“We Trained in a Fiery Furnace”

82nd Airborne Training Base Near Oujda, French Morocco, North Africa May – July 1943

Bill often made comment that the time at Oujda was the worst he experienced during the entire war. Matthew Ridgway, Commanding General of the 82^nd Airborne handpicked the area near Oujda in French Morocco as the Division’s training base. He believed the conditions there would harden the troopers for the extreme trials of combat they would soon face.

“We had picked, on purpose, land that was not in use for grazing or agricultural purposes. We trained in a fiery furnace, where the hot wind carried a fine dust that clogged the nostrils, burned the eyes, and cut into the throat like an abrasive. We trained at first by day, until the men became lean and gaunt from their hard work in the sun. Then we trained at night, when it was cooler, but the troopers found it impossible to sleep in the savage heat of the African day. The wind and the terrain were our worst enemies. Even on the rare calm days, jumping was a hazard, for the ground was hard, and covered with loose boulders, from the size of a man’s fist to the size of his head.”

Source: Matthew Ridgway and Harold Martin, “Soldier: The Memoirs of Mathew B. Ridgway” 1965, p. 65

Oujda was located about 30 miles (~ 48km) from the coast. The 505 set up camp a few miles outside of town on some open ground adjacent to a large French airfield which was to play a central part in their jump training.

 

“A C-47 with glider in tow training at Oujda, French Morocco, North Africa, on 17 June 1943.”

(Gives an idea of the terrain around the Oujda training base)

Source: Photo Courtesy of U.S. Army

 

It was unbearably hot. Temperatures in the shade of 115 - 120 degrees Fahrenheit (~ 46 – 49 degrees Celsius) regularly baked the place. Cases of heat exhaustion quickly mounted, but it wasn’t only the heat that made Oujda the hell it was. It was the flies and the sand and the diseases they carried.

“Making life even more miserable for the men were the African flies that attacked them ‘as one dark and horrible force’ without mercy, determined to destroy them ‘body and soul’.” Source: Barbara Gavin – Fauntleroy “The General & His Daughter” 2007, p. 15

A prevailing wind brought in the flies and sand contaminated with animal dung. These got into everything. Cases of Typhus and Malaria sprang up and were soon followed by waves of dysentery which quickly spread through the camp, making no distinctions across rank.

“…an entrenching tool became a standard part of everyone’s daily uniform. This malady was so universal and struck so suddenly it became commonplace to see someone break ranks and tear off to some unoccupied part of the desert, with no explanation needed or demanded. Toilet paper became more valuable than French franc notes.” Source: Allen Langdon “Ready: A World War II History of the 505^th Parachute Infantry Regiment” 1986, p. 12

Colonel James M. Gavin commander of the 505th (later General of the 82^nd Airborne) wrote home about the dysentery in a letter to his daughter.

“Soldiers call everything associated with the Army ‘G.I.’ To their delight, the medicos referred to this ailment as the ‘GIs’ meaning gastro-intestinal disorder.” Source: Barbara Gavin – Fauntleroy “The General & His Daughter”2007, p. 24

The 505 veterans denounced the food at Oujda as terrible, but with everyone suffering from the ‘GIs’ at one time or another, it was perhaps their least concern. Everything they were fed was the same canned or powdered stuff given to just about every World War Two US Army outfit. It was a monotony of things like salmon, eggs, Spam, chipped beef, bread, mashed potatoes, and beans mixed in with disease carrying flies and dung infested sand. They had no access to roughage in the form of vegetables and fruit, so their gums developed painful gingivitis. Water was a huge issue in the heat and its scarcity meant no showers were available. They were each given half a canteen of water a day to wash and shave. The hot, heavily chlorinated drinking water was barely consumable and it burned their throats.

In the midst of all this misery, the men were subjected to an intense training schedule. Due to the heat, Colonel Gavin  was forced to change the timing for infantry training exercises. Infantry training began at dusk and finished at dawn. They trained in infantry tactics designed specifically for Airborne troops. Individual training concentrated on refining hand-to-hand combat skills and bayonet fighting.

Initially an extensive program of jump training was scheduled, but it was soon discovered that an unforeseen strong wind blew across the area for days on end presenting a big problem for parachuting. The high winds and the rocky terrain around the drop zone (DZ) led to a large number of injuries. In the end Ridgway and Gavin were forced limit the practice jumps and focus on tactical ground training. Even with the truncated jump training program all troopers got in at least one practice jump in while at Oujda. Gavin and Ridgway worried that it wasn’t enough. Ridgway personally believed the 82^nd was ill prepared and doomed to a disastrous failure in the upcoming Sicily invasion, but outwardly he projected an indomitable optimism and confidence in his men.

 

“Troops of the 82nd Airborne Division jump en mass, during a demonstration at Oujda, French Morocco, North Africa, on 3 June 1943” 

Source: Photo Courtesy of U.S. Army

 

For the 505, Gavin made sure that training went on. He knew that in combat they would have to jump behind enemy lines and fight as a lightly armed infantry force for extended periods of time without hope of resupply. When dropped at night they would need to find their way to their respective objectives individually and in small groups. Arriving at the objective they could well be disorganized with combat company troopers mixed in with men from the rear echelons.

Gavin believed that to be effective in these situations every man should be able to fight. His orders were that all 505 personnel would take a battle training program. Rear echelon troopers were taught the same fighting skills as combat troopers. Absolutely no personnel were omitted. Despite the Geneva Convention’s stipulations against medics carrying rifles, Gavin even had medics learn how to shoot M1 Garand rifles in the eventuality that they would need to do so in combat.

Bill talked about his training in Africa prior to the invasion of Sicily. He said it was done using models of buildings constructed to be identical to ones they would need to capture in Sicily. This is something documented in several of the histories of the 505 training in Oujda.

Gavin was told of the date of Operation HUSKY (the code name for the invasion of Sicily) a couple of days after arriving in Oujda. So he studied aerial photographs of the area around their planned jump zones and gave orders for the construction of full scale model pill boxes and other defensive structures such as trenches and barbed wire, for training purposes:

“The units maneuvered against the targets with live ammunition, the men moving forward while their own machine guns fired over their heads at the enemy. They learned that weapons sound one way to the firer, but sound completely different downrange. They learned to distinguish American from enemy weapons. They learned to keep their heads down and hug the earth, and they learned to move forward when told. And since the tendency for green soldiers is to fire all their ammunition rapidly, leaving none for the final assault, the men of the 505^th were taught to use their ammo wisely.” Source: Ed Ruggero “Combat Jump: The Young Men Who Led the Assault into Fortress Europe, July 1943” 2003, p. 107

 

“Members of the 82nd Airborne Division load a 75mm howitzer into a Waco glider during training at Oujda, French Morocco, North Africa, on 11 June 1943”

(Notice the troopers are training in full battle dress in the 120 degree heat!)

