I enlisted as a young lad in the United States Army at age 19, it was January 19, 1942 – my mother signed the enlistment papers . At first I thought I’d end up with the Engineers, so my mother was very happy with the news (since my uncle Fred was a railroad engineer) and she thought I’d never get hurt driving trains, being out of harm’s way ! I thought that was good too . The next day I was sent to Ft. McPherson, Atlanta, Ga. (Army Reception & Reclassification Center, troop capacity 335 Officers & 5,917 Enlisted personnel) and was given some more tests and a physical examination, I was then told I was gonna go to Ft. Belvoir, Alexandria, Va. (Army Engineer School & Replacement Training Center, troop capacity 2,183 Off & 21,954 EM) for training . When I got there, I found out it was a place soldiers were taught how to handle explosives and demolitions . It looked frightening, I was beginning to think, what did I get myself into ? After a 3-month stay, I was then sent to Portmount Navy Command for underwater demolition training, and after another 3 months, off I went to Ft. Benning, Columbus, Ga. (AGF Training Center & Infantry School, troop capacity 3,970 Off & 94,873 EM) . After being awarded my jump wings on June 10, 1942, I finished Jump School July 6, 1942, (the 505th Parachute Infantry had just been activated under Airborne Command, at Ft. Bragg, Fayetteville, N.C., and was assigned to the 82d Airborne Division, on February 10, 1943), I joined the 505th PIR at Ft. Bragg February 12, 1943 . I later participated in 4 combat jumps, i.e. Sicily (9 Jul 43) – Salerno Beachhead (14 Sep 43) – Normandy (6 Jun 44) - and Holland (17 Sep 44) .

Let’s get back to “Operation Market-Garden”, at the time of the preparation, the entire Regiment received the new M-1943 clothing & equipment, though we felt disappointed seeing the new ‘double-buckle’ boots ! Having been on the line for quite a while, and seeing some heavy action in June and July 44, left everyone more than tired, and what we really needed was a long rest period and some quiet . But other plans were being made for us … our CO > Captain Harold Johnson sent for me by runner, I was to immediately report to him . When arriving at his building, there were guards all over the place, at first, I thought something bad had happened, I looked like hell, dirty, no time to shave, worn clothes (no time to try on any of the new ones just issued), and I told myself, “What the hell, here we go again.” . I knocked, was summoned inside, saluted and was told to sit down, and wait . Our CO was talking to some officers in the room, some whom I’d never seen before and a few from Battalion . He told the officers to leave now, and that they would get more briefing later . Meanwhile, I was thinking “What in hell, have I gotten myself into again?” . After everyone had left, the Captain asked me how I was feeling, and if all my wounds had properly healed (I was shot in the left knee June 6, in Ste-Mère-Eglise ), I told him I was OK and that with the way my luck was running, I would probably live on, and we both laughed . Then he pulled out a long roll of papers and maps, and said he wanted to show me something … after the maps were unfolded, I saw that they were covering Holland, and I observed a large circle drawn around Nijmegen with some black arrows pointing at a river called Maas, and some green ones pointing at the Waal Canal Bridge over it . He explained, the 82d Airborne would participate in “Market Garden”, and that the 505th PIR would jump as reserves to the 504th and the 508th PIR, and that our jump zone would be near a town called Groesbeek, and also that we were going to seize the bridge crossing the Maas-Waal Canal and then move north with British armored forces (Guards Armoured Division) toward the Nijmegen Bridge . I asked Captain Johnson what the Germans were going to do, while we would be busy doing all this, and he replied “running I hope !” Then he spilled it, “Your Platoon will have another prime assignment and objective in this operation.” I said, “Now the shit hits the fan”, I really thought so, being the only person the Captain had wanted to see, he continued by stating that my Platoon was going after one ‘special’ objective in this operation, and that he wanted me to pay attention to what he was going to tell me. Aerial photographs indicated there were 2 bunkers with heavy weapons covering the bridge on both sides of the canal, and our Platoon’s job was to neutralize or destroy them ! I told him that the bridge looked as being about 30 miles from our DZ, he argumented that by the time we’d leave the plane, we should be just on this side of the bridge, i.e. not more than a mile or so . When I asked Captain Johnson, what officer would accompany us, he looked surprised, and said “Did I say any officer would go along?” I said “No”, turned, and left the room !

chuting up for the Holland operation, aircraft # 43-15614

	C Co, 504th PIR stick posing at the door of their C-47 transport aircraft # 42-68766
	Cottesmore Airfield, England, 82d Abn Div staff and Hq personnel preparing for the jump …

