Filthy Thirteen

by Richard Killblane

  We got down into this little clump of bushes and I could see the ditch. It was not twenty-five yards from us. It was probably five or six feet deep and twenty feet wide. I told the other two boys, “If we come out of here firing everything in the world we’ve got, some of us or all of us or none of us might get to that ditch, but if we stay here we are dead ducks. So let’s get with it. Get everything ready. We’re going.”

  Stanley Spiewack and this kid, Herb Pierce, shook their heads that they were not going. I pointed my Thompson down at their bellies and said, “I’d rather kill you than let them Germans do it. If we stay here, we’re dead ducks. You get going now or you’re here forever.”

  Boy, they turned white as a sheet looking down there at that Thompson. They picked their weapons up and ran firing in every direction just spraying. All three of us made it into that ditch.

  Herb asked, “Would you have killed me back there?”

  I said, “I guess I would.”

  He said, “Well, you convinced me you would have, because if you had not, I would have stayed right there until I got killed.”

  Herb had fought all the way through Normandy and Holland. He was not a coward, just a kid. Our company had started with eight seventeen-year-olds back there in Georgia and by then all but Herb were dead.15

  When I was making a run to get into that main ditch, I saw a man’s trunk, just legs and half of his guts, just laying there right next to the shoulder of the road. In all those occupied countries, the German army had taken the civilians and had them dig big standing foxholes. They were about two by three feet square and six feet deep all along those main travel roads. So whenever the Germans were strafed or bombed in a convoy all the people could get out of the tanks or vehicles and crawl down in those holes. They had them all along there. Then if a guy could ever make it to the ditch, he would have it made.

  Truck Horse Johnson was in one of those foxholes. Of course I had no idea which one of them that body trunk belonged to. Everybody was heading in the same general direction toward that big ditch. The biggest part of our platoon finally made it to that ditch. When I took a head count, Joe Oleskiewicz and two or three others were missing. Manny Freedman and Clarence Furtaw had been wounded in the fight.

  A very good friend of mine, Joe Oleskiewicz was one of the nicest and finest young kids that I had ever met. He was one of the original Filthy 13. He was the one I was more interested in than the rest. I was really fond of Joe. I asked if anyone knew what had happened to him. They said no they did not. Nobody knew anything, or so I was told.

  When we came out of Holland and returned to France, I left the outfit for the Pathfinders. I later ran into the outfit again while they were in Bastogne. I asked everybody again, “Do you know what happened to Joe? Is he carried missing in action or killed in action or POW? Have you got anything?” They always said no. So every time I was around Regimental Headquarters I would inquire about Joe. I asked Top Kick, “Are you carrying him missing in action or killed in action? What’s his disposition?”

  He would answer, “We’ve just got him listed, Jake, as missing in action.”

  I never learned what happened to him until the war was over.16

  We had just gone into that ditch when I heard three rounds of mortar coming in. I hit the ground. Lieutenant Haley was standing nearby. He fell right in there beside us and hit the ground just like a pancake.

  As he tried to get up, he asked, “What was that?”

  I said, “It was three rounds of mortar. You better get your head down. There’ll be three more coming right in on them.”

  Sure enough they threw three more in on us. When it was over we stood up. Haley was as skinny as a rail. I will bet he was six feet tall and did not weigh a hundred and forty pounds. He had on one of those new field jackets and I noticed his coattail was all torn to pieces.

  I said, “Let me check you here, boy.”

  I will bet from six inches below his crotch clear on up halfway to his navel, fifty pieces of shrapnel had just shredded that uniform off of him but he was not touched. He had not bled a drop.17

  After that, it did not take us five minutes to get together and decide what to do. Our lines were driving up the road toward the Rhine River. We followed that ditch for nearly a mile, then we took advantage of the terrain. We hugged the trees for another four to five more miles until we met up with, I think, G Company. I asked where Regimental Headquarters Company was and they directed me to Colonel Sink or someone else [Lt. Colonel Charlie Chase]. His CP was following the main road. The regiment had halted trying to get organized. Colonel Sink was going to attack up the road in the morning. My platoon was put on perimeter defense for the night.