Source: Photo Courtesy of U.S. Army

 

Off Duty Drama

On top of the grueling training and abysmal living conditions, the 505 was plagued by a local people left desperately poor by the War. This quote by a 504th PIR trooper gives a good idea how the men felt about their Moroccan neighbors:

“The Arabs swarmed all over us like roaches over food. They wanted to trade with us, or preferably, to steal. They were particularly interested in our sheets, mattress covers, cigarettes, and chocolate. For these things they offered trinkets and fresh food – dates, exotic bread, and meats of dubious origin. We were to post guards twenty-four hours a day in order to keep them from stealing everything we had. Theft was so common that we came to regard the Arabs with almost as much ill will as we did the Germans.” Source: Moffatt Burriss “Strike and Hold” 2000, pp. 29-30

The poverty among the local Arabs was so bad it drove them to take extremely brazen risks. Risks which often had lethal consequences. Bill told a story of when he was off duty at the base with a couple of friends on one typically hot day. There wasn’t much shade to be had in Oujda, but on that day a rare opportunity presented itself. A flat top railway car had been temporarily left on a nearby siding. The flat top offered a good vantage point for observing the comings and goings around the base so not surprisingly it was occupied by a 505 paratrooper on guard duty.

Earlier in the day, Bill and his friends had moved over to take some shade in the flat top’s shadow. As they were whiling away the time, Bill said they saw a solitary figure rippling though a mirage a long distance away, but still within rifle shot. The figure had moved into a restricted area occupied by a supply dump. After a short time the figure started to move off in a direction away from base. To the paratrooper on guard it looked like the figure was in the process of stealing supplies. He jumped up on top of the railway car where he could see him better and taking good aim, he shot him dead. Bill said the figure slumped over on the ground. They all went over to investigate and found the body was an Arab boy of about 12 years. His hands were empty. They couldn’t tell if he had tried unsuccessfully to steal supplies, or whether he was reconnoitering the supply dump in order to make a report to others who were perhaps preparing for a raid.

On June 27^th in a letter home Gavin wrote about these incidents:

“This afternoon we are, among other things, having a sniper contest. Fun. These youngsters are getting to be good shots. Regrettably, in the past few days they have practiced on some menacing looking parasitic Arabs. It makes them mad to get shot and we should stop it. It is difficult to sell international goodwill to a private soldier.” Source: Barbara Gavin – Fauntleroy “The General & His Daughter” 2007, p. 33

 

Moroccan's  and Their Fezzes

Bill used to tell another story of how the men would get back at the Arab’s for stealing their belongings. He said the Moroccan men wore a traditional hat called a Fez . Perhaps it looked something like the one pictured below.

 

 North African Fez

Image Source: Wikipedia Commons

Their custom was to carry their valuables consisting of French Franc’s, jewels, watches and so on around in these hats. The paratroopers were trucked around from place to place for training exercises and other activities. Often they went through towns and places like railway stations where they encountered crowds of Arab men going about their business. Naturally the trucks had to slow down to negotiate a path through. That’s when the 505ers would get their revenge by reaching down and grabbing the fezzes right off the men’s heads. The 505ers would retrieve the valuables before throwing the empty fezzes to the ground to avoid the lice they carried. The Arab men would naturally go crazy, but there was little they could do against the well trained and armed soldiers. At times Bill said they actually recovered previously stolen watches and other personal items belonging to paratroopers.

 

Camels and Mortars

Besides these eye-for-an-eye reprisals, Bill said the troopers designed other ways to make the Moroccans atone for the thefts. Apparently during a day time training maneuver a man was inexplicably leading his camel through the area in which Bill’s unit was practicing mortar fire. They tried to scare the man off by firing rifle shots into the air. It worked and the guy began running trying to get out of the way. In his fright he and the camel became separated with the animal running haphazardly across the field of fire. The men kidded with one another that the randomly moving camel would make good target practice. Eventually, one trooper dared another trooper to take a mortar shot at the camel. He accepted the dare and in a testament to how good the training program was, they scored a direct hit on the camel instantly killing the animal. After the “fun” was over the men were reported and fined. They had to pay the man for killing his camel.

Bill didn’t say how much they were fined, but in another case $25.00 was paid to a local whose donkey had been similarly killed. Source: Phil Nordyke “All American All the Way: The Combat History of the 82nd Airborne Division in World War II” 2005, p. 31.

To be sure, the paratroopers and the Moroccan locals had a difficult relationship to say the least. For all of the pain both groups suffered while living virtually on top of each other there were upsides. Obviously, the Moroccan’s suffered through the process of liberation and foreign Allied occupation. However, it is important to stress with emphasis that they were indeed liberated from the tyranny of the Axis powers.

One of the last letters Colonel Gavin wrote home while stationed in Oujda ended with this positive assessment of the Moroccans:

“I have frequently written to you of the poor quality of the native Arabs. They are certainly that, in addition they are most interesting. As a racial group they are like no other people in the world…The evaluation of a people is made in the last analysis in two ways: by the world at large and by the people themselves. To the world at large, the measure of worth of a racial group is evaluated in terms of their contributions, creative, to the arts, sciences, and welfare of the human race as a whole. To the people, their race is measured by their own happiness and contentment. For this they [the North Africans] do not need material things like cars, movies, etc…..

So despite all that I have said about these people, they are in their own way seeking ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ and not doing a bad job of it at that.” Source: Barbara Gavin – Fauntleroy “The General & His Daughter” 2007, p. 29

On Bill’s part he later became intrigued by North Africa. In 1961 and 1981 (perhaps surprisingly at first thought) he even returned as a tourist. Both times he visited Libya, Morocco, and Egypt. He must have had enough curiosity about the region to want to return. Perhaps he was drawn back by a combination of factors such as: North Africa’s beautiful mountainous landscape; the complexity of its people; and to witness their own notable contributions to civilization.

 

General Patton Addresses the 82^nd Airborne in Oujda

While in Oujda the 505 was visited at various times by several dignitaries. One of these was General George Patton, the famous and controversial commander of the US 7^th Army. Bill was present when Patton gave one of his colorful speeches to the troops.

“During the training period, George Patton visited the division at least twice……During these visits, Patton exhorted the paratroopers and gliderists with earthy pep talks. Gavin recalled that Patton began one such talk with an epigram that would become legendary” ‘Now I want you to remember that no sonuva**tch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb sonuva***tch die for his country.’.....

….In a final meeting with all of his top Sicily commanders including Ridgway and Max Taylor, Patton was at his theatrical best. ‘In a grand peroration’ Taylor recalled, he turned on us with a roar and, waving a menacing swagger-stick under our noses, concluded: ‘Now we’ll break up, and I never want to see you bastards again unless it’s at your post on the shores of Sicily.” Source: Clay Blair “Ridgway’s Paratroopers” 1985, p. 80.

General George S. Patton

Image Source: Wikipedia Commons

In Bill’s opinion Patton was one of the very few generals the US had that was really good. Like other veterans, Bill made mention that even though his commands sustained high casualty rates, he thought the likelihood of survival under Patton was higher because the General’s philosophy was to always keep advancing and never to give ground.

