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| Experiences of Sam Howard Headquarters & Service Battery 907th GFA 101st Airborne Division |
| "Because of my trip to Normandy, I got credit for that campaign and I was in the other 4 campaigns as well, 5 battle stars. On the ETO ribbon is a silver star denoting 5 combat campaigns and an arrowhead for the invasion of Holland." |
| "As for being proud to be in the 101st, there are no words to express my love of the Eagles and being a part of them." |
| Joining the Army - Training in the States |
| The following will be from my experience but it will mirror most of the men. I tried to enlist in the Navy and was turned down for having a LAZY eye. I tried the merchant marine and they said I had a heart murmur and any excitement could be bad little did they know and then I was drafted into the army, I was the only draftee yelling and jumping with joy to be accepted! We went to a camp and from there we were assigned to our divisions keep in mind that I was 18 and from a small town in Ky. But I had worked at the local theater and had seen all of the War movies and was quite excited about being in the war. Names were called out and guys were sent to different divisions, when he called my name "Howard 101A/B" I asked him, what is that? And he replied 101st Airborne Division. I said, "you are kidding?" he said." no, look at this paper!" and he was right. I took basic at Ft. Bragg, NC. In the fall of 1943 in Field Artillery training, the Airborne was also training at Bragg. We were forever threatened that if we messed up we would be sent to the A/B and at that time none of us were excited about that. My training was in wire communications, telephones. I feel mine training was more adequate than some of the older guys that went in earlier. One guy told me they carried broom sticks as there were not enough guns at that time. As for special training... We had to take 3 or five glider flights to qualify and then ever so often we had to go up in order to maintain the extra pay for riding in gliders.... $50.00 for gliders and $100.00 for paratroopers. Most jumpers always said, "no way would I ride in one of those flying coffins!" Upon completing basic we were sent to Ft. Geo. Meade for overseas assignment's, we well knew now D-Day was very near and replacements were being sent to England by the thousands. I left out of Boston on the USS Wakefield and we traveled without a convoy or escort, the ship was fast and we traveled in a zig zag course to throw the U-Boats off, we did have them after us but we were lucky and landed at Liverpool without incident. |
| We were stationed near Newbury in an old castle. The 907th was the heavy artillery battalion, cut off 105s, (M-3), so they would fit in a glider.... it also cut down on their range, so our guns were pretty close to the action. I was a liason radio operator and we spent most of our time on the front line with the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment.... therefore we probably saw things from a different point of view then other Artillerymen. Of course as you well know.... when you are in the thick of things it is hard to see the forest because of the trees. Even though I trained in wire communications at Ft. Bragg. I was put in the radio section and always being one to meet people easy and with the aid of Sgt. Durbin from Elizabethtown, Ky., it did not take me long to be accepted. Sometime in Early July I think, we got a mission to go into France and open things up as our troops were having problems breaking out of Normandy. I was not picked to make the airborne trip, instead I was to go with the trucks and big equiptment on LSTs across the channel and then hookup with the outfit after they dropped in. I went to the 1st sgt, and raised cane and told him that I wanted to go by glider not by boat, he said, "Boy you are crazy, go by boat and be thankful". I felt left out but we went across the channel to Normandy, unloaded and sat there waiting to hear where the guys had landed. We were probably there for about 2 weeks and no news, lots of rumors, finally we loaded up and went back to England. Patton had taken our objective. These missions were know as Dry Runs. We had 1 more and once again I was left out, it also turned into a dry run. Finally "Market Basket" and the 1st Sgt said, "you are going in with the gliders and I don't want to hear anymore out of you." |
| I was on guard 57 years ago tonight, (June 6th 1944), and I well remember seeing all of these planes in the air, I mean like fire flys on a warm summer evening. The regulars of the 907th were already in the marshalling area for the invasion when we got there. We actually sat up a mock outfit as numerous men were not expected back. As it worked out we did not lose that many. When they returned it was rather strange as they sort of looked down on replacements, kinda like upper classmen treating freshmen. |
| D-Day |
| The Dry Runs after |
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| Sam's medal case hanging on his wall at home. |
| "I had just turned 19, and spent that 19th year in combat!" |
