I Co, 506 Pir, 101 Ab

[Airchallenged]

First off I forgot two men in the Casualties List. They are PFC John Boggs and PFC James Walker.

Most of the other stories from Normandy are not well known to me at the moment. I hope to be able to have more info by the end of the summer after I go to the NARA in College Park, Maryland for a second time. This time next year I will be purchasing the book "The Forgotten Battalion" on the entire 3rd Battalion from its creation through the Normandy Campaign with over 250 photographs, mostly unpublished, 8 maps (which is pretty in depth for a three week campaign), and over 100 veteran and civilian accounts. This will be like heaven for me along with the four part Documentary on the entire war through the battalion's eyes.

Doc. Alvin William Kidder

Coming soon...

[Wustenfuchs]

What a great thread! Thanks for the efforts, I appreciate it.

[BillyTucci]

Great, great work! I had read in Ambrose's D-Day about the paratroopers who landed in the channel but thought all were either drowned or captured. What a great thread!
Thanks,
B

[Airchallenged]

Thanks guys for reading these stories. I will probably be able to post the next story either tonight or sometime tomorrow. I am actually almost out of stories. I got Doc Kidder's story, two of the troopers at the lockes, the death of Capt Kiley in Eindhoven.

Billy, one of the Pathfinder planes for the 506 (2BN on DZ C?) also went down in the channel but everyone survived...except the plane
Matt

[BillyTucci]

Originally Posted by Airchallenged

Thanks guys for reading these stories. I will probably be able to post the next story either tonight or sometime tomorrow. I am actually almost out of stories. I got Doc Kidder's story, two of the troopers at the lockes, the death of Capt Kiley in Eindhoven.

Billy, one of the Pathfinder planes for the 506 (2BN on DZ C?) also went down in the channel but everyone survived...except the plane
Matt

Thanks,
Were they taken prisoner? Do you know where they landed? Off Utah?
Again, I'm trying to imagine the guys landing near the Pointe and the ringside seat they must have had.
Wow.

[Airchallenged]

Originally Posted by BillyTucci

Thanks,
Were they taken prisoner? Do you know where they landed? Off Utah?
Again, I'm trying to imagine the guys landing near the Pointe and the ringside seat they must have had.
Wow.

I am not sure where in the Channel the Pathfinders landed but they were picked up by one of the allied landing crafts so they went down before they hit the Channel Islands. They were returned to England and I have heard different stories about whether they returned to Normandy or not. They did get their CIBs though.

[Airchallenged]

This story is short but worth telling. The company medic in Normandy was Canadian born PFC Alvin W. Kidder. On D-Day he landed somewhere near Ste. Come-du-Mont. Crawling up to a hedgerow he found a trooper with a broken arm stuck in the hedge and unable to get free of his chute. Doc "Bill" had just cut the man free of his chute, not sure if he had set the arm yet, when a mortar round dropped in on them and killed the trooper and wounded Kidder. He says he continued down the road and met up with a group of troopers.

They set out for Ste. Come-du-Mont and he set up an aid station in a church near Ste. Come-du-Mont. There were only two medics there, Kidder and Frank Fabian. The two of them took care of every casualty they could in the church. Just before the Germans over ran the city on the 8th Kidder sent Fabian and the walking wounded away from the city. Kidder says he stayed with those that could not walk but he makes it sound like they held off an attack at some point but none the less they held out through the night and were rescued the next day. Kidder had over 80 men under his care by the time that the "beach forces" got through to them on the 9th.

Kidder was promoted to T/4 and gained an assistant, maybe two, for Market Garden. They were T/5 Walter Hodges and possibly T/4 Lloyd Greene.

[Whiterook]

Matt, this is fantastic stuff man! I love the fact that you've included pics as well! Thanks for the great read!!!!

