Next to being busy with veterans, my normal day job, the family, the museum and some other things, I am involved (actually, I could not stay away from it, could not say NO) in finding answers to quite a few people’s requests regarding family members that fought in one of the operations in Holland.

by Roland Korst (korst_ro@euronet.nl)

Bill

It all started last year with Tom who was looking for information related to the landing location of the glider in which his uncle Bill was co-pilot. Due to a hit in one of the engines of the "tugging C47" they had to land the glider in the nearest acceptable location. This happened to be pretty close to a German artillery unit, which was firing at the troops in "the corridor", the narrow umbilical cord that connected Belgium, Eindhoven, Grave and Nijmegen.

For Bill and his squad it must have looked as if they could not have a positive influence on the battle. After all, they landed short of the LZ and never got around to executing their assignments. But at the time they had no way of knowing that so many gliders mis-landed in roughly the same area that the Germans truly believed the whole thing was a planned part of the Market Garden operation and was aimed at widening the corridor. To make sure they would be able to fight another day, the German artillery overnight retreated to the east, in the direction of Germany, leaving the corridor alone. So, in a way, the mis-landings did have a positive effect on the MG operation after all. The firefight, the surrender, the imprisonment, the going home, all that and more will be described in as much detail as possible in Tom’s book about his uncle’s adventure.

During the "Search for Glider 13" we found the most likely spot where the glider could have landed, the most likely spot where Bill and his men had been locked up for the night (the nunnery) and an eyewitness to the landing of the glider. This was not bad, not bad at all. After so many years so much can still be found, many locations are virtually unchanged, and so many people have collected and are collecting all kind of information, it takes time and energy but it is there if you want to find it.

1944 and Today. The picture shows Bill and Tom filling in for Boy Browning and Slim Jim Gavin, respectively overall commander of the Market Garden operation and commanding General of the 82^nd AB.

Then there was Martha. During the war and also during the operation Market Garden, her father lived in Eerde close to Schijndel, villages liberated by the 101^st Airborne division. Martha was looking for some information about this period to use in a booklet she was making for the family. We worked on this and pictures of the mill, the church and some other stuff could be made available. This was an easy one and I hope the book came out alright.

The mill in 1944 and Today (September 1999). On the left in todays picture a monument for the 501^st Parachute Infantry Regiment ‘Geronimo’

In my description of the activities around the 55^th anniversary of the operation I mention Ray and Kathy, two friends I met through the Internet and in real life, who were very interested in visiting the locations where different Market Garden celebrations would take place. Kathy mentioned her uncle Walther (Wally) who was part of the 3^rd Battalion 504^th PIR of the 82^nd US Airborne Division, the battalion that would later lead in the famous river crossing to take the Nijmegen road and railroad bridge. Wally died during this operation but his brave actions did not go unnoticed and he received a Presidential Citation for his deeds. Kathy asked me to write some words about her uncle Wally and while going through and studying the information I decided to make it a bit more than just a few words. So here goes, with some background information first.

Wally, one of 10 children of Anton and Mary Muszynski, and his twin sister on the stairs in front of their home in Cudahy as well as Wally while in the US 82^nd AB Division.

Wally’s twin sister died at the age of three and two of Wally’s brothers died of drowning. He attended the Holy Family Catholic School as well as the Cudahy Vocational School and employment included the Civilian Conservation Corps (which build all the parks), Northwestern Refrigerator Car Co. and Patrick Cudahy Inc., a meat packing plant. Wally volunteered for service in 1942 and joined the US 82^nd Airborne. He took part in the paratroop invasion of Africa, Sicily and the Anzio beachhead. For Operation Market Garden ,the 504^th PIR was flown in on September 17^th 1944 with the assignment to take Grave bridge. They landed on DZ-O at Overasselt right on time without any real problems except that they lost a single plane on the flight over southern Holland. We’ll come back to this plane later. Part of the 2^nd Bn/504^th (company E) had been dropped on the south side of the bridge at Velp/Grave. With company E attacking from the south and the remainder of the 2^nd Battalion/504 attacking from the north the bridge was captured fairly quickly and at a moderate cost in casualties.

