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FIRST AMERICAN D-DAY CASUALTY, BEARDED YOUNG PARATROOPER ARRIVED AT FINNEY HOSPITALOne of the ifrst of America’s D-Day casualties, a bearded young paratrooper who alone _ nd seriously injured fought the Germans on the Cherbourg peninsula for four days before capture while asleep from exhaustion, and then was rescued by advancing American ground troops, has arrived at Finney General Hospital.He is Staff Sergeant George Wingate, huslSand of Mrs. Dorothy Fox Wingate of 142 N. E. Sixth street, Miami, Florida. He reached the hospital after having been flown from England to Mitchell Field, Long -Island, New York. ^“We made our Jump at exactly 2:30 a. m. on* D-Day, June 6,” Sgt. Wingate said. “There were 17 paratroopers in our plane. All around us were other transports, literally hundreds of them. Altogether, in the darkness of that morning between 12:30 and 3:30, 1,000 plans disgorged their cargoes of fighting men. It was the greatest mass parachute jump so far in history.”When briefed in England, the paratroopers had been told that they probably would meet little or no opposition on landing, and that they probably would not make contact^ with the enemy until dawn.“But this turned out,” Sgt. Wingate continued, “to be incorrect. Our advance information, most of it furnished by the French patriots, was very accurate. But at the last moment the Germans had moved troops into the area. They had their spies too, I suppose.“On the way down, Nazi flak opened up. When we got closer the Jerries began firing machine guns and mortars, and finally small arms. To make myself as poor a target as possible, 1 oscillated my chute as violently as possible. As a result I made a poor landing, bit the ground hard, and broke my leg“I lay there waiting for daylight, hoping to make contact with some of our own men, and atraid I’d run into the Germans. But the darkness saved me. The pain in my leg grew worse. I discovered it was broken. It got so bad I had to give myself a shot of morphine.♦ • * ■ ' ,“When daylight came I found myself in country crisscrossed with hedgerows. I learned lftter it was somewhere near Carentn. Every farmer seemB to bound his fields with hedges there. I thanked God for them. They gave me concealment.“I picked up a tree limb for a crutch, and started on my way, looking for Americans. I could hear firing. I threw away evry-thing by my rations, ammunition, rifle and four hand grenades. These came in handy later.”Keeping out of sight in cover of the hedgerows, Sergeant Wingate met no one until four that afternoon. Then he encountered a German five-man patrol. He said:“I lay on the ground and fired my rifle. I killed two. The Others ran away.”For the next three day Wingate kept on travelling. Several times he had brushes with the German patrols, but each time drove them away with his rifle and his precious hand grenades. A typical en-\counter took place on the second night of his travels—Wednesday, when with one grenade he killed four Germans. On Friday the pain in hiB leg grew worse. He continued:“Late Friday afternoon I lay down in a shallow hole in a wooded area. I had not had any sleep for three days, it was a-wakened by the sound of German voices. There were six or seven Germans all around me.”The Nazi officer In charge of the group, a captain, spoke to him in English, Wingate added, asking whether any more Americans were in the neighborhood. The sergeant said:“1 told him I had u«en alone for three days, and showed him how my left leg was broken. They treated me very welL They improvised a stretcher and carried me to the house of a French family. They were quartered there.The Frenchwoman was very good tc me. She gave me hot milk and hot bouillon. .Later the German captain told me I’d he evacuated * to a hospital for treatment Then, about three hours later, he told me that the Americans had moved into theable sum salted away.• * *If we assume that the combined war bonds, safety boxes and postal savings funds will run five millions, as' a minimum, then it means that the cash and liquid assets of the community are some thirteen or fourteen million dollars. And this is aside from cash values on life insurance policies which for the people of this community would represent a sizeable sum of money.* * •The fact tnac so much cash• • money has been amassed can be traced to many factors. Everybody who will or can almost, is working, and getting good pay, and apparently saving some of it. ThatMr. Emory G. Woofer.. Killed in Action; Wife Is Former Miss Annette Partin of This City—Word was received from the War Department this morning by Mrs. Emory C. Wooten, to the effect that her husband was killedin action on June 11th, in France. Mrs. Wooten is the former Miss Annette Partin, and resides with her parents Mr. and Mrs. M. S. A. Partin at 315 Bartow street.Miss Partin and Mr. Wooten were married on October 8, 1942, and he was here on his last visit this past Christmas.Mr. Wooten who was with the regular army forces, is a native ot Gainesville, Fla. During his visits here prior to and after his marriage to Miss Partin, he madenumbers of friends who will be grieved to know of his death in action, and extend of his young wife sincere sympathy on the loss of her husband.Lt. Leroy Walton It Now Overteat—Friends of Lt. Leroy Walton of this city will be glad to learn that he has arrived safely overseas, somewhere in the Pacifictheater of operations. He is a son of Mr. and Mrs. J. L. Walton of this city, a graduate of the Tho-masrville High School and of the University of Georgia, where he was president of the Glee Club. He has many friends here.area. The Germans pulled out.“Then the American scouts found me and called the Medical Department by radiophone. They came with a stretcher and took me to an aid station where they put a splint on my leg. Then I was put into a Jeep, driven to the » beach and ferried to England. There my leg was set, and a cast put on lt. Then I was flown to the United States.”
Newspaper Details
Thomasville Press
Thomasville, Georgia, US
Fri, Jul 21, 1944
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Ephraim R.
GA, USA 11 Jul 2018
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