After a visit by Patton and other dignitaries on June 3^rd Gavin wrote of his troops:

“Everyone was very complementary about the appearance of our troops today. They are looking fine these days. We have been training and working very hard. I have always thought that these parachute soldiers were very good and of a special cut but I am more than ever convinced now as I see them reach their peak in training. During the past few weeks their training has been very realistic and there have been several casualties. Those we have left are the very best…I will always think that the parachute private is an unusual guy. The saying now is that the AA in the division insignia means ‘Awful Anxious’”  Source: Barbara Gavin – Fauntleroy “The General & His Daughter”, 2007 p. 20

82^nd Airborne Insignia. Worn as a shoulder patch

Image Source: Wikipedia Commons

 

“Awful Anxious” is a phrase which seems to encapsulate the spirit of the men after their training in Oujda as this quote expresses:

“Finally it all came to an end and probably no regiment, before or since, was in a better frame of mind to go into combat. The men were lean and mean and at that time would have cheerfully jumped on top of Berlin itself if it meant leaving Africa. To a man they were convinced that combat would be a picnic compared to the incessant weeks of training they had undergone, and with an ‘esprit de corps’ second to none, they were more than confident that they could take on the best the Axis had to offer. History proves that their confidence was more than justified.” Source: Allen Langdon “Ready: A World War II History of the 505^th Parachute Infantry Regiment” 1986, p. 14

The disease, jump injuries, intense training in the heat all took their toll on the 505. The men were naturally toughened from harsh childhoods of the Great Depression. They were further toughened from the brutal Airborne training at Fort Benning, Georgia. Those who survived the hellish trials of Oujda were molded into fearless hardened fighting men – undoubtedly some of the best the world has ever seen.

C-47 Adventure in the Atlas Mountains of Algeria

 

Bill flies by C-47 Transport to the 82nd Airborne’s New Base in Kairouan, Tunisia

After his assignment to Service Company 505 , Bill said he trained for the next month at the 82nd Airborne’s base in Oujda, French Morocco. The conditions there were nearly unbearable with the heat, wind blown sand, bad food, swarms of flies, disease, impossible training schedules, and a thieving Arab population almost destitute from the ravages of war.

I’ll write more about Bill’s time in Oujda in future posts. Right now I’d like to share another story I recently finished researching.

On June 24, 1943 General Ridgeway ordered the Division to move 680 miles (~ 1090 km) east to Kairouan, Tunisia. A top secret base was to be built there for staging operation HUSKY, the invasion of Sicily scheduled for July 9, 1943.

It was more than a relief to Bill when he and 10 other men from Service Company received orders to transport a kitchen by C-47 transport aircraft to the new base in Tunisia. After a month of the searing heat combined with the poor conditions any change was eagerly welcomed. Some men even joked rather seriously that they actually yearned for combat as an escape from the hell of Oujda.

Bill didn’t say if he knew his mission was part of the preparation of the new base for an invasion. He probably could have guessed as much in light of the Division’s current state of readiness and with all the rumors circulating about an imminent invasion of perhaps Greece, Sicily, Sardinia, or even the Italian mainland.

The 505 left for Kairouan over the period of July 1 – 2. A few men flew by C-47, but most travelled by the 40 & 8 trains or by truck. Bill’s C-47 left during this time, along with other air transports carrying the men and materiale needed to construct the basic amenities at the camp ahead of those travelling in the slower trains and trucks.

Since Bill was a Rigger he  needed to arrive early to help construct the rigging sheds and prepare them for packing and maintaining parachutes. The other 10 men aboard with Bill were likely a mixed group of Service Company troopers including cooks, riggers, carpenters, medics, and so on. 

 

View Oujda - Kairouan Flight Path in a larger map

MAP 1

C-47 Flight Path from Oudja, Morocco to Kairouan, Tunisia

 

Map 1 shows the flight path Bill’s plane took. Flying time was only going to be six hours instead of the 72 hour train or truck ride for the rest of the 505. Bill and his comrades couldn’t believe their luck at hitting a jackpot like this. After the unpleasant train journey from Casablanca to Oujda a plane ride to the new base was in high demand and they knew there were other equally skilled men who could have easily filled their privileged seats.

I don’t know how many C-47 aircraft were used in the operation. Bill’s was just one of many planes tasked with transporting a plethora of materiale to Kairouan.  However, the real essence of this story is what happened to Bill during the trip.

 

Emergency in the Altas Mountains

Bill said his plane was loaded with kitchen equipment including stoves and so on. He said that when the plane got to the Atlas Mountains it didn’t have enough power to get over them. Bill didn’t say why the plane was low on power. His description of a lack of power indicates that it probably developed engine trouble and couldn’t gain or maintain its altitude. 

There was an officer on board the plane and he ordered the men to jettison the kitchen equipment to lighten the plane. The troopers dutifully followed the orders, but the plane was still unable to gain sufficient altitude to clear the range. The situation was getting dire with the plane in danger of crashing into the mountainside so the officer ordered the men to put on their parachutes and bail out.

Bill didn’t mention what happened to the plane, but he and his party parachuted out and landed safely in the mountains at around 6,000 feet (~1828 m). There was some snow present and he said it was very cold.

He and the other men from the plane climbed down the mountains to a railway. He didn’t say how long the journey lasted, nor whether they flagged down a train or walked to a station and caught one . In either case they later were aboard a French train bound for the port city of Tunis in Tunisia.

Bill said the French “as was their custom” had stocked the train with plenty of wine. Consequently he and his companions had a very happy journey. He recalled that the trip was made difficult by the train’s rudimentary ventilation system. When they passed through tunnels smoke and soot from the engine stack billowed into the railway cars and he frequently had to put a wet handkerchief over his face to get air.

This story leaves us with a mystery as to the location of the emergency bailout and the fate of the C-47 and her crew of two pilots.

A Summary of the Facts

The only indication Bill gave of the location of the bailout was:

1. The mountain range was between Algiers and Tunisia;
2. They jumped landing at an altitude of about 6,000 feet (~1828 m) in some snow; and
3. They managed to climb down the mountains to a railway and caught a train to Tunis.

 

Location: Tell Atlas Versus Aures Mountains

Looking at the maps of Algeria and Tunisia, there are only two mountain ranges that reach a height of 6,000 feet (~1828 m) or above.

The Djurdjura National Park, Algeria in the Tell Atlas Range fits the height description well with a top range consistently 5905 – 6820 feet (~1800 - 2080 m) and a high point of Mount Djurdjura 7572 feet (2308 m).

The other range is the Aures Mountains of Algeria – the most eastern of the Altas range. Its highest point is Djebel Chelia 7,638 feet (2,328 m). The average of its high plain area is roughly 5,250 – 6560 feet (~1,600 – 2000 m) with higher peaks and plateaus above this.

As is shown in Map 2 below, all of the Tell Atlas Range including the Djurdjura region (the shaded square in the middle of the map) is too far to the north of the Division’s flight plan to be a candidate location of reasonable likelihood. If Bill’s plane had a good reason it might have first flown to say Algiers or another destination on the coast and then onto Kairouan. In this case it could have flown over the Tell Atlas Range. However, transporting a kitchen wouldn’t be reason enough for such a significant deviation from the standard course set for the 82nd Division’s transports.

