Filthy Thirteen

by Richard Killblane

  17. Up to that time no one had given Jake a direct order to stand retreat. He knew Captain Hannah had him. Hank Hannah did not remember any of the conversations that Jake described. This is not to say they did not happen but that Hannah had forgotten many of the details. Hannah mentioned that if he did say the things described in this chapter, he was glad. Hank Hannah was very well-respected by his men. Jack Agnew remembered, “He was a real gentleman and one of the finest officers that I ever met anywhere.”

  18. Military Police. Paratroopers considered MPs airborne rejects. They believed many of them had washed out of the airborne physical training.

  19. Paratroopers received $50 additional hazardous duty pay for jumping out of airplanes. Subsequently, it was called “jump pay.” This was a big increase to a private’s pay of $21 a month. 20. .45 caliber automatic pistols.

  20. .45 caliber automatic pistols.

  21. Jack Agnew remembered that Regiment wanted to court-martial the two but Captain Hannah interceded and said, “No way, these are the kind of men that I want!”

  Gene Brown explained that since Regimental Headquarters Company was so close to Colonel Sink in proximity, it was hard for him not to know what Jake and the Filthy 13 had been up to. Their antics became a joke at the morning breakfast table. Sink was not concerned as long as the leaders did something about it. Hannah and Brown both agreed that Top Kick Miller did the best he could to keep things quiet and deal with them himself. Colonel Sink was not above kicking men out for discipline. The fact that Hannah stood up for Jake and Shorty saved them for a later day.

  22. Consequently the 506th PIR adopted Currahee as its motto which means, “We stand alone.”

  23. In horse races heat is the finish. In this context Jake was trying to encourage Hannah to a race at the finish line.

  24. Jack Agnew said Hannah ran like a deer. “The officers went hunting one time and we joked with him if he shot the deer or ran him down.”

  25. Jack Agnew remembered that the stockade was located at the bottom of the mountain and Jake and Shorty would make fun of the company when they’d run by every morning. “They’re in the stockade and we’re the ones busting our tails running up and down this mountain.”

  26. Malcolm Landry recalled that three MPs brought Jake and Shorty back during the morning formation with their blue dungarees with white Ps painted on them. He believed that Top Kick Miller had deliberately scheduled the MPs to bring them back at that time to make an impression on the rest of the company.

  27. Each battalion marched a different route. Regimental Headquarters marched with Third Battalion from Atlanta and completed the 136 miles in 83 hours and 50 minutes. Actual marching time was 45 hours and 20 minutes. It rained all three days of the march. Several men fell out at intervals but only 11 enlisted men could not finish the march. (Hannah, A Military Interlude, p. 45.)

  Jack Agnew remembered marching across muddy country roads and one of the favorite sayings was, “What’s behind that hill?” Then someone would answer, “Another hill!”

  28. In the South at that time there were two sets of justice, one for whites and another for blacks. No court in the South would convict a white man for fighting with a black. Jake in his typical fashion was reaching for any excuse he could.

  29. This story is Jack Agnew’s version since it is more detailed. Jake’s account is added as footnote 31.

  30. Miguel and Armando Marquez had enlisted out of El Paso, Texas. Mike, who was the oldest of eight, had quit high school during the Depression to work and help the family. He later enlisted in the Civilian Construction Corps which was run by the military. Mike and Armando had planned to enlist in the air corps but the recruiting sergeant gave them a good line of propaganda and convinced Armando to join the airborne instead. Mike wanted to be a pilot but followed his younger brother. Both ended up in the demolitions platoon. Although Mike was assigned to another section he would end up fighting alongside the Filthy 13 in Normandy and Holland.

  31. Jake McNiece remembered saying, “Let’s throw all these beds down the stairs.” He continued, “Another guy and I grabbed the frame of a bunk and another yanked the door open. Here come this officer, I believe it was Horner, and about ten MPs up the stairs. I just set the bunk down crossways and blocked their entry. They came on in and the officer said, ‘You’re going to pay for every penny of this!’

  “I said, ‘We don’t even know what happened. We couldn’t be guilty of these charges. Another guy came in here and started all this. I didn’t even know him. We were just protecting ourselves.’

