101st Airborne Research Papers

Can you define freedom? A Dutchman in Europe said, “You can’t. You don’t know what freedom is until you lose it” (Guarnere xxii). Freedom is what American soldiers fought for in WWII. The 101st Airborne was on the front line of every major battle in the European theater with enough men, weapons, artillery, ammunition, supplies, and trooper clothing to survive. The 101st was the army’s elite paratrooper division and was always on the front lines. During WWII, Easy Company, the best and the toughest, a part of the 101st, froze, starved, got covered in filth, became exhausted, and lost good men every day. They inflicted more casualties on the Germans than the Germans inflicted on the Americans or their Allies (Guarnere XX).
The 101st Airborne

Division was called the Screaming Eagles. That name was patched onto the uniforms. This paper is going to cover the unique training of the 101st Airborne Division, 506th paratrooper infantry regiment (PIR) -- Easy Company, the Filthy Thirteen, and the sergeant in charge: Jack McNiece. The paper will also describe how Easy Company contributed to the battle for Normandy. The 506th was made up of 3 battalions plus headquarters, and each battalion had 3 companies plus a headquarters company. Each company had names, and there were 48 platoons plus headquarters in each company (Guarnere 16).
The main reason that the 506th was so important and considered one of the best in the 101st Airborne Division was that of their unique training. Captain Herbert Sobel was in charge of the 506th PIR (Guarnere 21). Sobel trained them to be the best of the best. One of the ways he did that was by doubling every physical training activity the paratroopers had to do. Anything the other regiments had to do, Sobel made it harder and longer. He was not well liked by his men. The motto of the 506th was, “We stand alone together” (Guarnere 18).
One example of Sobel’s training was to force his men to crawl through mud, guts, pig innards, blood, and everything (Guarnere 22). The men would train from 4:30 A.M. until midnight. He was fanatical about the men’s guns. He told them, “You’re gonna sleep with your gun. Twenty-four hours a day, your gun will be with you; you’ll sleep with it, eat with it, make it your wife. Leave your gun for a minute, and you’re gonna be sorry.” Each soldier had to know the serial number of his gun. Sobel tried to steal E company’s guns one time as a drill. The next day he called for E company’s gun numbers, and he was confused to find out that the men in his company still had their weapons. It turned out that he had stolen F company’s guns. Boy, were they mad, but it taught them a good lesson. In real life, they would have been dead (Guarnere 30-31).
Just before the 506th left for England (August 1942) they were assigned to the 101st Airborne Division, the Screaming Eagles. Major General Bill Lee said, “We have no history, but we have a rendezvous with destiny.” He never made it into battle with the men, because he had a heart attack before they left (Guarnere 33). The men who planned the invasion calculated that there would be an 80-90% mortality rate for the paratroopers.
Once in England, a coupe occurred. The Screaming Eagles Easy Company did not like Sobel. He was inept when it came to battle. The sergeants got together and unanimously decided that he had to go, otherwise he might get them all killed in battle. Each man removed his stripes and handed them to Sobel. There can be no battle with no one to do the fighting, right? Sobel was furious, but there was nothing he could do. That action would not have worked if even one sergeant had not participated (Guarnere 41). Sobel was removed from his position and sent back to the states to Chilton Foliat jump school. Training was his strength, not battle (“War Remembered” 1). Major Winters replaced him and many say that was probably the best move made. Major Winters saved many lives. He really cared about his men (Guarnere 41).
It was in England that the group known as the Filthy Thirteen really earned its name. The sergeant in charge was a man by the name of Jack McNiece (Killbane 44). Jack joined the military because he beat up someone and the police were looking for him. He joined the paratrooper division so that the police would have no jurisdiction. He was 22 years old (Killbane 10). Jack was put in charge simply because of his age. He was in amazing physical condition. He had no belief in the military structure of authority. He was there to fight and kill Germans. He believed that anything that did not further those two things was a waste of time.
Nearly thirty men passed through the demolition paratrooper section known as the Filthy Thirteen. Physical fitness seemed to be the top priority for combat readiness. Because the regiment expected such high casualty rates in Normandy the commanding officers ignored the bad behavior of men like those found in this unit (Killblane 236). Every time a soldier came that a sergeant couldn't handle they were sent to this unit because it had absolutely no discipline (Killbane Intro). The Filthy Thirteen earned their name because they showered once a week and they never cleaned their uniforms. They never cleaned their barracks. They never did anything to pass inspections. When the officers came in they would just tell those officers to help themselves. They had no discipline. They had no respect for authority. They respected ability. They never saluted. They never did anything that one would consider “normal” behavior in the military. They were always in trouble because of this. However, they were extremely good at their job. And because they were so good, they were needed (Killbane 48). One member of the group once said, “We weren’t murderers or anything, we just didn’t do everything we were supposed to do in some ways and did a whole lot more than they wanted us to do in other ways. We were always in trouble” (Killbane 28).
The day before the invasion of Normandy, the leader of the Filthy Thirteen, Jack McNiece, decided to give himself a Mohawk haircut to fight the lice problem.

