Four Hours of Fury

by James M. Fenelon

  Schlemm integrated them into his existing divisions: “Special Interrogation Report of General Alfred Schlemm,” 15.

  SS troops were setting up blocking positions: XVIII Corp (ABN), “Order of Battle Summary for Wesel Bridgehead,” 1.

  Allied air attacks . . . increasing in both intensity and tempo: Alfred Schlemm, First Paratroop Army, 17.

  destroying over 100 locomotives and 3,000 railcars: FAAA, “Operation Varsity,” 13.

  Over a hundred of the devastatingly lethal 88mm guns: NARA, “Field Order No. 1, 194 Glider Infantry,” enclosure no. 3C.

  years of experience combating enemy aircraft in the Ruhr Valley: Kurt Gabel, Making of a Paratrooper, 263.

  at the rate of over 3,000 men a week: Numbers based on intelligence estimates found in FAAA, “HQ Operations Reports 1944–1945,” March 21, 1945. The FAAA’s intelligence officers estimated the rate of replacements for Schlemm’s I Fallschirmjäger-Armee at an additional 3,100 troops the week of March 10, 3,600 the week of March 15, 3,600 the week of March 25, and 3,400 the week of March 30. The two reserve units, 116 Panzer-Division and 15 Panzer-Grenadier-Division, were estimated to receive another 1,000 a week (500 each).

  received training units, either in their entirety or cannibalized: IX TCC, “Field Order No. 5 for Operation Varsity,” Annex 1, 9.

  dikes that were thirteen feet high and sixty feet wide: Justin L. C. Eldridge, Defense on the Rhine.

  fighting positions every twenty to thirty yards: XVIII Corps (ABN), “Periodic Reports,” annex no. 1a to G-2 Report.

  some homes concealed as many as four or five machine gun emplacements: Ibid.

  many families evacuated, departing in military convoys or: Johann J. Nitrowski, Die Luftlandung, 282.

  The Wehrmacht had posted hand-painted signs: Ibid., 274.

  “It was extremely dangerous to be in the open fields during the day”: Ibid., 254.

  “faint of heart”: Ibid., 283.

  The Tinnefeld farm had half of their dairy cows confiscated: Ibid., 279.

  was said to have issued execution orders: “Adolf Doesn’t Like Nazis Robbing Nazis,” Stars and Stripes, 8.

  several returned having identified likely crossing points: Rudolf Langhaeuser, 6 Paratroop Division, 3.

  “Reports from our systematic reconnaissance and careful observation”: Ibid., 3.

  “The results from recon and observation led to the conclusion”: Ibid., 3.

  Schlemm’s attention to a thirty-mile stretch: Charles MacDonald, The Last Offensive, 301.

  Spies had also parachuted into France via captured American bombers: OSS, “Cover Report 1-15 FEB 45,” 4.

  some agents resorted to carrier pigeons: OSS, “Covering Report for OSS/ETO 16–31 March 45.” The document noted, “The interception of German agents in France continues and it is obvious to Allied counter-intelligence officers that the enemy still has a thriving intelligence operation at work in France.”

  refugees were given safe passage into France in exchange for reporting: Ibid.

  agents were aided and sheltered by former members of the Parti Populaire Français: OSS, “Cover Report 1–15 FEB 45.”

  A copy of the document made its way to Schlemm: Justin L. C. Eldridge, Defense on the Rhine.

  the jets’ equally high-speed cameras photographed Allied airfields: Ibid. See also, IX TCC, “Field Order No. 5 for Operation Varsity”: “This aircraft gives the GAF the capabilities of Photo Reconnaissance of our departure airfields as well as a daily effort over the DZ—LZ areas.”

  The collection of reports, photographs, and sightings provided: Charles MacDonald, The Last Offensive, 301.

  the enemy’s most likely courses of action: Rolf Geyer, Army Group H, 3.

  Kesselring and Blaskowitz both considered the second scenario the more probable: Rolf Geyer, Army Group H, 3.

  “Nevertheless,” wrote Geyer, “in absence of clear indications to the contrary”: Rolf Geyer, Army Group H, 4.

  But only after Blaskowitz had identified the British main point of attack: Justin L. C. Eldridge, Defense on the Rhine.

  The sledgehammer consisted of two veteran divisions: XVIII Corps (ABN), “Periodic Reports,” G-2 Periodic Report dated March 24, 1945. The two divisions were the 116 Panzer and 15 Panzer-Grenadier.

  The two divisions contained over 4,000 men each: FAAA, “Operations Reports 1944–1945,” March 21 1945.

  During a conference at I Fallschirmjäger-Armee’s headquarters on Wednesday, March 14: Charles MacDonald, The Last Offensive, 302.

