The FReeper Foxhole Remembers The Waal River Crossing - Sep. 20th, 1944 - Feb. 10th, 2003

http://www.pointvista.com/WW2GliderPilots/holland.htm ^

[SAMWolf]

LOL! Thanks for the babelfish link to go with that!

[GailA]

Today's graphic

[SAMWolf]

Good one today, GailA. But then we only expect the best from you.

[RISU]

I think I am agreement that this defacto international boy scount convention should not be based permanently in the United States. But since it is in New York instead, then maybe it si OK where it is.

However, I would like to see them put it (serious comment) at the "Doorway to Europe", the Balkans, and Bosnia would be a very good spot. That is the "flash point" apparently for the meeting of "East and West", and the local hookers and wine merchants there could certainly use the trade.

[habs4ever]

Thanks for the ping.Great story today and a salute to such heroism under awful circumstances.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks Habs. Glad you liked today's thread.

[GailA]

I do try to bring only the best I can scrounge from the Web

[sistergoldenhair]

Thanks for today's thread.
My uncle served in this action(and many others).

[The Real Deal]

Thanks for the post SAMWolf. I've been working overtime and have to go out for awhile. I'll read the rest of this later.

[PhilDragoo]

NAZIS DIED LIKE FLIES IN BATTLE OF NIJMEGEN BRIDGE

TOUGHER AND BLOODIER THAN SALERNO

Tuesday October 10, 1944
By B. J. McQuaid
Times Foreign Correspondent

With American 82nd Airborne Division, Nijmegen, Holland.

One of a party of war correspondents who came from France to study this northern extremity of the western front, I had the honor of crossing the river Rhine (*read Waal) and looking back on the historic Nijmegen bridge. The clean, undamaged beauty of the single central span, the longest of its kind in all Europe, almost made me forget that we were under fire, and military traffic was incessantly streaming over.

Our guide, Lt. Douglas Gray, North Stonington, Conn., pointed out for us the steep bank up which our paratroopers had stormed from their assault boats to drive the Germans out of their dug-in machinegun nests at point of bayonet. Several hundred yards downstream we saw the great Nijmegen railroad bridge which the paratroopers also captured intact. S.Sgt. David Rosenkrantz, Los Angeles, Cal., told us the story of the scene presented on that railroad bridge during the first hours after the assault boat crossing in which he was a participant.

Rosenkrantz, with a machine gun squad, was in position at the northern end of the bridge when suddenly a whole battalion of German infantry, unaware that the crossing had been made and intent on escaping back toward Germany, started across in marching formation, three abreast. The small band of paratroopers, outnumbered more than 10 to one, waited until the bridge was clogged with Germans from end to end and then, revealing their commanding position, called on the advance foe to surrender. Instead, the Germans began throwing hand grenades.

The Paratroopers sent forward a prisoner they had captured, who agreed to convey the surrender request to his countrymen. The Germans shot him dead as he advanced. This was too much. The paratroopers opened up with machine guns, automatic rifles and bazookas. For the next few minutes the bridge was presented a fantastic spectacle, with the Germans hopelessly trapped withering fire but nonetheless trying to fight back. They took cover behind steel girders and even managed to wriggle up into the superstructure from which they fell like flies into the river.

At dawn the next day dead men hung from girders and blood dripped from steel beams. Paratroopers, walking out onto the bridge counted 267 and carried off scores of wounded. "It was typical of what went on during the battle of Nijmegen Bridge," Rosenkrantz said. "Nijmegen did not last as long as Sicily, Salerno and Anzio, but it was tougher, and bloodier while it lasted."

Everyone in this division has full statistics on the Nijmegen Bridge. Every GI in the outfit takes time to inform you that it was the first bridge across the Rhine that any allied troops secured. They are indignant at news accounts which fail to explain that the river at this point - which the Dutch call the Waal- is actually the lower and major confluence of the Rhine itself.

To men of the 82nd it is never the Waal, it is the Rhine, and they are the ones who got across it, let no historian forget that. And Lt.Col.Robert H.Wiencke, Glencoe, Ill., reminds you that it is four lanes wide and can carry any load an army can subject it to. Judging by the amount of fuss the Germans are putting up to deprive us of this gain, the men's view must be correct. They bang away with artillery all day and all night.

They send over wave after wave of dive-bombers, low, high and medium-level bombers. The British have magnificent anti-aircraft defenses here now. The fireworks display beats anything we have seen since the night attacks on our shipping off the Normandy invasion beachheads.

--------------------
(copyright 1944, by the Indianapolis Times and The Chicago Daily News Inc.)

Found on website at: http://www.nijmegenweb.myweb.nl

~~~

In Memory of Staff Sergeant David "Rosie" Rosenkrantz

82nd Airborne Division
504th Parachute Infantry Regiment
3rd Battalion
H Company

Born: Los Angeles, CA, October 31, 1916
MIA: Holland, September 28, 1944

~~~

Incredible bravery in necessary action only delayed by Neville Chamberlain at Munich 1938.

Let the French and Germans and the rest of the whirling gerbils of appeasement reap what they shamefully sow.

Godspeed Swift Victory and Safe Return to the Finest Fighting Force On Earth

God Bless Our Troops, Our Veterans, and Their Families

SADDAM-FREE in '03

. . .the attack begins in five minutes. . .

. . .M. Chirac draws a white hankerchief and a fountain pen and deftly constructs an instrument of surrender. . .

[Victoria Delsoul]

3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment

"Blue Devils"

The blue background of the crest is the color of the infantry whose function is represented by the sword, flaming through the sky, with the flames symbolizing the zeal of the personnel in the performance of their duties. The motto is expressive of the determination of the personnel to strike swiftly and hold their ground at any cost; therefore, it is appropriate for the organization. The Wyvern and the bridge stand for the regiment's combat service in World War II at Anzio, Italy, and at Nijmegen, Holland, for each of which actions the Presidential Unit Citation (Army) was awarded. The Wyvern is black in reference to the name "black hearted devils in baggy pants" given to the paratroopers of the regiment at Anzio. The bridge, orange for the Netherlands, further alludes to the attack on the bridges at Nijmegen. The three pheons stand for the regiment's three assault landings in Sicily, Anzio, and the Rhineland.

[SpookBrat]

Thanks for the thread and the great pictures. I'm sorry I didn't get to spend much time in here with you all today. Tim has been reading your threads when he can.

[SpookBrat]

Thanks Victoria.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Hi Spooky!

[SpookBrat]

Thanks for the love and hugs. Make mine a double please. How is Mr. Maybe Right? LOL

[SAMWolf]

You're Welcome, sistergoldenhair. We thank your uncle for his service.

[SAMWolf]

Hi Real Deal, catch you later!

[SAMWolf]

Evening PhilDragoo, excellent article about the Nijmegen Bridge, thanks.

[SAMWolf]

Evening Victoria. Thanks for the explaination of the Blue Devils Crest.

[SAMWolf]

Hi Spooky! Glad you and Tim get a chance to read the thread.

We miss seeing you here.