 

View Djurdjura National Park - Tell Atlas Range in a larger map

MAP 2

Cities of Algiers and Bejaia appear above the Djurdjura National Park  (highlighted square)

Oujda – Kairouan Flightpath (blue line)

One remote possibility is that the plane got into trouble mid way through the flight and had to divert to an airfield on the northern side of the Tell Atlas Mountains – in the vicinity of Algiers or Bejaia (See Map 2 above). When it reached the Tell Atlas in the Djurdjura region (see shaded square in map 2) it would have then encountered the 6,000 foot mountains that Bill described with the possibility of snow even in the Summer. Unable to clear the range, the men would have bailed out on the south side of the mountains. Since there was no railway line to the south, to catch a train in this area they would have had to climb north over the mountains to reach the nearest tracks between Algiers and Bejaia. It would have involved an arduous trek lasting several days if not weeks. With little to no food and water they would have faced the very real possibility of death in the rugged terrain.

Luckily, there is a much stronger candidate location for the incident. If you look at the planned flight path, Bill’s plane flies straight through the Aures Mountain range in eastern Algeria (See Map 3 below and Map 4 for an enlarged view).  The height of these mountains fits Bill's description of what happened perfectly. 

 

View Aures Mountains in a larger map

MAP 3

The flight path from Oujda, French Morocco to Kairouan, Tunisia cuts precisely through the heart of the Aures Mountain range.

 

View Aures Mountains Flight Path in a larger map

MAP 4

Aures Mountains, Closeup

A Little Matter of Snow

Bill talked about landing in some snow. There is snow in the Aures mountains in winter time. I can’t find any reports of snow there in the summer at the time of Bill’s flight. It is possible in the higher elevations as it does snow in Summer in the Tell Atlas Range which are of the same height.

 

Snow on the Aures Mountains

Source: Wikipedia Commons

A Train to Tunis

Bill said he and the other men climbed down the mountain and found a railway. His plane was coming into the Aures range from the west. If his plane could not climb over the mountains they would have bailed out somewhere on a western or northwestern facing slope. Using a 1935 French Algerian railway map (see Map 5 below), if one climbs down from the western or northwestern side of the range and walks towards the west, the first thing you will run into is a railway running north-south. 

 

MAP 5

French Algerian Railways Circa 1935

Source: United States Army in World War II Mediterranean Theater of Operations Northwest Africa: Seizing the Initiative In the West by George F. Howe, OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF MILITARY HISTORY DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMYWASHINGTON, D.C., 1957 http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-MTO-NWA/USA-MTO-NWA-2.html

This railway runs directly through the town of Biskra which is to the south and west of Bill’s flight path through the Aures. (See Map 6 below and Map 5 above). It was the only railway line in the area during the War.

 

 

View Biskra, Algeria in a larger map

MAP 6

Biskra, Algeria site of 1935 Railway line running North-South

 

Biskra is a place name on the 1935 French railroad map so it must have had a railroad station. If the men came out of this range from the northwest or west they would have run into the railroad to the north of Biskra. It is quite likely they saw the railroad and the town of Biskra from the air before they jumped.

From their mountain top vantage point they might have been able to see them again periodically and adjust their decent to intercept the rail line using the most direct route. Food and water would have been serious concerns in this survival situation.  Available time to reach help would have been limited to no more than a few days without aid in the harsh Aures terrain and climate. With the knowledge that the railway headed north out of the town they could have followed the tracks south to Biskra (which was a distance of perhaps 15 miles or 25 km from their bailout point) and caught a train there or flagged one down on the way.

 

Train Journey Back to the New Base at Kairouan

The 1935 French railway map shows how they could have travelled from Biskra to Tunis via Constantine. At Tunis they could have reported to an American unit to make arrangements for their return to base. It would have been easy to reach Kairouan by taking trains from Tunis along the coast to Sousse, before making their way inland to Kairouan by truck. Map 7 below shows a similar modern day route between the cities. 

 

View Larger Map

 

MAP 7

Biskra – Constantine – Tunis – Sousse – Kairouan

What Happened to the C-47 Plane?

Bill did not say what happened to the C-47. However, a crash must have been imminent because all 10 paratroopers were ordered to bail out after failing to clear the mountains by jettisoning the cargo. It’s logical that the pilots would have bailed out too and that the plane crashed into the high Aures Mountains.

Sooner or later it would have been discovered by the poor Berber inhabitants of the region and picked clean of artifacts.

However, the airframe of a C-47 is heavy and difficult to disassemble. So perhaps there is something left of Bill’s crashed plane with fragments of WWII era stuff on board. There’s probably some Berber shepherd who knows where it is. It’s likely to be somewhere along the 505 flight path on the  high Aures plateau around 6,000 feet (~1,830 m) as highlighted on Map 8 below. It’s an area 15x18 miles wide (25 x 30 km) and about 15 miles (25 km) north east of the railway line and the town of Biskra.

 

View Emergency Bailout/Crash Zone in a larger map

MAP 8

Showing Possible Bailout and Crash Area above 6,000 feet

 

C-47 aircraft flying over Southern France, 1944

Image Source: Wikipedia Commons

C-47 General Characteristics

• Crew: 3
• Capacity: 28 troops
• Payload: 6,000 lb (2,700 kg)
• Length: 63 ft 9 in (19.43 m)
• Wingspan: 95 ft 6 in (29.41 m)
• Height: 17 ft 0 in (5.18 m)
• Wing area: 987 ft² (91.70 m²)
• Empty weight: 18,135 lb (8,226 kg)
• Loaded weight: 26,000 lb (11,793 kg)
• Max takeoff weight: 31,000 lb (14,061 kg)
• Powerplant: 2× Pratt & Whitney R-1830-90C Twin Wasp 14-cylinder radial engines, 1,200 hp (895 kW) each

C-47 Performance

• Maximum speed: 224 mph (195 kn, 360 km/h) at 10,000 ft (3,050 m)
• Cruise speed: 160 mph (139 kn, 257 km/h)
• Range: 1,600 mi (1,391 nmi, 2,575 km)
• Ferry range: 3,600 mi (3,130 nmi, 5,795 km)
• Service ceiling: 26,400 ft (8,045 m)
• Climb to 10,000 ft (3,050 m): 9.5 min

Source: Wikipedia

© Copyright Jeffrey Clark 2010 All Rights Reserved.

Assignment to 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment

Bill said that he stayed in Casablanca for one week before boarding a train to the location of their North African training base in Oujda, French Morocco. The date that the Division began moving to Oujda was May 12, 1943. Bill arrived in Casablanca on May 10, so his train probably departed on May 17 or soon after.

 

View Larger Map

Map of Morocco showing Casablanca and Oujda

 

The trip lasted about 48 hours so Bill would have arrived at Oujda sometime on May 19.

Here’s a humorous excerpt about the train journey from “Ready: A World War II History of the 505^th Parachute Infantry Regiment” by former 505 WWII paratrooper, Allen Langdon.