I then went back to my men, found Stewart and Halakoff and told them to round up all the satchel charges they could muster, with a couple of spools of primacord and blasting caps, both electric and non-electric, and also to get four or five 2.36-inch bazookas with the necessary rockets . Some of the guys kept asking, where we were going, and I told them “on a vacation...” . That night I managed to get hold of one of the maps Captain Johnson had shown me in his office, I then got all our men together and tried to explain what whe had to do, when we would reach our objective - the best we could tell from studying the map that we had, was noticing that there was a ditch running parallel to the road leading to the Nijmegen bridge, and I wanted the men to keep this in mind; that would be the place to meet (after leaving our plane), and for them not to forget . I advised the men that I did not want that those with the haversacks with explosives should have any blasting caps of any kind on them (together with the explosives), and same was to apply to the ones carrying primacord . I then told them to fall out and get some rest . I reached my pocket and got out my little black notebook and opened it up to where I kept my dates and personal notes and jotted down “Saturday, 0745, 16th September 1944”, then put it back .

C Co, 505th PIR personnel chuting up and getting ready to board their aircraft # 43-15317



B Co, 505th PIR stick in front of their aircraft # 42-92846



1st Bn, 504th PIR personnel ready to depart for Holland, aircraft # 42-100499

Formal planning for “Operation Market-Garden” started on September 10, 1944, with a first date set on September 14 . However, in the face of the German buildup, the British immediately called for increasing both the scope and strength of the ground phase, which thus forced a postponement to September 17 ! The new ground plan, called “Garden” , provided for the British XXXth Corps to spearhead a drive from Antwerp to Arnhem, while the airborne assault (joint American, British and Polish paratroops) was called “Market” .

PWD / SHAEF Psychologic Warfare Leaflet ZH.2 dropped over Holland (obverse side)

Sunday, 17th September 1944, was a clear, bright and sunny day, with perfect flying weather . We were all nervous, but ready, we thought it odd, because one of our Battalions was supposed to jump near a town called Grave . We would split our forces, by dropping us south of the bridge and the remainder of the Platoon on the north side toward the traffic bridge . We would be supposed to jump from between 600 and 700 feet, I thought this was very low considering the kind of chutes we were using . All of us were loaded down with explosives, ammo, hand grenades and those damn HEAT rocket shells . At the the time however, little did we know how useful they would be when it became time to use them . The C-47 troop carrier, workhorse of the Air Corps always got us where we had to go ! We left England at about 1000 . We had been flying for some time now, it seemed forever, but I knew it had been less than three hours, and then, after the red light, it was time to stand up and hook up, and check everyone; the green light came on, and there was no turning back now …everyone was going out the door, like going for a walk, I would follow last as always, just to make sure, all troopers had left the plane, and as my chute opened, I noticed some small arms fire coming from the ground, and some big black puffs of smoke in the distance near the bridge . I then hit the ground, rolled forward, and then to my right to get out from under the collapsing chute . After having removed my harness and parachute, I recognized the ditch we had seen on the map, it was about 200 feet from where I just landed . I saw some other troopers running toward the ditch as I also started to make my way in this direction . My Platoon was coming from every direction, and they were all heading for the same place . When Stewart and Halakoff got there, I asked them to start a headcount and see how many men from our Platoon had made it . As I crawled along the ditch I saw that the men were stretched along it, as far as I could see . I called Northcutt to set up his .30 cal machine gun facing the bridge which was about 200 yards from where we were . I reached over the top to check whether the pillbox or bunker stood there, i.e. close to the road and bridge . At first I couldn’t see anything that looked like a gun emplacement or a pillbox, then all of a sudden, and at once, the whole damn world sounded like it exploded right into the ditch, where we were hiding, black smoke, dirt, rocks were raining down on us, at first I thought a mortar shell might have hit us, but then I saw a small ring of white smoke coming from some tall bushes, at about 150 feet from where we were . Then it suddenly dawned on me that we were almost on top of the bunker we were looking for, I was so damn nervous that I scooted down toward to where I had seen the smoke, meanwhile giving the troopers a signal to hold their fire and be quiet . I continued down the ditch toward the tall bushes which were now less than 50 feet away … I was at the bottom of the ditch now, and as I made my way to the side I could see a huge concrete block not even 20 feet away – it was a structure, some 20 feet square, and it had gun slits on all four sides, about a foot wide and eight foot long . At the side, pointing up the road from our position, the opening, facing the field where we landed, showed a protruding gun barrel, a German 88 ? .

