Filthy Thirteen

by Richard Killblane

  One told them, “You’d better go ahead and get on out of here or you’ll be the next victims. We’re just having a party here and nothing is wrong.”

  The provost marshall said, “You’ve got officers fighting enlisted men. You’ve got indecent exposure all over the place.”

  He said, “Well, you just get on out. We’ll take care of these boys. They’re ours.”

  The next morning we went in and were all still drunk. Well, this provost marshall in the meantime had contacted Colonel Sink and told him what a terrible thing had happened there. So Colonel Sink very quickly called out the demolition platoon. Then he was raising Cain, raising Cain, and raising Cain. When they finally located Lieutenant Williams in his room in the officers’ quarters, he had all these women in bed with him.

  Colonel Sink commanded that we do close-order drill for a certain period of time. Tom Young was corporal and was supposed to drill us out there. He was just marching us up and down the field. He then had us running and gave a “to the rear march.” We just piled up like a herd of cattle in a snowstorm.

  I never did object to any physical conditioning or training with equipment or explosives. That is what I was there for. I was not there to engage in all that military discipline. I could not see any reason for an enlisted man saluting an officer under any condition other than just respect for that person. I always figured that ought to be a twoway deal. An officer ought to salute an enlisted man just as quick as he saw him. Why, he is the guy who is making his bread to begin with.

  PREINVASION RELIGIOUS SERVICE

  D–1: June 5, 1944

  For the Normandy jump, I had been assigned to the 3rd Battalion. We did not know any of the officers. We were locked up in this marshaling area. One of the officers came around and said, “All the Catholics will meet in this apple orchard here and all the Protestants will meet out in the field there.” They were going to have a religious service. This was about six or seven o’clock in the evening. So everybody just picked whatever area they wanted.

  Well, everybody else went out to these deals. Most of my boys were Catholic. Cone was Jewish and stayed with me in the tent. We were just talking, cleaning up our guns, sharpening knives, getting ready, and checking all our equipment. The tent door flew open and in walked this lieutenant. He asked, “What are you doing?”

  I said, “Nothing.”

  He said, “You’ve got to go to service. We’ve got a Catholic priest here and a Protestant priest there. The Catholics are meeting in this hole and the Protestants are meeting out there.”

  I said, “I don’t believe I care to join in on it.”

  He said, “What do you mean, you don’t care to join in on the religious service?”

  I said, “I have not tried to be a Christian. I don’t believe in deathbed repentance. Count me out.”

  He looked at Cone and asked, “Why aren’t you going?”

  Cone kind of grinned and said, “You don’t have any ‘rabbit’ for me.” He laughed, “Do you think I would go to one of them stinking services out there. If you have a rabbi, I might consider it.” He said, “I won’t take part in this.”

  So the old boy said, “Listen, you don’t have to go but it would be real convenient if you did. After the services are over, we are going to all join together and then we will be addressed by Eisenhower and Field Marshal Montgomery. We don’t want to have to be running around here hunting up stragglers for this.”

  I kind of grinned. I said, “I’m not real sure I am interested in listening to that horse cock.”

  He then said, “It sure would be a good accommodation for me if you would.”

  I said, “Okay.” I told Cone, “Most of our guys are Catholic. Let’s go in there.”

  He said, “Okay.”

  So we went over there. Chaplain John Maloney was talking in Latin and all these guys were thumping or kissing their head and crossing and this and that. They had these guys in rows just kneeling and sitting on their heels. We walked over and knelt right down by Loulip. Finally this chaplain got through with all his rigmarole and said, “Okay, fellas. Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. We’re going to be jumping in there about eleven o’clock tonight. Look to the guy next to you. You or him are not going to make it. We’re going to loose fifty percent. So in the case of imminent danger of death, I can administer extreme unction to you.” That is a very important part of their religion. “I can do that right now. If you get killed, you’ve already got it done. I may be the first one killed. So you can’t tell. If I am, you all get this little ole box off of me. You can give it to one another. All of you but me.”

