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Paratrooperf:•nOver ItalyBy Frank Herkness•WlWfllttfflWrfltffftltfWWWtfWWWlilllMWllttlMfWHllllMIIIWIWlMllllllWillMiHlllltttllMMlMllfrMIMl(WNU Feature—Through special' arrangement with The American Magazine.)We jumped at midnight. For 30 minutes the jump door had ’been open, and the'lieutenant, bur jump master, had been standing there looking out into the moonlight ancjl waiting for the red-light flash which meant to stand up and hopk onchutes. | ' *’We had been flying a long time-much longer than actually needed to come from the African camp to Sicily. But, to throw the enemy off, we did not fly there directly.Maybe there will never be .such*.a . night again.' I've-‘heard- that 2,000. planes and 4,000 boats took part in the invasion, and I can believe it. The sky. around us was filled with cargo transport planes, all loaded j with paratroops, all heading for the same place, like a billion bees.lt; All of us were excited. For exactly one year, and three days we'd been training for this, our first battle action. Three days before, swe'dcelebrated the anniversary by killing three beef cattle for dinner. And now the target was a few minutesvahead of us. We passed over the*hid- knew it wouldn’tSicilian coast ahd be long now.The red light flashed. All of us stood up, fastened our chutes to the lump cable, and waited. Waited for what seemed hours for the green jump signal from the pilot. The plane was rocking from side to side, much worse than it ever did in the 15 practice jumps we'd made—I* still don't know why.Directly ahead and behind us we could see faintly glowing t green lights—formation lights of planes • ahead and behind. i • Lieutenant Disappears.The pilot’s .light suddenly flashed. Officers always jump first. The lieutenant yelled, 'Let's go!” and leaped out into the moonlight. We never saw him again. /We followed him instantly. The plane emptied in ten seconds.* I was the last to jump; The plane seemed to be going unusually fast. My chute snapped opeh with a terrific jerk, and my carbine .dis-I appeared. So the only weapon I had was a long trench knife.• I should have been able to seeall the. other chutes in our party, But I could only. see one, * and realized something had gone wrong. Plans called for us to be dropped at 600 feet, with the plane slowed down to almost stalling speed—-about . 100 i miles an hour. This was so we would spend less vulnerable time floating down, and also so we would be close together when we hit.As it turned out, we were dropped at full speed—almost 200 miles an hour—and from 1,500 feet. Thdt's why, I could see oniy^ one . other ’chute, I kept, my eyes glued on it and pulled at my shrouds to follow• ' , '■ --v 1 * ; \J . ■ j ■ ; - * •I landed hard but safe in an orchard. The rest of the boys landed nearby. Comparing notes, we were convinced that we had been droppedin a copiparatively strange country, nowhere near our target area; Actually, we were at least 50: miles off—some time I'd like to know why.;. This was ail .orchard codntry, which, seemed dotted with enemy troops, forcing us' to move carefully* There was spasmodicfiring everywhere, but we managed to avoid the enemy. We Spotted' the main road and beaded for ' had crept along it about 500 yams when we were challenged. It was another American, posted there'-inthe bushes to tead anybody- to'; a nearby farmhouse which was being used as an assembly point and .firsts aid station. We went yin. From prisoners we learned thatwe had landed a few miles from Avola* a coastal town' wfeich the British even then were attacking,( There was a little hill about 2GQ^ yards from the. farmhouse. where,as soon as it gpt light, ;we could see' the whole scene* I'll neve^r forget it. British # landings being made against, airplane and artillery oppo-sitibn. We could help those boys by hitting the enemy in the rear. That's, what we* ‘did. Maybe it was a good thing we landed where we did. I think we did more valuable work | than we would have • done if we hadbeen dropped right on*' the bull's■ / » * * ■ - .eye-v From the hilltop, as far as-' I jcould see, British ships were lying just offshore, with lines of little boats moving back and forth, bringing in more' British Tommies, They were-getting plenty of enemy attention. From the hills, Italian artillerywas going full blast. Shells and bombs _were bursting * among the ships, but the little boats kept coming anyway.It was about eight in the morning when we reached Avpla and it took us until 2:30 in the afternoon to advance a little more than a mile toward the town square. -Ci 1•v :/•
Newspaper Details
Johnson County Democrat and Oxford Leader
Oxford, Iowa, US
Thu, Oct 14, 1943
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Full Page
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Anonymous
BE 03 Nov 2022
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Oxford High School Report Card
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