The Battling Sergent
By Bill Hallingsworth
"I was in the 101st Airborne during World War 2.I trained at Fort Benning Georgia until 1942.Now, let me tell you, training to be a paratrooper back then was almost as dangerous as jumping in combat.I seen a lot of guys get killed jumping off the tower and their shutes not open up.When we go out of training, they sent us to England.Riding those ships across the Atlantic wasn't fun.Most of the guys did nothing but throw up the entire time, like me! I don't think too many guys were worried about German subs as they were getting to England with their stomaches still inside.When we got to England, we kissed the ground.Let me tell you, after the war, I never rode on a boat again! When I go fishing, I stay on the shore.We trained in England for a long time.But in late-May of 1944, we got the call that we were to train to parashute into Europe somewhere.What we didn't know was that everybody was going to land in France.The British, the Canadians, and even some French guys that escape the 1940 occupation.On the evening before the invasion, we loaded up our stuff and climb aboard the C-47's.After sunset, we took off.After about 00:00, we jumped into action.It was a desastor.Some guy's shutes didn't even open.Also, the German's were on guard big time.They shot alot of us guys right out of the air! Some were killed as soon as the landed.But, a lot of us made it.Our mission was to knock out the German defenses before the landings came, but with so much cofustion, we couldn't do anything.I'm glad that I didn't invade Normandy by the sea.But the landings worked and we could rest a little while.By Christmas, we thought Hitler and his Nazis were about to give up.They hadn't even moved against us in months.But, what we were about to find out was that they were planning something huge.Then, all of a sudden, Panzers attacked! We were ordered to hold the town we were in, but we were being killed.We had heard that Montgomary was to help us out, but that Tommy never even came close.And they say that he was a great general! It was Patton who saved the 101st.Once we go the Germans back across the Rhine, we chased them all the way to Berlin.When we found out we had won, we all got drunk that night and started packing our bags, but then we got word that we were about to go on another mission.Japan.They said that Japan has fought like hell and will not give up.So, we began training for the invasion of Japan.But, then we heard that the A-Bomb ended the war and we all took a sigh of relief.It was finally over!"
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