Christmas Special: 1/40 "Denali" Artic Angels + 511th PIR History

Introduction

0:00Good evening, angels, and also to your wonderful dates. Merry Christmas. You know, I've been looking forward to joining you for dinner for months now, but my sweet grandmother, who is almost 102 years old, is fading fast, and we are saying our last goodbyes, so I hope you can forgive me for not being with you. Maybe next year I can enjoy the celebrations with you. Now, my name is Jeremy Holm, and I am a former American bobsled athlete turned 11th Airborne Division historian, and I feel privileged to share the story of the angels

0:32with the world. And yes, you did hear me correctly, I did drive bobsleds at over 80 miles an hour for about 15 years, which my wife thinks is cool but crazy. However, after I showed her one of your C-130 jumps, she now thinks you're cool but crazy. Nowadays, instead of driving sleds, I really spend my time reading through historical documents, and we all know how thrilling army records can be. It is death by a thousand boring paper cuts. But it's worth it, though, because my area of study is the 11th Airborne Division, with a personal interest

1:08in the 511th Parachute Infantry. So you can imagine my excitement when I heard the news that the mighty 511th was coming back. You are the inheritors of a mighty legacy. Years ago, two of these old paratroopers, originals for the 511th, shared a holiday phone call. They spoke of days gone by, of jump school at Benning, of their shenanigans during training, and then they talked of combat on Leyte and Luzon during World War II. And they shared stories of buddies who didn't make it back. We sing of the sticks of angels killed on Leyte and Luzon, but they

1:43knew them, with that special bond understood only by those who served together. At the end of the call, Colonel Ed Lottie said with tears in his eyes, I wonder if anybody else remembers the price they paid.

511th Parachute Infantry History

1:56It was my honor to interview the last living 511th members, and to document their stories for the world to know what they did over there. One of these old paratroopers told me with tears in his eyes, does anybody care what we did during the war? Tonight, I'd like to briefly share some of the 511th story with you, since the full story would require a book, or three, and a podcast, and two websites, and a miniseries. Spoiler alert! But tonight, I'm going to tell

2:26you the story of five 511 Christmases. The first, of course, being Christmas of 1941, about two weeks after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. But the second Christmas, that was Christmas of 1942, when a handful of soldiers got off a train in Toccoa, Georgia. These paratroopers belonged to the new 511th Parachute Infantry under the command of Colonel Orrin Hardrock Hogan, one of America's first jump-qualified officers. Orrin participated in the inaugural prop blast ceremony, and was considered one of the finest tacticians in the Army. After

3:00personally selecting his battalion commanders, Hardrock told them to only accept the best, so could you make it in the old 511th? Let's find out. When soldiers arrived at Toccoa, they had to stand almost naked before a panel of battalion officers who evaluated their intelligence, character, and physical appearance. Recruits then had to run Mount Kurehi and pass the Army intelligence test with a minimum score of 110 or higher, the same requirement for officer candidate school. And one trooper said, the regiment was looking for troopers smart enough for OCS,

3:35but dumb enough to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. Out of 12,000 volunteers that arrived at Toccoa, the regiment only accepted 3,000, and that number was further cut to 2,100, so the 511th was comprised of the Army's best. In February of 1943, the 511th went up to Camp McCall, North Carolina, to join the new 11th Airborne as the division's tactical parachute unit. My grandfather, Lieutenant Andrew Carrico, was one of those angels, and he fought with the division

4:05on Leyte and Luzon before being severely wounded in 1945. Of course, the 511th's troopers felt they were the best of the 11th Airborne's best. They outran, outshot, and outworked the division's other units. When the regiment went to jump school, not one man in the 511th refused to jump in the door, and they returned to Camp McCall with pride, jump wings on their chest, and jump boots polished like glass. We were tougher than a 30-cent steak, one paratrooper declared, and they swaggered around

4:35McCall and nearby towns like kings. I'm sure that never happens around Anchorage. Now, the 511th did look down on the division's non-jumpers, and before he passed, A Company's Captain Stephen Cavanaugh told me that we were felt to be mavericks and troublemakers and prone to feel superior to the rest of the division, which, of course, we were. When Mess Hall cooks repeatedly gave the paratroopers attitude, Sergeant John Muntz pulled one of the cooks over the counter and, quote, stomped his teeth out. Customer service improved. The 511th's blend of hard work

