2RHPZ
06-22-2004, 04:55 AM
Gliders: Eugene Levine, a weather observer with the 82nd Airborne Division,
landed in Normandy on glider with a radio transmitter meant for the division?s
command headquarters. A second glider carrying the Jeep to deliver the
transmitter was shot down.
Gliders: American gliders fly over Utah Beach.
We were told that [our mission] would be to transport a very important piece of
equipment ? a large VHF radio transmitter, mounted in a jeep trailer.
'I Had a Front Row Seat'
When we were given our assignments, I learned that I was assigned to the 82nd
Airborne Division. ... I had a front row seat to the war in Europe?
*****
On August 25, 1917, there were 48 states ? Alaska and Hawaii were American
territories.
On that day, at Camp Gordon, Ga., the U.S. Army formed a new unit ? the 82nd
Infantry Division ? and when the rolls were reviewed, there were soldiers in the
division from every state in the Union.
Nicknamed the ?All American Division,? soldiers serving in the 82nd wear a red
square shoulder patch inscribed with a white ?AA,? ? for All American --
enclosed in a blue circle.
Activated for land warfare during World War I, the All American Division
deployed to France in 1918, and in five months waged war in three major
campaigns ? killing, wounding and capturing thousands of the enemy ? crushing
the spirit and morale of the German Imperial Army.
After the war, the division was deactivated for over 20 years.
On March 22, 1942, under the command of Maj. Gen. Omar N. Bradley, the 82nd was
reactivated at Camp Claiborne, La., to again answer the call to arms in a world
war across the Atlantic ? but in a new and different way.
The Army?s goal was to field a force that was not only capable of fighting on
the ground, but also trained to jump out of airplanes or to glide in aircraft
into combat zones or enemy-occupied territories.
The goal became a reality.
The infantry division was re-designated the 82nd Airborne Division ? and a new,
blue crescent-shaped tab, ?AIRBORNE,? was added above the red, white and blue
patch.
The unit?s insignia and was proudly displayed on the left shoulder of each
soldier as a member of the new, distinctive, one-of-a-kind United States
fighting unit.
August 15, 1942, was a historic day ? for the United States, for the Army and
for the character modern warfare ? the first American airborne division was born.
During that same period, some 82nd soldiers ? now trained as both paratroopers
and infantrymen at Fort Bragg, N.C. ? were selected from the ranks and re-assigned
to form the 101st Airborne Division, ?Screaming Eagles,? the second airborne
unit of the United States Army.
With two combat jumps and glider assaults ? Sicily and Salerno ? to its credit
in the early stages of World War II, the 82nd, now commanded by Maj. Gen.
Matthew B. Ridgeway, left Italy and returned to England to train, equip and
prepare its soldiers for their most ambitious and dangerous mission ? an
airborne operation into German-occupied France ? Operation Overlord, D-Day ? the
Normandy Invasion.
Code name: Operation Neptune, the American airborne units would lead the way.
Soldiers from the 82nd and 101st airborne divisions jumped and glided into
occupied France -- paving the way for the largest amphibious fighting force
known to man to land on the beaches of Normandy, overthrow Hitler?s Third Reich,
liberate Europe and end the war.
The two airborne divisions had designated drop zones on Normandy?s west coast ?
inland from Utah Beach and past Hitler?s Atlantic Wall ? a 2,000-mile dreaded
stretch of German concrete gun emplacements, pillboxes, machine gun nests,
strung barbed wire entanglements, mine fields and other deadly, life-threatening
obstacles.
The 101st Screaming Eagles, commanded by Maj. Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor, were to
land near the occupied towns of St. Marie Du-Mont and Carentan and secure the
approaches and causeways leading to Utah Beach.
The All Americans were to drop in close to the town of Ste. Mere-Eglise, take
the town and proved protection from German action from the northwest.
Both divisions were designated to be located in crucial coastal areas to stop
German advances toward Utah Beach from inland ? where, if successful, the enemy
would threaten the amphibious invasion by the U.S. Army?s 4th Infantry Division
? soon to land soldiers on the beach.