3^rd Batallion/504 PIR was kept in reserve, they did not participate in the actual attack on the bridge but were placed as a kind of screen around the attacking troops to keep the Germans ‘of their back’. Their time for achievements was still to come.

504^th PIR expanded their bridgehead to the south (2^nd Bn), east (1^st Bn) and west (3^rd Bn). 505 PIR that had landed on the DZ-N south of Groesbeek with the assignment to capture (a) bridge(s) over the Maas/Waal canal made contact with the 1^st Bn/504 later in the afternoon. 508 PIR landed on DZ-L northeast of  Groesbeek and attacked in the direction of Nijmegen to try and capture the main prize, the road bridge crossing the Waal river. With a single regiment and without the support of tanks and heavy artillery this was too much of a task for the lightly armed paratroopers and the waiting would be for 30 Corps to show up.

Following the link-up with 30 Corps on September 19, 504 PIR was moved to the Groesbeek area where they participated in actions to defend the drop/landing zones against attacks out of the Reichswald and where they participated in the street fighting going on in Nijmegen , fights aimed at opening the roads to the bridge.

Comes September 20. With the Nijmegen bridge still in German hands, the British at Arnhem under tremendous pressure and the Germans moving in re-enforcements from north of the river Waal something needed to be done. The British 30 corps had taken over the defense of the area at Groesbeek and Grave and 504^th was moved to Nijmegen. The plan was to attack the bridge from both sides and 3^rd Bn/504 PIR under command of Major Julian Cook was selected to cross the river downstream from the bridges and to capture the north end of the road bridge. Once the boats were brought up from somewhere far down the line, the troopers got in, crossed the stream under heavy fire, got to the dike on the other side and took the railroad bridge, "fortress Lent" and the road bridge.

Well, it definitely wasn’t that easy. Take a look at the pictures and get your imagination in gear.

The first picture is of the Nyma factory, still there after all these years. That’s where it started, between this factory and the power plant the boats were put in the water. The bridges are already visible when looking to the right, in the picture one will find the railroad bridge fully to the right with the road bridge a bit to the left of it.

Try to picture the distances, the fear, the noise, the bullets flying everywhere and killing or wounding your mates, try to feel what it takes to fight the current that is taking you further and further away from your target no matter how hard you paddle and try to see the smoke screen lift giving the enemy a clear field of fire.

An impression of the distance to row and run. The left picture is taken in the direction of the actual crossing, the picture on the right shows the total distance from the dike. The tower of the Nyma factory is still visible, left of center.

Try to imagine hitting the other side of the stream only to find yourself on a flat piece of land with hardly any cover, a piece of land some 400 yards deep that you will have to cross to get to the relative safety of the dike, 400 yards that you will have to cover under fire while totally exhausted.

From the same position as the previous picture but this time along the dike in the direction of the railroad bridge. That still leaves quite a bit of fighting to do to get to the bridge, let alone taking it.

And you know what, getting to the dike won’t do it for you because that is not the target, not even close. The heavily defended railroad bridge is about another 400 yards and the road bridge is little over a mile away.

Wally made it across, he made it to the dike, he made it to close to the railroad bridge and there he was killed. His actions during the crossing and the battle for the bridges were such that he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

Kathy had given me the picture of Wally, some background information related to his youth and his time in the 82^nd US Airborne as well as a copy of the citation that came with the decoration.

My dear Mr. Muszynski,

I have the honor to inform you that, by direction of the President, the Distinguished Service Cross has been posthumously awarded to your son, Private First Class Walter J. Muszynski, Parachute Infantry.

Distinguished Service Cross

For extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against armed enemy on 20 September 1944 about one mile north of ***, Holland. As a light machine gunner, Private First Class Muszynski crossed the *** River in one of the lead boats of the initial assault element during the *** bridgehead operation.