“…most of the regiment went by rail and so got its first introduction to that famous (or infamous) mode of travel, the French 40 & 8 railroad car, – in this case a rickety railroad that must have been the inspiration for the old “Toonerville Trolley” comics. While on this trip 505ers got their first look at some of Hitler’s supermen, the equivalent of whom they would be facing in the near future. At some point in the desert the train stopped on a siding directly opposite a train load of big, blond, bronzed Afrika Korps prisoners of war. Riding on top of each of the box cars was an equally big, inky- black Senegalese soldier with a tommy gun. One German who spoke English began talking to the troopers and the following conversation took place:

Afrika Korps POW: “Where do you Americans think you are going?”

Paratrooper”: “We’re going to Berlin.”

Afrika Korps POW: Well, that’s fair enough, We’re headed for New York.”  Source: “Ready: A World War II History of the 505^th Parachute Infantry Regiment” Allen Langdon, 1986, p. 9.

Here’s a picture of a Toonerville Trolley comic strip from 1917 to give some context to what the paratroopers were reminded of by the French trains.

Toonerville Trolley comic strip from 1917

Image Source: Wikipedia Commons

Here’s a richly descriptive account from a trooper who made the journey not by train, but in a convoy of trucks. I felt compelled to include it since it captured so well the magnificence of the Moroccan countryside, the ancient culture of the native people, and the mindless destruction of both by the war.

“…On the trip to Oujda we passed through some of the most wonderful country imaginable. There were grain fields, olive orchards, citrus trees, vineyards, flowers, snow capped mountains, pretty rock formations and unique cities. We saw the antique methods of farming with plows made of scraps pulled by oxen. Some of the plows were made of wood, which is very difficult to find anywhere in North Africa. All of the natives went to the fields very early and as they marched along with that slow gait of theirs they all chanted the religious music that they so well love. In several places we saw them harvesting the wheat by cutting it with hand made scythes and tying the bundles with the straw……..”

“We visited several wineries and sampled some of the famous wines, but the places were so filthy that we almost became sick. We gathered some apricots, walnuts, peaches, grapes, lemons, limes, oranges, almonds, plums and dates and had a real feast along the route. We saw crude little French trains  as they sped along at twenty m.p.h. We were much amused by the huge charcoal burning busses that hauled fifty or sixty passengers. Most of them broke down every few miles, but the people did not mind that at all. We saw the ‘Wadis’ (creeks) running wild at the foot of the mountains as the melted snow came down in torrents.”

“We passed by some of the olden castles and cities and soon got into the battle areas where we began to really see what a war does to a country. We began to see roadside graves marked with the fallen soldier’s helmet or rifle. We passed a few neat cemeteries, which were kept up by the Arabs. We began to see the destroyed tanks, trucks and planes and other impedimenta. We were amazed at the amount of equipment that Jerry had deserted in his hasty retreat. The fields were covered with his supplies. Some of the cemeteries were almost beautiful, with ornamental walks and gadgets made by the soldiers….”  Source:  0f All American All the Way: The Combat History of the 82nd Airborne Division in World War II, Phil Nordyke, 2005, pp. 28 - 29.

Bill’s EGB unit set up camp a couple of miles away from the 82^nd Division’s main encampment. I’m not sure why they set the EGBers so far away except maybe to ensure they didn’t get in the way of the Division’s main training activities. The men of the EGBs themselves trained hard and stayed in excellent shape. They were subjected to the same demanding training and adhered to the tough discipline which typified life in the 82^nd Airborne.

Bill said he stayed in Oudja for one month. Not all of that time was spent in the EGB. In fact after arriving, his time as an EGB man was to last only seven more days. His big break came on May 26, 1943 when a Special Court Martial was held at the 505^th Regimental Headquarters at the Oujda base.

Documentation of this event was found in a Morning Report for the 505^th PIR at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri.

The primary order of business at the Special Court Martial was assignment of men many of whom were presumably from EGB’s (although that is not indicated) to companies within the 505’s evolving Table of Organization.

Below is a copy of a portion of the Special Court Martial (Special Order Number 90). It is dated May 26, 1943.

 

 

Source: Morning Report 5/1943 for the 505^th PIR, National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri

As per Point 1 on the first page, the Special Court Martial met at the 505 Headquarters which was stationed at the Oujda base. It is unclear if Bill was present for the event or whether he received the orders for his assignment later. Direct reference to him can be found on page 2 above.

Under point 10 it states "The following named EM are reld fr attachment with Serv Co and are asgd thereto:”

About half way down the page in the first column is the entry for Bill:

“Pvt William A. Clark 15338297”

Pvt William J Cody is listed in the second column almost directly across from Bill’s entry. In the blog post on Bill’s training I talked about William (Eagle) Cody as being a good friend of Bill’s and one with whom he corresponded after the war.

There are several other names that are familiar to me. One in particular is Pvt Gilbert C. Smith. His name appears in the second column of Point 9 being assigned to Regimental Headquarters Company. Twelve days later on June 7, 1943 Gilbert was killed while on duty at Oujda. His company was making a practice jump as part of their training. Gilbert’s parachute failed to fully open. The trail of its white silk followed him to the ground in an accident known as a “streamer”.

There’s a lot of interesting information in the document. From it some observations and can be made and conclusions inferred. With the exception of the few soldiers listed in points 3, 4, 5 and 6, the majority of the officers and enlisted men are being assigned to Regimental Headquarters, Headquarters Company, Service Company, and the Medical Detachment for the 505^th PIR. The EGB personnel were to be used as replacements when men were injured or killed. There are too many names listed to conclude that these were EGB men replacing troopers injured in training, or those suffering from diseases – like dysentery which was prevalent at the time. Moreover, combat training jumps (which caused by far the most injuries) only began on June 5, 11 days after these assignments. Instead I believe unless where companies are indicated they were EGB men being assigned to the 505 for the first time.

Furthermore, Point 8 States:

“The following named officers are reld fr attachment with Co's indicated and are assigned to Service Co., and are placed on SD with the provisional 4th Battalion.”

SD means Standard Duty. The word “provisional” likely refers to the planned future designation of a fourth battalion. In the table of organization for the 505^th there were three battalions – all of them combat units. 1^st Battalion contained Companies A, B, and C; 2^nd Battalion contained D, E, and F; while 3^rd Battalion contained G, H, and I. The rest of the table of organization consisted of Regimental Headquarters, Headquarters Company, Service Company, and the Medical Detachment for the regiment. Perhaps it was under consideration at the time of this Court Martial that these companies were to be later assigned to 4^th battalion 505 which was only provisional at that stage.

Notably, all of the officers in Point 8 are being moved from the Headquarters Companies of the three combat battalions to the 505 Service Company. This is a significant transfer which together with the assignment of the enlisted men in Points 9, 10, and 11 seems to indicate that the regiment was undergoing a reorganization of its existing structure. It’s as if the responsibilities relating to servicing an airborne regiment were being taken from the individual battalions and centralized into one new Service Company.

Based on these observations, it seems reasonable to conclude that even at this late point in the 82nd Division’s activation as a front line fighting force the organization of the 505 was still being developed. This is supportive of the fact that the concept of Airborne Warfare was at the time still in its infancy.

