Walter Lanier "Red" Barber, baseball announcer for the Cincinnati Reds, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees. Inside, a veritable Hades greeted them. He died during combat in France on September 26, 1944, and is currently buried at the Epinal American Cemetery and Memorial in Dinozé, France. The two Shermans would attract enemy fire, so he ordered the tank crews to wait until he and his men pulled back before making their break. Germans fell in agony, their bodies piling so thickly in places that American marksmen could not see to shoot. Stephen Ambrose book, Band of Brothers (1992) by the same name. Sparks’s machine gunners soon had mowed down most of the first wave. A HISTORY OF THE 90th DIVISION IN WORLD WAR II, by Lt. Joe Abrams, 1946, 90th Division Association 1-157th IN (MTN) (86th IBCT (MTN), 10th MTN Div) is 1 of only 3 Mountain Infantry battalions in the US Army. Germans told of making attacks “starting out in battalion strength,” one Thunderbird recalled, but then “being whittled down to less than the size of a platoon by our artillery before reaching our forward positions.”. 77th Infantry Division. As Sparks prepared to leave the caves, he heard fighting outside and remembered the machine gun he had left with the British. Redrawn many times, the map was badly smudged. The company served 30 months in Guadal Canal S.I. He could barely stand as he reported to the 157th’s commanding officer, Colonel John Church, on the battle by the Via Anziate and the subsequent breakout. Then he and the remaining 18 members of E Company set out south along the Via Anziate. He began to rant about his generals in Italy. Holt had collapsed. For information on any of the names listed below, submit your request to [email protected] For information about the World War II History Center Research Database, click here.. For information about the World War II History Center, click here.. Name Resource # Holt fired and missed. The machine gunner aimed and fired. The Thunderbirds kept moving, kept firing, and were down to their last clips when, once more, the Germans backed off. Lines in red showed German advances; the Allied positions were in blue. Today, the men of Easy Company from World War 2 have one official website designed to help to accomplish four goals: 1 – To honor the dead by any means possible, 2 – To educate others on why they fought and about the cost of freedom, 3 – To visit hospitals and rehab centers for wounded soldiers and vets, and troop installations in the US and abroad, and 4 – To have yearly reunions. World War II: Infantry Commanding Officer Experiences Reports 4,905 pages of reports covering personal experiences of commanding officers during combat in World War II,. Uncle Sam sent greetings to me, March 1943. “Now I see him!” said the rifleman. These include: Operation Overlord, Operation Market Garden, Operation Pegasus, Battle of the Bulge, Occupation Duty at Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest, and Austria. “He just moved.”, “Yeah,” the machine gunner said. Tax Recovery Services LLC is a Washington Wa Limited-Liability Company filed on June 14, 2004. Name Beginning With (C) Updated 12/01/10. A few Germans survived the hail of fire, including one who got within yards of Sparks’s foxhole. The Field Company of the Royal Engineers provided technical skill and know-how in support of the fighting units of the formation known as a Division. A notable casualty listed in this record is Private James M. Hutton, Jr. (ca. 1st Battalion; 2nd Battalion; 3rd Battalion; Commanding Officer 2nd Battalion; Commanding Officer Company I; Company A; Company B; Company C; Company E; Company I; Company K; Company L; Looking for reliable information or news facts about WW2? Sparks peeked out of his foxhole again. If he called out would they open fire? The Thunderbirds had saved the Anzio beachhead, but suffered mightily to do so. (National Archives), In the calm after the battle, German dead lie in a trench in the 45th Division sector. They tried to stay low, but the enemy quickly spotted them; 50 Germans attacked from the rear. He figured the rest were dead or captured. The 45th Infantry Division had been formed from the Oklahoma Army National Guard. Exhausted, Sparks and his men stumbled up a small rise to the west of the shell-pocked road and dug in. After the Battle of Normandy, Easy Company’s men would find themselves assigned to support British forces in the Endhoven, Holland vicinity. The runner also told Sparks to prepare to pull back to the caves, now about three-quarters of a mile away. The unit was activated using the assets of the 5th Brigade, 87th Division. Kesselring was emptying his arsenal at the battered Allied lines. For information on any of the names listed below, submit your request to [email protected] For information about the World War II History Center Research Database, click here.. For information about the World War II History Center, click here.. Name Resource # This property was built in 1969 and last sold on April 03, 2020 for $329,000. William J. Johnston, Pfc. Each of the platoons was to contain 3 x 12 man rifle squads as well as a six-man mortar team squad. Then the night fell silent. Branch of Service: Army; Unit: 7th U. S. Army, 157th Engineers Combat Battalion, Company C. Dates: Dec. 2, 1943 - June 6, 1946 Many had lost their hearing because of the constant din of artillery fire and the echo-chamber effect of the caves. 