Early in my professional career, I had the great fortune of working side by side with an old engineering tech by the name of Sword. Marvin was his name and he was one of the most gentle men, I have ever met. I only saw him get angry once and he scared our boss so bad that he turned white. Marvin was a veteran of WWII. The greatest generation. When the war broke out, he had never traveled outside of his home county in Eastern, KY. I am not sure if he even knew how to drive at that time. He joined the army and then volunteered for the airborne because in his words, they got paid extra. He was made a Sargent because according to him, his Lieutenant said, "Sword your the oldest so you will be the platoon leader." Marvin was 22 at the time. The old man of the bunch.
After training he was assigned to the 82nd airborne and shipped to N. Africa. His first op was the invasion of Sicily which was a short trip for him as the US Navy began firing on our aircraft filled with troopers and Marvin's plane was hit and had to return to base landing hard in the process. He missed that fight. His next operation was Anzio. He landed on the beaches and his team held the line for weeks. When they were pulled off the line they were shipped to England to begin training for D-Day. On the early morning of D-Day, his team was piled into a wooden glider behind a DC3 and took off in the dark with all the others for Normandy. They arrived at first light, took a ton of flak and when his tow plane was hit, they jettisoned the gliders and took off for England. Marvin said the little 18yr old pilot was scared to death and yelled, "Sargent, get up here and help me land this glider!" Sgt Sword told him that he did not know how to fly a plane. The pilot said, to get into the co-pilots seat and when he told him, to pull on the yoke as hard as he could. Marvin said that the first three gliders cracked up when they hit a raised causeway in the LZ that did not show up in the aerial photos. All aboard were KIA. Together he and the pilot landed by scraping that causeway and then landing in the trees beyond it. Theirs was the only anti-tank gun in their unit that survived the landing. At daylight, Lieutenant whom the Sargent did not know came up and said, "Sargent, I am commandeering your gun." Marvin, said that he stuck the muzzle of his Thompson under this Lt's Chin, and said, "Sir, this is my gun, go get your own." The Lt disappeared and Marvin figured to be court martialed after the battle but that particular Lt was never seen again, so he got by.
Sometime following the landings a few days or even weeks had passed and his team came across a Panzer in perfect condition sitting beside the road. Upon investigation it was abandoned and only out of fuel. They got fuel and painted white stars on the tank and placed it at the head of their column. As he told it, they being light infantry did not rate armored support so they decided to innovate. For one week he said that they were the 82nd Armored and the baddest asses in France. When they encountered a MG, they would roll in with the panzer and take em out. They scrounged more ammo for it from other wrecked tanks along the way. One day they were driving behind their tank along a little country dirt road and three British fighter bombers flew over them. He called them "Spitfires" but more likely they were Tempests or Typhoons. Either way the Brit pilots spotted what had to look like a retreating German column and rolled in on them. Marvin said that they were diving for cover, waving anything they had with stars and stripes or white on it and praying. He said that the Brits held fire on the first pass, and then came around for a second and a third pass and on the last pass recognized them as friendlies and "waggled their wings" and climbed away. The good Sgt laughed when he told the next part. He said that in seconds their Capt, roared up in his jeep and order them to burn that "F#$#ing" Tank". He was not about to get his unit shot up by a bunch of trigger happy flyboys. That was the end of the 82nd Armored Airborne. Soon they were pulled off the line and sent back to England.
The next op was Holland. Operation Market Garden. He never talked about that one much except to say that it was bloody and that they took and held the bridges assigned to them and then waited too long for the British Armor to arrive. One thing he did say was he had an unwaivering respect for the German soldiers. He said they were tough and smart and very well equipped. He said all of the German gear was better than ours. He said the German people were hard working and industrious and would begin rebuilding a town before the dust settled. He said that months after Normandy they were taking RnR in France and the French were still living in the rubble. He was a living history lesson every day. He told me that the German MG's were better than ours. He said the MG42 was lighter and took only two men to operate and one in a pinch and was able to shoot twice as fast as our MG's. The one weapon that terrified him was what he called the "Screamin Meemies" Rocket launchers that screamed going up and then went silent and you never knew where they would come down. Sgt Sword fought his way through Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge. He said that it was so cold and they only had light summer uniforms and no warm coats. It was tough going. After the armistice his unit was one tasked with processing German troops who were surrendering. He said he noticed an officer about 50y down the line hiding something in the bushes. He walked down with a private and asked him what he was doing. He said the German officer claimed he did not understand. Sword once more found the need to poke the muzzle of his Tommygun under the chin of an officer and ask him again if he could speak English? He was surprised how quickly the man learn the language, lol.
Turned out he was hiding a Luger pistol, an officer's sword and a "Knights Cross" medal. Marvin confiscated all of them and brought them home with him. He said that they had piles of captured German equipment in their camp and would shoot pistols and subguns until they broke and then would throw it down and get another one. They road BMW and Zundapp motorcycles and would race them thru the countryside until one of their guys crashed and broke himself up badly and the Capt ordered them all to cease. His service to our country was epic. He is one of my heros. I had the privilege to work along side of him for four years until he retired. I took my son to meet him and spend a day with him telling the old stories once more about 20 years ago. He was still healthy at the time and showed my son the Luger and the sword and an old Mauser rifle. Sadly, we lost Sgt Sword a few years ago. I called his widow to express my sadness. He was one of the best that this country has every produced and in my eyes he stood 10 ft tall even as an old man. God Speed Brother.