In this regard, the Special Court Martial document quietly underscores the extreme risk facing these early paratroopers. Not only would they soon be facing a well trained and superbly equipped enemy behind their lines, but the very principles of Airborne Warfare were still being formulated and had yet to be proven in actual combat operations. I will come back to this reality and its tragic consequences in later posts on the Sicilian Campaign.

Most if not all paratroopers in the 82^nd Airborne wouldn’t have been concerned in the slightest by such considerations. That airborne warfare was a particularly dangerous endeavor was well understood and even embraced by the average paratrooper.

Undoubtedly Bill would have been overjoyed at his finally being selected for assignment to the 505 Service Company. No longer would he languish under the dubious banner of the “Easy Going Bastards”.

I can picture him now after receiving the assignment orders. Head swimming with unbelieving excitement he ducks down into the pup tent which he thought would be his home for forever. His hands fumble as they hastily grab a dusty duffle bag, half empty with meager belongings. He turns to the men who have gathered around, trading farewell jibes with those he will leave in EGB limbo before rushing over to the road to bum a ride to his new digs. No ride appears and in his impatience and despite the heat of 120 degrees he begins eagerly traversing the two miles separating the EGB encampment and the main base where the 505 are bivouacked.

It was to be the beginning of a long assignment with Service Company. But Bill’s joy would have been short lived. The time in North Africa was to be extremely difficult. The location of the camp, a grueling training schedule, outbreaks of dysentery and the climate were to conspire to wash a lot of men out.

In upcoming posts I will relate the stories of Bill’s time in North Africa. Some of them are funny, others are dramatic or tragic, and still others are more than a little adventurous.

Stay tuned.

Voyage to Casablanca

 

Although much worse awaited him in North Africa, Bill’s trip there on the USS George Washington was miserable . He referred to it as “an old junker.” Built in 1908 it was originally fitted as an ocean liner. It had previously seen service in World War One when it was converted into a troop carrier by the US Navy. In April 1943 it was re-commissioned again as a troop carrier. 

 USS George Washington as a troop carrier in World War One

Image Source: Wikipedia Commons

 

 USS George Washington in better days during a voyage between 1910 – 1915

Image Source: Wikipedia Commons

 

It was one ship among many travelling in a convoy carrying the entire 82nd Airborne Division. To safeguard the extremely valuable fighting force onboard they were accompanied by a naval escort including several destroyers. The Atlantic naval war was at it’s height at the time making the U-boat threat all too real. Bill said the convoy had to zigzag most of the way in an effort to minimize its vulnerability. 

Ever since 1941 when Hitler declared war on the US, newsreels back home had given good coverage of Admiral Donitz’ “Wolf Packs” of U-boats sinking thousands of tons of shipping all over the Mediterranean and the Caribbean Seas and ominously closer to their present location the Atlantic. Bill said the George Washington broke down on the voyage taking an entire day to get underway and catch back up to the other ships. The time away from the convoy made the men anxious.

A veteran of Bill’s EGB unit recently told me a story about a U-boat encounter he witnessed while on the George Washington. He was on deck one night getting some fresh air when their destroyer escort suddenly picked up speed and began circling the ship. As it did, it dropped depth charges. They detonated fairly close to the ship sending up huge plumes of water. This went on for about half an hour as the destroyer chased the U-boat around. The cat and mouse pursuit eventually moved off into the distance and after a while the destroyer returned. The fate of the U-boat was never discovered. 

The whole trip to Casablanca took a total of twelve days. It was a boring journey. To help, movies were shown in the afterdecks. Boxing and wrestling matches were held there too. A small library offered pocket books on various topics for loan.

The men were allowed on deck, but as you can see in the ship photographs above, that area was small and was usually crowded. When on deck the men watched the other ships and the destroyers in particular as they patrolled for U-Boats. False rumors quickly spread that each ship in the convoy had Nurses and other women service personnel from the WACs (Woman’s Army Corps) and Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). In truth there were no women on any of the ships.

Rumors abounded as to their destination. Some men thought England, others Ireland, or Malta. No one was particularly surprised when a couple of days into the trip they were informed it was in fact Casablanca, North Africa.

The dining facilities onboard were inconvenient, of inadequate capacity and of poor standard. There were too many men on board for the limited cooking facilities to keep up. This meant there were only two meals served a day per trooper even with the galley working around the clock. 

The mess hall was a long narrow room with a long high bar like table where the men ate standing up. Each man took a tray and lined up in front of a counter while cooks served food onto mess kits. The food was piled up with bread on the bottom, vegetables and meat next, then ice-cream or other dessert on top. Some men refused to eat these unappetizing “meals”. Others couldn’t stomach them.

Except for a lucky few who volunteered to sleep on deck, most men slept in tiny cabins on hammocks hung four rows high, three across and two deep with orders to sleep for eight hours. There was no room in the cramped conditions to read, or write and it was difficult for many to even roll over.

On May 10, 1943 they anchored in the Port of Casablanca. Right from their point of disembarkation of the docks onwards the men were harassed by poor Arabs, who begged for anything, but notably mattress covers were the most sought after item. They were often the victims of thievery by these people who were so desperate they would literally steal anything not nailed down. 

Bill and the rest of his unit of Easy Going Bastards marched five miles through the heat of the town in full gear to a field in the outskirts where they made a bivouac.

The wife of one veteran in Bill’s outfit told me of a story about her husband’s time in Casablanca. The trooper was invited by a relatively well off local man to a family dinner of roast chicken. The promise of a real home cooked meal was difficult to turn down so he readily accepted the kind offer. But the poor guy got a shock when dinner was served. To his disgust the local way to roast a chicken was with all the innards intact. When served the meal smelled awful and was understandably inedible. The trooper refused to each it and the local was greatly offended. The trooper gladly suffered the man’s scorn which was preferable to eating the meal. The trooper returned to camp hungry, but with his culinary ethics preserved.

A couple of days later on May 12th the 82nd Airborne boarded trains bound for Oujda, French Morocco (See map below). It was in Oujda where their base would be built in preparation for the invasion of Sicily code named Operation HUSKY.

North Africa Circa 1943

Source: United States Army in World War II Mediterranean Theater of Operations Northwest Africa: Seizing the Initiative In the West by George F. Howe, OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF MILITARY HISTORY DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMYWASHINGTON, D.C., 1957 http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-MTO-NWA/USA-MTO-NWA-2.html

Paratrooper Training – Fort Benning, Georgia

For months now I’ve been trying to piece together the dates of Bill’s activities after he finished Basic Training to when his unit shipped overseas. Until recently there wasn’t much to go on, but now it’s possible to reconstruct most of this information.

Bill finished Basic Training at Camp Wheeler, Georgia by the end of January, 1943 and quickly made the 100 mile journey across state to Fort Benning. He had to get there before Monday, February 1st, the start of a 4 week course in parachute training (AKA ‘Jump School’). He arrived in time and graduated on Saturday, February 27th as a fully qualified Paratrooper.