  Kesselring was doing what he could to get more men: Rolf Geyer, Army Group H, 9.

  “like a concert pianist who is asked to play a Beethoven sonata”: Charles Whiting, Bounce the Rhine, 90.

  Motivated by a complicated combination of loyalty: See Robert Citino’s excellent The Wehrmacht’s Last Stand for insight into the Wehrmacht psyche.

  to launch coordinated battalion-sized infantry and armor attacks: Based on intelligence estimates in NARA, “Field Order No. 1, 194 Glider Infantry,” enclosure no. 3C.

  Schlemm believed the main attack would occur near Wesel: Justin L. C. Eldridge, Defense on the Rhine.

  led him to believe the Allies would drop close to the Rhine: “Special Interrogation Report of General Alfred Schlemm,” 15, and Justin L. C. Eldridge, Defense on the Rhine.

  Blaskowitz suspected they’d land farther north: Charles MacDonald, The Last Offensive, 301.

  his staff had been surrounded and taken out of the fight: Rolf Geyer, Army Group H, 9.

  used every available asset: Brian Jewell, Over the Rhine, 15.

  by March 10, Schlemm’s I Fallschirmjäger-Armee had already received 18,500 troops: FAAA, “HQ Operations Reports,” March 17, 1945.

  “[Allied] preparations of forces on the mainland for an airborne landing: “ULTRA Interceptions,” March 18, 1945.

  Chapter 7 Sequitis Bastatii

  The reduction of passes was a ploy: James P. Lyke, “The Operations of the 17th Airborne Division in the Crossing of the Rhine River, 24 March 1945,” 62.

  officers combed the wards seeking discharges: Harold Bell, Meet a Fellow Trooper, 44.

  “became more afraid of the unfavorable opinion”: William M. Miley, unpublished manuscript, 4.

  sentenced the guilty to a week’s confinement in camp: George L. Streukens, “Personal Manuscript, 194 GIR,” 6.

  “would lack the smoothness of deliberate planning”: Floyd Lavinius Parks Diary, February 27, 1945, and March 2, 1945.

  Sixty thousand tons of artillery shells: Brian Jewell, Over the Rhine, 15.

  over 500 tons of provisions per day, per division: Charles MacDonald, The Last Offensive, 295.

  advance D-Day by one week: FAAA. “Airborne Army Operational Reports, 1944–1945, Varsity to Wildgirl,” March 5, 1945.

  Miley informed his regimental commanders: David P. Schorr, “Operation Varsity,” 14.

  the 105mm and 75mm howitzers, were towed away: Melvin Manley, “A Short History of Battery B of the 680th Glider Field Artillery Battalion,” 17.

  officers conducted another series of weapon inspections: 507 PIR, “The Operations of Company H,” 9.

  “a bunch of very jealous and curious troopers”: John Chester, letter to the author, July 16, 2009.

  “Am in really beautiful ozone training now easy”: Richard H. Haney, When Is Daddy Coming Home?, 119.

  pack all of their nonessential articles: Frank Dillon, letter to the author, March 24, 2008.

  keep their mess tins: 507 PIR, “Field Order No. 1, Inclosure No. 3A.”

  another thirty-two replacements arrived: NARA, Morning Reports, March 19, 1945.

  remove their golden talon shoulder patches and all other airborne insignia: NARA, “Field Order No. 1, 194 Glider Infantry,” Enclosure No. 3C.

  boarded the familiar forty-and-eight boxcars: Frank Dillon, letter to the author, March 24, 2008.

  platoon sergeant, Mardell Kreuzer, asked for a volunteer: Eugene Herrmann, letter
to the author, August 28, 2017.

  staging out of twelve camps constructed at the departing airfields: James P. Lyke, “The Operations of the 17th Airborne Division in the Crossing of the Rhine River, 24 March 1945,” 27.

  a standard-issue cot and three wool blankets awaiting him: 507 PIR, “Field Order No. 1, Inclosure No. 3A.”

  recently emplaced anti-aircraft guns: Bart Hagerman, War Stories, 201.

  On display throughout the compounds and inside briefing tents: DZ Europe, 97.

  Communication between the camps would be strictly limited: James P. Lyke, “The Operations of the 17th Airborne Division in the Crossing of the Rhine River, 24 March 1945,” 28.

  A segregation system had been established: FAAA, “Airborne Army Operational Reports, 1944–1945, Varsity to Wildgirl,” March 11, 1945.

