The 501st, including its 1st Battalion, which had been dropped in the wrong place, made rapid progress toward its objectives. Lieutenant Colonel Harry W.O. Kinnard, commander of the battalion, gathered his forces and set out in the direction of Veghel. Some of Kinnard's men commandeered bicycles and trucks, leading the rest of the battalion toward the bridges. When Kinnard arrived on the outskirts of Veghel, his troopers had already taken the railroad bridge over the Aar River. The 3rd Battalion took the town of Eerde and cut the Veghel–St. Oedenrode highway, safeguarding the regiment's rear. Meanwhile, the 2nd Battalion seized three bridges at Veghel.
The 501st secured all of its September 17 objectives in about three hours, capturing 50 prisoners in the process. In his haste to move toward Veghel, however, Kinnard was unable to transport all of his battalion's equipment. He had left 46 men under the command of Captain W.S. Burd to bring this equipment, along with those paratroopers injured in the jump, forward at a slower pace. Burd's detachment was attacked by a strong force of Germans and pushed back to a single building. When word of Burd's plight reached Kinnard, Johnson allowed him to send a platoon to the rescue. The attempt failed, and Burd's group was captured.
This is one of the first photos taken after the paratroopers entered Eindhoven to liberate the town and clear the road for the British Armoured Division.Fltr: priv.Robert E.Jones - staff sergeant Hugh Bonden and Clyde E.Jeffers.The first picture of the liberation of Eindhoven Sept.18th 1944 (11.00 PM)
The other unit dropped out of its prescribed zone was the 1st Battalion of the 502nd Regiment. Nevertheless, that battalion, under Lt. Col. Patrick F. Cassidy, took St. Oedenrode, which commanded a major highway and a bridge over the Dommel. The 1st's men killed 20 Germans and captured 58 in the process.
Major General Maxwell Taylor, commander of the 101st, wanted to capture rail and highway bridges over the Wilhelmina Canal near Best. Those bridges did not sit directly along the line of advance of the XXX Corps, but Taylor felt that their possession would strengthen his position and provide another route if the road through Son were cut.
A picture of a small percentage of the prisoners taken on 18 September, 1944 near Best, Holland.
The 502nd's Company H drew the assignment of taking the bridges and soon ran into strong opposition. Its commander, Captain Robert E. Jones, dispatched a patrol toward the bridges. Led by Lieutenant Edward L. Wierzbowski, this group came within sight of the highway bridge but was forced to dig in, its strength reduced to only three officers and 15 men. Lieutenant Colonel Robert G. Cole, who earned the Medal of Honor in Normandy, commanded the 3rd Battalion, 502nd. He started out with the rest of his battalion to find Captain Jones and Company H at 1800 hours on the 17th, but his effort to link up was thwarted by darkness. The fight for Best would ultimately require a much larger force, including British tanks and at least two more battalions, to secure the area during the next two days. Private First Class Joe E. Mann would be posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on September 19—he died after being shot by a German sniper. General Taylor moved ahead with the 1st Battalion, 506th, south of Son, approaching the Wilhelmina Canal road bridge from the west. Just south of the town, below the Zonsche Forest, 88mm guns began shelling the Americans. The other two battalions of the 506th, commanded by Colonel Sink, came under fire from additional 88s.
LZ W, Holland, September 18, 1944. Troopers of the 101st Airborne using axes and other implements to rescue a badly injured glider pilot (seen at bottom centre of photo) pinned in wreckage of this CG-4.
Don Burgett, a member of the 1st Battalion, remembered the vicious fight for Son. "We organized and we began to charge the guns," he recalled. "The only way we were going to survive was to knock out the 88s even though a lot of us were going to die trying to do it. As we were running toward them, they fired at us at point-blank range. We overran their positions. There were several 88s. They were sandbagged and dug in and used for anti-aircraft. A trooper from D Company got in close enough and fired a bazooka and knocked out one of the guns."
On 18 September, 1944, some German prisoners were taken on the edge of LZ 'W' near Son, Holland. In this photo, some HQ/502 personnel are writing down names of the prisoners and a couple of recently-landed CG-4A gliders are visible in the background. Trooper in the foreground is S-2 man August 'Gus' Mangoni, who had jumped as a Pathfinder in Normandy. Lt.Joe Pangerl snapped this dramatic photo while on the move and very busy.
