LOW CLOUDS AND FOG

A few minutes after we had crossed the coast and before we reached our glider release point near Heisville the group ran into some low lying clouds and fog banks All the planes in the formation started to spread out to avoid collisions and this caused many of us to land wide short and beyond our objective when we reached the cutoff point In a very short time too soon for me the moment I was dreading arrived the green light came on in the astrodome of the tow plane indicating that we were over the LZ and that it was time to cut off

As soon as the rope disconnected from our glider I started a 360 degree turn to the left feeling my way down into the darkness holding the glider as close to stalling speed as I could It was almost impossible to describe one's feelings in a situation like this You know the ground is down there but you can't see it You don't know if you're going to hit trees ditches or what and all this time the flak and tracers are still coming up all around you The only thing you know for sure is that Germans are shooting up at you and they are going to be right there waiting for you when you climb out of your glider You hope you will wake up and discover you're having a bad dream They say fear has no bounds and at this point I was in full agreement

We still could not see a thing and I knew that we were about to run out of altitude Finally out of the corner of my eye I noticed a faint light patch that looked like an open field outlined by trees It was By this time we were so low that we had no choice in the matter There would be no chance for a go around With a prayer on my lips and a very tight pucker string I straightened out my glide path and headed in Bruner was holding full spoilers on We flared out for a landing just above the stalling speed and touched down smooth as glass I couldn't believe it how lucky can you get But just when we thought we had it made there was a tremendous bone jarring crash We had hit one of those ditches that the Germans had dug across the fields Their main purpose was to prevent gliders from landing in one piece and it sure worked with us We plunged down into the ditch and when the nose slammed into the other side the glider's back broke as it slid up over the opposite bank

The floor split open and we skidded to a halt in the field on the other side That ditch was ten to twelve feet across by five to six feet deep with water in the bottom For a split second we sat in stunned silence and I breathed a sigh of relief because none of us seemed to be injured We then bailed out fast because there was rifle and machine gun fire going off in the fields around us Fortunately none seemed to be aimed at our field at the moment It took us almost thirty minutes to dig the nose of the glider out of the dirt so we could open it up and roll out the anti tank gun

Midway through this task the Germans set off a flare right over our heads and lo and behold we saw glider No 50 piloted by Flight Officers Calvani and Ryan sitting on the other side of the ditch without a scratch on it They were carrying the Jeep to tow our anti tank gun Calvani must have stuck right on my tail in the dark to land so close I don't know how he managed to it

We now had the job of digging a ramp down into and out of the ditch to get the jeep over to us While this was going on the naval bombardment started on the invasion beaches and even though it was five miles away the ground shook under our feet and the noise was unbelievable I think we all said a few prayers for the kids who would be storming ashore and hoped they would be successful Our own lives were at stake if they failed We finally got the jeep across the ditch and the gun hooked up I left the group and started off on foot to find the 101 st Division CP Command Post at Heisville and the gun crew took off towing the gun to find their unit the 81 st AAA Battalion

A RIDE ON A JEEP

On my way through the hedgerows I stopped a jeep driven by a paratrooper who was headed in what we hoped was the right direction to the command post CP I hopped on the hood and we started up a narrow path between the hedgerows About five minutes later some Germans opened up on us with machine pistol and rifle fire I fell off the hood and the jeep almost ran over me That was enough I got up and started off on my own again A short time later while walking up this same narrow lane I glanced to my left and saw a rectangular opening at about waist height A rifle barrel was sticking out pointed right at me I froze in mid step waiting for the bullet I thought had my name on it

Nothing happened the gun didn't move By now I was curious I crawled over the hedge and looked in It was a complete German bunker large enough for five or six soldiers Its sole occupant was a dead German his rifle was poking through the slot Thank God for the paratroopers who had taken care of him earlier and probably left him in this position to scare some of their buddies They succeeded It scared the hell out of me It also make me much more cautious and I started to walk in a crouch and kept my head on a swivel The next German I saw was lying at a road junction in a pool of blood He had just been hit by a mortar or shell fragment and was still alive I felt horrible while I stood there watching him die knowing there was nothing I could do for him I still had not developed the hate for the enemy That came to me as the day progressed and I saw and heard of what they had done to some of our airborne men

This German lying in front of me was a young kid and sure didn't look like a Nazi Superman As I passed an opening through a hedgerow and looked through it I saw a paratrooper out in the center of a large meadow standing alone Being a little on the lonesome side by now and a little curious as to why he was out there by himself I walked out to see what the scoop was As I approached him I noticed that he was wearing an air force flak vest I introduced myself to him and he thanked me for coming out to help him but suggested I go find a flak vest to wear Being a little naive or just plain stupid I asked him why and he told me that there were German snipers in the Wood on the edge of the field and he was trying to draw their fire so his buddies could nail them