Climbing aboard hundreds of U.S. Army Air Forces? C-47s ? affectionately called
?Gooney Birds? by the soldiers -- and gliders, the paratroopers began their
turbulent voyage across the English Channel to the northern coast of France for
what many historians have called: ?The largest airborne assault in history.?
Entering the Army from Fort Dix, N.J. in April 1943, Pvt. Eugene Levine was sent
to Chanute, Ill., where he was trained as a weather observer.
Assigned to the U.S. Army Air Forces? 9th Tactical Air Command, Levine left New
York on the SS Aquitania, ?a lush passenger ship owned by the Cunard Lines, that
had been converted into a troop ship. We were told that we would be part of the
buildup for the invasion of Europe,? Levine told AUSA NEWS.
Arriving in Glasgow Scotland, after an uneventful ocean crossing, ?where we had
to zigzag to avoid being a target for German submarines,? Levine and his fellow
soldiers were transported by rail to Lakenheath, an air base in east central
England.
Weather observers and radiomen were assigned to one of 12 air support parties
detailed to Army divisions.
These soldiers served, essentially, as target spotters and important
communicators from the ground forces to higher headquarters ? providing
important tactical information on critical areas that needed to be strafed,
bombed or fired on by artillery.
They were required to give exact target locations and weather conditions.
Levine and his party ? two weather observers, five radiomen and a driver ? were
assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division ? and to gliders.
?I took extensive glider training for six weeks,? he said, ?learning how to load
and tie down equipment for which I received a Glider Badge.?
Adding, ?I also enjoyed the [training] flights since being in a glider while it
is being towed felt like floating in air.?
Introduced to the American Waco glider, a craft constructed of canvas on a metal
frame and used primarily to transport equipment, Levine learned that it could
also have troops on board.
?We were told that [our mission] would be to transport a very important piece of
equipment ? a large VHF radio transmitter, mounted in a jeep trailer.
This would provide communications between the 82nd Airborne Division?s
headquarters and the 9th Tactical Air Command,? responsible for giving up-close
bombing and strafing support to the invading infantry divisions.?
The jeep, to pull the transmitter trailer, was loaded on another Waco.
?According to the plans, Levine said, the two gliders were suppose to land
close to each other and, after the gliders were unloaded, the jeep would pull
the radio transmitter to wherever the 82nd division headquarters would be
established on D-Day.
Casualties: Anti-aircraft fire, bad weather, and little room to land caused most
gliders to crash. There were few survivors.
Levine ? alone ? remained in the ditch with the transmitter. ?The weather was
good, but there was lots of smoke around and lots of noise from the artillery
and small arms fire.?
On June 4, now Corporal Levine?s 11th Air Support Party ? code named Elmira ?
loaded the two gliders at Greenham Commons Airbase.
To his surprise a paratrooper was assigned to the party as his ?bodyguard.?
He was given aerial photographs of the field where the gliders were to land ?since
I was to serve as the ?navigator? who would find our assigned landing area after
the glider was cut loose from the C-47.?
On June 6 ? D-Day ? there were two glider missions from England -- the second
glider flight, leaving at 6 p.m. to land in France during daylight in a double-daylight
savings day, began its ride behind the two-engine C-47 with Cpl. Eugene Levine
in charge and armed with a rifle, four hand grenades, field rations and a
backpack with ?mobile, miniaturized weather instruments.?
They took off behind the Waco carrying the jeep and its driver for their two-hour
flight over the channel.
The 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers had jumped into Normandy the night
before. Levine?s glider mission was part of the follow-on force.
Because of the late departure, Levine and his buddies, who had been listening in
England to reports of the invasion, knew that this was not going to be easy.
They also understood why they were instructed to ?prepare a simple will giving
instructions about the disposition of ?our? estate in case we didn?t survive.?
Approaching landfall and the coast line, and flying over the ships and landing
craft in the Allied armada, ?there were occasional bursts from the guns from our
cruisers and battleships.?