Both groups from the 506th then moved toward the bridge. "We overran the 88s, took the German gunners prisoner, and someone said, "Let's take the bridge,'" continued Burgett. "We started to run toward the bridge. We were within yards of the bridge when the Germans blew it up. It went off with quite a force....We hit the ground. I rolled over on my back because everything got real quiet, and I saw the debris in the air. I remember seeing this tiny straw that was turning slowly, way up in the air, and as it hit its maximum trajectory and started to come down, it became larger and larger. About halfway down we realized the size of this thing. It was probably about 2 feet wide and 40 feet long. There was no place to run. When it hit the ground, the ground shook like jello."
Sink (middle) marched into Eindhoven with his men to move the 506th command post to Eindhoven . This photo is made in Eindhoven, Frankrijkstraat.
With the Son bridge in ruins, the effort to capture Eindhoven slowed. However, the XXX Corps halted that evening at Valkenswaard, six miles away. By the time the XXX Corps arrived at Eindhoven the next day, the town was in the hands of the 101st. As night fell on the 17th, the 101st controlled Veghel, St. Oedenrode and Son. Although the 502nd had encountered battle-toughened German troops around Best, the objective there was secondary. In a few hours, the 101st would have its stretch of Hell's Highway completely open.
September 17, 1944, Eindhoven, Holland. American glider troops assemble after having just arrived from England. The motorcycle was captured from the Germans. In its sidecar rides the German soldier who had been driving the motorcycle when the American landed
Almost from the beginning, jubilant Dutch civilians had welcomed the Allied paratroopers as liberators. Early on the morning of September 18, the 506th destroyed a pair of 88s and pushed into Eindhoven. While throngs of citizens welcomed them, the paratroopers disarmed a handful of Germans. As the townspeople erupted in celebration, one American officer remembered: "The reception was terrific. The air seemed to reek with hate for the Germans...."
The vital Bailey-bridge near Son
Finally, at 1700 hours that evening, the leading elements of the XXX Corps rumbled through Eindhoven virtually without stopping. At Son, Canadian engineers, who had been notified that the existing bridge had been destroyed, worked throughout the night to deploy a prefabricated Bailey bridge. At 0645 on the 19th, 33 hours behind schedule, the tanks of the XXX Corps rumbled over the Wilhelmina Canal.
By the morning of September 19, the XXX Corps had crossed the Willems Canal and the Aar River at Veghel and was moving into the 82nd Airborne's zone. While the 82nd had been successful in achieving most of its goals, the Germans still held the bridge across the Waal at Nijmegen. It was captured with a herculean effort on the afternoon of the 20th, but the armored "cavalry" did not cross the Waal until the 21st. Time was running out for the heroic British paratroopers at Arnhem.
A scene along Hell's Highway in September, 1944. The occupants of the jeep are members of 101st Divarty.
In the 101st's sector, the primary job became holding the narrow corridor of hope open against repeated enemy counterattacks. While Allied armor was advancing northward, it was vital to keep the road open to facilitate the flow of troops and supplies. The Germans, however, fought back viciously against the 101st's defensive positions around Eindhoven, Son, St. Oedenrode and Veghel. General Taylor likened the action to the bushwhacking style of fighting between small garrisons of troops and Indians in the American West. The Germans would attack, cut the road and then be driven back by the troopers of the 101st.
On the 22nd, the Germans mounted a counterattack against Veghel supported by heavy artillery and aircraft. The attack was not beaten back until two days later. "It was a very depressing atmosphere listening to the civilians moan, shriek, sing hymns and say their prayers," wrote Daniel Kenyon Webster of the 506th's Company E, remembering the rain of artillery. He and Private Don Wiseman dug a deep foxhole. "Wiseman and I sat in our corners and cursed," Webster continued. "Every time we heard a shell come over, we closed our eyes and put our heads between our legs. Every time the shells went off, we looked up and grinned at each other."
Landing at the dropzone near Son. Not all landings pass without mishap. While descending two gliders of the 101st Airborne Division have collided and crashed on the landing zone. One pilot is killed. The five occupants of the second glider are trapped inside the wreckage. Paratroopers of the 506th PIR that has just landed rush forward to help. Identified outside the glider are f.l.t.r. Joe Crawford, Chaplain Tilden McGee, Captain Tollet and Stanley Speiwak.
