Post by floydragsdale on Jan 6, 2010 12:23:54 GMT -5
A day or two before Christmas 1944, the sun appeared on the horizon, casting long shadows over the Belgian terrain. After days of miserable, dreary weather, the sun was shinning in all its’ glory. As it ascended higher in the morning sky, the morale of the troops rose with it.
"What’s that noise in the distance", We wondered?
The drone of engines, high in the heavens was getting closer! American B17 Bombers, grounded for days because of bad weather, soon filled the skies from horizon to horizon, leaving a stream of vapor trails behind them, as they flew overhead.
Soon, dotting the air around the Bombers, puffs of black smoke, were taking their toll of American planes. German gun crews were busy, filling the heavens with deadly Anti Aircraft gunfire, spreading jagged bits of shrapnel as they exploded from the dreaded German 88 Artillery Pieces that were on the ground below. It was as if a giant fly swatter was picking American Bombers out of the sky one at a time.
Ripped from the Bombers, pieces of aircraft were tumbling earthward; a tail section here, a whole wing there and one B17 bomber was split in two; . Flames and smoke mushroomed skyward as it crashed into the ground; leaving us to wonder if all of the crew members were able to bail out before it crashed. , the sky was being littered with falling debris, from all this action.
White dots of parachutes were scattered through the skies over the front lines.
Before long, a race was underway, between American and German soldiers; for American G.I.’s it was to rescue the Air Crews; for the Germans Soldiers it was to take them prisoner and loot them of personal belongings before sending them off to P.W. Camps in Germany.
Obvious, to the observers on the ground, American Airmen were trying to persuade their chutes to drift toward the American font lines. We watched them pull the shrouds of their chutess to guide their descent away from the Germans.
The 424th G.I.s’ won some challenges and lost some.
Men of our Regiment, by the end of that day, learned another lesson in waging war.
For the American Army, I truly believe this was a turning point in the B.O.B.; for better days ahead. Although the loss of American Air Crews and planes, was costly for us, the loss of men and equipment to the German Army, that day, was without question, devastating for them, to say the least.
War is not an art; it is the ugliest occupation human beings can be involved in.
Old men plan it; young men do the dirty work and suffer the consequences on the field of battle.
Floyd
424th Regiment
"What’s that noise in the distance", We wondered?
The drone of engines, high in the heavens was getting closer! American B17 Bombers, grounded for days because of bad weather, soon filled the skies from horizon to horizon, leaving a stream of vapor trails behind them, as they flew overhead.
Soon, dotting the air around the Bombers, puffs of black smoke, were taking their toll of American planes. German gun crews were busy, filling the heavens with deadly Anti Aircraft gunfire, spreading jagged bits of shrapnel as they exploded from the dreaded German 88 Artillery Pieces that were on the ground below. It was as if a giant fly swatter was picking American Bombers out of the sky one at a time.
Ripped from the Bombers, pieces of aircraft were tumbling earthward; a tail section here, a whole wing there and one B17 bomber was split in two; . Flames and smoke mushroomed skyward as it crashed into the ground; leaving us to wonder if all of the crew members were able to bail out before it crashed. , the sky was being littered with falling debris, from all this action.
White dots of parachutes were scattered through the skies over the front lines.
Before long, a race was underway, between American and German soldiers; for American G.I.’s it was to rescue the Air Crews; for the Germans Soldiers it was to take them prisoner and loot them of personal belongings before sending them off to P.W. Camps in Germany.
Obvious, to the observers on the ground, American Airmen were trying to persuade their chutes to drift toward the American font lines. We watched them pull the shrouds of their chutess to guide their descent away from the Germans.
The 424th G.I.s’ won some challenges and lost some.
Men of our Regiment, by the end of that day, learned another lesson in waging war.
For the American Army, I truly believe this was a turning point in the B.O.B.; for better days ahead. Although the loss of American Air Crews and planes, was costly for us, the loss of men and equipment to the German Army, that day, was without question, devastating for them, to say the least.
War is not an art; it is the ugliest occupation human beings can be involved in.
Old men plan it; young men do the dirty work and suffer the consequences on the field of battle.
Floyd
424th Regiment