When land appeared, ?a few bullets came whizzing through the canvass skin of the
glider from German ack-ack guns but, fortunately, no one was hit [in our
aircraft].?
Realizing the danger and intensity of the situation, the glider pilot told
Levine to quickly locate the landing area ?since our tow plane was about to cut
us loose.?
The designated landing area for gliders was in Normandy?s hedgerow countryside ?
small fields used for farming that were divided by very dense and tall
impenetrable hedges and trees.
If the fragile glider didn?t land properly, chances were that it would be
demolished and the crew and passengers would be killed or seriously injured.
It was going to be tricky.
Confused by the relationship between the aerial photos and the actual terrain,
Levine said, ?I looked down, but for the life of me I couldn?t see anything that
looked like our designated landing field.
The only thing I saw that even resembled the photograph was packed with gliders
from the first mission that left at 1 p.m., and some of them had crashed on
landing and their parts were scattered over many fields.?
Too late.
The C-47 pilot cut the Waco loose.
?During our downward glide,? the 19-year-old corporal, held his breath, ?expecting
a crash landing. But the glider pilot, using maximum skill, landed us intact in
a field that, from the air, looked no bigger than a postage stamp, but included
several other gliders. One was a big [English] Horsa that was smashed up.?
The mission of the 82nd Airborne Division ? three parachute infantry regiments
and one glider regiment -- was to drop its paratroopers and land its gliders
behind Utah Beach on the Normandy coast, move inland and capture and secure the
German-occupied city of Ste. Mere-Eglise and a tactically critical bridges and
river crossings over the Merderet River at LaFiere.
Utah was also the designated area for the 4th Infantry Division to land, storm
the German entrenchments and move inland.
Airborne troops led the invasion.
Communication from the ground was essential.
Levine and his air support party scrambled from the glider that had skimmed
along the ground and stopped a few feet from a hedgerow ? no crash, all survived.
But, where was the other glider with the jeep?
That glider ?was no where to be found. With the difficulties of finding the
assigned landing field and then making an accurate glider landing ? it would
have been a miracle for the two gliders to land in close proximity,? Levine said.
Later, Levine would learn the glider was shot down by German anti-aircraft fire
over Utah Beach killing both pilots and seriously injuring the jeep driver who
was eventually shipped back to England ?for extensive medical care.?
Without the jeep to pull the transmitter and trailer, the survivors of the
support party jumped into a ditch for protection and to plan their next move.
According to Levine, the two pilots of his glider, ?grabbed their rifles and
took off to find the war,? and the paratrooper ? Levine?s bodyguard -- left to
find a jeep.
Levine ? alone ? remained in the ditch with the transmitter. ?The weather was
good, but there was lots of smoke around and lots of noise from the artillery
and small arms fire.?
The bodyguard returned.
Borrowing a jeep from a division military policeman directing traffic on the
road to Ste. Mere-Eglise, Levine?s bodyguard arrived and the two soldiers ?quickly?
hooked up the transmitter trailer to the jeep and drove out of the field to find
the 82nd Airborne Division?s assembly area somewhere near the outskirts of the
French town.
Learning that the other weather observer in the party was missing, ?I became the
sole weather observer for the 82nd Airborne Division during the division?s
operations in Normandy.?
Adding, ?In fact, I became the sole weather observer in Normandy, since the
weather observer assigned to the 101st Airborne Division ? Warren Wolfe ? was
killed in a glider during the landing.?
Concerned about the lack of communications at his headquarters, Ridgeway asked ?if
we could use our transmitter for ground-to-ground communications as well as
ground-to-air.?
One of Levine?s radiomen found the correct crystal for the needed radio
frequency, and so ?our transmitter made it possible for the first major
communication?s link to be made between the 82nd Airborne Division and General
Eisenhower?s headquarters back in Portsmouth, England.?
At 11.p.m. on D-Day. Levine made history.
?I used to the transmitter to send out the first weather report from Ste. Mere-Eglise.?