As heavy machine gun and 20mm flak fire greeted the forward elements, Private First Class Muzinsky quickly mounted his machine gun in the bow of his boat and directed heavy fire on the enemy dug in on the riverbank. Although fully exposed to enemy fire, which wounded 2 of his comrades, Private First Class Muszynski disregarded all possibilities of danger and remained at his precarious post.

Upon reaching the opposite bank, Private First Class Muszynski maintained a continuous cover of protective fire for the movement of his squad to the main dyke and from the dyke to the railroad embankment, accounting for at least 20 enemy dead and wounded. At times he fired his machine gun from the hip while moving forward so as to keep pace with his squad. At the railroad embankment heavy opposition from self-propelled 20mm flak guns was encountered, and one of the nearby flanking guns knocked Private First Class Muszynski’s machine gun from his arms, destroying it. Unhesitatingly and without orders from anyone, Private First Class Muszynski crept to within 15 yards of the gun position directing devastating flanking fire on his platoon, and knocked it out with hand grenades, killing 4 of the enemy. During this phase of the action, Private First Class Muszynski fell mortally wounded from enemy rifle fire. By his brave determination and valorous execution of his duties at the sacrifice of his own life, Private First Class Muszynski set an inspiring example for all his comrades and contributed directly to the successful establishment of the vital *** bridgehead.

The decoration will be forwarded to the commanding general, Sixth Service Command, Chicago, Illinois, who will select an officer to make the presentation. The officer selected will communicate with you concerning your wishes in the matter.

May I again express my deepest sympathy to you in your bereavement.

Sincerely yours,

Robert H. Dunlop
Brigadier General,
Acting The Adjutant General

Wally’s last resting place is on the beautiful cemetery of Margraten in Limburg, the south of Holland.

Next thing that happens is that Rehg asks if anybody knows what might have happened to his uncle who was co-pilot on one of the gliders of the 82^nd AB, on one of the C-47 glider-tugs or on one of the C-47 troop-ships. As Douglas, Rehg’s uncle, was a real co-pilot chances were small that he could have been co-pilot on a glider as these were usually just one of the soldiers that was flown into battle by that glider. (Much like Bill, who told me "we were told that if anything happened to the pilot we had to steer such that this needle stayed pointing to the center and this line should be kept horizontal, and than the glider would land itself".)

Asking around it was quickly found that Douglas had been co-pilot on a C-47 (named Bette) flying part of 3^rd Bn/504 PIR (Wally’s outfit) into battle. Hit in one of the engines the plane crashed close to Fijnaart in the western part of the Dutch province of Brabant. The pilot, co-pilot, radio operator and the navigator were killed in the crash, the 15 paratroopers as well as the crew chief jumped from the burning plane and all except two paratroopers were taken prisoner by the Germans. We found the names of all the crewmembers as well as the names of the 15 para-troopers on board the unlucky plane. Douglas’s plane was the only one carrying troopers of the 82^nd AB that got lost on the way in, 9 more were lost on the way back to England. A few days after the crash the remains of the 4 crewmembers were taken from the burned-out plane and buried in a local cemetery. After the war Douglas’s body was taken back to the USA. Rehg is currently searching for the paratroopers that survived the plane crash, we know their names and through the 504 PIR veterans association it should be possible to locate one or more of them.

A picture of Douglas Felber. Last year, 56 years after the fact, flowers were placed on the crash site by an eyewitness (blue jacket) of the crash and his brother who tried to help the paratroopers stay out of German hands.

I’ll leave it at this for now; there will be more to tell you in the future. But, there is one thought that I would like to share with you. You see, none of these guys deserved to die, not the Douglas’s of the world nor the Wally’s nor for that matter anybody fighting for a good and just cause. But of course, it does happen, it’s inevitable. Now, if we would take the time to think of these men and women that died or that put (even today) their lives on the line so somebody else can live in peace and prosperity, if we would think about them once a day, once a week or even just once a month, would that not make them immortal and is that not what they deserve?

Roland