Filthy Thirteen
Page 33
18. “Take-off time was 0645, 23 December 1944. I was in the lead aircraft (#943) piloted by Lt. Col. Joel Crouch. We were followed by a second aircraft (#681) piloted by Lt. Lionel Wood. The flight from Chalgrove to Bastogne was uneventful but as we approached the ‘DZ’ and the red light came on for ‘Hook-up,’ tension mounted and you get a lot of ‘funny feelings.’ Suddenly there was a burst of ground fire and you could see the tracers go by. It came from a German gun emplacement, directly in front of our flight path. Quickly Col. Crouch, dove the aircraft directly at the Germans (we were looking right down the barrels of their guns) who thinking they had shot us down and we were going to crash on top of them, jumped out of their gun emplacement and ran for safety. The colonel then pulled the aircraft back up to jump altitude. However since we were all standing (loaded with heavy pathfinder equipment) the suddenness of this maneuver caught us by surprise and most of us sank to our knees due to the ‘G’ force exerted. Luckily we all recovered our balance just as the green light came on, and out the door we went, and George Blain signaled the second aircraft to commence their drop.” (Jack Agnew, “Live From Bastogne,” The Pathfinder, p. 4.)
19. “Troops landed on the exact spot agreed upon by pilot and jumpmaster. Orange smoke and signal from Eureka indicated that troops were safe. Second stick and bundles were dropped at same location by 1st Lt. (now Capt.) Lionel E. Wood flying A/C 681.” (Brown, “Report.”)
“While we were still airborne I coded OK. The 2nd plane made a 180 degree turn and dumped #2 stick - Boy!! what a party.” (Note by George Blain on the Brown Report to Jake McNiece, Dec 5, 1985.) Blain had the Eureka set.
20. The Pathfinders landed southwest of Bastogne in the 327th Glider Infantry sector. They brought in the supply drops on the same DZ that they jumped in on. The cemetery was in that sector. Each regiment had recovery crews with jeeps waiting at the drop zone to speed the supplies back to their comrades. LTC LaPrade was killed when German artillery hit his CP.
Jack Agnew did not remember seeing anyone around when they jumped in. He said they landed in the backyard of the Massen house across the street from a huge brick pile that had been stacked for construction. The Massen boy, Loui, came out and helped carry their equipment to the brick pile.
21. “After the shock of my chute opening, I looked around to orientate myself and saw what I thought to be a German tank. I started loosening my “Tommy Gun” in anticipation of a fight. Suddenly I hit the ground in what I think was the hardest landing in my career as a paratrooper. My “Tommy Gun” slammed into my face and I became a bloody mess. A medic quickly patched me up and after assembly we sought shelter in an old metal building, which the Germans quickly blasted us out of. Next we tried the basement of a damaged building, but the Germans zeroed in on us again. We lost some of our equipment this time and some of our people were trapped in the basement for a while, but Dewey and I managed to get them out. Finally we took shelter in Mrs. Massen’s house and across from her place, on high ground, was a big brick pile. We set up our equipment (CRN4’s) there and waited for the first sound of incoming aircraft. We didn’t dare turn on the sets until the last minute, because the Germans would have homed in on us and blasted us to bits. Shortly, the sound of approaching aircraft grew louder and louder so we turned on the CRN4’s. Even though the Germans started firing at us, the sight of the aerial armada distracted them and we suffered no casualties. The air drop was a great success and a Christmas present that the beleaguered troops at Bastogne wouldn’t forget for a long time.” (Agnew, “Live From Bastogne,” The Pathfinder, p. 4.)
22. The number of drops was taken from Brown, “Report.” “The road center of Bastogne could not have been held by the 101st Division during the German counteroffensive in December 1944 except for the airplanes that delivered 800,000 pounds of supplies to the division during the critical days between the twenty-third and twenty-seventh of December.” (Dwight D. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, p. 452.)
23. Mohr, Memories, p. 57.
24. The two lieutenants reported straight to Division Headquarters to ask where they wanted the drop zone. McNiece and Agnew did not remember them returning but understood that they were tasked somewhere else. This had left Jake McNiece in charge of the Pathfinder operation.
25. This was the Massen house.
26. Max Majewski was on the second stick to jump in.
27. Jack Agnew visited Bastogne after the war. He dropped by the Massen house and the same family still lived in it. They remembered him and invited him to stay with them during his visit. Loui Massen had grown up to become the president of the Bank General.
28. Dr. Kurt Yeary was also from Ponca City, Oklahoma.
29. Gene Brown had been given command of a rifle company. Foy lay on the main road to the north of Bastogne in the 506th sector.
30. While back in England, Gene Brown and the other lieutenants were going to have a party. They needed some whiskey and they knew Leach had several bottles hoarded in his foot locker. Leach did not even drink. The officers did not get along well with Leach so Brown decided to break into his foot locker. Brown was able to place the right amount of explosive to pop the lock in a way that did not destroy it. After they cleaned out the booze, he put the lock back together so the damage was not even noticeable. Of course Leach raised hell when he discovered his loss. Brown was considered the best demolitions man in the platoon.