Irish
After training he was assigned to the 82nd airborne and shipped to N. Africa. His first op was the invasion of Sicily which was a short trip for him as the US Navy began firing on our aircraft filled with troopers and Marvin's plane was hit and had to return to base landing hard in the process. He missed that fight. His next operation was Anzio. He landed on the beaches and his team held the line for weeks. When they were pulled off the line they were shipped to England to begin training for D-Day. On the early morning of D-Day, his team was piled into a wooden glider behind a DC3 and took off in the dark with all the others for Normandy. They arrived at first light, took a ton of flak and when his tow plane was hit, they jettisoned the gliders and took off for England. Marvin said the little 18yr old pilot was scared to death and yelled, "Sargent, get up here and help me land this glider!" Sgt Sword told him that he did not know how to fly a plane. The pilot said, to get into the co-pilots seat and when he told him, to pull on the yoke as hard as he could. Marvin said that the first three gliders cracked up when they hit a raised causeway in the LZ that did not show up in the aerial photos. All aboard were KIA. Together he and the pilot landed by scraping that causeway and then landing in the trees beyond it. Theirs was the only anti-tank gun in their unit that survived the landing. At daylight, Lieutenant whom the Sargent did not know came up and said, "Sargent, I am commandeering your gun." Marvin, said that he stuck the muzzle of his Thompson under this Lt's Chin, and said, "Sir, this is my gun, go get your own." The Lt disappeared and Marvin figured to be court martialed after the battle but that particular Lt was never seen again, so he got by.
Sometime following the landings a few days or even weeks had passed and his team came across a Panzer in perfect condition sitting beside the road. Upon investigation it was abandoned and only out of fuel. They got fuel and painted white stars on the tank and placed it at the head of their column. As he told it, they being light infantry did not rate armored support so they decided to innovate. For one week he said that they were the 82nd Armored and the baddest asses in France. When they encountered a MG, they would roll in with the panzer and take em out. They scrounged more ammo for it from other wrecked tanks along the way. One day they were driving behind their tank along a little country dirt road and three British fighter bombers flew over them. He called them "Spitfires" but more likely they were Tempests or Typhoons. Either way the Brit pilots spotted what had to look like a retreating German column and rolled in on them. Marvin said that they were diving for cover, waving anything they had with stars and stripes or white on it and praying. He said that the Brits held fire on the first pass, and then came around for a second and a third pass and on the last pass recognized them as friendlies and "waggled their wings" and climbed away. The good Sgt laughed when he told the next part. He said that in seconds their Capt, roared up in his jeep and order them to burn that "F#$#ing" Tank". He was not about to get his unit shot up by a bunch of trigger happy flyboys. That was the end of the 82nd Armored Airborne. Soon they were pulled off the line and sent back to England.
The next op was Holland. Operation Market Garden. He never talked about that one much except to say that it was bloody and that they took and held the bridges assigned to them and then waited too long for the British Armor to arrive. One thing he did say was he had an unwaivering respect for the German soldiers. He said they were tough and smart and very well equipped. He said all of the German gear was better than ours. He said the German people were hard working and industrious and would begin rebuilding a town before the dust settled. He said that months after Normandy they were taking RnR in France and the French were still living in the rubble. He was a living history lesson every day. He told me that the German MG's were better than ours. He said the MG42 was lighter and took only two men to operate and one in a pinch and was able to shoot twice as fast as our MG's. The one weapon that terrified him was what he called the "Screamin Meemies" Rocket launchers that screamed going up and then went silent and you never knew where they would come down. Sgt Sword fought his way through Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge. He said that it was so cold and they only had light summer uniforms and no warm coats. It was tough going. After the armistice his unit was one tasked with processing German troops who were surrendering. He said he noticed an officer about 50y down the line hiding something in the bushes. He walked down with a private and asked him what he was doing. He said the German officer claimed he did not understand. Sword once more found the need to poke the muzzle of his Tommygun under the chin of an officer and ask him again if he could speak English? He was surprised how quickly the man learn the language, lol.
Turned out he was hiding a Luger pistol, an officer's sword and a "Knights Cross" medal. Marvin confiscated all of them and brought them home with him. He said that they had piles of captured German equipment in their camp and would shoot pistols and subguns until they broke and then would throw it down and get another one. They road BMW and Zundapp motorcycles and would race them thru the countryside until one of their guys crashed and broke himself up badly and the Capt ordered them all to cease. His service to our country was epic. He is one of my heros. I had the privilege to work along side of him for four years until he retired. I took my son to meet him and spend a day with him telling the old stories once more about 20 years ago. He was still healthy at the time and showed my son the Luger and the sword and an old Mauser rifle. Sadly, we lost Sgt Sword a few years ago. I called his widow to express my sadness. He was one of the best that this country has every produced and in my eyes he stood 10 ft tall even as an old man. God Speed Brother.
Irish