  PUSH OUT OF VEGHEL18

  September 25, 1944

  The next day our division pushed up the road. The 506th pushed up the main road with the 502nd on the left flank and the 501st on the right. We were supposed to clear out a five-mile width along the road from Veghel.

  That morning when we assembled, Top Kick walked up to me and asked, “Have you got any snuff?” Top Kick dipped that gal tobacco from down in the South.

  I said, “Yeah, I’ve got snuff.”

  He said, “I’m plumb out. Could I get a dip from you?”

  I said, “You bet.” So I handed him some Copenhagen. “I’ve got some more but take a dip out of this and we’ll get together later in the day. It is a whole lot stouter than that gal tobacco that you’ve been dipping around here.” I knew it was a lot stronger because I had also started out on snuff. My mother dipped snuff when I was a kid and then I started dipping Copenhagen since it was so much stouter. I told him, “Take a little pinch of it and put it in the back of your mouth, Top Kick.”

  He looked at me and asked, “Why, is this all you’ve got?”

  I said, “Oh no. I’ve got plenty of it. I don’t care what you take. I’m just telling you it is a lot different than that gal tobacco but go ahead and pack your head, boy. Load up.”

  So he just crammed it in and he looked just like a chipmunk running around with a coconut in his cheek. So we pushed out that afternoon. I was on the left flank as point with a demolition squad. Of course Colonel Sink, First Sergeant, and Uncle Charlie Chase were right in the middle of the company following right along behind us.

  By the middle of the afternoon, we began to push in toward the center because of the defilation in the area. When I got in pretty close to ole Top Kick, well I glanced over to see if I could possibly give him another dip. He was down on his hands and knees in that ditch just puking his guts out. Others could hear him retching for ten yards from where I was. So I did not even try to give him another dip of snuff. I just moved on.

  We took in fairly light fire everywhere we went. The Germans had both sides of the road. We hit two or three small concentrated fires during that day. Otherwise we were just picking up sniper and random fire all day long.

  Later I saw a movement over in the weeds in a bar ditch.19 It was a blue color, kind of like the overcoats those Krauts wore. So I signaled the column to hold up while I kept proceeding toward this ditch, right on up to the road. I just casually switched my Tommy gun to where it would be pointing to the right and I would be ready to squeeze her off. I guess I got up to within twenty feet, when I saw a great big blob of gray hair. I thought, “That’s an old woman.”

  I kept trying to locate other bodies or soldiers in a perimeter where if any of us opened up, we would not wipe each other out. I kept walking and analyzing this thing. She was alone. Then I motioned everybody on the alert. I walked on up to this lady.

  Where we were pushing these Germans back through the countryside, all the civilians that could get out would leave. They would either come on in our direction or retreat to the sides. She must have been in her eighties. She reminded me of my mother so much. She could not speak any English. I had it translated, “Have you been wounded?” I could not see any blood.

  She said, “No.”

  I said, “Pass th
e word back to a medic somewhere to be sure and look this woman over as they come through.” Then I just motioned the others to follow. Outside of the manual we did not have many hand signals. We made them up as situations came up rather than sit down and figure them out ahead.

  We hit some pretty concentrated fire there just before it got dark. That was where we stopped. Top Kick was assigning different ones of us as outposts for the defense. So I pulled out my Copenhagen and handed it over to him. I said, “Load up there, Top.”

  He took a pinch of it and put it in the back of his mouth.

  I said, “Go ahead, pack up. I’ll get one of these cans out of my musset bag in a minute.”

  He said, “Yeah, you dirty rat. I saw you today laughing your ass off when your Copenhagen had me down in the ditch puking my guts out. I think I’ll just take a little.”

  From then on he started dipping Copenhagen and he never quit. He kept it up until his dying day. I never saw Top with that stuff out of his mouth.