  Separate dining facilities and latrines: 507 PIR, “The Operations of Company H,” 10.

  briefed personnel had the code word “UNDERDONE”: FAAA. “Airborne Army Operational Reports, 1944–1945, Varsity to Wildgirl,” undated security procedures memo, 5.

  all outgoing mail would be bagged and sent to the censors: FAAA, “Operation Varsity,” 29.

  Sporting equipment was made available: James P. Lyke, “The Operations of the 17th Airborne Division in the Crossing of the Rhine River, 24 March 1945,” 28.

  Red Cross volunteers were on hand: The Talon Crosses the Rhine, 1.

  Issues of Stars and Stripes, the armed forces newspaper: 17ABN, “Historical Report of Operation Varsity,” 31.

  Men flipping through the pages read about: Examples of articles collected from issues of Stars and Stripes dated March 20–March 23, 1945.

  Miley’s two parachute regiments would be used to attack: Gerard M. Devlin, Paratrooper!, 613.

  Hazy intelligence suggested one potential problem: 194 GIR, “Division Operation Order.”

  “The reserve activity in this area against airborne operations cannot really be evaluated”: IX TCC, “Field Order No. 5 for Operation Varsity,” Amendment No. 2, dated March 22, 1945.

  delaying the drop until after commencing the river assault: Ibid.

  It would be a concentrated drop with the two airborne divisions: John C. Warren, “U.S. Airborne Operations in World War II, European Theater,” 162.

  Counterintelligence agents roamed the camp: 52 TCW, HQ, Operation Varsity. After Action Report, 8.

  Here the mess tents had wood flooring and electric lighting: 507 PIR, “The Operations of Company H,” 10.

  smuggling in bottles of champagne: Ibid., 10.

  Outdoor speakers blared songs . . . The occasional news broadcast: 17ABN, “Historical Report of Operation Varsity,” 31.

  “Days before the operation we went to the marshaling area”: Bart Hagerman, War Stories, 269.

  “liquidate the enemy” occupying the Diersfordt Forest: 507 PIR, officer interviews, 4.

  He decided they needed to storm Diersfordt Castle: Ibid., 4, and 507 PIR, “The Operations of Company H,” 10.

  roads each had twenty-five- to thirty-foot telephone: IX TCC, “Field Order No. 5 for Operation Varsity, Annex 1,” 5.

  enemy trenches dug along the road: Ibid.

  road could facilitate the rapid movement of German troops and tanks: 507 PIR, “The Operations of Company H,” 12.

  the 464th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion or “Branigan’s Bastards”: 17ABN Biographies, “George Hawley.”

  “coolly distant, and never really made us feel accepted”: Edward S. Branigan, “The 464th PFAB in ‘Operation Varsity,’ ” 1.

  as a private in 1933: Ibid. Branigan first served in the 258th FA Regiment, “the Washington Greys.”

  the paratroopers of the 513th Parachute Infantry Regiment took seventeen hours: 513 PIR, “After Action Report, 24 to 31 March.”

  the station’s signs had been covered up . . . they were in the sleepy village of Bapaume: Rex H. Shama, Pulse and Repulse, 325.

  the regiment’s two marshaling camps were located next to each other: James P. Lyke, “The Operations of the 17th Airborne Division in the Crossing of the Rhine River, 24 March 1945,” 27.

  “We were called the ‘Thirteeners’ ”: Ben Scherer, Soldiers and Brothers Under the Canopy, 88.

  “Matching the thirteen in 513”: Ibid., 148.

  “Little Joi’s” history can be found in 513 PIR, “History of the Regimental Insignia.”

  “I ranked 20th in my class . . . 20th from the bottom”: Untitled article featuring an interview with James Coutts, CMH, J. W. Coutts Papers, and letter to Bill Breuer from Colonel J. W. Coutts, dated February 16, 1984, CMH, WBB.

  second in his class for horsemanship and excelled at boxing: Untitled article featuring an interview with James Coutts, CMH, J. W. Coutts Papers.

  “Issue the tissue, you’re wasting the tax payers’ money!”: Ed Tommasino, Thanks from a Grateful Nephew, 10.

  “Why ain’t you in the Army?”: “Curtis Gadd,” 17ABN Biographies.

  private, private first class, technical sergeant 5: Curtis A. Gadd, letter to the author, February 10, 2006.

  attaching the new rank to his fatigues with laundry pins: Ibid.

  his commanding officer “volunteered” Gadd: “Curtis Gadd,” 17ABN Biographies.

  In the briefing tent Tommasino: Dean M. Bressler, “Airborne ’44: Allied Forces Breach the Rhine,” 23.

  Description of DZ X is based on IX TCC, “Field Order No. 5 for Operation Varsity, Annex 1,” 6.