“All American” troopers, aboard their C-47 aircraft, a few minutes before take-off …

I crawled over the top of the ditch to get a better look at our objective (the one we were to destroy), no one could see me, the gun ports were too high, I crawled further to the other side and saw a huge wooden door, about 8 foot high and 4 foot wide . There was a crack at its bottom, about 3 inches high, so I stuck my hand under the door to judge its thickness and found out it was almost 4 inches thick, and looked like it was made of solid oak . Moreover, I noticed it opened outward instead of inward, this meant that it could only be opened from inside . I then returned to my men, I got the Squad Leaders together, and told them about my plan concerning the enemy bunker, about that time Bill Hartman came up and informed me that the shell that hit the ditch about 200 feet from us, had killed 3 of our guys, replacements from other units who had been assigned to our Platoon, and who had jumped with us . He pitched me their dog tags, I looked at the names and pocketed the tags . I then told the men it was time to get to work . Dilbeck and Northcutt were instructed to get the primacord and the satchel charges and follow me back into the ditch , while the other fellas were told to hold their fire and not shoot at anything they couldn’t see, and above all to keep still, for I thought the Germans in the bunker ignored we were so near ! We left the remainder of the Platoon in the ditch and headed for the bunker . I turned back and shouted to Stewart to keep the machine gun trained on the slit of the bunker with the gun barrel sticking out . I also said I would call him on the radio when to start firing . We approached the bunker door without having been seen, and started slipping the primacord under it, there were approximately 500 feet on the reel, I told Dilbeck to make sure the cord wouldn’t bunch up as he pushed it under the door, and he replied, he thought it was going downward as if in a hole of some sort, I squatted down and eased my hand under the door and indeed felt the cord as it went downward, I then said, it looks like the bunker is sitting over a huge cavity, a room, perhaps ? I then whispered to Northcutt to bend over and lift me up so as to be able to see through one of the slits, in case there was anything for me to see … It was gradually getting dark now and I could see a little light inside the gun hole, there were 2 Germans next to the gun in two swivel seats . To me, they looked as if they were asleep . I jumped off Northcutt’s back and told him to reach for the 3 satchel charges (haversacks) and deposit them in the gun ports and set the timers for three minutes, I then went to Dilbeck and told him to set the primacord fuzes at two minutes forty-five seconds, so the primacord would blow first, and the satchel charges would do the rest, and then, all of us took off, running like mad back into the ditch . I guess we were about over 50 yards away from the bunker when the place blew up ! When that primacord went off, there was fire and dense black smoke coming out of the gun ports, just like rockets, and then the satchel charges exploded and the heavy wooden door came flying through the air, while part of the bunker’s top started falling down on us . Some of the ammunition stored in the bunker must have gone off when the charges exploded, because we heard the earth rumble and it sounded like coming from somewhere under the ground .

	439th TCG transport planes drop C Co, 307th Abn Engr Bn elements
	3d Bn, 505th PIR being dropped over DZ ‘N’, aircraft # 43-15267

After the smoke cleared, and dirt, rocks and debris stopped falling, Northcutt, Dilbeck and I crawled back to where the door had stood, and I tried looking inside to check what was left of the structure after the blast, I saw that both Germans were dead, one had been blown over against the wall on the northern part of the bunker, and I asked Northcutt for his flashlight to see more as I cautiously moved inside . The second German was resting in his gun seat, with clothes still smoking (they had been set on fire by the explosion) . I checked him out, just in case, he was dead alright, and put out the fire still burning around him .

Colonel Wm E.EKMAN (CO > 505th PIR) patrols Mook in a jeep of the 505th PIR Sv Co (sitting behind .30 cal LMG)