  That evening, Colonel Sink picked out a big, two-story, rural farm house where he wanted to make his CP for the night. He told Lieutenant Sterling Horner to select two or three demolitions men to go in there and get it cleaned out of booby traps and mines so he could get a good night’s sleep. They sent me and two more boys in there. We went all through and checked everything. I found six half-gallons of canned fruit and a bottle of schnapps and I picked up a few potatoes and onions. Well, when we finished all the looting, we went back to the door where Lieutenant Horner stood.

  I said, “Okay, that place is as clean as a pin. You all can go in there and get you a good night’s sleep.”

  He asked, “What is in there to eat or drink?”

  I said, “Nothing,” which was the truth. It was all in my jacket. I looked like I weighed three hundred pounds.

  He hit me with the butt of his Tommy gun in the gut and it just rattled. He asked, “What’s that? What’ve you got in there?”

  I said, “I’ve got six half-gallons of canned fruit. I’ve got a bottle of cognac. I’ve got a pocket full of onions and potatoes.”

  He asked, “What’s the Colonel going to eat if there is nothing in there?”

  I said, “He had the opportunity and privilege of going in there and getting it to start with. His prerogative is now ended. This is mine. I’m going to be feeding this to my men.”

  He said, “Well, I want some of it.”

  I said, “You know where the perimeter defense of my squad is don’t you?”

  He answered, “Yeah.”

  I said, “Well, you be out there in about five minutes and you can share with us. I’m not giving you anything nor the colonel. If you want some of this, come on out and share alike. We’ll be eating in about five minutes.”

  He said, “Okay,” but he never did come out to our perimeter defense.20

  I joined my group out there on the perimeter. I called the squad in because it was dark. I knew the Germans were not about to attack us. We were just going to be in a holding position until daybreak. So I showed them the canned fruit and other food that I had. We dug into it and started eating.

  The ground was snow-covered and kind of slushy. So we were all sitting around there in a circle eating this stuff with our knees and toes on the ground and rump on our heels to stay off of that water and snow. Not twenty minutes after I had invited Horner out to eat with us, Dick Graham said, “Jake, I’m hit.” The Germans were just firing at random. It was just harassment fire but they hit ole Graham in the butt.

  I asked, “Pretty hard?”

  He said, “Well, it’s hurting.”

  I said, “Well, come on over here and let me look at you.”

  He came over there. The way he had been sitting, the left side of his body was toward the incoming fire. When that bullet hit his rump, it made an entry there and went almost clear through it. Instead of digging in it just pressed that meat down until it got over the crack of his butt. It had pressed down so much the other meat was sticking out.

  I looked at it and said, “Dinty Mohr, take your trench knife and cut that out of him and put a bunch of sulfur powder on it. Give him some penicillin.” Graham kind of flinched up when I told Mohr to take that trench knife and cut that bullet out of his butt.

  So Mohr was looking at it. He was a big ole stout country boy. He said, “Why, I think I can punch that out with my finger.”

  He had that big meaty finger in there and just followed that bullet and pushed it out through the skin. It and a piece of meat just plopped down there on the snow. A big bunch of blood also came out. So they sent him back to the rear and doctored him up and gave him this and that. Graham never forgot about it.

  Graham and Dinty Mohr got together at our house about fifty-two years after the war. Dinty was standing there talking with Graham and then started pointing that same finger at him. Graham said, “If you point that finger at me you lousy rat, I will break your arm clear off of you!”

  The second day we held where we were and just sent out patrols. The Germans had retreated out of the area. My platoon remained on the perimeter defense around the Regimental Headquarters. We stayed in the area for a few more days.21

  PUSH ON TO THE RHINE

  Our initial objective had been to take the waterways and bridges and capture Eindhoven. They gave us six days to do it and we did it in thirty-six hours. The 82nd had started dropping just fifteen miles south of Nijmegen. They had taken the highway on up to Nijmegen and secured all the waterways and about ten miles past it with a width of five miles that straddled the highway. That was their initial objective.

