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Earl McClung | S/Sgt Earl McClung E Company, 101st Airborne. Kaprun, Austria - I thought I had died and gone to heaven there. My job was to hunt and feed the prisoners that the Germans had taken for slave labor who were incarcerated there. The prisoners were freed by then but they had no place to go. I think they were Polish and Romanian mostly. The job fell to us to feed them. I fed them stag and chamois (goats with little hooked horns) until they were coming out of the ears. So I finally got to do some hunting like I enjoyed. I just camped out. [My outfit] saw me maybe once or twice a week. |
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Eve of Destiny by Richard Taylor. Richard Taylor's stunning painting depicts the men of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division as they take inventory of their equipment during the early evening of 5 June 1944. Adorned with hastily applied invasion stripes, the C-47s of the 438th Troop Carrier Group stand primed, ready to carry the elite unit to Normandy in the early hours of D-Day 1944. To add to the poignancy of this release, the edition is personally signed by veterans that jumped on D-Day with the 101st Airborne. |
Road to the Rhine by Robert Taylor. As the Allied armies dashed across France after victory in Normandy, they remained reliant on one thing - supplies. With Cherbourg the only port in use, everything depended on trucks to deliver enough fuel, food and ammunition to keep the momentum going. But there was a problem. Too few trucks, and too few drivers. The invasion was in danger of stalling, and if it did, the Germans might just regain the initiative. Action was needed, and quickly. Montgomery argued that all resources be channeled into a single, powerful thrust into Germany, but Eisenhower disagreed. the Allies would advance on a broad front. But he did give Montgomery the First Allied Airborne Army to try and capture the major bridges in Holland on the road to the Rhine, ahead of the Allies advance. For the men of the 101st Airborne, the Screaming Eagles, their task was to seize the bridges at Eindhoven. The 82nd would do the same at Nijmegan, and the British 1st Airborne would capture the farthest bridge, at Arnhem. On the ground the British 30th Corps would advance northwards and link up with them, and, if successful, turn the German flank on the Rhine. On 17th September 1944 the plan was put into action, the 101st quickly securing all of its objectives, and the 82nd capturing one bridge. The British 1st Airborne fought its way into Arnhem and seized the bridge over the Rhine. Now all they had to do was hold out until the 30th Corps arrived. But 30th Corps was making slow progress, and although the men of the 101st and the 82nd held out until relieved, in Arnhem it was too late to save the British 1st Airborne. Battle-weary, without ammunition or supplies, only a few survivors escaped back across the Rhine. Of the 10,000 men who had landed, just 2,000 made it out. If the operation had succeeded the war in Europe might have been over by Christmas 1944. Instead, hostilities would continue through the bitter winter. |
Advance from Utah by Simon Smith. It had been a rough ride for the men of 101st Airborne's Easy Company. With heavy flak tearing into the C-47s carrying the paratroopers inland, the original drop plans had gone horribly awry and the men found themselves scattered, many lost without weapons or supplies. They knew that the largest amphibious force in history would be landing on Utah Beach in only a few hours, and was counting on them to secure the area behind the beach. As the Allied landing approached, First Lieutenant Dick Winters and the small force of the dozen men he had managed to gather were ordered to take a battery of four German 105mm Howitzers at Brecourt Manor, which were zeroed in on Utah Beach. In a remarkable feat of tactics that would be studied and emulated for decades to come, Dick Winters and his tiny force destroyed not only the battery, but also the deadly machine-gun positions nearby. The latest composition from celebrated military artist Simon Smith, Advance from Utah, captures both the triumph and foreboding of the moment following this brilliant move: With the German positions smoldering behind them, Winters and his men gaze thoughtfully into the horizon and their next objective, realizing that for them the war is only beginning. |
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