When I went over to where the other German was, I discovered that he was lying over a huge trapdoor in the floor, as if he had tried, but in vain, to open it, in order to evacuate the bunker . We moved the body, after having checked it for possible booby-traps, and slowly opened the trapdoor . It was about 4 square feet and very heavy, we let it drop to the floor and looked down if we could see the bottom . It was very dark in there, and we couldn’t see anything . I found a piece of concrete and dropped it into the hole, after a few seconds I heard it hit the bottom, which I estimated to be about 20 feet deep . I saw that there were rungs on the side of the wall going down into the hole . I told Dilbeck and Northcutt to stay there and told them I intended to go down into the hole to see where it led to, I also told them to keep the handie-talkie on so that we could keep in touch while descending . I taped my flashlight to the outside of my right leg in order to shine down on the rungs as I climbed further down to explore the hole, I wanted to go slowly so I could make sure to avoid setting off any possible booby traps . I also snapped the end of a 50-ft long 3/16th elevator control cable (secured from a glider tow) to one of the hooks of my suspenders and gave Dilbeck the other end, telling him that if anything went wrong, he was to pull me back out of that hole and fast ! As I descended, I started counting the rungs as I went – I figured they were about 18 inches apart, and when I reached the bottom I had counted about 16 of them . I then reached down took my flashlight and shined it all around me to try and see where I was … and from what I could see, this was a tunnel leading northwards, toward the Waal River Bridge, the tunnel seemed about 20 feet wide and between 15 to 20 feet high with a rounded ceiling at the top . I observed that it had a fixed light in the center and one about every 100 feet . As I inspected the walls, my light shone on a box closed by a small lid, I checked all very carefully and then opened it discovering a phone and a toggle switch , I stepped back and with the tip of my bayonet flipped the switch on, the small light bulbs in the ceiling came on and I could see down the tunnel for about 200 to 300 feet . The floor was wet, and the walls were dripping water from everywhere, the smell in the tunnel was awful, something very much like black pepper, more like gunpowder and very damp . I unhooked the cable, and called Dilbeck on the radio, telling him to drop the cable, and call Northcutt to collect all the men and bring them down in the tunnel . About 10 or so minutes, the other troopers started coming down the hole, and they entered the tunnel, I told them to sit down against the wall and to keep quiet, one guy asked if the smoking sign was on, and I told them to smoke if they wanted to . I then told Doyle (Northcutt’s first name) to give me a headcount and also the kind of ordnance we had left . He reported back that we had each trooper’s individual weapon and ammo, plus 9 bazooka shells . I then informed Doyle the tunnel was going toward the Waal River and that we should go see where it went to, so, I instructed him to arrange for a bazooka team up front, and to get going . The ceiling lights luckily didn’t give out too much light in the tunnel and it was very hard to see a great distance as we further progressed . I assigned one man to count the steps that he took, so as to try and assess how far we were going . We had now been moving for about one hour at a slow space, and I guess that we had advanced about 1 mile in the tunnel, when it seemed to curve to the right . I immediately stopped the men and told them to take a break, while I was gonna have a look up ahead . Doyle was to accompany me, we stopped talking as we moved along but I meanwhile kept count of the steps I was taking . I told Doyle I thought we had gone over a half mile, and then took out my binocular looking down the tunnel, I saw a small light head way down the tunnel, which looked like the end of it, Doyle gave a look and said it sort of looked to him to be the end of the tunnel too … turning around and heading back to the rest of the men, I was thinking of the next phase of action .

liberated Dutch civilians of Nijmegen greet their liberators, September 1944 (note M42 jump suits)