On September 24, the Germans ravaged a British column on Hell's Highway at Koevering. Burgett remembered: "The Germans brought up some 40mm cannons and they had some self-propelled guns, and they shot up the British who were lined up on the side of the road…brewing tea in those five-gallon tins, and the Germans just opened up on them. They killed over 300. "When we got down to Koevering, the trucks were still burning," continued Burgett. "We went into the attack immediately. I remember we killed two Germans in a haystack. Then we made an attack west across the road at a farmhouse. The farmhouse was set on fire. We went into the German side, and we drove them back."
101st Airborne Trooper shares his food with Dutch civilians.
Although it became apparent that Market-Garden was a strategic failure, the men of the 101st Airborne could say that they had done their part admirably. The northern flank of the Allied armies was extended 65 miles across two canals and the Maas and Waal rivers, while a considerable amount of Dutch territory had been freed from Nazi occupation. The division had killed many Germans and captured 3,511, while suffering 2,110 casualties itself.
Although most of the men of the 101st expected to be pulled out of the line at the end of September, the division was placed under the control of the British XII Corps on the 28th and transferred north to the front line in an area known as the Island, a 5-kilometer strip of land between the Neder Rijn and the Waal. Due to heavy demands for manpower, the British were pressed for troops, and both the 101st and 82nd Airborne divisions found themselves in positions that resembled the trench lines of World War I. Occasionally, they experienced artillery duels between the Germans and the British and were involved in infantry clashes.
On the night of October 5, a platoon of the 506th's Company E, supported by a detachment from Company F, mauled two companies of German SS troops attempting to infiltrate American lines in support of an attack by the 363rd Volksgrenadier Division. Captain (later Major) Richard Winters, Company E's commander, led his 35 men brilliantly, demonstrating great bravery and coolness under fire.
This pic shows Lt.Delmar Denson Idol of A/502 on a combat patrol near Dodewaard, Holland on the Island in October, 1944. Capt. Joe Pangerl photographed Idol as he scanned no man's land for signs of dug-in German positions.
Moving along a road adjacent to a dike near the banks of the Neder Rijn, Winters shot a German who was only three yards away and then opened up on a mass of enemy troops. "The movements of the Germans seemed to be unreal to me," he reflected. "When they rose up, it seemed to be so slow. When they turned to look over their shoulders at me, it was in slow motion. When they started to raise their rifles to fire at me, it was in slow, slow motion. I emptied the first clip [eight rounds] and, still standing in the middle of the road, put in a second clip and, still shooting from the hip, emptied that clip into the mass."
Winters remembered that action as the "highlight of all E Company actions for the entire war, even better than D-Day, because it demonstrated Easy's overall superiority in every phase of infantry tactics: patrol, defense, attack under a base of fire, withdrawal, and above all, superior marksmanship with rifles, machine gun and mortar fire."
The 101st held its positions on the Island until late November, when it was withdrawn to Camp Mourmelon, outside the French village of Mourmelon-le-Grand. From the Market-Garden drop until its last troopers were relieved, the division had spent 72 days in combat zones. In the defensive fighting at the Island, it suffered 1,682 casualties.
The men of the 101st experienced combat for the first time on D-Day. They had fought gallantly as veterans in Holland. But their sternest test and their finest hour were yet to come, at the Belgian crossroads town of Bastogne.
Additional Sources: members.lycos.nl/bandofbrotherse506pi
www.101airborneww2.com
www.barakuda.ch
www.mariaheide.nl
home.tiscali.nl/~jschoe
www.pointvista.com
www.army.mil
www.campbell.army.mil
home.wanadoo.nl
www.yankee-yankee.bravepages.com
home.tiscali.nl
On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on October 14:
1542 Abul-Fath Djalal-ud-Din, 3rd Mogol emperor of India (1556-1605)
1633 James II king of England (1685-88)
1644 William Penn English Quaker & founder of PA