  Gadd’s Dog Company and the rest of the 2nd Battalion would seize the high ground: 513 PIR, “Field Order No. 16, Inclosure No. 3B,” and James P. Lyke, “The Operations of the 17th Airborne Division in the Crossing of the Rhine River, 24 March 1945,” 24.

  each battalion commander to bring mattress covers and safety pins: 513th PIR, “Field Order No. 16, Inclosure No. 3B.”

  “had absolutely no apprehension about the jump”: Curtis A. Gadd, letter to the author, February 10, 2006.

  “I am not afraid of anything, and I do not worry about myself”: Bart Hagerman (ed.), Seventeenth Airborne Division, 37.

  “There were only about 1,500 of us”: Ben Scherer, Soldiers and Brothers Under the Canopy, 43.

  Daily reconnaissance flights provided a mountain of material: John C. Warren, “U.S. Airborne Operations in World War II, European Theater,” 167.

  “Sequitis bastatii”. . . “It doesn’t mean to follow your leader”: Kurt Gabel, Making of a Paratrooper, 107.

  they shared the latest scuttlebutt: John Magill, We Led from the Sky, 68.

  Some thought Hitler might finally resort to poison gas: William B. Breuer, Storming Hitler’s Rhine, 211.

  “the possibility that the Germans will employ gas as an extreme measure”: Floyd Lavinius Parks Diary, March 13, 1945.

  “We had direct orders”: Kirk B. Ross, The Sky Men, 282.

  “A prisoner is a liability: Ibid., 143.

  “The Baggy Pocket Butchers”: Ibid., 143, 248. Kirk covers the debate of taking prisoners very well in several sections of his book.

  Their battalion would take off in a serial of forty-five C-47s: 466 PFAB, “466th PFA Battalion Supporting Data,” 1. Serial A-7 consisted of forty-five C-47s, forty-two of which carried the 466 PFAB and three that carried members of the 17th Airborne Division’s artillery HQ unit.

  Since June 1944, five airborne chaplains had been killed in action: Lewis Brereton, The Brereton Diaries, 399. Led by Captain John F. Taus (the acting division chaplain), eight chaplains and their assistants, were assigned across the combat teams, with five jumping in and the rest going in by glider.

  “We had practiced for this event”: John Chester, letter to the author, May 17, 2007.

  one of fifty-one being brought in by the division on D-Day: John C. Warren, “U.S. Airborne Operations in World War II, European Theater,” 168.

  they’d be jumping with a carbine: John Chester, letter to the author, September 1, 2007.

  “Capa was notorious for his daring”:
Ernie Pyle, Brave Men, 399.

  he planned to jump into Germany: Kirk B. Ross, The Sky Men, 286.

  Born as Endre Friedmann to Jewish parents in Budapest: Capa biography and his learning of VARSITY from Elmer Lower is based on Capa’s autobiography, Slightly Out of Focus.

  “none of them well”: Ernie Pyle, Brave Men, 408.

  one of his staff officers develop a comprehensive public relations plan: Floyd Lavinius Parks Diary, March 13, 1945.

  All told, there were close to thirty correspondents assigned to cover the operation: FAAA, Operation Varsity, 44, and IX TCC, “Activities Final Phase,” 83.

  “we had a short time left for the usual preinvasion cleaning of rifles and consciences”: Robert Capa, Slightly Out of Focus, 213.

  After a few hours of sleep: Frank Dillon, letter to the author, March 24, 2008.

  They’d arrived at Melun’s train station at 02:00: Ibid.

  Description and details of Melun: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melun, accessed on September 23, 2017.

  “We saw the situation from the standpoint of armies on large maps”: Frank Dillon, letter to the author, August 18, 2017, and March 24, 2008.

  “I definitely recall there was a general feeling of enthusiasm”: Ibid.

  After the briefing, he took time to review his orders: Ibid., June 30, 2008.

  thirty-six minutes after Raff’s Ruffians jumped, the 194th’s gliders would be released: James P. Lyke, “The Operations of the 17th Airborne Division in the Crossing of the Rhine River, 24 March 1945,” 24.

  a goose egg–shaped area, covering almost four square miles: 194 GIR, officer interviews, 3.

  There they were to await orders as Miley’s divisional reserve: David P. Schorr, “Operation Varsity,” 9.

  The last four serials into LZ S would be the artillerymen: Ibid., 10.

  Until those heavier guns arrived, the two parachute regiments: James P. Lyke, “The Operations of the 17th Airborne Division in the Crossing of the Rhine River, 24 March 1945,” 25.

  there were some misgivings about the bigger plan: Joseph W. Moscar, “Parts of My Missions.”

  Both the river and the canal were approximately thirty-five feet across: David P. Schorr, “Operation Varsity,” 6.