day, 1944. Nearly everyone has heard the story. I have seen the official report by Captain Frank Brown, the roster of the jump, photo evidence—with one unmistakable photo of Jake McNiece dragging in a bundle—and read testimony by witnesses on the ground. The Pathfinders’ drop was briefly mentioned by reporters at the time, but the hundreds of histories since have entirely ignored their participation. Along with the navigational skill of the C-47 pilots who dropped them in Bastogne, the Pathfinders were hugely instrumental in bringing in the resupply drops that saved the 101st Airborne Division from defeat. As for the courage of the Pathfinders themselves, one need only realize that after flying hundreds of miles from England, a missed drop of a hundred yards would have resulted in their immediate death or capture. Who would think that nearly sixty years after World War II there would be a vital aspect of the Battle of the Bulge that history has missed.
While I could have written the story of the Filthy 13 as my own interpretation, after having scrutinized the evidence, it would not have compared to the skill with which Jake McNiece tells it. Instead I have tried to preserve the art of storytelling by participants themselves. Each of Jake’s stories stands by itself. As a writer I have arranged this collection together in a chronological manner and filled in the gaps with interviews to provide a more complete narration of the war and description of the characters. As a historian I have then added the corroborating evidence with my own interpretation as footnotes. In this respect it becomes a record of history. But this narration also seeks to convey a unique style of oral history. The main text is a war story. Its purpose is to entertain. I have deliberately retained some of the imperfections in grammar and style to preserve the feel as if Jake is talking to the reader. The art of storytelling is a gift and requires skill. For this reason I feel it should be preserved.
There are a number of people instrumental in putting this work together. On top of the list is Richard Sherrod, without whom this story may never have been preserved. I learned that other historians had written Jake or interviewed him but none fully realized the gold mine of information he had. I once asked Richard, how after all these years, I would be the lucky one to write Jake’s story. He answered, “Because you were the only one who cared enough to take the time.”
George Koskimaki is another who took the time to record everything he could about the 506th Parachute Infantry. Having served in the 101st Airborne Division, he had a special interest in preserving its oral history. He has published three books chronicling its exploits, which are mentioned in the bibliography. His research has been instrumental in filling in details.
Other veterans provided interviews, documents, clippings and photos as evidence of their experiences. One occasionally encounters people who claim to have been in places they were not or to have done things they did not. The survivors of the Filthy 13 are fortunately among those veterans who have amassed a number of documents to prove their incredible story, guarding against untruth. The veterans have been their own best historians.
Research would never be complete without the help of other historians and archivists. Jim Erikson provided letters and veterans’ information from his research about his uncle, Lieutenant Charles Mellen. Richard Barone informed me of the wealth of firsthand accounts of battles written by infantry officers hidden in the infantry school library. Renowned WWII historian Mark Bando kindly reviewed the manuscript and provided rare details into the actions and personalities of the 101st. In addition, the Army War College Library staff has always provided more material than needed in any research project about which I have contacted them.
A writer often needs to impose upon friends to read his manuscript while it is still in the draft stages. They have to suffer through the unpolished work, sometimes several times. I began this work with a verbatim transcription of Jake’s interviews. Dr. Doug Hansen provided the first valuable advice on which direction to go with a predominantly oral history, providing input as to how much of Jake’s original language I should polish. (We should all read our own words as exactly spoken to appreciate this need.) It has been my intent to preserve as much of his original language as feasible while keeping the narrative readable. My mentor, the historian Gary Null, provided the best advice on how much of the language to change, simply saying, “Don’t let the person telling the story sound stupid.” Gary also provided the first critical editing. I was grateful for the input of other readers, Mike Van Bibber and Hagen, who verified that in these pages Jake’s personal style has indeed been faithfully captured.
Richard Killblane
Introduction
JAKE MCNIECE
Only a few minutes remained in the fourth quarter and the ball was down. “Third and goal to go.” The Ponca City High School football team withdrew into their huddle. They were tired. In 1938, the players played both offense and defense the whole game.
The Ponca City boys played their rival team of Blackwell. Both of these neighboring towns in northern Oklahoma had small industries that allowed them to recruit players. Ponca City had young men recruited from as far away as Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Kansas. To get the best players the local businesses offered jobs to the fathers and in many cases the players themselves. Some of the players were as old as twenty-one and big! Many linemen weighed over two hundred pounds. With the teams evenly matched, this was the game of the season. Since Blackwell had won the year before, this game also became a grudge match and both sides played until the last drop of blood. Neither side had yet scored.
Jake McNiece, the team captain, looked at the young sophomore quarterback, C. L. Snyder. C. L. was a highly skilled quarterback but inexperienced at calling games. Jake had moved over from left end to offensive center so he could call the plays. “I’m going to shoot the ball right to you. You run right straight through my position, it will be wide open.”
C. L. questioned his logic. At five-feet-eight-inches, Jake only weighed 155 pounds and he was lined up against the 295-pound Thurman Garrett.
But Jake guaranteed him, “There will be a hole there.”
The team lined up with C. L. three yards deep. Jake looked straight at the giant in front of him and they began to exchange unpleasant remarks until Thurman finally looked Jake in the eye. With a wad of Copenhagen chewing tobacco packed into his mouth, Jake spit the burning juice right in Thurman’s eyes. The big man screamed, grabbed his face and raised up. Jake snapped the ball and drove right into Thurman’s gut, driving him all the way into the end zone. Because Thurman was so big no one backed him up. C. L. followed as directed and scored the only touchdown of the game.
With red, teary eyes and tobacco juice running down his face, Thurman pleaded with the referee. Nick Colbert knew Jake always chewed tobacco and confronted him. Jake had already swallowed the evidence and pleaded his own innocence. “Here look, I don’t have anything.” Colbert had no other choice but to let the play stand. Ponca City won the game six to zero. Decades later, this play was burned into the memory of those who witnessed it. To celebrate his victory, Jake puked his guts out in the shower after the game.
The story of the Filthy 13 begins with one man. The son of a sharecropper, nineteen-year-old Jake McNiece had made a small legend for himself on the playing fields of Oklahoma. He was a man who played to win and did whatever it took to come out on top. A few years later, the United States would enter a war against the toughest, most professional armies in the world and he would take that attitude with him. By the time the Allies invaded France, the Germans had been winning the war for over five years. The same traits Jake had demonstrated on the playing field would help him create an even greater legend in the army and on the battlefield.
James E. McNiece was born the second youngest of ten children on May 24, 1919, in Maysville, Oklahoma, the home of the famous Indian pilot Wiley Post. His parents, Elihugh and Rebecca McNiece, had immigrated from the farm country of Arkansas. Unlike the earlier legendary personalities of his state, Jake was homegrown—a true product of Oklahoma. His mother was half Choctaw, a fact that would play an important part in the later legend.
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