Next he was assigned to train as a Rigger and Parachute Repairman (MOS 620) in Fort Benning’s  Parachute Rigger School graduating on or close to Wednesday, March 24th. It was an advanced graduate course where he learned specialist skills in the inspection, maintenance, repair, and packing of parachutes.

These dates and assignments are deduced from: the letters Bill wrote home during Basic Training; his discharge papers; what is known about Jump School; and the only new trace of information found so far about his time in Fort Benning –  a Partial Payment PAY ROLL dated March 24, 1943.

The pay  roll is for the Enlisted Parachutists Riggers Class #33. They were assigned to N Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Parachute Training Regiment.

There are three pages to this document which appear below. Click on each page to make it bigger.

Bill is the first man listed on line 1 of Page 2:

Name: Clark, William A.

Serial Number: 15338297

Date of Enlistment: Nov 2/42

Number of Years Service: 0

I recognize the name of a close friend of Bill’s listed on line 11 of Page 2: “Cody, William J.”  His nickname was ‘Eagle’. Eagle was eventually assigned to the same unit as Bill: Service Company, 505th PIR. He survived the war, ending up in Berlin with Bill where both of them were assigned to occupation duty in the 82nd Parachute Maintenance Company. They corresponded after the war until at least 1946.

Partial Payment PAY ROLL 

March 24, 1943

Enlisted Parachutists Riggers Class #33

N Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Parachute Training Regiment 

 Page 1 Partial Payment PAY ROLL

 Page 2 Partial Payment PAY ROLL

(Bill Clark Listed on Line 1)

 

Page 3 Partial Payment PAY ROLL

 

Significance of the Partial PAY ROLL Document

On lines 10, 11, and 12 of Page 3 the document states:

“The amount set opposite the name of each enlisted man on the payroll have been determined in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 10b, AR 345-155 to include parachutists pay and have been charged against him on his service record.”

Despite this no dollar amount is entered for any of the men. My research sources have indicated that there was no unit roster for Company N, 3rd Battalion (Class #33).  It’s probable that this partial payroll served not as a record of the men’s pay, but as the unit roster for those men graduating from the Parachute Rigging Class #33 on March 24, 1943. Furthermore, the fact that the payroll is a partial payment indicates that his parachute rigger training class ended on March 24.

 

Length of Basic Training 10 – 12 Weeks (Early November  - January 29, 1943)

Basic Training programs in World War Two took anywhere from 8 to 15 weeks to complete depending on the particular unit to which a soldier was assigned. So how long did Bill’s take?

His last correspondence from Camp Wheeler is post marked January 27, 1943 on the envelope – the same as the internal date on the letter. Bill’s discharge papers state he received his Parachute Wings (aka ‘Jump Wings’) in February, 1943. The corresponding Jump School program lasted exactly four weeks. For Bill to have written a letter on January 27 from Camp Wheeler and graduate from Jump School some 100 miles away at Fort Benning in February must mean that he completed Basic Training close to the very end of January and probably on Friday, January 29th.

He would have needed to start Jump School by Monday, February 1st at the latest to finish the four week program and earn his Jump Wings in February. It would take time to cover the distance from the two camps, say about a day, with potentially some time needed to get organized on either end of the journey. So to make the start of Jump School on February 1st, Bill probably left Camp Wheeler by January 30th at the latest.

Following this logic, since he enlisted on November 2, 1943 and it took say a couple of  days to get to Camp Wheeler from Fort Campbell, Kentucky Bill’s basic training at Camp Wheeler would have taken most of November, all of December, and all of January; a period that lasted between 10 and 12 weeks.

 

Jump School 4 Weeks (February 1 – 27, 1943)

Parachute training was designed to be an impossibly difficult mental and physical test of a man’s strength of will. It was a four week course comprising of Week A, B, C, and D. It was so intense that only half of all recruits that started it would ever earn their Jump Wings.

To become a paratrooper in WWII was a huge deal. Even those veterans I’ve interviewed who never made combat jumps during the war, but who made it through Jump School are immensely proud of their accomplishment.  An indication of how tough Jump School was is that the other paratroopers who did make combat jumps treat these non-jumper graduates with a measure of respect.

Week A of the course was used to weed out those who were physically weak and without sufficient character to become a paratrooper.  It consisted of grueling physical programs that made any boot camp experience of WWII look like a picnic. These programs consisted of constant, unceasing exercise for at least nine hours straight each day. They included rope climbing, pushups, long runs day and night, judo training, tumbling exercises for breaking your fall during a jump, and brutal hand-to-hand combat fights emphasizing silent killing techniques.

As if this wasn’t enough, men were regularly and frequently pulled aside by officers and drill sergeants for minor infractions and often for no reason at all; and then ordered go for a run or to do 30, 50, even 100 pushups – sometimes one armed. No one was allowed to walk. They had to run everywhere. All this was designed to push the men beyond their physical and mental limits. 

To quit of one’s own volition meant swift expulsion from the Airborne. If a man failed to achieve at an established level of performance he was out. There were no second chances. Any man who quit or couldn’t keep up was immediately escorted off the base. Most washouts occurred during the first two weeks.

Week B aimed to teach the trainees how to parachute. They learned the function of the parachute: how to exit the aircraft and properly position their bodies during the jump; how to steer while in the air; how to avoid injury upon landing; and when to use the main chute strapped to their backs versus the reserve chute on their chests.

They used wooden models of C-47 airplanes to learn the sequence of making a parachute jump as part of a ‘stick’ or team of 18 paratroopers. They drilled on getting it faster – down to at least two men per second. The quicker they exited the closer together they would be on the ground and therefore, the better their chances of functioning as a fighting unit and surviving in combat.

During Week B, the hard physical training programs of Week A intensified in difficulty, washing more recruits out.

Week C kept up the impossible pace of the physical exercise and repeated the jump training. On top of this, the main objective during this week was to test each man’s courage. They learned to jump from two towers; one of 250 feet and the other of only 30 feet.

In the 250 foot tower exercise each man was put in a harness connected to a parachute that was fastened to a strap and hoisted up using a pulley system to the top of the tower. They were let go and the parachute would open. Most men made it easily.

The 30 foot tower was more of a problem. The trainees had to climb to the top of the tower and were ordered to jump from a model of a C-47 airplane door. They were harnessed and connected by a strap to a cable that was terminated in such a way so as to catch their fall before they hit the ground.  It was so close to the ground that a lot of men instinctively balked at the unnatural situation and could not trust the cable to terminate properly when their time came. If they failed to jump they had to walk back down the tower. Perhaps surprisingly to those of us who never did it, the 30 foot tower exercise washed a lot of otherwise physically capable men out of the program. 

An additional requirement during Week C was for each man to learn how to pack his own parachute. The men were incented to pay close attention and learn this skill very well because in the final Week D of the program they were made to jump with the parachute they had packed. If a man’s chute failed to open – and there were some that didn’t  – he would have only himself to blame for his death.