  But each time that we turned a piece of captured territory over to the British, the Germans would come back in and kick them out. We would then have to go back in and retake it. It was just like a yo-yo all up and down there. After we cleared the road, we finally reached the Rhine. When we got on up there, General Dempsey ordered Taylor to start taking that area to the left of the 82nd.

  The British Red Devils and a Polish Brigade had jumped in outside of Arnhem. The bulk of them never did get to the bridge. Only one battalion reached the bridge and they were nearly all killed or captured. The rest of the division and brigade came out of there with about two thousand men out of about eleven thousand. It was totally disastrous, a total farce. They never took nor held an inch of ground all the time they were in there. Had they dropped the 101st or 82nd in there, we would have taken those bridges. We may have lost a lot of men but we would have taken the bridges.22

  So after they evacuated Arnhem, Dempsey just sent the 101st right on up to the Rhine next to the 82nd. Both General Taylor and General Gavin asked to be relieved after they had cleared their roads and secured the bridges. Dempsey was a three-star general and out ranked every officer we had. So he kept us there and used paratroopers up there just as shock troops. We fought up there until two days after Thanksgiving.23

  THE ISLAND24

  October 2, 1944

  Our rations were terrible. Since we were assigned to the British Second Army, they would pick up all our American rations. The Airborne did not have any logistical transportation. The British would bring our rations in and eat them, then give us the damned mutton and stuff. We could hardly even swallow it.

  There was a jam factory about halfway between Nijmegen and Arnhem, about ten miles west of the highway. It was a huge, huge, huge thing. That is fruit country up in there. I think G or H Company attacked that factory which was pretty lightly defended. They took that thing. Just a squad of them would go back and forth in there to carry out all that jelly. They went in there anytime they wanted. They hauled it out of there by the trucks full and then dispersed it around to the rest of us. The Germans did not want to defend it because they did not want to tie up with a squad of paratroopers. The factory did not have any military importance.

  GENERAL HIGGINS25

  General Jerry Higgins, the assistant division commander, wanted to pass some information to Colonel Sink. Virgil Smith by then h
ad become his aide and they drove up there in a jeep. When General Higgins went in, Virgil told the general that he wanted to wait outside. He knew I was in the area so he asked around for me. I came over and met with him. We were talking when General Higgins came out and walked up to us. Virgil said, “I would like you to meet a friend of mine.” I had not bathed nor washed since the operation began. I was filthy. He shook my hand and we talked for a while.

  They got in their jeep and drove back down the road. After a couple of miles General Higgins laughed and asked Virgil, “Where in the hell did you ever meet a friend like that?”

  The next day my section was farmed out to C Company. Three or four days later we reached the levy which bordered the Rhine River.

  [Virgil Smith described the meeting this way:26]

  Germans had the island mined. There was this little town [probably Opheusden] and we had evacuated it. Arnhem was just on the other side of the river. The Germans had all the high ground. Jake had been out with a patrol that night on this island and the Germans had chased him all around. The next morning Jake returned to headquarters.

  General Higgins went to see Colonel Sink. I told the general’s driver I was going into this barn that was attached right to this house to find old Jake and if the general came out to come and get me. So I went in and woke Jake up. He had that stale cognac on his breath. He chewed that Copenhagen and it had stained his chin. He had not shaved. He was just as filthy as he could be. His hands were dirty. So he got up and we went outside. While we were standing there talking the general came out so I introduced him, “Sir, I would like for you to meet a friend of mine, Jake McNiece from Ponca City, where we grew up and played football together.”

  Jake had a wad of chew in his mouth. He just shifted that chew to the side of his mouth and stuck out that grimy paw. He said, “Glad to meet you, General.”

  We got in the jeep and went on down the road. We got about a half a mile down the road and General Higgins just started laughing. I asked, “What’s the matter?”