For this accomplishment, ?I was later awarded the Bronze Star Medal.
Mission accomplished.
I took my [weather] observations very close to the front, so I had to do a
little dodging of sniper bullets and artillery shells.?
Ste. Mere-Eglise was now in the hands of the Americans, and the French citizens
were liberated and freed from Nazi occupation.
This was the first city to be taken by paratroopers on June 6, 1944.
But, the Germans were being routed from the beaches and were retreating inland
toward the territory now staked out by the All American Division.
Paratroopers, hearing sporadic gunfire and artillery explosions, were deployed
and spread out along the road to the liberated city.
Crouching along the route, Levine and his fellow soldiers heard the roar of
engines.
Thinking -- ?Tanks? -- the soldiers? fears were momentarily abated when the more
experienced fighting men said that the loud noise ? that was growing louder --
was the sound of trucks.
When the first truck came into view, ?it was a personnel carrier ? Germans.?
A fire fight ensued ? with heavy American rifle and machine fire, backed up with
a barrage of mortar fire, the Germans ? overwhelmed -- began leaping out of now
seven stopped trucks and scattering throughout the countryside.
They were suffering heavy casualties.
Realizing they were out gunned and out flanked, the Germans began throwing ?their
arms up in the air to surrender.?
Levine recalled, ?We kept up the lethal gunfire ? and truckloads of Germans
surrendered within minutes.?
Many of those captured, Levine said, were actually Ukranian prisoners of war who
?volunteered? to work for the Germans on the Normandy beach fortifications ?
making up Hitler?s Atlantic Wall -- that killed or injured many soldiers in the
Allied invasion force.
?My career as an infantryman,? Levine said, ?was over in 15 minutes. German
casualties were 36 dead, 20 wounded and 200 surrendered unhurt.
?Our side didn?t get a scratch.?
Calling Levine, ?my weatherman,? Ridgeway kept the only weather observer in the
air support party extremely busy ? making around-the-clock weather observations
and sending comprehensive communications on to higher headquarters.
The 82nd was now moving as an infantry unit in a campaign to capture Cherbourg
and roust the Germans from the Cotentin Peninsular.
?I took my [weather] observations very close to the front, so I had to do a
little dodging of sniper bullets and artillery shells,? Levine said.
The battle for Cherbourg was the division?s final operation. Another mission
accomplished.
After 33 days of intense fighting in France, with 5,245 paratroopers killed,
wounded or missing, the 82nd returned to England.
Soon it was airborne again ? this time jumping into Holland for Operation Market
Garden ? its fourth combat jump.
After Normandy, Ridgeway was promoted to lieutenant general and assumed command
of XVIII Corps which included the 101st Airborne Division, the 82nd Airborne
Division and the newly-formed 17th Airborne Division.
The 82nd?s assistant division commander, Brig. Gen. James Gavin, was promoted to
major general and assumed command of the division.
The division?s after action battle report read: ?33 days of action without
relief, without replacements. Every mission accomplished. No ground gained was
ever relinquished.?
Levine, however, remained in France and was reassigned to First Army
Headquarters located on the coast near Omaha Beach.
Now he was in a larger air support party, ?with about 30 personnel, including a
dozen weather observers and forecasters.?
First Army Headquarters was always close to the front lines, ?and we moved with
First Army divisions as they progressed from Normandy, to Paris to Brussels to
the German border through the Battle of the Bulge ? and then across the Rhine
into the heart of Germany ? finally ending the war in Europe when we met the
Russians at the Elbe River.
?I stayed with this group until the end of the war ? May 8, 1946.?
*******
Dr. Eugene Levine, now a professor with the Department of Nursing Research,
Graduate School of Nursing, Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, is
planning to return to Normandy for the 60th Anniversary ? June 4, 2004 ? for the
D-Day celebration.
?We returned to Normandy in June 1994 to participate in the 50th celebration of
the anniversary of D-Day. We were very pleased and honored to be invited to
attend a lovely ceremony in Caen, sponsored by the mayor, during which we
received The Commemoration Medal of the Jubilee of Liberty in the name of the
people of lower Normandy.
landed in Normandy on glider with a radio transmitter meant for the division?s
command headquarters. A second glider carrying the Jeep to deliver the
transmitter was shot down.