[Airchallenged]

Before I return to the last Normandy story and then move onto Market Garden and The Island I will make a correction for my last post. Before going to the Archives last week I had made the assumption that T/4 Lloyd Greene a medic with the 506 and PFC Lloyd W Green of I/506 were the same person. PFC Green is listed as being killed in Germany in April of 1945 and this was the only other Green I could find. It turns out that they were two different people with similar names (not as bad as Eugene E. Smith and Eugene A Smith of I/506). The status for PFC Green on the 506infantry site is wrong. PFC Green was a Toccoa man of I Company who shipped out to England with the rest of the unit in September 43. In February 44 he was one of two-dozenish men in the unit to be awarded the "Good Conduct Medal". Sadly on May 20, 1944, barely two weeks before the big invasion, PFC Lloyd W. Green was killed while on leave in Aldbourne, after being hit by an RAF truck. He was I Company's first casualty and as far as I see the Battalion's second death.

[Airchallenged]

Okay after much delay I have decided to restart this thread. So Normandy is done now and the Company is back in England...

Upon their return to England the company, now down to around 75 men (I didn't count exactly), had to rebuild and retrain. The first men to rejoin the unit were Lt. Charles Santarsiero of 3rd Platoon (who had been wounded on the 13th), and Privates Wilbur Fishel (of 2nd) and Philip Langschultz (not sure which platoon), who had both missed the Normandy drop (I think they were recovering from injuries in a pre D-Day display drop). In Normandy the company officers were hit hard. They lost 1 KIA, 2 POW, and 2 WIA (both lightly as far as I know). of the other three officers one was promoted to BN when they returned. That was Lt. Kiley who was promoted to Capt and BN S2. This is where it get confusing...

The company lost 4 officers and gained 5...of these new officers I know the assignment of some. Lt. Fred Anderson, formerly 3rd Platoon CO, was promoted to Capt. and made Company CO. The position of XO is debatable. Floyd Johnston (the other wounded officer) was promoted from 1st platoon XO to CO and made 1Lt. One of the new officers fresh from the States, 2Lt Milan Panovich, was his new XO. Lt. Santarsiero was transfered from 3rd Platoon XO to 2nd Platoon CO, with 2Lt Donald Replogle, who had received a battlefield commision, as his XO. The Officers of 3rd Platoon were all new as far as I know. The CO was 1Lt Arthur Harrington (a battlefield transfer I think) and 2Lt Raymond Eisenhauer (a Battlefield Commission from F Co).

Back to the Company XO. It was either 1Lt Milo Bush (brand new) or 1Lt James Nye, former CO of 2nd Platoon. Between Holland and the Island it seems that both were transfered. Nye was promoted to CO of F Co. and Bush became the XO (I think) of H Co.

Before the company reorganized and refit promotions were in order:
S/Sgt to 2Lt: George O Retan (he was transfered to A Co. and killed early in Holland)
Sgt to S/Sgt: Alexander Engelbrecht (commander of 2nd Squad 1st platoon and only Sergeant left in the platoon after Normandy)
Cpl to Sgt: Jesse Bryant, Murton McCarthy, and John Seisennop (probably sergeant of 2nd Squad, 2nd Platoon)
Pfc to Sgt: James Schuler (ranking mortar man in 2nd pltn after their Sergeant was captured
Pvt to Sgt: James Sheeran (Capt. Anderson promoted him on the spot when he returned to the unit and passed up the chance to return home as a freed POW)
T/5 to Cpl: Gene Kristie (may have been promoted for the same reason as Sheeran b/c Kristie says he was with McKnight when he was captured-at least thats how I understand it)
Pvt/PFC to Cpl: John Edwards (ranking man left in 2nd squad, 2nd Pltn)
Gerald Kelly (may have been promoted to T/5)
Harry Watson (he had been demoted between Toccoa and Normandy for some reason-maybe they felt bad for him cause he was hit in the scalp )
James Brown (he was acting BN Radio man but I don't know what rank he was. As mentioned he was a Cpl at the time of his death in Bastogne)
Joseph Madonna (another maybe. He was a S/Sgt at the time of his death at Foy)
Thomas Jackson (final maybe. He was a Sgt when he was KIA on 20 Dec 1944)