  So he just started down the row with this box which had a vessel of wine and was full of white wafers about the size of quarters. No one is allowed to touch it but the priest. That is actually supposed to be the body and blood of Christ. So they were kneeling there with their hands behind their backs as he was walking along. Every time he got in front of a guy, well he reached out and gave him a cracker.

  So we were back in the third row and I was kneeling right beside Loulip. Joe Oleskiewicz was next to him and then Barinowski. I looked at Loulip and asked, “Should we take one of them?”

  He said, “If you want to, go ahead and take it.”

  Joe Oleskiewicz heard me and asked, “Do you believe this?”

  I said, “Joe, I don’t believe one word of it.”

  He said, “Then don’t take it.”

  I did not go in to insult anyone’s religion but neither did I want to acknowledge that I believed any part of it when I did not. So they were talking back and forth and reaching a decision whether me and this Jew boy were going to take it or not. This ole chaplain was getting closer and then he got to the end of the line and headed toward us. I looked over to ole Ragsman. I said, “Ragsman, you can stay if you want to but I’m getting out of here.” So we both got up and walked out.

  [Mike Marquez remembered:]

  General Eisenhower came over to review the Hundred- and-First one time while I was standing at attention between two big, husky soldiers, typical Euro-Americans, on either side of me. Eisenhower approached one of them on the left side and said, “My what good looking shoulders you have. You are sure going to give those Germans a hard time.” Then he looked at me and didn’t say a word. I guess he figured I was too small and wasn’t going to be dangerous enough or maybe he didn’t like little Mexican people. If I remember right, he used to read a lot of Western stories. In the Western stories the Mexicans and Indians were the bad guys. Anyway, he passed on and complimented the next soldier. Later I never forgot that. When he ran for president, I did not vote for Eisenhower and not because he was a Republican.28

  MOHAWKS AND WAR PAINT

  D-1: June 5, 1944

  Of course every war they ever had over there in Europe has been filled with body lice and head lice and then they came out with a new one called scabies. These scabies were I don’t guess bigger that a pin point, if that big, but they would get on the skin and bore down underneath and infect it. There was not much of a way to doctor or cure them. When totally infected with these, why the medics would give a good bath then coat a person’s whole body with a white liquid like a lotion or ointment or something. That would seal all the pores of the skin so those scabies would suffocate.

  I did not know about them before we jumped in but of every war I had ever heard tell of by guys who were actually in them, the most miserable thing over there was the lice. All that country that those Germans occupied was lousy. Boy, one could just see them crawling on the clothes. I knew it might be days or months before I ever got a bath or got another chance to clean my head, face, and body. So I thought, “I’m going to shave my head so at least I can wash the sides of my head and maybe not get those lousy lice.”

  Back in Georgia I had professed to be an Indian nature worshiper and a “gut-eater” and did not like their regulations. So when we got ready to jump into Normandy, I shaved me a Mohawk scalp lock.

  So the ot
hers asked me about my haircut and I told them, “This is a custom back home like you’ve got your St. Christopher’s medal.” Nearly all the boys of mine were Catholics and they all had little ole chains around their necks with a medal on it called St. Christopher. He is supposed to be the patron saint of travelers. Boy, they would not be caught dead without that thing on them.

  I said, “We wear scalp locks down there in Oklahoma. Whoever kills the other’n gets that scalp lock as a trophy. This is an Indian custom that we’ve always observed. To me it is kind of like your St. Christopher’s medal.”

  They said, “No kidding?”

  I said, “Yeah.”

  They just did not see how it would work.

  I said, “It doesn’t necessarily work but I will tell you the truth, I’m cutting mine off because of the lice we are going to be in. There will be lice there under every leaf. There ain’t no telling whenever you will get a bath again if you ever do, but this will help you fight the possibilty of lice covering you. It will be a safeguard against the lice.”