Gliders: American gliders fly over Utah Beach.
We were told that [our mission] would be to transport a very important piece of
equipment ? a large VHF radio transmitter, mounted in a jeep trailer.
'I Had a Front Row Seat'
When we were given our assignments, I learned that I was assigned to the 82nd
Airborne Division. ... I had a front row seat to the war in Europe?
*****
On August 25, 1917, there were 48 states ? Alaska and Hawaii were American
territories.
On that day, at Camp Gordon, Ga., the U.S. Army formed a new unit ? the 82nd
Infantry Division ? and when the rolls were reviewed, there were soldiers in the
division from every state in the Union.
Nicknamed the ?All American Division,? soldiers serving in the 82nd wear a red
square shoulder patch inscribed with a white ?AA,? ? for All American --
enclosed in a blue circle.
Activated for land warfare during World War I, the All American Division
deployed to France in 1918, and in five months waged war in three major
campaigns ? killing, wounding and capturing thousands of the enemy ? crushing
the spirit and morale of the German Imperial Army.
After the war, the division was deactivated for over 20 years.
On March 22, 1942, under the command of Maj. Gen. Omar N. Bradley, the 82nd was
reactivated at Camp Claiborne, La., to again answer the call to arms in a world
war across the Atlantic ? but in a new and different way.
The Army?s goal was to field a force that was not only capable of fighting on
the ground, but also trained to jump out of airplanes or to glide in aircraft
into combat zones or enemy-occupied territories.
The goal became a reality.
The infantry division was re-designated the 82nd Airborne Division ? and a new,
blue crescent-shaped tab, ?AIRBORNE,? was added above the red, white and blue
patch.
The unit?s insignia and was proudly displayed on the left shoulder of each
soldier as a member of the new, distinctive, one-of-a-kind United States
fighting unit.
August 15, 1942, was a historic day ? for the United States, for the Army and
for the character modern warfare ? the first American airborne division was born.
During that same period, some 82nd soldiers ? now trained as both paratroopers
and infantrymen at Fort Bragg, N.C. ? were selected from the ranks and re-assigned
to form the 101st Airborne Division, ?Screaming Eagles,? the second airborne
unit of the United States Army.
With two combat jumps and glider assaults ? Sicily and Salerno ? to its credit
in the early stages of World War II, the 82nd, now commanded by Maj. Gen.
Matthew B. Ridgeway, left Italy and returned to England to train, equip and
prepare its soldiers for their most ambitious and dangerous mission ? an
airborne operation into German-occupied France ? Operation Overlord, D-Day ? the
Normandy Invasion.
Code name: Operation Neptune, the American airborne units would lead the way.
Soldiers from the 82nd and 101st airborne divisions jumped and glided into
occupied France -- paving the way for the largest amphibious fighting force
known to man to land on the beaches of Normandy, overthrow Hitler?s Third Reich,
liberate Europe and end the war.
The two airborne divisions had designated drop zones on Normandy?s west coast ?
inland from Utah Beach and past Hitler?s Atlantic Wall ? a 2,000-mile dreaded
stretch of German concrete gun emplacements, pillboxes, machine gun nests,
strung barbed wire entanglements, mine fields and other deadly, life-threatening
obstacles.
The 101st Screaming Eagles, commanded by Maj. Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor, were to
land near the occupied towns of St. Marie Du-Mont and Carentan and secure the
approaches and causeways leading to Utah Beach.
The All Americans were to drop in close to the town of Ste. Mere-Eglise, take
the town and proved protection from German action from the northwest.
Both divisions were designated to be located in crucial coastal areas to stop
German advances toward Utah Beach from inland ? where, if successful, the enemy
would threaten the amphibious invasion by the U.S. Army?s 4th Infantry Division
? soon to land soldiers on the beach.