31. Herb Pierce had wanted to join the fighting in World War II in the worst way. He had tried to enlist in any service that would take him but he was slightly colorblind. After walking out of the Marine recruiter’s officer he was so angry he kicked their sign. He then went in and talked to the airborne recruiter. They accepted him. As he was processing in it was again discovered that Herb was colorblind. Herb complained about how being colorblind could keep him from killing Germans. A very practical airborne officer handed him a couple of cards and asked him what color they were. Herb answered correctly. It turned out that he only had trouble distinguishing between the different shades of colors. Herb became a paratrooper. Although he may have shown his fear more than the others, he did not shirk his duty and wanted to carry his own weight.
32. General George Patton’s 4th Armored Division broke through to Bastogne at 4:00 on December 26. The 101st had survived seven days of siege.
33. Most units did not make more than two or three combat jumps. Consequently, very few paratroopers can claim to have made four.
Chapter 6: End of the War
1. On January 17, 1945, the 101st withdrew to the corps reserve at Haguenau, France. After February 25, the division returned to Mormelon. By the end of March, it was ordered into the Ruhr Pocket to secure the surrender of German soldiers. After April 20, the 101st moved to southern Germany and then into Bavaria. Major Leach took his patrol out while the division was in the Ruhr Pocket.
2. German for young woman.
3. Up until that time Leach had not led a combat patrol. It was beginning to become a joke among his peers. As a newly promoted major with the war winding down, he decided to finally take out his only patrol. (Stephen E. Ambrose, Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne From Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest.)
4. Browning Automatic Rifle. It is a light machine gun which fires 30.06 ammunition.
5. Actually, E Company shot up Leach’s boat. (Ambrose, Band of Brothers.)
6. The 45th Infantry Division was the Oklahoma National Guard. The original Oklahomans saw action as early as 1942. By the end of the war, most had been wounded at least once. If they could not return to duty within a few days the men were thrown into the replacement pool and sent out to other divisions.
7. Sink commandeered local boats on the lake and Jack Agnew’s job was to operate and maintain them.
8. Upon return from the hospital in England, Gene Brown was reassigned to command of Regimental Headquarters Company.
9. Because of bad weather, the 506th’s Fourth of July celebration was postponed to th
e 6th. The day began with speeches by the officers and then the men participated in athletic events and listened to a local band. At 11:45, a C-47 appeared overhead. At 3,800 feet, Lt. Sterling Horner jumped out following the wind dummy and opened his chute at about 2,400 feet. The plane came around and buzzed the lake and then climbed to 1,000 feet and disgorged its remaining ten parachutists over the water: Lts. Robert Haley, Leo Monoghan, Edgar MacMahan and John Stegeman, Sgts. Jake McNiece and Harold Anderson, and Cpls. John Dewey, Leonard Cardwell, and Stacey Kingsley, and Pvt. Ed Borey. After a lunch of hot dogs, lemonade, and ice cream, the regiment held a baseball tournament against other teams in the division and staged the “Curahee Downs” with German cavalry mounts. (“6 Celebrates Fourth On 6th,” Paradice Press, July 13, 1945, Vol. 1, No. 5.)
10. Standards for good conduct in war tended to be different than in peace. Jake even received a Good Conduct Medal.
11. Pigalle, an area of Paris that became a red light district and black market center after liberation.
12. The military prison is at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Chapter 7: Get-Together
1. A sap was a short leather whip about eight inches long loaded with buck shot on one end.
2. It was a long trough with a long handle that came clear down to one’s waist that carried cement or stucco to the masons. Hod carriers climbed ladders with them.
3. His first wife was killed in an auto accident while he was in the service.
4. City Service Oil Refinery was owned by the city and was adjacent to CONOCO which bought it later.
5. Screaming Eagle was the name given to the 101st Airborne Division patch.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INTERVIEWS BY AUTHOR
John “Jack” Agnew
Betty Agnew
Elihue Boilla
Gene L. “Browny” Brown
Robert S. “Ragsman” Cone
Eugene A. Dance
Harold W. “Hank” Hannah
George E. Koskimaki
Mike Landauer
James “Jake” McNiece
Martha McNiece
Miguel “Mike” Marquez
Herbert L. “Kid” Pierce
Andrew E. “Rasputin” Rasmussen
Virgil “Smitty” Smith
Jack N. “Hawkeye” Womer
Thomas W. “Tom” Young
OTHER SOURCES
Audio Tape by Miguel B Marquez, Oct. 15, 1996.
Audio Tape by Jack Agnew, ca. Oct. 1999.
Video Interview of Jake McNiece by Truman Smith, May 5, 1994.
Video Interview of Jake McNiece by Joe Todd, March 2, 1988, Oklahoma Historical Society.
Letter, John Reeder to Laura Erickson, May 1, 1994.
Letters, Frank Palys to Laura Erikson, Apr. 29, 1994 and Jan. 14, 1995.
