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| As so often happened that night, many paratroopers found themselves alone or in a group of one or two men, some hurt. Some quickly banded together, others wandered for hours, evading Germans and capture. Some were all too quickly made casualties, either by the hard landing or German fire. Other were taken prisoner. Some of the real stories are even harder to fathom than the fictional stories that follow. Here are some of the fictional men and how their stories begin: Tech Sergeant Alex Pfister from Division G-2 was to jump with the pathfinders, but instead finds himself floating in the English Channel with an opportunity to fool the Germans - and perhaps survive. Corporal Will Meade, 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, lands neck deep in a canal, but soon takes the offensive. Corporal Lou Keller, an ex-cowboy, discovers the Germans shoot back, unlike the deer he is used to hunting in the Texas high country, as he searches for other members of the Second Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. US Army Air Corps Captain Frank Howell discovers that crash landing a C-47 full of paratroopers in a river is a lot like flying sea planes for Pan Am, except that the flight attendant wears OD and smokes cigars. First Sergeant Juan Salazar despises the 75mm pack artillery the 337th Parachute Artillery Regiment was issued, but soon masters the German Eighty-eight. Sergeant Harry Rule had been jumping for years as a smoke jumper in Utah and is now with the O' Duce where he finally has the opportunity to be a hero. If he can. Private Luke Dawson knows how to castrate a boar hog, and discovers the same technique works in combat as he tries to rejoin his 326 Parachute Engineer buddies. Captain Francois Jordain honed his combat medical procedures with the Eight-Second Airborne in Sicily, never expecting his first mission in Normandy would be in a makeshift maternity ward. USAAC Lieutenant Sony Talbot trained for weeks on the British Horsa glider, but now finds himself at the controls of a Waco packed with a 57mm anti-tank gun and a mixed team of men from the 81st AAA Battalion and 327 and 401 Glider Infantry Regiments, far outside of the designated landing zone. Private Darrell Williamson never had much, so he decides to take what he can find, even if it costs him his life. Each of these men link up with others, to take on the missions to help defeat the Nazi threat and open the gateway to the European continent for the Allies.
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© 2000-2009 John M. Taylor |