1712 George Grenville British PM (1763-65)
1734 Francis Lightfoot Lee, US farmer/signer (Declaration of Independence)
1867 Masaoka Shiki Japan, haiku & tanka poet/diarist (Salt Water Ballads)
1873 Raymond C Ewry Indiana, polio victim who won 10 Olympic golds
1882 Eamon DeValera NY, Pres of Ireland (1937-48, 51-54, 57-59)
1888 Katherine Mansfield New Zealand writer (Aloe, Garden Party)
1890 Dwight D Eisenhower Denison, Tx (R) 34th Pres (1953-1961)
1894 E. E. Cummings Cambridge Mass, poet (Tulips & Chimneys)
1896 Lillian Gish silent film/stage actress (Birth of a Nation)
1906 Hannah Arendt Germany, historian (Origins of Totalitarianism)
1910 John Wooden basketball coach (UCLA-10 national championships)
1916 C Everett Koop surgeon general (1981-89)
1927 Roger Moore London England, actor (James Bond, Maverick, Saint)
1931 Rafael Puyana Bogota Colombia, baroque harpsichordist (NY debut 1957)
1938 John Dean III former White House counsel, Watergate figure
1939 Ralph Lauren fashion designer (Chaps)
1940 Pat Finley Asheville NC, actress (Ellen Hartley-Bob Newhart Show)
1943 Lance Rentzel NFL receiver (Minn, LA)/ex-husband of Joey Heatherton
1943 Noreen Corcoran Quincy Mass, actress (Kelly-Bachelor Father)
1944 Udo Kier Germany, actor (Warhol Dracula, Warhol Frankenstein)
1946 Justin Hayward singer (Moody Blues-Nights in White Satin)
1952 Harry Anderson Newport RI, actor (Judge Harry Stone-Night Court)
1952 Nikolai Adrianov USSR, gymnast (Olympic-4 gold/2 silver/bronze-1976)
1967 Arleen Sorkin actress (Day of Our Life, America's Funniest Videos)
Deaths which occurred on October 14:
0530 Dioscurus, anti-Pope (530), dies
1066 Harold II, King of England (1066), dies
1880 Victorio, Apache chief, killed by Mexican army
1944 Erwin Rommel German Field Marshall (WW II-Africa), dies at 52
1959 Errol Flynn actor, dies
1977 Bing Crosby dies of a heart attack at 74, in Madrid, Spain
1983 Paul Fix actor (Rifleman), dies at 82 of kidney failure
1986 Keenan Wynn actor (Dallas, Call to Glory, Last Precinct), dies at 70
1990 Leonard Bernstein composer (West Side Story), dies at 72
Reported: MISSING in ACTION
1966 THOMAS DARWIN JOEL---SANTA CLARA CA.
1967 CONAWAY GARY LEE---BLUE ISLAND IL.
[REMAINS RETURNED 8/84]
1967 VAUGHAN ROBERT REDDINGTON---LOS ANGELES CA.
POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.
On this day...
0530 [Discorus] ends his reign as Catholic Pope
1066 Battle of Hastings, in which William the Conqueror wins England
1322 Robert the Bruce of Scotland defeats King Edward II of England at Byland, forcing Edward to accept Scotland's independence
1586 Mary Queen of Scots goes on trial for conspiracy against Elizabeth
1651 Laws are passed in Massachusetts forbidding the poor to adopt excessive styles of dress
1773 Britain's East India Company tea ships' cargo is burned at Annapolis, Md.
1774 1st Continental Congress is 1st to declare colonial rights (Phila)
1806 Battle of Auerstadt-French beat Prussians
1834 1st black to obtain a US patent, Henry Blair, for a corn planter
1843 British arrest Irish nationalist Daniel O'Connell for conspiracy
1862 Baseballer James Creighton ruptures bladder hitting HR, dies 10/18
1867 15th & last Tokugawa Shogun resigns in Japan
1884 George Eastman patents paper-strip photographic film
1912 Teddy Roosevelt shot while campaigning in Milwaukee
1920 Part of Petsamo province ceded by Soviet Union to Finland
1922 1st automated telephones-Pennsylvania exchange in NYC
1926 Alan Alexander Milne's book "Winnie-the-Pooh"
1929 Phila A's beat Chicago Cubs, 4 games to 1 in 26th World Series
1929 Philadelphia A's set world series record of 10 runs in an inning (World Series #26)
1933 Nazi Germany announces withdrawal from League of Nations
1934 "Lux Radio Theatre" premieres
1939 BMI (Broadcast Music Incorporated) formed
1943 US 8th Air Force loses 60 B-17 bombers during assault on Schweinfurt
1944 German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel commits suicide rather than face trial for his part in an attempt to overthrow Hitler
1945 Chicago Cardinals end a record 29-game losing streak, beat Bears
1947 Chuck Yeager in Bell XS-1 makes 1st supersonic flight (Mach 1.015)
1949 14 US Communist Party leaders convicted of sedition
1950 Rev Sun Young Moon liberated from Hung Nam prison
1958 Malagasy Republic becomes autonomous republic in French Community
1960 Peace Corps 1st suggested by JFK
1962 US U-2 espionage planes locate missile launchers in Cuba