  “The lieutenant said sarcastically, ‘I can see that much.’ “Everyone else agreed with me. They just put us under arrest of quarters. That was all they could do.”

  32. The 506th PIR was assigned to Camp Mackall, North Carolina, from February 26 to June 5, 1943.

  They left there for Sturgis Army Airfield, Kentucky, June 6, and to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, July 23, 1943, then to New York on August 28.

  33. Absent Without Leave. Leaving without permission of the commander.

  34. Richard Killblane’s interview with Agnew and Pierce.

  35. “Well, I’m in the sabotage business,” Jake said. “Besides, it sure came in handy one night back in South Carolina when I’d missed the Liberty Run truck back to camp.”

  “You mean you stole—‘borrowed’—a train locomotive to get back to camp?” I asked.

  “Well, I was already AWOL, but I had to get back to ship out or they would’ve put me in the brig if I had missed the departure of my unit.” (Truman Smith, The Wrong Stuff, p. 160.)

  36. Jack Agnew was walking guard at that time and remembered it was the adjutant who came tearing up to the barracks in a jeep. Any time there was an explosion in the area, for some reason everyone automatically blamed the demolition platoon.

  37. 2nd Lt. Charles W. Mellen from Stanhope, New Jersey, became the leader of Jake’s demo section after Leach left.

  38. Jack Agnew, who was again walking guard, said they set the charge on top of a cinder block against the floor. The guys in the barracks were playing cards with a GI blanket thrown over a couple foot lockers. When the charge went off, floor boards were blown up and coins were sticking in the tile ceiling. Fortunately, no one was hurt. 39.The 506th staged at Camp Shanks, New York, August 29, 1943, and departed for England, September 5, 1943.

  39. The 506th staged at Camp Shanks, New York, August 29, 1943, and departed for England, September 5, 1943.

  40. Hannah was sent to the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in February 1943 and became the regimental operations officer (S-3) upon his return. (Hannah, A Military Interlude, p. 49, 55.)

  41. The military prison was also at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Brown was well respected by the men and he treated them fair, but was very stern with them when one got out of line.

  42. Jake takes great pride in this.

  Chapter 2: Fuel for the Myth

  1. “Colonel Sink came up to me one day and said, ‘Hank, I would like to transfer Majewski and Mihlan from Headquarters Company to your S-3 Section. They are giving Captain Daniels a headache, and he would like to get rid of them.’ The only answer I could give of course, was ‘Yes, sir,’ but I really didn’t mind because when I’d been Regimental Headquarters company commander, I learned to like both of these jokers.” (Hannah, A Military Interlude, p. 78.)

  2. John F. Hale enlisted from Pulsbo, Washington.

  3. Jack Womer was 26 years old from Dundak, Maryland. The 29th Infantry Division had formed its own Ranger Battalion which was unfortunately disbanded in November 1943 before it could hit the beaches of Normandy. Jack Womer had joined the battalion because they ate better. The volunteers went to Scotland for training under British commandos. This was the toughest training Jack had ever experienced but when offered a promotion to take other volunteers through it, he went back a second time. After his return the division disbanded the battalion and returned the men to their original units. Whi
le in a YMCA club in Cornwall, Jack ran into a first sergeant from the 101st Airborne Division. He was impressed, especially with the $50 dollars a month pay raise. So Jack asked his outfit to let him volunteer but since he was an expert BAR gunner, they refused his request. He complained to the chaplain who in turn issued him a pass to go down to Newburry, the headquarters of the 101st, to volunteer. There he bumped into the commander, General Bill Lee. After he explained his situation, General Lee told him what he needed to do to join his division. Jack returned to his unit. After two weeks of waiting without a response, he again secured a pass from the chaplain and visited the 101st. This time his transfer was finally accepted and he made his five parachute jumps in one day. When asked what unit he wanted to join, he asked for the demolitions platoon of the 506th because Myers was there.

  4. Jack Agnew from Philadelphia remembered, “I did not play cards and I did not smoke and I did not drink, well at least not as much as those guys anyhow. I volunteered as a dispatch rider. I also went to the division switchboard school. In riding the dispatch, you had two saddle bags and also two little platforms on the back of the bike that carried two jerry cans full of gas or water. Of course, I made a couple of runs to the local pubs for the guys and got the water cans full of beer and they had a couple of parties. Things got a little wild once in a while.”