399th Inf (100th Div) 2 Nov 44-9 Nov 44: 398th Inf (100th Div) 6 Nov 44-9 Nov 44: 397th Inf (100th Div) 6 Nov 44-9 Nov 44: 100th Bn, 442d Inf (Non-Div) Easy Company saw major action during Operation Overlord (Battle of Normandy or D-Day). Sparks sprinted to the corporal’s foxhole. The sensible course was to pull back and reinforce the regiment’s new front line—not waste yet more good men in the defense of a hopeless position. The Allies had not been pushed back into the sea. The barrage killed three men, leaving Captain Sparks and 15 others huddled in foxholes, hands over ears, hearts racing. Name Beginning With (C) Updated 12/01/10. After the operation was completed, the British soldiers were later flown back to the UK. Company E, unaware its platoon was lost, assembled clerks and cooks for an attack that failed to make headway. He managed to get there in time to issue a warning. To avoid being burned, Sparks had to jump to another foxhole. S/SGT Verlin E. Martin #37400369 157th Inf. 45th Inf. The three Thunderbird regiments took unprecedented losses—especially along the Via Anziate. 1st CONG infantry company since WWII deploys to Middle East ... A private departure ceremony for the warriors from Company A “Attack” 1st Battalion 157th Infantry Regiment (MTN) was scheduled Jan. 29 at the North Colorado Springs Readiness Center, Colorado Springs. KIA - May 27, 1944 I don't know what company he was in. The Thunderbirds, who manned a six-mile sector of the front, had borne the brunt of the attack. The artillerymen spotted him and, to his astonishment, fled into nearby woods, horrified by the sight of mud-coated madmen emerging from the murk. Several corpses lay at the edge of Sparks’s hole; the sergeant had saved his life. After a short discussion with his staff, General McAulifee sent the following reply to the German Commander: To the German Commander, “Nuts!” The American Commander.”When COL Harper, the Regimental commander was asked to explain the meaning of the reply by the German officer taking the message back to the German HQ, he replied that it was the equivalent of “Go to Hell.”. A group of men of 527 (2nd Durham) Field Company, a Territorial unit that served under command of 5th Division. The 157th Infantry Brigade is an active/reserve component (AC/RC) unit based at Camp Atterbury, Indiana. Truscott, clad in a leather jacket and tanker’s boots, examined the map. Sparks decided to lead the way. After an hour, the shelling ceased. and 21 months at Espirito Santos N.H. 304th 385th 417th. A corporal named George Holt had carried the antitank weapon all the way from Salerno and never had an opportunity to fire it, much to everyone’s amusement. I was an infantryman with Company "K" , 157th Regiment, 45th Infantry Division. Sep 1, 2017 - Explore Mark M.'s board "157th Infantry Regt" on Pinterest. The M10s fired. He was bleeding from the nose and appeared to be suffering from an exploding shell’s concussion. After reading the battle history of the 157th for that time, I have to think he was in E company that got trapped in a mine field and almost completely decimated on May 27. At noon on February 18, 3rd Division commander Major General Lucian Truscott arrived in the wine cellar in the village of Nettuno—three miles northeast of Anzio—that served as headquarters for the Allied forces there. In his headquarters 50 miles to the north in Rome, Albert Kesselring studied dispatches and reports from Anzio that evening and noted how fast the battle was consuming arms and assault units. Still, most Thunderbirds held steady into the evening and through the long night. My name is Joseph Bernard Taylor. If Wehrmacht armor could advance south along that route, the Germans would be able to push the Allies—some 100,000 men—into the Tyrrhenian Sea. Upon activation into federal service on 15 September 1940, they trained and finally arrived in the ETO exactly four years later 15 September 1944. Men inside also fired back, every rifle shot echoing through the underground chambers like cannon fire. 1914-1944). All afternoon the battle raged across the beachhead’s perimeter. G Company: Visit the website Remembering Bernie L Stokes (Cannon Company, 157th Infantry Regiment) Visit the web site of Staff Sergeant Albert R. Panebianco (K Company, 157th Infantry Regiment) Interview and Photographs of Cliff Hobson (H Company, 157th Infantry Regiment) The tank wheeled, its massive tracks clanking, and pulled back. They were in action at … Three Panzer IVs were on his left flank, avoiding the Via Anziate. Sparks started forward again, moving along the canal toward German lines, which had shifted two miles closer since the enemy counteroffensive began. Across the 157th’s lines, American counterattacks went on all day in desperate attempts to reach what was left of the five trapped companies. “Withdraw and set up on the battalion right flank on the highway,” Brown responded. “They didn’t even shell us,” Sparks recalled. The abscess below Rome had yet to be lanced. The command post was sheltered in an extensive centuries-old warren of caves and man-made tunnels big enough to drive a truck through. 