1962 Houston Oiler George Blanda throws for 6 TD passes vs NY Titans 56-17
1964 Martin Luther King Jr wins Nobel Peace Prize
1965 Joe Engle in X-15 reaches 80 km
1965 Sandy Koufax hurls his 2nd shutout of world series beating Twins 2-0 (World Series #62)
1968 1st live telecast from a manned US spacecraft (Apollo 7)
1968 Gruener & Watson (US) set scuba depth record (133 m) in Bahamas
1968 J.R. Hines of US runs 100 m in world record 9.95 sec
1969 Race riots in Springfield Mass
1975 Pres Ford escapes injury when his limousine is struck broadside
1976 Chris Chambliss' 9th inning lead off homer gives Yanks pennant #30
1976 Soyuz 23 carries 2 to Salyut 6, but returns without docking
1977 Linda Ronstadt sings the national anthem at the 74th World Series
1978 1st TV movie from a TV series-"Rescue from Gilligan's Island"
1979 Flyers start 35 game unbeaten streak beating Toronto 4-3
1979 NHL's greatest scorer Wayne Gretsky scores his 1st NHL goal
1980 Bob Marley's last concert
1980 Pres nominee Ronald Reagan promises to name a woman to Supreme Court
1982 6,000 Unification church couples wed in Korea
1982 Islanders assessed 108 penalty minutes Penguins 125 (233 total)
1983 US Marine peacekeeper Sgt Allen Soifert killed by sniper in Beirut
1985 On Mon Night football, Jets retire Joe Namath's #12, beat Miami 23-7
1986 Concentration camp survivor Elie Wiesel wins Nobel Peace Prize
1986 The IOC decides to stagger the Winter & Summer Olympic schedule
1986 Tim Kides of West NY, NJ performs 25,000 leg raises in 11:57:15
1987 In Midland, Tx 1year-old Jessica McClure falls 22' (7m) down a well
1988 Mike Tyson countersues Robin Givens for divorce and annulment
1994 The kidnapping of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian terrorists ended with the soldier and four others being killed in a shootout.
1994 Nobel Prize awarded to Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin & Shimon Peres
Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
Bangladesh : Durga Puja
Malagasy Rep : Independence Day (1958)
Maryland : Peggy Stewart Day-US sinks ship against taxes (1774)
Peo's Dem Rep of Yemen (South Yemen) : Independence Day (1962)
Firefighters Week (Day 2)
[CT, NY, MA] Dictionary Week (Day 3)
national lower case day
Country Music Month
National Sarcastics Awareness Month
Religious Observances
Orth : Protection (Intercession) of Mary (10/1 OS)
RC : Memorial of St Callistus I, pope (217-222), martyr (opt)
Ang : Commemoration of St Teresa of Avila
Religious History
1656 The first punitive legislation in Massachusetts against Quakers was enacted. (The marriage of church-and-state in Puritanism made them regard the ritual-free Quakers as spiritually apostate and politically subversive).
1735 Methodist pioneer John Wesley first set sail to America, to minister to the Indians under Georgia Gov. Oglethorpe. On this same date, Wesley began keeping his famous, 55-year-long journal, whose last entry was dated Oct 24, 1790.
1835 Birth of William G. Fischer, American sacred chorister. Three of his compositions later became hymn tunes: FISCHER ("Whiter Than Snow"), HANKEY ("I Love to Tell the Story") and ROCK OF REFUGE ("The Rock That is Higher Than I").
1876 Birth of Harry A. Ironside, American clergyman. Converted at 14, he preached for the Salvation Army, later for the Plymouth Brethren. From 1930-1948, he pastored at the Moody Memorial Church in Chicago.
1983 The National Council of Churches issued "The Inclusive Language Lectionary -- " Scripture readings translated to omit or blur gender references. God was thus called "Father and Mother" or "the One"; and "man" was replaced by "humanity" or "humankind." The translation proved shortlived.
Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
Thought for the day :
"Of all the rights of women,
the greatest is to be a mother"
Gender Dictionary...
MAKING LOVE (may-king luv) n.
A. Female...The greatest expression of intimacy a couple can achieve.
B. Male...Call it whatever you want just as long as we end up naked.
Signs Your Cat is Planning to Kill You!...
Unexplained calls to F. Lee Bailey's 900 number on your bill.
The Ultimate Scientific Dictionary...
Scientific Method:
The widely held philosophy that a theory can never be proved, only disproved, and that all attempts to explain anything are therefore futile.
Things you would like to say at work, but won't...
What am I? Flypaper for freaks!?