I told the troopers to get going, and we started off at a good pace toward the end of the tunnel, we had barely gone about a mile, when we heard a huge explosion, and instantly felt the hot air rushing by, right after the blast . Judging by the sound, I knew this was a heavy weapon that had just fired ! I also noticed the overhead lights were out now, and it was more darker in the tunnel as we continued forward . I looked again through the binocular and at a distance I could see a bright light indicating the end of the tunnel . To me it seemed like a big room, and we were not more than a 1,000 yards away from it . The gun was now firing more often, and the onrushing blast of hot air coming down the tunnel seemed to be coming with more speed than before . I told the troopers to move a little faster and try to remain quiet as we went along . After moving about a hundred yards toward the light at the end of the tunnel, I noticed another tunnel going to the right from the one we were in . I didn’t see any lights or wires running along the ceiling of that part of the tunnel . I called Doyle over to where Dilbeck and I were standing and told him we had better do some thinking about the situation that we were about to get ourselves into . I remembered that during the briefing there was talk about 2 Bunkers we were supposed to destroy, and these were built for guarding and defending the bridge on the southern approach to the Waal River and the Canal Bridge . But when we were still above ground, I didn’t see but one bunker, so I told Doyle that my bet was that this tunnel was leading to the other gun bunker . I then recommended to divide our men into two groups and asked Doyle to take his group, accompanied by one of the bazooka teams, down the other tunnel ! We had 10 new men (replacements) assigned to my Platoon, before leaving on this mission, 3 of which had already been killed, and I therefore ordered Doyle to leave the other 7 men with me . I called Dale Adams and told him that I wanted him to advance in the direction of the light (at the end of tunnel) as far as he could go without being observed by the enemy, and see whether he could make out what we were up against … I told him to leave his pack and anything that would rattle behind, and that we would remain where we were until he reported back . He took off . I told the rest of the men to get some rest, remain quiet and refrain from smoking, since we were getting close to the end of the tunnel . I got hold of Stewart, the bazooka man and told him that I wanted his team to stay in front of the troopers, as we further proceeded down the tunnel . It was now a little past 1000, I really didn’t know whether it was daylight or nighttime and felt like having been beaten by a baseball bat, I was aching all over . About 1115, Dale returned and told me that he approached to within some two hundred feet from the tunnel’s end, and saw a huge room , full of Germans running around back and forth and firing some kind of big gun . The closer he got, the louder it sounded, so he headed back to our position to report . I split the troopers in two groups, put one group on either side of the tunnel, and told them to move forward . I remained on the left side of the tunnel, in front of the men . About 1200 we were within two hundred feet of the big room at the end of the tunnel . We stopped and I took out my binocular again to check the room . I saw Germans running around, and going up some steps toting large shells, and this happened ever so often; we also heard the big gun fire, no wonder the enemy never heard us, they were making such a hell of a noise themselves ! Not once did any German look in our direction . I called Stewart and his bazooka team up to where I was and told him to get ready to put a rocket straight down the tunnel and into that big room, while I ordered the rest of the troopers to get down on the floor with their heads toward the room and to pull their musettes up on their necks . I got behind Stewart’s team and told Stewart to fire 3 rockets into that room, and hit the floor, I then saw the rockets as they left the tube, forming a white trail down the tunnel ...

… on to the Nijmegen Bridges, 2d Bn / 505th PIR (minus D Co) being transported by
Sherman tanks and Bren Carriers from the British Grenadier Guards …

When they hit, all hell broke loose, there was a huge explosion and a ball of fire filled the tunnel and came straight at us, I closed my eyes as it rolled over my head and back, and the nape of my neck felt as if it was on fire, I scraped the little water that was on the floor and tried to soothe the burning ache on my face and neck .You couldn’t see anything because of the heavy hot dense white smoke that filled the tunnel . I could hear men screaming, but luckily it seemed to come from the tunnel’s end . I called out for my men to get up and attack the big room before the enemy realized we were there, as we got into the room, you could see the smoke slowly clearing upward and we discovered dead and dying men all over the place, I saw 3 men on some steps, running upstairs to another room, but before they could reach the upper room, one of our boys shot them down on the steps . The AT rockets had set some of the objects in the room on fire, and as I looked around I understood why there had been such a huge explosion . There were 88mm shells stacked all over the room and German potato mashers in boxes along the wall . I told Dilbeck to come with me, so we could check where the steps went to, and as we went upstairs, I saw they were leading to another huge space . I peeped around and discovered this huge German 88 on a swivel base in the middle of the room, and noticed the bunker was round instead of being square, I further observed two large wooden doors about 10 x 10 feet, behind the gun . There were 3 lanterns in the room that gave out a little light, I went over and picked one of them and cautiously walked toward the door, it was really big, and looked like solid oak to me, it had neither knob nor handle on the inside . I asked Dilbeck to get Barker (our radio operator) up here and fast, and after he arrived, ordered him to try and make contact with either Captain Johnson or Colonel Munson back at the CP, and to let me know if he could reach them . I then looked out the firing slit to see if I could get some kind of bearing as to where we were . I could see all kinds of tracers in the distance flying through the air, and to me, it looked as if they were coming from Nijmegen or from near the Canal Bridge . You could still smell the fumes of the explosion in the room and I wondered why the little lantern I was holding in my hand had not been destroyed by the detonation when the room blew up . By this time, we were all in the upper room, I warned the troopers to be careful and not start grabbing anything laying around in the room, Dilbeck and I were checking these huge doors leading outside, each one had four large hinges, and it was such a good and close fit, you just couldn’t see through the space where the doors closed against the wall . I again looked out one of the gun ports and thought that I could see the area where the 504th PIR were trying to cross to the other side of the river, it must have been about 1500 yards from where we were, and meanwhile the Germans were directing all kinds of heavy fire on our troops, even the German tanks which were retreating, were firing at them, while our men were still in the water . British airborne forces were attacking the Germans as they retreated northward . By this time, Barker came up to me with the radio and told me he had made contact with someone at the CP, I took the mike and said; “Double D calling CP” , the answer came: “Go ahead, Double D”, I asked whom I was talking to, and then waited for a reply … The reply came back: “CO speaking”, then the voice repeated it once more . I then knew it was Captain Johnson, I told him where we were and what we had just destroyed, I also informed him that we were inside the bunker on the southern side of the River, one quarter mile west of the Nijmegen River Bridge . He told me to destroy the bunker, take the rest of my men and join the 508th PIR . I just said “OK” and cut off . I joined the rest of my troopers, and told them what the Captain had told me to do . I knew they were tired, wet and cold, I also knew we just couldn’t open the door and walk out of this concrete pillbox, so I told Dilbeck to get hold of some ½ lbTNT blocks and put about 4 on each side of the two doors where the steel hinges were and blow it all up ! The rest of the men were told to get back down the wooden stairs to the other room . I cut about 5 inches of detonating cord, crimped on a cap on it and handed it to Dilbeck . Then I told him to wait a few minutes, prime and light it and jump back in the cavity where I sheltered . I called out to the guys that just as soon as the door would blow, to make a dash for it and to not stop before finding some kind of cover, they all called back: “Double D !” . Then it sounded like a bomb went off over our heads . Before the smoke cleared I was running outside together with Dilbeck, and we both ran around the northern side of the bunker, our men came running as fast as they could and took refuge wherever they could . As far as I could see no Germans were paying any attention to us or the bunker . I asked Stewart to crawl around and take a headcount; he came back within a few minutes and said we had twenty-seven troopers, and counting myself, we had twenty-eight .