  They asked, “What’re you painting your face for?”

  I had mine all painted and said, “We’re going to be jumping in over there in about four or five hours. It’s just camouflage. I don’t care about sticking a bunch of leaves and grass on my helmet.” We had netting on our helmet for camouflage purposes. “I don’t care about looking through a brush pile every time someone is trying to kill me. This will act the same way, exactly. You’ll blend right in with any kind of foliage they’ve got anywhere in Europe.”

  They said, “Why I believe that’s a good idea.”

  I asked, “You want me to cut your hair.”

  They said, “Yeah!”

  I cut all of them a scalp lock and painted a bullseye on nearly everybody’s cheek. I had every part of their faces painted. To me it was just common logic.29

  Up until that time our officers had tried to not let our reputation get out of the company. They had a pretty good deal going. They knew that we were pretty good soldiers. They needed us. I did not know it until I started seeing the pictures in books after the war but the army had Signal Corps men taking motion pictures of us getting ready for the invasion. Neither did I learn about the Stars and Stripes and other articles until after the war. The pictures of us with our Mohawks were seen everywhere.30

  3

  A BRIDGE IN NORMANDY

  THE MISSION

  Carentan was the hub of transportation networks leading in and out of the Cherbourg Peninsula. General Maxwell Taylor wanted the 506th Parachute Infantry to blow all the bridges below the Douve Canal, then seize and hold the main bridge. This was strictly a 3rd Battalion mission.1

  Colonel Sink was a little afraid that Davidson would not be able to get the job done so he asked me to volunteer for it. I had never jumped with the 3rd Battalion before, since I’d trained with the 1st. Our original 1st Battalion assignment was just to lend support to Colonel Sink and Regimental Headquarters Company. Regiment instead wanted me to clear out the passages, roadways, and bridges from near St. Come Du Mont on up to Carentan and then hold that bridge if we could. I said I would.

  They then asked if I would have any problems working with his section. I said, “I got along well with everyone in the demolitions platoon and would have no problem.” But I also told them, “I would rather take my section though.”

  That is what they wanted anyway. They were hoping that my section would volunteer for it. I asked my guys and they did. They wanted to go anywhere I went.

  This Normandy deal was going to be tough so I told Regiment that I would need more men. I anticipated losing half of them on the drop.2 I asked for another squad of demolitions men. They said yes, and added six boys, giving me a total of a twenty-man stick counting Lieutenant Mellen. I remember them giving me Charles “Trigger” Gann, Clarence Ware, George Baran, and Thomas E. “Old Man” Lonegran.3

  On the bridge I also needed someone with a little more instruction than the average soldier. I asked for Andrew E. “Rasputin” Rasmussen. Rasmussen was our T-5 bridgeman. He was a pretty clean-cut kid from a military family. He once told me he had his dad’s discharge papers and cavalry spurs. He was a spit and polish soldier. He kept his hair neat and his uniforms clean and pressed. Boy, he changed those socks every day. He was a good soldier. He never cursed or used bad language, but he boot-legged whiskey all the time in the company area. So he always had his eye out for another dollar. Some way in the loading schedule at Exeter, however, he was pulled out of my stick and someone else was sent in his place.4

  NORMANDY JUMP

  11:45 P.M., D–1: June 5, 1944

  We left England just before 11:00. They were using nearly 1,000 C-47s to convoy in the 82nd and the 101st. Third Battalion took off down around Exeter and flew directly across the Channel.

  It was really a pretty night with moonlight, lots of moon. There was scattered rain but we had clear visibility. When we hit the coast, all these people were loaded up and ready to go across and hit the beaches the next morning. Of course, I grew up in Oklahoma and had never been around any big ships. I had only seen a few down in the Houston area on the intercoastal canal. Those big ships were so thick that they were just bow to stern all the way from Southhampton to sixty miles or eighty miles across the English Channel. It looked like a bridge, like someone could walk from one ship to the other and it was just as far as I could see on either side. I never imagined there would be that many ships in the water. Then as we neared the Jersey and Guernsey Islands, we began to see these huge balloons with cables hanging down to the water near where the boats had passage. It was really a beautiful sight.