  5. Jack Agnew said he had been with Jake’s section since Toccoa.

  6. Robert S. Cone, a 23-year-old from Roxbury, Massachusetts, joined the 506th in January 1944. He was assigned to the barracks of the Filthy 13. He found them a great bunch of guys and always in trouble. He liked them and fit right in. He spent some of his time away from the company boxing for Special Services so he did not have a lot of demolitions training. Cone remembered that Jake was “so good, he was made for combat.” He expected Jake to win the Medal of Honor.

  7. Roland R. Baribeau, 29 years old, was from Brighwood, Massachusetts As the father of two children, he did not have to enlist but volunteered for the airborne.

  8. Herb Pierce remembered that Baribeau was kind of slow-thinking and spoke real slow. During the big invasion rehearsal for Eisenhower and Churchill, Herb and Frenchy had to blow a hole through barbed wire entanglements so the infantry could cross. After they had the charges set, Herb yelled, “Blow it! Blow it!” Frenchy looked up and said, “I don’t have my matches.” With everyone watching, Herb ran back to get them. He lit the fuze, then ran about 10 or 15 feet flipping in the air and landed facing the charge when it went off. Luckily he only ruined his watch.

  9. Charles R. Plauda, 20 years old, came from Minneapolis, Minnesota.

  10. According to Brown, Leach’s peers did not think highly of him either while he was still a lieutenant. He was not one of the guys and did not share his liquor ration even though he did not drink. When he moved up to staff, Hannah thought he was a very good officer. There are some officers who do not do well interacting with people in leadership roles but excel as staff officers. William Leach may have been one of those. Evidently Colonel Sink also thought he was good. Leach rose to major as the officer in charge of the intelligence section.

  11. Charles W. Mellen, 26 years old, came from Stanhope, New Jersey, and took over the section before Christmas 1943. Sensationalizing the myth of the Filthy 13, author Arch Whitehouse told how the Dirty Dozen, all of them American Indians, hated officers and would fight anyone who tried to impose authority over them. Their lieutenant bested them in a fight and became their blood brother and so completed the Filthy 13. (Arch Whitehouse, “The Filthy Thirteen,” True Magazine, date unknown.) Whitehouse picked up the story from Tom Hoge’s June 8, 1944 Stars and Stripes article, “‘Filthy 13’ Squad Rivaled by None in Leaping Party.”

  12. 1st and 2nd Battalions billeted at Alderbourne, 3rd Battalion billeted at Ramsbury, and the regimental staff lived in the Littlecote Manor House with Sir Wills.

  13. Jake weighed about 165 pounds but 250 pounds was the average combat load of a paratrooper.

  14. Exercise Eagle was a final dress rehearsal for the invasion held on May 12–13. Almost 500 paratroopers were injured. Armando Marquez broke his leg and Jim Eib landed on a wall and injured his back. Brince Stroup and the other two missed the Normandy invasion. (Koskimaki, A Short History of the 101st Airborne Division in England, p. 4.)

  15. John H. Mohr, A Paratrooper’s Memories of World War II, pp. 18–19.

  16. Jack Agnew said the hollow tree was right at the end of their barracks. They wrapped the deer in a mattress cover and pulled it up inside the tree with a toggle rope that had been issued to each man. A Scotland Yard officer came out to investigate the missing deer. He was asking if anyone knew who was killing the king’s deer and everyone was snickering. He did not know he was leaning against the tree with the deer in it.

  17. Jack Agnew remembered, “One time we were making close-order drill and were walking out past the Manor and made a lefthand turn and headed up for the woods. Top Kick said, “Okay everybody, grab a stick. We’ll go get rabbits.” So rabbits go in a hole and can’t go in too far. If you can’t reach them with your hands, you put the wire in there and keep turning it around until it locks up in their fur and you yank them out on the end of the stick. We would give them a rabbit punch and knock them out then put them in our jump coat pants and take them back to the barracks. I would go get some warm beer and they would cook them in a deep fry on top of the pot-bellied stove. We were hungry.”