157th ENGINEER COMBAT BATTALION BRIEF ORGANIZATIONAL HISTORY The battalion was constituted in the Army of the United States in February 1943 and activated on April 12, 1943 at Camp Maxey, Texas where it trained until September 1943. He found the 2nd Battalion commander near the entrance and told Colonel Brown he was going to get the gun. So let’s examine the company before we dive into the overall defensive setup, tactics and how to properly deploy a defensive position with anti-tank mines. By the time the hundred or so soldiers who survived reached the caves, they were without most of their weapons, armor, and supplies. My great grandfather, Harold Countryman was a Pvt. Around 1:30 a.m. on February 23, able-bodied survivors from the 2nd Battalion shouldered arms, said last prayers, and formed a line leading to the mouth of the caves. The path to victory lay along the crucial route to Rome—the Via Anziate— which bisected ugly scrubland, marshes, and woods. Full-service research & records analysis. Some of his men might be killed, but “pulling the chain,” as it was called, was his only option. In the gloom Sparks could see figures ahead: British troops. Captain Graffagnino and several medics volunteered to stay behind with the wounded. To stand a chance of crossing no-man’s-land, he would need all the firepower he could carry. The 506th PIR to include Easy Company was disbanded in November of 1945. Again shellfire erupted, hitting another M10, which burst into flames. To preserve the Anzio beachhead against a massive German counterattack, Allied troops resorted to a brutal ground game. The third tank pulled back. Libramont is in German hands.The German Commander. The British battalion that relieved the Thunderbirds in the caves fought against all odds for three more days before being all but destroyed. “It’s not hard to get promoted in the infantry if you do your job and stay alive,” Sparks wrote. In December, the 101st was located in France when the German army launched their Ardennes offensive. “I just moved him.”. This 1,320 square foot house sits on a 9,240 square foot lot and features 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. In 1942, the 506th PIR (Parachute Infantry Regiment) was created at Camp Tocooa, Georgia and included Easy Company. Arnhem called Operation Pegasus. He had no password. One of the most well-known companies in the United States Army is Easy Company, of the 2nd Battalion of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, of the 101st Airborne Division (the Screaming Eagles). They filled their canteens and returned to the caves, where they boiled the bloody water and shared it with the wounded. The division was part of the German Fourteenth Army, under the command of the highly capable general Eberhard von Mackensen, who answered to master strategist Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, commander of German forces in Italy. Although not generally a part of the standard TO&E, sub-machine guns like the Thompson, were found at company HQ's and could be issued to troops on patrol duty. Surgeon Peter Graffagnino and the medics who stayed behind with the wounded in the caves spent the rest of the war as POWs in Germany. Do you want to create your own battlefield tour to sights of wars from the past? 1-157th Infantry Regiment (Mountain) The 1st Battalion,157th Infantry Regiment closes the enemy by means of fire and maneuver in order to destroy or capture him. Staff and Command. But what Sparks saw tested his composure. To his shock, no one was there. One of Sparks’s men spotted about 200 heavily armed German soldiers heading toward the 2nd Battalion command post. The British set out after dark on February 21, moving anxiously forward, rifles slung, beneath the brilliant green light of seemingly constant enemy chandelier flares. M1 rifle fire crackled, interrupted by barely audible pings as soldiers emptied their magazines. “Smiling Albert” did not want to have to inform the Führer that his forces had failed to break through. The steep banks were matted with vegetation. 289th 290th 291st. Dozens died from the concussive effect of nearby blasts that burst soldiers’ lungs and tore away their muddied field jackets. Not since the blitzkrieg of spring 1940, when the Germans had rolled to Paris in less than six weeks, had so large an attacking force gathered to do battle in the west. Another all-out attack might do the trick. Easy Company maneuvered to rescue the men, and completed the evacuation in approximately 90 minutes once reaching the correct location. Sparks said they could borrow his last machine gun, emphasizing that he would come back for it. The 45th Infantry Division was an infantry division of the United States Army, part of the Oklahoma Army National Guard, from 1920 to 1968.Headquartered mostly in Oklahoma City, the guardsmen fought in both World War II and the Korean War.. The four-part, live-action