He also painted his face as camouflage so he would not have to use twigs and other things once he landed. He had professed to Indian religion and that was just the way it was done where he came from. The other men in his unit loved the idea and had him cut their hair the same Mohawk way and put paint on them. Jack said he had no idea that there were pictures being taken for “The Stars and Stripes” until he saw the pictures later after the battle (Killbane 70). This contributed to the German idea that American airborne troops were recruited from the toughest jails in the U.S. (Beever 25).
President Eisenhower came to see the paratroopers the day before the battle. He felt bad because of the projected high mortality rate. He knew most of the men would die. On the eve of battle, he interviewed a 101st Airborne soldier. When asked if he was afraid, the soldier admitted that he was. Eisenhower then said, “Well, you’d be a damn fool not to be. But the trick is to keep moving. If you stop, if you start thinking, you lose your focus. You lose your concentration. You’ll be a casualty. The idea, the perfect idea, is to keep moving” (Beever

27).
The 101st job in the battle for Normandy was: 1) To secure 4 causeways that ran up from the beaches so the seaborne troops could get supplies, equipment, artillery, tanks, jeeps, and people up on the beaches. 2) To destroy German artillery positions trained on the beach. 3) To keep Germans from stopping the troops. 4) To kill all Germans and take no prisoners (Sheehan 60).
Nothing went right at the drop, because there was a heavy fog and the anti-aircraft fire was really heavy. Men had to make jumps early and fell short or far from their targets. Germans were shooting as they dropped, and the equipment they carried and needed, landed on them if they didn’t look up. The planes had to fly way too low, and some paratroopers didn’t have time even to open their shoots. They died on impact. Confusion was everywhere (Sheehan 60-63). The only good thing was that the Germans were more confused than the Americans. Some men of the 101st 506th PIR landed as far as 20 miles from their target (Bliven 48). The Americans began to attack their objectives, even though they had no communications with division headquarters. Cutting telephone wires by the paratroopers and the resistance proved to be an invaluable tactic. That kept the Germans from being able to communicate and kept them more confused during the invasion. They had no idea where the main American paratrooper forces were concentrated, and they lacked leadership (Beaver 114).
With so many men missing, men got promotions on the spot. The men in Easy Company had to attack to achieve their objectives, and they needed a leader, so Major Winters was made commander. He took his men and cleared the German artillery from Utah Beach. He also secured the causeways for the troops there. Men were needed to lead in other areas, but because of death, mis-drops, and lack of communication, there were not any officers, so a lot of promotions were made on the battlefield (Sheehan 65-66).
For some American paratroopers, the sound of the naval bombardment of Utah Beach provided the first reassurance that the invasion was proceeding according to plan (Beaver 117). No German prisoners were taken, because that action would have slowed the soldiers down. The fighting became pitiless on both sides. In fact, that night probably saw the most vicious fighting of the entire war on the western front (Beever 67).
Jack McNiece achieved his assigned mission of securing the bridges. He had to find men to help him, because he was separated from some of his unit. He also had to disregard orders from another officer to do it, but he followed his original orders, much to the surprise of his men. He had the furthest to travel to achieve his objective, but because of him and the Filthy Thirteen, and because of Easy Company and the 101st Airborne, 506th PIR, the invasion of Normandy was a success (Killblane 240.).
In conclusion, if it had not been for the strict training the men had received from Herbert Sobel they might not have been as successful in their objectives that training prepared them for the blood, carnage, and physical demands that were made of them during the invasion of Normandy. The Filthy Thirteen was a demolition unit within the 506th PIR Easy Company that was under the unique leadership of Jack McNiece. These men succeeded in their objectives because of their very disregard for military structure. Finally, Easy Company contributed to the battle for Normandy by achieving their objectives of securing the causeways, destroying German artillery trained on the beaches, keeping Germans from stopping the troops, and taking no prisoners. “Courage isn’t about fear; it’s about overcoming it. Everybody has fear“ (Guarnere 27). This is the mantra that the men from the 506th PIR learned the hard way. It is a lesson that is good for all people to learn. People also need to remember that freedom is not free. It is bought with human lives and sacrifice.

Works Cited
Beevor, Antony. D-day : The Battle for Normandy. New York: Viking, 2009. Print.
Bliven Jr., Bruce. Invasion: The Story of D-Day. New York: Sterling, 2007. Print.
Guarnere, William, and Edward Heffron, with Robyn Post. Brothers in Battle: Best of Friends. New York: Berkley, 2007. Print.

Killblane, Richard, and Jack McNiece. The Filthy Thirteen: From the Dustbowl to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest. The 101st’s Airborne’s most legendary squad of paratroopers.
Harvertown, PA: Casemate, 2003. Print

Sheehan, Sean. D-Day, June 6, 1944. Austin, TX: Raintree Steck-Vaughn, 2003. Print.
“World War II Remembered: Herbert M. Sobel.” . WWII Remembered. 2007. Web. 27 January 2014. (-- removed HTML --)