The 17th Airborne Division was activated at Camp Mackall on April 15, 1943 under the command of General William M Miley. The core units of the newly formed division were the 513th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR), the 193rd and 194th Glider Infantry Regiments (GIR). After the Normandy invasion the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment was permanently attached to the division which was stationed in the United Kingdom from 25 August to 23 December 1944.
During August, 1944 the 17th Airborne Division, became a permanent unit of the U.S. XVIII Airborne Corps. When Operation Market Garden was conceived the 17th Airborne was still in training. Consequently, it was held in reserve. This was not the case during the German Ardennes Offensive. (The 17th Airborne)
The 513th PIR arrived in England under the command of Colonel James W Coutts who was formerly the assistant commandant of the Fort Benning Parachute School. The regiment was then shuttled to Camp Chisledon, the 17th Airborne Division staging area, on August 28, 1944. Flight and tactical training continued and night maneuvers were added to the training schedule. When Operation Market Garden was initiated, the 17th Airborne was still in training and was held in strategic reserve.
Battle of the Bulge - The Ardennes Offensive
On December 16, 1944, the Germans launched a surprise offensive through the Ardennes Forest which caught the Allies completely by surprise? The 17th was still in England but the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions were in Sissones, France and were rushed by truck to contain the bulge in the Allied lines. Between December 17 and 23, the Germans were halted near St. Vith by the 82nd Airborne and Bastogne by a roadblock, defended by the U.S. 7th Armored Division and the 101st Airborne Division. To help reinforce the siege at Bastogne the entire 17th Airborne Division was finally committed to combat in the European Theater of Operations.
From 23 to 25 December, elements of the Division were flown to the Reims area in France in spectacular night flights then hastily trucked into Belgium. Meanwhile, Patton's Third U.S. Army had finally broken the siege at Bastogne with a marathon thrust from the south. Upon arriving the 513th PIR and the other elements of the 17th Airborne Division were attached to Patton's Third U.S. Army and ordered to immediately close in at Mourmelon. After taking over the defense of the Meuse River sector from Givet to Verdun on 25 December, the 17th moved to Neufchateau, Belgium, then marched through the snow to Morhet, relieving the 28th Infantry Division on 3 January 1945 and establishing a Division Command Post.
In the ensuing days, the 513th PIR would gain their baptism of fire that would have tested the mettle of the most experienced airborne units. General Patton had ordered the 17th Airborne to seize the town of Flamierge where the 11th Armor and the 87th Infantry Divisions had encountered brutal resistance from the Germans. The plan called for two regiments to push forward, the 513th PIR on the right while the 194th GIR under Col James R Pierce would be abreast of the 513th on the left. Almost immediately after the regiments jumped-off they encountered a relentless fusillade of mortars. E company of the 513th PIR 2nd Battalion lost three commanders in consecutive order while struggling forward. Finally, a platoon of F Company under the command of Lt Samuel Calhoun and a platoon of E company under the command of Lt Richard Manning made a fix bayonet charge that routed a superior German force while capturing many of the enemy.
Meanwhile, the 1st Battalion reached Cochleval but was similarly pinned down by heavy machine-gun and mortar fusillades. When two German tanks broke out of the dense fog and threaten to overrun the 513th's position, S/Sgt Isadore S "Izzy" Jachman recovered a bazooka from a fallen comrade and single-handedly engaged the two panzers knocking them both out. Unfortunately he was killed in a burst of machine gun fire. For his action on that day S/Sgt Jachman was awarded the Medal of Honor. The 513th was hit hard and along with the 17th Airborne's two glider regiments sustained heavy casualties but they gallantly achieved their objectives.
The 17th returned to camp at Chalons-sur-Marne in France on 11 February 1945 then back to Belgium on 21 March 1945 to prepare for the air assault across the Rhine.
Operation Varsity - The Airborne Assault on the Rhine
In early February 1945, the tide of battle was such as to enable an accurate estimate as to when and where the 2nd British Army would be ready to force a crossing of the Rhine River. It was determined that the crossing would be in conjunction with an airborne operation by XVIII Airborne Corps.
The sector selected for the assault was in the vicinity of Wesel, just north of the Ruhr, on 24 March 1945. Operation Varsity would be the last full scale airborne drop of World War II and the assignment went to the British 6th Airborne Division and the 17th Airborne Division.
This would be the last full scale airborne operation of the war and the first combat jump for the 513th PIR. As General Eisenhower watched the operation from a church tower on the west side of the Rhine the 513th had the misfortune of flying over a concentration of German antiaircraft weapons. Two-thirds of the C-46's were either damaged or in flames. The pilots remained with the aircrafts until the troopers jumped. However, the 513th landed in the wrong area in the midst of the heavily fortified town of Hamminkeln. Regardless, the 513th began conducting frontal assaults on the heavily entrenched German positions as British gliders started to land practically on top of them.
It was during this fighting that Pfc Stuart S. Stryker seeing his unit's exposed position ran to the front of his unit. He found his platoon leader and platoon sergeant laying dead. Acting on instinct he rallied his fellow paratroopers in a wild rush toward the enemy positions. Just short of the enemy positions he was riddled with machine gun fire and fell dead. However, the remainder of his platoon overtook the enemy position capturing two hundred Germans and freeing 3 American bomber pilots. For this heroic action PFC Stryker was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
By mid-afternoon on 24 March 1945 the 513th had secured all of its objectives including the capture of 1,100 German prisoners. By Easter Sunday, 1 April 1945, the 513th was positioned outside of the town of Munster, 50 miles east of the Rhine. The local German commander refused the surrender demands and heavy fighting broke out. It was during this engagement that Col Coutts was wounded by a piece of shrapnel ending the war for him. The war finally ended a month later on 7 May 1945 when General Alfred Jodl signed the unconditional surrender to the Allied powers.
The 513th PIR served in the Army of Occupation of Germany from 20 May - 4 July 1945. The regiment then went to Vittel, France on 15 August 1945. It returned to the United States via the Boston Port of Embarkation on 14 September 1945 and inactivated at Camp Myles Standish, Massachusetts on the same date.
17th Airborne Casualties:
1314 men killed in action
4904 men wounded in action
17th Airborne Awards:
Distinguished Unit Citations: 4
Medal of Honor 3
Distinguished Service Cross 4
Distinguished Service Medal 1
Silver Star Medal 179
Legion of Merit 15
Bronze Star Medal 727
Purple Heart Medal 6218
Air Medal 21