animated series tells the story of Col. Felix Sparks and the diverse soldiers he led in the 157th Infantry Regiment. He and his men were out of supplies and low on water, scavenging for ammunition on the ground. Once gathering or assembling on the ground, Easy Company disabled four heavy German machine guns threatening Allied forces moving along the Causeway 2 route. Several batteries’ gun crews, blackened from cordite powder and almost deaf from incessant firing, loaded more shells into their howitzers’ waist-high breeches and fired, tossing the brass casings onto small hills of spent shells as ginger-colored smoke drifted though nearby trees. “There’s a Heinie,” he told a rifleman. I was company clerk in the 273rd Port Company which was part of the 502nd Port Battalion. The regiment was considered an experimental airborne regiment with the primary mission of parachuting from C-47’s over hostile territory. The remnants of E Company were stranded, with only two M4 Sherman tanks left. Two of the enemy tanks exploded, their inch-thick armor shredded. First Sergeant Harvey E. Vocke and a few others dared to fetch water from a nearby stream that was clogged with dozens of decaying enemy corpses. But nowhere was the fighting as savage and critical as it was in the 45th Division’s sector at the center of the Allied line. The casualties listed died in France during World War II. Several had trench foot so severe they could not walk and had to have legs amputated. After a 20-minute tirade, his voice grew calmer. The situation seemed hopeless. He did not return. In the center was a blue circle around the caves, where the remnants of the regiment’s 2nd Battalion were surrounded. 66th Infantry Division. The unit is responsible for training selected United States Army Reserve and National Guard units. Now, at age 25, he was a canny veteran of three amphibious invasions and a superb company commander, much respected by his men. They scrambled through the German lines and into no-man’s-land. “The Liberator,” a new Netflix series based on the 2013 book by Alex Kershaw, tells the story of Army officer Felix Sparks. The officer in charge of the tank destroyers hesitated. Hundreds of German soldiers were closing on E Company’s positions. They had already learned that if they did attack, we’d bring in artillery fire. Major battles the company saw action in include: Operation Overlord (Battle of Normandy), Operation Market Garden, Operation Pegasus, the Battle of the Bulge, and Occupation Duty at Hitler’s Eagle Nest and later Austria. in Company A 157th Infantry reg. Pvt. Behind the lumbering 25-ton behemoths of the 3rd Panzergrenadier Division came hundreds of gray-uniformed men, some drunk and drugged, screaming guttural orders, blowing whistles, barking encouragement to one another. He was wounded dec 4 (not dec 6 as stated in previous posts) and died dec 6. There he slept, undisturbed, for more than 24 hours. A flare soared, bathing the landscape in an eerie green. Allied artillery, which had outfired the enemy by a factor of 10, finally halted Kesselring’s forces. There was a brrrrrp sound. The 157th Machine Gun Company was formed in 157th (Highland Light Infantry) Brigade, 52nd (Lowland) Division on the 14th of March 1916. 20 of the last remaining survivors from the company during WW2 contributed to tell their stories in an oral-history book project in 2009 called: We Who Are Alive and Remain: Untold Stories From the Band of Brothers. But to the Thunderbirds’ amazement, the British insisted on taking over the Americans’ positions. Intro. Machine guns blinking streams of bullets, they sliced through one platoon of Thunderbirds like a scalpel. An hour before dawn on February 17, German flares suddenly turned the skies above the Anzio beachhead as bright as day. During the battle, he received the following demand for surrender from the German commander fighting the 101st and the men of Easy Company:To the U.S.A. They were the problem, not his brave troops. The men of Easy Company departed France on December 18th for Bastogne, and started their now famous defense of the area surrounded by Germans on December 19 under orders to hold the area. It turned and headed down a dirt track, directly toward his command post. Looking for reliable information or news facts about WW2? Constituted 1 October 2007 in the Colorado Army National Guard as the 157th Infantry Regiment; Organized 1 September 2008 to consist of the 1st Battalion with Headquarters at Colorado Springs Some were singing beer hall songs learned in the Hitler Youth. “Pick him off.”. 83 likes. In the east, British forces from the 56th Division also withdrew. This is based off of the official T/Os (table of organization) which are linked in the "Sources" section. One M10 moved 30 yards to the east of the Via Anziate and stopped near Sparks’s foxhole. On order, mobilizes and deploys to designated locations in order to execute Domestic Operations in … The company was formed in 1942 as part of an experimental airborne regiment and fought in the European Theater of World War 2. Instead, with tanks in support, the enemy troops moved west, where they broke through the 179th Infantry’s lines. The Registered Agent on file for this company is Michael Crisp and is located at 1902 157th E, Tacoma, WA 98445. The brigade fought in both World War I and World War II, assigned to 52nd (Lowland) Division. 