Climbing aboard hundreds of U.S. Army Air Forces? C-47s ? affectionately called
?Gooney Birds? by the soldiers -- and gliders, the paratroopers began their
turbulent voyage across the English Channel to the northern coast of France for
what many historians have called: ?The largest airborne assault in history.?
Entering the Army from Fort Dix, N.J. in April 1943, Pvt. Eugene Levine was sent
to Chanute, Ill., where he was trained as a weather observer.
Assigned to the U.S. Army Air Forces? 9th Tactical Air Command, Levine left New
York on the SS Aquitania, ?a lush passenger ship owned by the Cunard Lines, that
had been converted into a troop ship. We were told that we would be part of the
buildup for the invasion of Europe,? Levine told AUSA NEWS.
Arriving in Glasgow Scotland, after an uneventful ocean crossing, ?where we had
to zigzag to avoid being a target for German submarines,? Levine and his fellow
soldiers were transported by rail to Lakenheath, an air base in east central
England.
Weather observers and radiomen were assigned to one of 12 air support parties
detailed to Army divisions.
These soldiers served, essentially, as target spotters and important
communicators from the ground forces to higher headquarters ? providing
important tactical information on critical areas that needed to be strafed,
bombed or fired on by artillery.
They were required to give exact target locations and weather conditions.
Levine and his party ? two weather observers, five radiomen and a driver ? were
assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division ? and to gliders.
?I took extensive glider training for six weeks,? he said, ?learning how to load
and tie down equipment for which I received a Glider Badge.?
Adding, ?I also enjoyed the [training] flights since being in a glider while it
is being towed felt like floating in air.?
Introduced to the American Waco glider, a craft constructed of canvas on a metal
frame and used primarily to transport equipment, Levine learned that it could
also have troops on board.
?We were told that [our mission] would be to transport a very important piece of
equipment ? a large VHF radio transmitter, mounted in a jeep trailer.
This would provide communications between the 82nd Airborne Division?s
headquarters and the 9th Tactical Air Command,? responsible for giving up-close
bombing and strafing support to the invading infantry divisions.?
The jeep, to pull the transmitter trailer, was loaded on another Waco.
?According to the plans, Levine said, the two gliders were suppose to land
close to each other and, after the gliders were unloaded, the jeep would pull
the radio transmitter to wherever the 82nd division headquarters would be
established on D-Day.
Casualties: Anti-aircraft fire, bad weather, and little room to land caused most
gliders to crash. There were few survivors.
Levine ? alone ? remained in the ditch with the transmitter. ?The weather was
good, but there was lots of smoke around and lots of noise from the artillery
and small arms fire.?
On June 4, now Corporal Levine?s 11th Air Support Party ? code named Elmira ?
loaded the two gliders at Greenham Commons Airbase.
To his surprise a paratrooper was assigned to the party as his ?bodyguard.?
He was given aerial photographs of the field where the gliders were to land ?since
I was to serve as the ?navigator? who would find our assigned landing area after
the glider was cut loose from the C-47.?
On June 6 ? D-Day ? there were two glider missions from England -- the second
glider flight, leaving at 6 p.m. to land in France during daylight in a double-daylight
savings day, began its ride behind the two-engine C-47 with Cpl. Eugene Levine
in charge and armed with a rifle, four hand grenades, field rations and a
backpack with ?mobile, miniaturized weather instruments.?
They took off behind the Waco carrying the jeep and its driver for their two-hour
flight over the channel.
The 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers had jumped into Normandy the night
before. Levine?s glider mission was part of the follow-on force.
Because of the late departure, Levine and his buddies, who had been listening in
England to reports of the invasion, knew that this was not going to be easy.
They also understood why they were instructed to ?prepare a simple will giving
instructions about the disposition of ?our? estate in case we didn?t survive.?
Approaching landfall and the coast line, and flying over the ships and landing
craft in the Allied armada, ?there were occasional bursts from the guns from our
cruisers and battleships.?
