|
The Parachuters Fate near Aywaille ?
|
| At some point during the Bulge I believe near Aywaille when a huge armada of Bombers was coming over our area. Jim Quillin myself, Jim Lucas and Butch "The blonde Bomber" Lawson and a few others were laying communication lines through a town. |
|
 
T/5 Clyde "B"Lawson and T/4 Thomas F.Bailey,
 
T/4 James B.Quillin and T/4 James E. Lucas.
|
| We were heading down a fairly steep hill and basically kicked the large spool of wire down the hill. It came barreling down the hill and went through some trees and out the other side into town. Simultaneously one of us circled around and down into town to help locate and retrieve the wire. As we followed the spool down into the town, a large angry mob of Belgian civilians, thinking we were German paratroopers (because of an armada of Bombers that were flying over with parachutes coming down out of crippled aircraft), came at us with pitch forks, old rifles, basically armed with anything they could grab. |
| |
| I eventually convinced them we were Americans. Probable had to do with us being out of regulation uniform. It was cold so I was wearing a multi colored scarf, a fur lining I had sown into an Officers coat I had swiped. Something only Americans would wear (we also all had heavy beards by then.). |
| |
| At about this time out of nowhere, a Major showed up, what outfit he was with, I don't know. He was irate at all of us for being out of uniform, (he was in his dress pinks, no one in their right mind would wear their dress with a tie and showing his rank, near the front lines, that's who would get shot first.) at this point I could see out of the corner of my eye Lucas start to raise his weapon towards the Major. I drew back and hit the Major square in the jaw, knocking him out cold. I 'd have to say I did the guy a big favor. After the experiences we had all been through and seen, this Major was way out of place in his actions. |
| |
 |
| |
| We left and continued our duties leaving the civilians standing there watching in awe. |
| |
| During all this, overhead you could see our bombers flying in formation. I believe German- 88’s were picking them off in the sky. The Germans had a procedure of systematically blanketing the skies with flack, usually with a total of 16 guns, (unlike the American anti aircraft). If the American bombers didn't explode in the sky the crews were attempting to parachute out. The Germans had an ace in the distance waiting to dive upon the parachutes with incinerary bullets lighting the chutes a blaze. These poor fellows were dropping out of the skies and bouncing off the ground about 30 to 50 ft. in the air. I'd have to say it was a hard thing to watch, I went over and retrieved some dog tags from these guy's. |
| |
| The only thing holding them together was their suites. To this day the disfigured face of one individual still haunts my memory more then any other memory. He had a smile on his face that was somewhat hideous considering the back of his head was gone and his face was way oversized. |
| |