157th Infantry Regiment Civil War Madison and Cortland Regiment. Sparks knew every one of those men by name. In a large map room at Adolf Hitler’s Wolf’s Lair headquarters in East Prussia, the Führer seethed with frustration. Kesselring, spending his reserves at a rapid rate, had pushed only as far as an overpass on the Via Anziate called the Flyover, two miles to Sparks’s rear. The brigade is a subordinate unit of First Army Division East. Snipers picked off German officers. Sparks’s communications sergeant, Fortunato Garcia, quick-crawled toward the caves as the last of the daylight faded. After the war he spent 30 years in the Health and Life Insurance business retiring from Mutual and United of Omaha in 1980. (National Archives). Another American put the German out of action. He passed away on 15 April 2012. The book was published by Penguin/Berkley- and credit for the authorship of the text is given to journalist Marcus Brotherton. During the original organization of E Company (Easy Company), there were three rifle platoons and a HQ (headquarters) section. They performed their duty at Georgetown and Charleston, South Carolina, until July, 1865. Men of the 45th Infantry Division ride a troopship bound for Sicily. The battalion’s liaison officer for the 158th Artillery, Captain George Hubbert, called artillery fire onto the caves. He stood stock-still for a few moments, listening, before crawling forward again. The path to victory for the Germans lay along a road to Rome called the Via Anziate; men of the 45th Infantry Division––including Sparks's E Company––occupied crucial positions along that road during what became the crisis point of the battle at Anzio. During the defensive action, one of the more famous quotes to come out of the European Theater of World War 2 was attributed to the 101st Commander, General Anthony Clement McAulifee. Jaw-jolting explosions destroyed mortar emplacements and machine-gun nests along the Allied front, hitting the 157th’s command post and demolishing a house occupied by headquarters staff, severing communications with the 2nd Battalion command post. Originally published in the April 2014 issue of World War II. To the west, the 179th Infantry Regiment pulled back, unable to hold the rushing waves of Germans. The non-profit association formed by the veterans asks that any who are interested in helping with their education goal contact them at [email protected]. The men continued fighting for 28 days in cold weather without winter clothing and limited supplies until reinforced with armor and resupplied. Almond E. Fisher, 2nd Lt. Company E, 157th Infantry - 45th Infantry Division nr. The 158th Artillery responded, shells exploding with devastating power among the Thunderbirds and forcing German tanks and infantry to withdraw. After Action Reports, 157th Infantry Regiment, ETO By Dave Kerr January 17, 2006 at 04:54:35. All across the stalemated Anzio beachhead, stretching some 15 miles from east to west, it was unnervingly quiet in the early hours of February 16, 1944, as if the Germans and the Allies were in their corners, taking a deep breath and steeling themselves before the clang of the bell and the first round. B. Lyon Company, 1912. In his dugout a few yards east of the Via Anziate, E Company’s commander, Captain Felix L. Sparks, picked up his field glasses and scanned the front. Captain Felix L. Sparks (at left, with two unidentified men in Naples) commanded E Company, 2nd Battalion, 157th Regiment. Under interrogation, POWs later confirmed the horror of the Allied shelling. All night dying Germans, surrounded by torn and bullet-riddled comrades, moaned and cried. Moyer, Harold I Company, 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division 130 Moyer, Lawrence E. Army Air Force 893 Spooked, Sparks worked his way back and eventually rejoined a group of about 50 departing Thunderbirds. Once the British arrived, he and the surviving Thunderbirds in the 2nd Battalion were to make a break for the regiment’s forward lines, two miles further to the rear. Chaim Potok, novelist (The Chosen, The Promise). USS Dlonra (SP-66) USS Dodger II (SP-46) USS Dohema Jr. (SP-612) USS Doloma (SP-1062) USS Dolphin (SP-874) Brown Smith Jones USS Doris B. III (SP-733) USS Doris B. IV (SP-625) USS Dorothy (SP-1289) USS Dreadnought (SP-584) USS Druid (SP-321) USS Drusilla (SP-372) Dubuque-class gunboat USS Dubuque (PG-17) USS E. Benson Dennis (SP-791) USS Eagle (SP-145) USS Eaglet (SP-909) USS East … He could stall the German attack by ordering his own artillery to fire on his positions. U.S. Military Units That Served in WWII. There was also a lone bazooka. The defenders ran so low on ammunition they resorted to stripping rounds from discarded machine-gun belts to fill M1 clips. The 157th Infantry Regiment — and their respective division — were the most diverse set of soldiers the war had seen.
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