  18. Whang is a Southern expression for leather as tough as a leather boot lace. It takes tough leather to make boot laces.

  19. Jack Agnew recalled that one time “The officers had a party and they had beer barrels delivered out in the back of Littlecote Manor. Some of the guys got the bright idea that we could use some of that beer. So they were rolling the barrel down. Dave Marcus came along. Dave was in communications and was into weight lifting. He was a husky kid. He said, “Where do you want it?” He just picked it up and carried it over his head back to our barracks. They chopped a notch in the bottom bunk and set the barrel in there. They had their barrel of beer right in the bottom bunk at the barracks. The officers never did find out where it went or who had it.”

  20. Tom Young claimed that his demo section also hunted deer and gigged fish. He said the heavy weapons platoon also participated but that they fished with hand grenades. He thinks that is what got everybody in trouble.

  21. Olive Drab wool service uniform.

  22. Jack Agnew said they had a sign on the barracks, “The Filthy 13.” Everybody who slept in the barracks claimed they belonged to the Filthy 13 but it was only the members of the 1st Battalion Section.

  This was the origin of the myth that the Filthy 13 had sworn not to bathe until D-Day.

  “They boasted that they hadn’t washed since Christmas and men here will testify that this was only too true—so true that it earned them a secluded spot on the leeward side of the other barracks. Time enough to wash after D-Day, they said.” (Tom Hoge, “Filthy 13 Squad Rivaled By None In Leaping Party,” Stars and Stripes, June 8, 1944.)

  “Some months ago when men were being carefully selected for airborne infantry work, it was noticed in one training area that whenever a certain group of sluggers got together, they produced a most remarkable odor. At first the patrons of the Red Cross hut put it down to new leather, the scarcity of water or the natural chemical reaction of eating too much Spam and Brussels spouts.” (Whitehouse, “The Filthy Thirteen.”)

  23. 1st Lt. Shrable D. Williams was leader of another section in the demolition platoon.

  24. The increased demand for whiskey on account of the tremendous influx of thirsty American soldiers in England did not allow for production to keep up with demand. The alcoholic beverage became a scarce commodity. Jake, however, discovered that he could purchase all he wanted directly from the employees at a distillery.

  25. Smith, Wrong Stuff, pp. 157-161.

  26. “As a Lieutenant, and Jake as a Buck Private, I started to pay our check, but he s
topped me and pulled out a roll of pound notes as large as two fists, and ordered me to put my money back into my pocket.

  “‘You mean you’ve got that much money left over from what they gave you for the booze?’ I asked.

  “‘Ohh, this is my money here.’ he said. “‘Even Generals don’t have that much money, Jake.’ “I wasn’t about to ask him where he, a Buck Private, had gotten so much money. It was better I didn’t know.

  “‘Oh, it’s legal,’ he said, ‘It’s the treasury of a little club I’ve founded. It’s called the Dirty Dozen. Well, that’s the way it started out. It’s now called the Filthy Thirteen. I’m the president and treasurer.’

  “The Dirty Dozen? I had to know more. “Jake explained that his little band of blood-brothers, who had accepted his ritual of mixing their blood with each other, had vowed not to bathe and to remain dirty and filthy until D-Day when they—demolition saboteurs—would be jumping ahead of the invasion behind enemy lines.” (Smith, Wrong Stuff, pp. 157–161.)

  27. “D-Day was coming up awful soon and we knew it. The Demolition Company [platoon] wanted to have a booze party on a Saturday night. Jake McNiece collected money from the boys who wanted it and went to London to buy the booze. I was on guard at the main gate when Jake got off a vehicle and walked in. He had a barracks bag half full of booze bottles. They had the party at a house out in the big pasture north of the castles. They tried to get me to be their bartender at the booze party. That made me mad because they knew I didn’t drink.” (Mohr, Memories, p. 27.)

  28. Audiotape by Mike Marquez, October 15, 1996.

  29. “‘Those scalp-locks caused a number of incidents. A bare skinhead under a steel helmet can get mighty cold,’ recalled [Jack] Agnew, with a pained expression.” (Ted Zenender, “We Were Trained for a Suicide Mission,” June 7, 1990.)