  We hit our first antiaircraft fire over the Jersey and Guernsey Islands. They really opened up on us. It was a real bugger. We were going to go in above them, then circle back to our drop zones. When we reached those two islands the pilot turned the red light on, then we stood up and hooked up.

  At that time the Germans did not have very good radar. They could not pick up a plane under four hundred feet. If we were higher they could put that radar on us and really bust us apart. So we flew across the Channel at four hundred feet. Neither did they have any time-delay fire that would burst below four hundred feet. They had smartened up though. They began to shoot a flat trajectory far out with the hope that it would burst under a plane. Not a lot was successful but they did hit some. Boy, they sure riddled us with the automatic fire though.

  Those Germans were firing ammunition up at us that went all through the plane, our chutes and things like that. Those stinking automatic weapons had tracers about every fifth round. It just looked like a string of fire coming up at us. I did not know that there was any other color of tracer than orange but it looked like the greatest display of fireworks that I ever saw in my life. It was beautiful. They would have a blue one then a couple of red then a couple green. There was every color in the rainbow rising up to meet us. We lost several planeloads of paratroopers but the greater part came through it.

  I was joking with the guys in the plane. I needed to. Those guys were sitting there looking at each other, eye to eye, figuring the other would not be there in the morning, which was more than true. We laughed and talked. We just exchanged messages and went over the plans of exactly what we would do when we got on the ground. I kept instructing them on how to jump, how to assemble quickly and then just as soon as we located our objective, well we would go to work on it. We were all in a mood ready to go.5

  If a paratrooper did not have fun in there he would not last. I had So when we started losing soldiers in my section, right there, who had trained for two years through all kinds of difficulty. But no one knew how many of us would survive after the first splurge. If I could get them in the proper frame of mind then they would fight better.

  If a bunch of guys go in there half scared to death, they are whipped before they jump. We did not have that. We believed we could accomplish any assignment that came our way. I do not know if I had any man who wa
s more physically fit than I, but they were probably better soldiers. I did not live because I was the best soldier. I think I lived because I took advantage of everything that I could. If a soldier is not aggressive, he is going to get killed.

  Our division jumped in about 11:45 that night. Then in the early morning hours, they began to reinforce us with glider troops. That was a massacre. These little ole fields were small, about two and a half acres. Five acres was a pretty good-sized field. Of course these glider pilots tried to land in those fields instead of the hedgerows. But the Germans had gone out and put telephone poles up in there. Then they ran a cable from the top of that pole to the bottom of this one, then from the bottom of this one to the adjacent bottom of that one. They would just crisscross the wires. They called them, “asparagus fields” and boy they slaughtered those glider boys.

  General Don F. Pratt rode in on one of the gliders. They had sent in a jeep for him to ride. It was in the back and he was sitting in the front seat on top of a reserve parachute. When that glider landed in one of those asparagus fields, it got tangled up in the wires and lost all control. It ran up into the hedgerow, which was a mound of dirt two to four feet high. I mean when it hit that, it just stopped dead still. That jeep came loose from its moorings and when it rammed forward the general was sitting up so high it just took his head off.

  My stick was supposed to jump with the 3rd Battalion about two or three miles from the three bridges at Carentan, but as we were going in, the Krauts were tearing our ship up. We began losing altitude. The pilots were supposed to feather engines and drop the nose so the tail would come up to give us room to clear it. But once that plane starts losing a little altitude at four hundred feet, a guy had better bail out regardless if he is a hundred miles from his drop zone. So when we started losing altitude I yelled at those in the door, “We’ve got to get out of here! Let’s get out of here!”6