Nijmegen Road Bridge, after its capture by elements pertaining to the 504th and 505th PIR …

I asked Stewart to get to Dilbeck and to go see whether they could make contact with any of the troopers from the 505th, 508th or 504th Regiment and to get back to me as soon as possible, because I was afraid, we wouldn’t stay here unnoticed for long . There was still a lot of small arms fire around us, and ever so often, a mortar shell would fall within two or three hundred feet from our position, luckily none of the shells were aimed at us, as far as I could tell …I told Halakoff that I thought the Germans seemed to ignore our presence . We sat down behind some rocks and shrubs, some one hundred feet from the demolished bunker and took out the terrain map that we had, to see if we could find a safe route toward the Nijmegen River Bridge . We could see where the power plant was located and we knew both the other “All American” troopers were trying to reach the other bank of the river . I called for Barker and told him to try and contact our CP, in order to get Captain Johnson on the line . I told our Commander where we were, and he told me to take my Platoon and join the rest of Second Battalion (505th PIR) who were near our position . Stewart meanwhile returned to tell me the rest of the 505th PIR was attacking the River Bridge, about two miles from where we were; we still had the .30 caliber LMG, and then I told the troopers to spread out and head for the bridge . The closer we got to the bridge, the louder the firing got, it almost sounded like thunder and lightning, only the lightning were German mortar and tank shells hitting all around the Nijmegen area . The first friendly trooper we ran into was from F Company, I told him who we were, and he told me he had heard that all of my men had gotten themselves killed at some damn bunker . I merely replied: “Not yet” . I asked him where the rest of our men were fighting now ? and how far were they ? He replied they were in Nijmegen at the bridge … So I told the guys; “Let’s go.” When we entered Nijmegen, the 505th PIR had already secured the town and there were just a few odd Germans left, and they were running north as fast as they could . I was surprised to run into Captain Johnson coming out of a door of a building as we came into the city, and asked him if that was the CP ? “No”, he said . He looked to me as if he came out off a drunken state, he looked dirty, and his facial hair was as long as my own . I asked what was wrong ? He said that ALL personnel, pertaining to Battalion, were being pulled off the line with the exception of my Platoon, and we were supposed to remain in Nijmegen until relieved by the British . He was mad as hell about it ! I said, “well it’s part of the game, we allways get the s… end of the stick, right ?” He looked at me and replied; “It’s not funny Sergeant ! Go find your men and yourself a place to sleep, or get drunk, or do whatever your Platoon does wen they’re not killing Germans ..” I looked up and said: “That’s what we’re trained for, including killing others also.” I left him and returned to my Platoon to give them the bad news . Six days later, we were pulled off the line, and sent back to England, and then later on back to the States to be discharged as if nothing had ever happened, just a gap in our lives that is NOW history … This was the end of Operation “Market-Garden” for me .

Bunker > entrance leading to underground tunnel
connecting the 2 German defense bunkers together
(postwar picture, taken when approaching the Waal River)