BOOKS
Ambrose, Stephen E. D-Day; June 6, 1944; The Climactic Battle of World War II. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994.
_____. Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne From Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.
Astor, Gerald. A Blood-Dimmed Tide: The Battle of the Bulge by the Men Who Fought It. New York: Donald I. Fine, Inc, 1992.
Bando, Mark. The 101st Airborne At Normandy. Osceola, WI: Motorbooks International, 1994.
_____. The 101st Airborne; From Holland to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest. Osceola, WI: Motorbooks International, 1995.
Bradley, Omar. A Soldier’s Story. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1951.
Brown, Frank L. “Report of Airborne Pathfinder Operation ‘Nuts.’” Jan. 7, 1945, D769.345 A521, Army War College Library.
Burgett, Donald D. Currahee! A Paratrooper’s Account of the Normandy Invasion. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1967.
_____. The Road to Arnhem: A Screaming Eagle in Holland. Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1999.
_____. Seven Roads to Hell: A Screaming Eagle at Bastogne. Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1999.
Center of Military History. Utah Beach To Cherbourg; 6–27 June 1944. Washington, D. C., 1994.
Eisenhower, Dwight D. Crusade in Europe. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1948.
506th Parachute Infantry. “Operation Neptune; S-1, S-2, S-3 Journals.”
Hannah, Harold W. A Military Interlude; Cornfield to Academia to Parachutes, np. 1999.
Harrison, Gordon A. Cross-Channel Attack. Washington, DC: Center of Military History, 1989.
History Section, European Theater of Operations. “Regimental Unit Study Number 3; (506 Parachute Infantry Regiment In Normandy Drop),” n.p., 1945.
Howard, James. Currahee, 506th Parachute Infantry Scrapbook, 20 July 1942–4 July 1945. n.p. 1945.
Koskimaki, George E. D-Day With the Screaming Eagles. Sweetwater, TN: 101st Airborne Division Association, Third Edition 1989.
_____. Hell’s Highway; Chronicle of the 101st Airborne Division in the Holland Campaign, September–November, 1944. Sweetwater, TN: 101st Airborne Division Association, Second Edition 1989.
_____. The Battered Bastards of Bastogne: A Chronicle of the Defense of Bastogne: December 19, 1944–January 17, 1945. Sweetwater, TN: 101st Airborne Division Association, First Edition 1989.
_____. A Short History Of The 101st Airborne Division In England, Normandy, The Netherlands And Bastogne, np. nd.
Marshall, S. L. A. Night Drop; The American Airborne Invasion of Normandy. Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1962.
Mohr, John H. A Paratrooper’s Memories of World War II. Ames, IN: Huess Printing, Inc., 1996.
Rapport, Leonard and Arthyr Northwood Jr. Rendezvous With Destiny. Washington, D.C: Infantry Journal, 1948.
Ridgeway, Matthew B. Soldier: The Memoirs of Matthew B. Ridgeway. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1956.
Ryan, Cornelius. A Bridge Too Far. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1974.
Smith, Truman. The Wrong Stuff; The Adventures and Mis-Adventures of an 8th Air Force Aviator. St Petersburg, FL: Southern Heritage Press, 1996.
Stanton, Shelby. World War II Order of Battle. New York: Galahad Books, 1984.
Webster, David Kenyon. Parachute Infantry: An American Paratrooper’s Memoir of D-Day and the Fall of the Third Reich. Baton Rouge, LA: LSU Press, 1997.
ARTICLES
“‘Filthy 13’ Bathed—In Blood.” Stars and Stripes, Dec. 4, 1944.
“‘Filthy 13’—Their Number Is Down.” Stars and Stripes, Nov. 30, 1944.
Hoge, Tom. “‘Filthy 13’ Squad Rivaled By None In Leaping Party.” Stars and Stripes, June 8, 1944.
Hollenbeck, Lynda. “Williams, the ‘Silent War Hero,’ Dies at 77.” The Benton Courier, Oct. 21, 1997.
Kondo, Shareese. “Silent Hero Loved U.S., Old Fords, Aiding Others.” Arkansas Democrat Gazette, Oct. 21, 1997.
Middleton, Troy H. “Report of the VIII Corps After Action Against Enemy Forces on the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy, France, for the Period 15–30 June 1944.” Headquarters VIII Corps, APO 308 US Army, 20 July 1944.
9th TC Command Pathfinder Associaton, The Pathfinder, Vol. I, No. 4, October–November–December 1986.
Para-Dice, March 1949, Paradice Press, Vol. 1, No. 5, July 13, 1945.
“Story of ‘Filthy Thirteen’ Finally Released by Army.” The Springfield Daily Republican, Dec. 4, 1944.
“13 Paratroopers.” Time, June 19, 1944.
Whitehouse, Arch. “The Filthy Thirteen.” True Magazine, date unknown.
Zenender, Ted. “We Were Trained for a Suicide Mission.” The Globe, Huntingdon Valley, PA, June 7, 1990.
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