"OK it is time to go to Holland!!!" On Sunday the 17th of Sept. 1944 the 3 parachute regiments, 501st, 502nd, & 506th, and the 327th/ 401st Glider infantry took off and dropped into Southern Holland at Eindhoven, that is where our bridge and stretch of "Hell's Highway" was that we had to take and hold, Monty and his tanks were stalled across the river. The Sunday drop went pretty well and we were to go in on Tuesday after they had secured the drop zone. I was in the last or next to last glider depending on the length of the tow rope, the reason being, they ran out of tow planes so we were towed double. I leaned my carbine against the side of the glider and ripped a 6 or 8 inch slit in the canvas, yuk!!, so I found some tape and covered the slit and said nothing. We took off and all went well, we could look down and see the English channel below, soon we were over Belgium and everybody was getting excited and scared. I might add that I sat right behind the pilot and he had asked me to help him into his flak jacket when we hit flak, I said sure, no problem, he said I'm not chicken but if they get me.... they get all of us, not a very good thought. Lt. Moore rode in the co-pilot seat. Moore was later killed at Bastogne. Some gliders had radios so they could talk to the tow plane, we were not one of those. All of a sudden we ran into dense fog, we could not even see the tow plane, bad stuff, our pilot (probably 2 or 3 years older than me) was good, all we could see was a few feet of the tow rope and he followed that thing right, left up or down. We had no idea of what was going on, finally we broke out of the fog and soon we could see water below so it became evident that we had turned back and soon we landed from where we had departed. For us, safe and sound. 2 gliders crashed into each other while landing and all of the men were killed, I'm pretty sure they were all killed. Some guys got out of their gliders with their guns ready, thinking they were in Holland. We saw several gliders floating in the channel as the tow planes had cut them loose to save fuel. We were lucky. |
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| Back in England: In the marshalling area they fed us like kings and I was always hungry, so not according to Hoyle, I packed sandwiches in my big pants pockets, Worked for me. We had to wait until Saturday for the weather to clear so we could take off again, we got away without incident and the sky was clear, I don't know how long it took us but I think the towing speed was around 120 MPH and when we were cut loose it dropped to about 80 or 90, Setting ducks. In our glider were about 15 guys, all older than me and no doubt wiser, we had a small trailer, like the one John Wayne rode in, in"the Longest Day" and a small motor bike or cycle. Most of the guys had their face buried in their hands and were probably praying. I was right behind the pilot so I was up looking over his shoulder. Now the flak started and he said help me into my jacket, I did so, you know that thing was very heavy, I suppose it was filled with lead or something in order to provide protection. That flak was something else, I could see it go off right outside of us, it shook that glider like a dog shaking a rag, we could hear the fragments whistling thru the air but none of our guys were hit, many others were not that lucky. The idea is for the tow plane to cut us at a height where we would make one circle and land, actually we cut loose from the plane, he had lights on the rear that gave us the signal to do so. Now we are over the drop zone and we can see the field, it was full of gliders, some on nose, which was bad news, some upside down, wings torn off and some perfect. WE CUT LOOSE, it's now or never, much to high and we had to circle around, the flak was gone but the Germans had one side of the field and we got a lot of machine gun fire when we crossed over, man you could hear those bullets zipping. Basic glidering, you have to keep your air speed or you go down nose first, it may be hard to believe but there were no clear landing places, the pilot said look for a place, I said I'm looking, he said I have to get it on the ground, I'm going in there, I said there are 2 gliders there, he said I'll go between them, the wings will tear off and if I can get this nose on the ground, we are safe. He didn't go between them but skimmed over them and quickly put the nose down and the tail up, as you know the nose had skids on it and we went flying thru the mud and water, we were really traveling, there was a canal in front of us and I said we are going in it, he said no we will stop, we came to a stop a few feet from the canal AND on the German side of the field, well we made it across this open field and joined up with the rest of the 907 people. It was pretty late by now so I ate my sandwiches, got down in a ditch and went to sleep. |
| Second Crossing |
| Page created on December 20 2000 updated March 30 2002 |
| Under Construction |
| Page #1 |
| Under Construction |
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| This is a picture of Henry Keith and myself. Me on the left and Hank on right. Hank was one hell of a soldier, he also was from Ky, Somerset area. Hank was 5 years older than me, he had been in the CCC's (Civilian Conservation Corps), a depression era program to put young men to work. I went to see him 2 years ago and I'll send you a photo of us at that time. |
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| Glidermen waiting to go! September 1944 RWD pg 268 |
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| Normandy 1994 |