When land appeared, ?a few bullets came whizzing through the canvass skin of the
glider from German ack-ack guns but, fortunately, no one was hit [in our
aircraft].?
Realizing the danger and intensity of the situation, the glider pilot told
Levine to quickly locate the landing area ?since our tow plane was about to cut
us loose.?
The designated landing area for gliders was in Normandy?s hedgerow countryside ?
small fields used for farming that were divided by very dense and tall
impenetrable hedges and trees.
If the fragile glider didn?t land properly, chances were that it would be
demolished and the crew and passengers would be killed or seriously injured.
It was going to be tricky.
Confused by the relationship between the aerial photos and the actual terrain,
Levine said, ?I looked down, but for the life of me I couldn?t see anything that
looked like our designated landing field.
The only thing I saw that even resembled the photograph was packed with gliders
from the first mission that left at 1 p.m., and some of them had crashed on
landing and their parts were scattered over many fields.?
Too late.
The C-47 pilot cut the Waco loose.
?During our downward glide,? the 19-year-old corporal, held his breath, ?expecting
a crash landing. But the glider pilot, using maximum skill, landed us intact in
a field that, from the air, looked no bigger than a postage stamp, but included
several other gliders. One was a big [English] Horsa that was smashed up.?
The mission of the 82nd Airborne Division ? three parachute infantry regiments
and one glider regiment -- was to drop its paratroopers and land its gliders
behind Utah Beach on the Normandy coast, move inland and capture and secure the
German-occupied city of Ste. Mere-Eglise and a tactically critical bridges and
river crossings over the Merderet River at LaFiere.
Utah was also the designated area for the 4th Infantry Division to land, storm
the German entrenchments and move inland.
Airborne troops led the invasion.
Communication from the ground was essential.
Levine and his air support party scrambled from the glider that had skimmed
along the ground and stopped a few feet from a hedgerow ? no crash, all survived.
But, where was the other glider with the jeep?
That glider ?was no where to be found. With the difficulties of finding the
assigned landing field and then making an accurate glider landing ? it would
have been a miracle for the two gliders to land in close proximity,? Levine said.
Later, Levine would learn the glider was shot down by German anti-aircraft fire
over Utah Beach killing both pilots and seriously injuring the jeep driver who
was eventually shipped back to England ?for extensive medical care.?
Without the jeep to pull the transmitter and trailer, the survivors of the
support party jumped into a ditch for protection and to plan their next move.
According to Levine, the two pilots of his glider, ?grabbed their rifles and
took off to find the war,? and the paratrooper ? Levine?s bodyguard -- left to
find a jeep.
Levine ? alone ? remained in the ditch with the transmitter. ?The weather was
good, but there was lots of smoke around and lots of noise from the artillery
and small arms fire.?
The bodyguard returned.
Borrowing a jeep from a division military policeman directing traffic on the
road to Ste. Mere-Eglise, Levine?s bodyguard arrived and the two soldiers ?quickly?
hooked up the transmitter trailer to the jeep and drove out of the field to find
the 82nd Airborne Division?s assembly area somewhere near the outskirts of the
French town.
Learning that the other weather observer in the party was missing, ?I became the
sole weather observer for the 82nd Airborne Division during the division?s
operations in Normandy.?
Adding, ?In fact, I became the sole weather observer in Normandy, since the
weather observer assigned to the 101st Airborne Division ? Warren Wolfe ? was
killed in a glider during the landing.?
Concerned about the lack of communications at his headquarters, Ridgeway asked ?if
we could use our transmitter for ground-to-ground communications as well as
ground-to-air.?
One of Levine?s radiomen found the correct crystal for the needed radio
frequency, and so ?our transmitter made it possible for the first major
communication?s link to be made between the 82nd Airborne Division and General
Eisenhower?s headquarters back in Portsmouth, England.?
At 11.p.m. on D-Day. Levine made history.
?I used to the transmitter to send out the first weather report from Ste. Mere-Eglise.?
For this accomplishment, ?I was later awarded the Bronze Star Medal.
Mission accomplished.