At this moment something went buzzing by my head and I dropped to the ground He remarked while still standing straight up there's the son of a bitch now Needless to say I wished him luck picked myself up and beat a hasty retreat in search of a flak vest I had no luck finding one from the wreckage of the gliders in the area The paratroopers had grabbed them all for their own protection I began to realize now that by walking around alone I was asking to be knocked off by a sniper At this point I still had not found the CP or seen any other glider pilots

By late afternoon after a few more encounters from sniper fire along the way I arrived at the Division CP 101 st in Heisville and was assigned with other glider pilots to guard the perimeter in case the Germans tried to infiltrate back into what we thought was a secure area We did not know it at the time but they were all through the area playing possum Some of the snipers were still in trees around the area While resting in a courtyard in Heisville center I heard and then saw a wagon coming down the lane being pulled by two paratroopers of the 101 st In the wagon lying on top of a load of German mines and ammo was what looked like the body of another trooper He wasn't dead or wounded just zonked out from exhaustion He had picked a hell of a bed to take a nap on One mortar shell or rifle round in that wagon would have blown all three of them to hell and back By this time we had all been awake 36 hours or more and the pep pills we had been taking to keep us awake started to turn some of us into walking zombies A few of the guys were out on their feet and nothing could wake them up

At 8 30AM still 6 th some of us were asked to go back out into the fields to meet and cover the landing of the second series of gliders A large group of Horsa gliders were expected to arrive at 0900 towed again by my group the 434 th from Aldermaston They arrived right on time and all hell broke loose The Germans in the fields around us who had been playing possum opened up on them with everything they had

Their heavy ack ack guns outside the perimeters were firing airbursts over and into the fields while the gliders were landing The fields in this area around Hiesville were much too small for the large British Horsa gliders and those that were not shot down crashed head on into the hedgerows Some were fortunate and made it down in one piece others came under heavy enemy small arms fire after they had landed and many of the glidermen and pilots were killed or captured while climbing out of their gliders For an hour or so it was an awful mess and the casualties in men and equipment were heavy before the situation stabilized After the gliders were unloaded and the casualties from the wrecks were taken care of things settled down and I went back to the CP to dig in for the night in an apple orchard behind a stable

While curled up in my foxhole trying to get some sleep I suddenly recalled my boyhood days when I would get together with other kids in the neighborhood to play war It was always the Yanks and the Huns and here I was in 1944 in person doing it for real

RUMORS OF GERMAN PARATROOPERS

Shortly after dark rumors started to spread between foxholes that there was a possibility that Germans were going to drop their own paratroopers in on us This did nothing for our morale and for the rest of the night we were spooked at the slightest sound especially when we heard some planes go over quite low Anyone who got out of his foxhole that night was taking his life in his own hands We got through the night and in mid morning of June 7 a call went out for volunteers to take over five hundred German prisoners down to the beach for transport back to England

The airborne men had captured so many of them that they were getting under foot and required too many people to guard them Smart ass that I was I asked the question is the road to the beach open No one answered so I volunteered anyway With some of the glider pilots many from my squadron we lined the PWs up on the road and waited for the OK to take off The Germans were more anxious to get out than we were The war was over for them and they wanted to get as far away as possible At this stage of the game most of us had just about reached the limits of endurance so we gave the PWs most of our equipment to carry One glider pilot was tempted to give them his Thompson sub machine gun to carry but on second thought decided it wouldn't look so good to the soldiers we would pass coming up from the UTAH Beach On the march out we kept going slower and slower and the PWs kept getting further ahead of us Only by our making threats to shoot them did they slow down

The road to the beach was open and by the time we got there our butts were really dragging It felt like we had walked twenty five miles rather than five The sight on UTAH Beach was beyond belief As far as the eye could see to the left and the right were men trucks tanks vehicles of all types and piles of equipment as high as houses From the shore and out across the Channel was an endless line of merchant and warships of all sizes The Navy ships were shelling targets inland around the clock The saddest part was the long rows of wounded and dead laid out in rows on the sand waiting to be loaded on ships The Navy Beach Master told us we would be going aboard LST 400 shortly and would be going back to England the following day I immediately lay down in the sand and went sound asleep in spite of all the noise

That night German planes came in at low altitude and dropped mines around ships just offshore The next morning we boarded the LST but before any of the ships dared to pull up anchor British mine sweepers came in close to sweep the area One of them hit a mine less than forty feet away from our LST and sank within two minutes The force from the explosion scared the daylights out of us we thought we had been torpedoed The only survivor from the minesweeper was one of the stokers who was on deck getting some fresh air One thing that overwhelmed us on this Navy ship was the chow They brought out fresh eggs milk ice cream and steaks and we gorged ourselves One of the glider pilots went up to the skipper and told him there and then he wanted to transfer to the Navy but it didn't work Our good food back at the base was always powered eggs powered milk and SOS for breakfast.