Week D continued with the physical torture of the previous weeks. On top of that the trainees were required to make five jumps. They would have to confront and overcome their fear of heights, parachute failure, and death – all a full five times. The first jump took place on Monday and the last on Friday. Monday’s was the hardest because it was their first time jumping and most of them had not even been in an airplane before. After each jump, with their bodies and brains spent from the constant exercise, those that were left had to pack their parachutes again for the next day’s jump.

At the end of the week each surviving man graduated from Jump School. The graduation ceremonies were held on a Saturday. The new Paratroopers were presented with their silver Jump Wings which they wore pinned to their left breast. They were allowed to wear their jump boots (which had been issued during Week A) off of the training base and to tuck their pant legs into them. Known as ‘blousing', this was something which distinguished them from all other US armed forces personnel.

On Saturday February 27, 1943 Bill had graduated earning his Jump Wings. Mentally disciplined and physically toughened, he had overcome his fears and proven himself worthy. Now he was a Paratrooper; an elite. He was a member of the best team of soldiers America would produce in WWII. The realization filled his young mind with enormous pride – and ‘balls’. 

 

Parachute Wings aka ‘Jump Wings’ issued to Paratroopers upon completion of Jump School 

Image Source: Wikipedia Commons

Parachute Rigger School 3 Weeks (March 1 – 24, 1943)

Bill’s discharge papers state that he attended the “Parachute Rigger School, Fort Benning GA Feb’ 43”. His attendance at the Rigger School is corroborated by the Partial PAY ROLL document. However, it is not possible that he was trained as a Rigger before completing Jump School. Every want-to-be paratrooper had to complete Jump School first before anything else could happen.  With Bill’s Basic Training finishing at the end of January, the only time he could have attended a Rigger course was to do it at the beginning of March after he completed Jump School.

So why does Bill’s discharge record say that he attended a Parachute Rigger School in February, 1943? The answer lies in the way men were selected for occupations in the 82nd Airborne during the war.

Their military records (if they had any), Basic Training evaluation reports, and their skills acquired during civilian life were all reviewed to determine the unit they would be assigned. Besides combat troopers, there was a need for clerks, cooks, typists, mechanics, illustrators, polyglots (with German and Italian in high demand), drivers, carpenters, medics, and so on. Men with skills in these and other  areas were tagged for assignment to a Service Company in a parachute regiment.

Bill’s Separation Record gives a description of his work and skills before the war as a Back Tender at the Aetna Paper Mill. Being skilled in controlling and adjusting the machines used in making  paper and manipulating the paper sheets does correspond to repairing, and maintaining things. Parachutes, like paper, are essentially two dimensional objects . It is not a big step to construe that the skills of a back tender could be useful in repairing, maintaining and packing parachutes.

When Bill arrived at Fort Benning, someone likely looked at his civilian background as a paper mill back tender and decided that he had much needed skills relating to parachute rigging, repair, and packing.  They assigned him to the Parachute Rigger School in February. This school taught him the Jump School course first in February. After he graduated he completed the Rigger class by March 24th. Judging by the partial payroll date it probably started on Monday March 1st and lasted for around three weeks.

Parachute rigging had always been part of the Fort Benning Jump School training program. At first men had to learn everything about parachuting, including: how to jump; load equipment; and inspect, repair, and pack chutes. But as the Jump School graduates swelled to fill the ranks of the growing number of US Army Airborne Divisions the loading of equipment and advanced skills of parachute inspection and repair were dropped from the course. These skills took too much time to learn which slowed the training process down. Ultimately the decision was made to design an advanced course on packing and maintenance of parachutes. This is the course which Bill took.

This sequence of training corresponds with historical sources like this one documenting the history of the parachute rigger course used in WWII:

“In a sense, this was a post-graduate course to the main parachute jump training. The scope of the rigger training program was described in these words: ‘At the riggers school the men are trained as specialist maintenance personnel to inspect and to repair parachute equipment and to build new types of rigging, parachute containers and harness[es] for special use.’ At the end of the war the Riggers Course continued to be given, along with the Parachute Course (Basic Airborne Course)…”

- History of the Development of Airborne Courses of Instruction at the Quartermaster School 1947 – 1953, page 6 

Assignment to an EGB Battalion (After March 24  – April 17, 1943)

By January, 1943 the 505th PIR was already fully manned and staffed. So after graduation from the Rigger School Bill was assigned to an EGB battalion within the 82nd Airborne, where he continued training as a paratrooper. This would have encompassed a period from March 24th until April 17th; around the time the 82nd Airborne began moving out to deploy.

By the end of April, 1943 there were some 4,000 EGB personnel in the 82nd Airborne, including: orderlies, medics, stenographers, clerks, cooks, carpenters, truck drivers, parachute riggers and combat soldiers. Men in an EGB battalion were replacement troopers yet to be assigned to a unit. They would have to wait until someone died or was injured to take their place – not a thought Bill relished. And not one relished by those men already assigned to units. No one wanted anything to do with his potential replacement.

EBG men referred to themselves as “Excess Government Baggage”. Men of assigned units called them “Easy Going Bastards”.

The name calling aside, Bill wouldn’t have been happy about his predicament. He had trained just as hard as everyone else and was a thoroughly qualified paratrooper. He was just one month too late in finishing Jump School and didn’t make the final intake of assigned troopers in January.

Bill’s training as a Rigger would mean he would eventually be rigging parachutes and jumping into combat as a show of confidence that he’d packed the chutes correctly. He would have to wait for an opening in the Service Company of the  either the 505th or 504th PIR for that to happen.

His time in the EGB battalion included combat training  in addition to continued parachute rigging. He trained in stealth killing; evasion techniques for war behind enemy lines; hand-to-hand close quarters combat;  and as a rifleman in attack and defense of key objectives.

By the end of it all he was a razor; conditioned to respond to any physical threat on instinct and with immediate lethality. 

On April 17th, the 82nd Airborne Division was on the move. They assembled at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.  Bill’s EGB unit was with them.  On April 20th, they made a rail journey to Camp Edwards, Massachusetts. They stayed there until April 28th when the Division caught trains to the Port of New York where the men boarded ships.

Before dawn on April 29, 1943, 67 years ago to the day of this blog post, Bill’s ship the USS George Washington set sail. Unbeknown to him he was bound for Casablanca in French Morocco, North Africa and the beginning of his war.

 

USS George Washington

Image Source: Wikipedia Commons

 

 

© Copyright Jeffrey Clark 2009 - 2010 All Rights Reserved.

Basic Training – Camp Wheeler

When Bill left home he travelled to Fort Thomas Newport, Kentucky for his enlistment into the regular army. He enlisted on 2 November, 1942 with the rank of Private. Afterwards he was moved to Fort Campbell, Kentucky and then finally to Camp Wheeler, Georgia for basic training.

He wrote three letters home about his experience there. They’re well written in their own right and interesting to read, so I’m posting them here without comment. Click on each page to enlarge for better readability.

Letter Dated 28 November 1942

 

 

Letter Dated 13 December, 1942

 

 

 

Letter Dates January 27, 1943

 

© Copyright Jeffrey Clark 2009 - 2010 All Rights Reserved.