I took my [weather] observations very close to the front, so I had to do a
little dodging of sniper bullets and artillery shells.?
Ste. Mere-Eglise was now in the hands of the Americans, and the French citizens
were liberated and freed from Nazi occupation.
This was the first city to be taken by paratroopers on June 6, 1944.
But, the Germans were being routed from the beaches and were retreating inland
toward the territory now staked out by the All American Division.
Paratroopers, hearing sporadic gunfire and artillery explosions, were deployed
and spread out along the road to the liberated city.
Crouching along the route, Levine and his fellow soldiers heard the roar of
engines.
Thinking -- ?Tanks? -- the soldiers? fears were momentarily abated when the more
experienced fighting men said that the loud noise ? that was growing louder --
was the sound of trucks.
When the first truck came into view, ?it was a personnel carrier ? Germans.?
A fire fight ensued ? with heavy American rifle and machine fire, backed up with
a barrage of mortar fire, the Germans ? overwhelmed -- began leaping out of now
seven stopped trucks and scattering throughout the countryside.
They were suffering heavy casualties.
Realizing they were out gunned and out flanked, the Germans began throwing ?their
arms up in the air to surrender.?
Levine recalled, ?We kept up the lethal gunfire ? and truckloads of Germans
surrendered within minutes.?
Many of those captured, Levine said, were actually Ukranian prisoners of war who
?volunteered? to work for the Germans on the Normandy beach fortifications ?
making up Hitler?s Atlantic Wall -- that killed or injured many soldiers in the
Allied invasion force.
?My career as an infantryman,? Levine said, ?was over in 15 minutes. German
casualties were 36 dead, 20 wounded and 200 surrendered unhurt.
?Our side didn?t get a scratch.?
Calling Levine, ?my weatherman,? Ridgeway kept the only weather observer in the
air support party extremely busy ? making around-the-clock weather observations
and sending comprehensive communications on to higher headquarters.
The 82nd was now moving as an infantry unit in a campaign to capture Cherbourg
and roust the Germans from the Cotentin Peninsular.
?I took my [weather] observations very close to the front, so I had to do a
little dodging of sniper bullets and artillery shells,? Levine said.
The battle for Cherbourg was the division?s final operation. Another mission
accomplished.
After 33 days of intense fighting in France, with 5,245 paratroopers killed,
wounded or missing, the 82nd returned to England.
Soon it was airborne again ? this time jumping into Holland for Operation Market
Garden ? its fourth combat jump.
After Normandy, Ridgeway was promoted to lieutenant general and assumed command
of XVIII Corps which included the 101st Airborne Division, the 82nd Airborne
Division and the newly-formed 17th Airborne Division.
The 82nd?s assistant division commander, Brig. Gen. James Gavin, was promoted to
major general and assumed command of the division.
The division?s after action battle report read: ?33 days of action without
relief, without replacements. Every mission accomplished. No ground gained was
ever relinquished.?
Levine, however, remained in France and was reassigned to First Army
Headquarters located on the coast near Omaha Beach.
Now he was in a larger air support party, ?with about 30 personnel, including a
dozen weather observers and forecasters.?
First Army Headquarters was always close to the front lines, ?and we moved with
First Army divisions as they progressed from Normandy, to Paris to Brussels to
the German border through the Battle of the Bulge ? and then across the Rhine
into the heart of Germany ? finally ending the war in Europe when we met the
Russians at the Elbe River.
?I stayed with this group until the end of the war ? May 8, 1946.?
*******
Dr. Eugene Levine, now a professor with the Department of Nursing Research,
Graduate School of Nursing, Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, is
planning to return to Normandy for the 60th Anniversary ? June 4, 2004 ? for the
D-Day celebration.
?We returned to Normandy in June 1994 to participate in the 50th celebration of
the anniversary of D-Day. We were very pleased and honored to be invited to
attend a lovely ceremony in Caen, sponsored by the mayor, during which we
received The Commemoration Medal of the Jubilee of Liberty in the name of the
people of lower Normandy.