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Canoerebel -> RE: Bid Thee Return (2/4/2011 11:54:41 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: JeffK
2. Its about time you yanquis caught up with the history of the rest of the war.
PS. The 9th Para Bn might take offense at being called ragtag
Permit me to clarify, as I actually didn't say that 9th Bn was ragtag. What I did say was that Lt. Col. Otwell of the 9th Bn ended up commanding a ragtag bunch, which is true. Here's the story in brief:
Otwell's 9th Bn. of 800 paratroopers was given the job of taking out the German gun battery at Merville, which was ringed by barbed wire, trenches, and a minefield, and defended by 200 well-concealed and protected infantry. They had to do so before dawn, because then the troops would be coming ashore and would be exposed to fire, and the Allies would strike with glider-born infantry and massed bombers or naval gunfire. During their drop, 9th Bn became tremendously scattered. Otwell was only able to cobble together 150 soldiers, none of whom had heavy weapons. Given the importance of the timetable, he carried on rather than waiting to round up more. His 150 were able to attack from only one side, rather than all four sides as planned, and he lost something like 25% of his men in the attack, but they took out the battery, fired the flair signal to indicate the job was done, and thus permitted a glider landing to take place without threat that those guys would get caught up in the Allied artillery (or was it bombing?) that had been scheduled to reduce the battery if necessary.
So, it was a ragtag bunch, but only in a narrow sense of the word. Those guys were men and Lt. Col. Otwell was a leader.
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