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fate 4THE STARS AND STRIPESTuesday, March 27, 1945‘Troopers Open Berlin Bond ‘The Hard Waya wierd sky of bursting flak, lazyair and splattered a Nasi soldier who was beating his horse to aSide by side with thd paratroopers fought the glider pilots who wheeled their craft down to theA lot of brave men lived, too andBy BUD HUTTOMStars and Stripes Staff WriterISSEL RIVER LINE, Germany. March 26—American paratroopers yesterday drove eastward from the island of bloody ground they took and held to spearhead the Allied thrust beyond the wrecked gliders, past the black skeletons of fire* raztd transport planes, and away from the German fields mottled with the colors ff their chutes.The paratroopers, remnants of V. S. and British units, struck at enemy forces routed in the Rhine airborne attack.The troopers were back fighting as doughfeet but even If they should stay earthbound they will always be the guys who jumped across the Rhine and opened the road to Berlin—and did it the hard way.The 047 was burning when we hooked up and shoved for the door. Bob Reeder and the rest of the carrier’s crew never said a word They stayed in there and kept us level and we went over the side intotracers and colored silk.Flak hit the next man in the air and he blew up. Troopers touched the ground and started fighting but some of them died in their shroud lines.OoL Jim Coutts, the Philadelphia West Pointer, slipped out of his harness, walked through the burp-gun fire and began to attack before he had battalion, let alone his 513th Parachute Regt of the 17th AB Dir.Lt. OoL Ward Ryan, another West Pointer, from Pt- Atkinson. Wis., and the rest of our stick landed square in the middle of a German artillery GP. Some of the sticx died where it hit and some closed on the burp-gun It was difficult to be sure, but the 513 th paratrooper Pfc. Lynn Vaughn, of Georgetown, probably took the first two prisoners. He landed in a tree, slid down, shot one Jerry. The other two quit. Perhaps the first man to kill a German was Sgt Curtis Gadd, of Cleveland, who unslung his Ml in thegallop across the field.Mostly the paratroopers figured the firsts didnt matter. They got out of their colored silk and started slugging.South of us, Col. Edson Raff, who took the first American troopers into a combat drop in Africa, was on the ground with his 507th Regt. and clearing the way to a link-up with British who had crossed the Rhine in darkness.As Col. Coutts and the main force fought southward, the regimental executive officer started out from the Nazi CP past* the dead Americans and the dead Germans with what -got to. be known after seven hours of fighting as 'Task Force Ryan. TP Ryan never had more than 40 men including medics but it took more than 100 prisoners.The entire 513th RegL, from 10:15 when it hit until nightflL took more than 1,100 prisoners. With enemy killed and wounded, that figured out to more than the regiment’s strength. The cost was one man out of every ten*fields as the troopers started shooting. Some , of the gliders crashed and some were hit by mortar fire and burned, even as the C46s which held their course until the .paratroopers were away.•F-O Billy HI1L a gliderman from Brewster, Ala„ grabbed a tommy-gun and tacked on to Task Force Ryan, madder than hell because a mortar busted that lovely old glider after I got.It down right.Curtiss Watters, of Cape Girardeau, Mo., organised the glider pilots of the 441st and 442nd Groups into combat teams and tdbk on German artillerymen. Some of the crews of the 46s which burned got off to help.You’d have a hell of a time telling the 513th Parachuters that the Air Corps isn’t all man. The way it was, everybody fought through the morning and the afternoon and Jerry was scared but sometimes he fought like a guy defending his home and then a lot of brave men died.it’s hard to tell about the thing the way it should be until you can get away from it. But you'll go from one end to the other of the Island in the middle of the German army •that the paratroopers took and held and there’ll never be a braver man than old Doc Moir.Doc Moir Is a* major and he cpxnes from Medoford. Wis. He’s the regimental surgeon. They gave Doc Moir and the medics a Red Cross on their tin hats and an armband.It’s against the rules to shoot at medicf but a lot of them got shot. But all day from the moment he went out of another burning C46, Bill Moir was out where the Sch-meisser fire popped loudest, walking among the mortar wounded and making it easier for the ones he couldn’t help.Probably he didn’t plan It that way but what Doc Moir did when the chips were down made the paratroopers better fighting men. The guys Who charged German emplacements with gun butts and knives figure Doc Moir was a pretty brave’ guy.
Newspaper Details
Southern France Stars and Stripes
Nice, Provence Alpes Cote d Azur, FR
Tue, Mar 27, 1945
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
Jamison C.
USA 23 Oct 2024
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