5:11and troublemaking continued, and at one point, a frustrated division commander, Major General Joseph Swing, shook his fist and proclaimed, damn rowdy paratroopers, and that should probably be the 511th's unofficial motto. But the regiment helped General Swing save the airborne in 1943. After the invasion of Sicily, the War Department was considering eliminating airborne divisions and only forming brigades or RCTs, until the 11th Airborne Division proved that airborne divisions could be resupplied

5:44by air during the Knollwood maneuvers in December of 1943. Now, 85% of the 511th landed in their DZs at Knollwood, and General Swing came to really appreciate the caliber of men in this regiment. He would later joke that the 511th was made up of the greatest men in the world to take to war and the last people in the world I'd take home to date my baby sisters. Now, after Christmas celebrations

Christmas 1943

6:09of 1943, the third Christmas in our story, the 11th Airborne headed to Louisiana, where Camp Polk's armored units learned not to mess with the 511th. My grandpa said that when the armored branch and the airborne met, quote, all hell broke loose. Armored soldiers were heard to say around Polk, if you get in a fight with a paratrooper, you better bring your lunch. Those guys never quit. After beating on armored units for four months, the 11th Airborne went to Camp Stoneman, California for three weeks, and then in May of 1944, the 511th boarded the SSC Pike. But prior to departure,

6:46a group of paratroopers gathered around PFC Alex Village Center, who was holding a letter with the presidential seal on it. The letter said that Alex's brother had been killed in action in Europe, and that as the family's sole surviving son, Alex could go home if he wanted to. So, Alex folded up the letter, looked around at his buddies, and he said, you are my brothers now. He would fight with the regiment all the way to Tokyo. Despite their hell-raising ways, the 511th Parachute Infantry was

7:16an elite group of paratroopers, and their strong bonds led them to be called the Band of Brothers of the Pacific. Now, the division's transports crossed the Pacific to Dobodora, New Guinea, where the 11th Airborne went into strategic reserve, earning its first battle streamer. There was consideration for a combat drop by the 511th, but that plan was canceled. So, for six months, the Angels swam in the ocean, played sports, and fished with grenades and demo charges. They made moonshine in the jungle and stole everything, including jeeps, weapons, kisses from USO girls, and all kinds of food. Gotta have

7:53snackies in the field. When Oro Bay's port generator disappeared, everyone pointed their fingers at the 511th, who, of course, proclaimed innocence, but they did actually steal it. And then it was in their area until General Swing ordered it brought to his area. Rank has its privileges. Corporal William Walter said, for the 511th, stealing was a way of life. But let's remember, the division was preparing for war. So, the 511th made numerous practice jumps in the jungle and endured long marches through the surrounding mountains on the Kokoda Trail. The Angels' instructors were veterans of earlier island

8:29campaigns and native Papuans who warned the Angels that the Japanese were cunning, capable, and ruthless. And the 11th Airborne discovered just how ruthless when the division was committed to combat on the island of Leyte in November of 44. The momentum of allied units around Leyte's central mountain range had stalled, and someone needed to go up to destroy the enemy's main supply line. Someone who could handle the hard fighting and hard marching and did not depend on mechanized transportation. Well, that

9:02sounded like a job for the Angels, and General Swing said, my boys can do it. As a result, after the division landed on Leyte, they moved up to Barawan right as the monsoon season began, and it would rain 23 inches in one month, which filled foxholes and mesquits and left trails muddy and slippery. This photo shows what Barawan looked like in 1946 after the Angels had left, of course. But waiting for the Angels in those mountains were Japan's 16th and 26th Infantry Divisions. The 16th had participated in

9:35the Rape of Nanking, China in 1937, and the 26th had captured Corregidor in 1941 and then perpetrated the horrible Bataan Death March. In 33 days, the 11th Airborne Division eliminated 6,000 of those butchers on Leyte, and the 511th led the push across the island, suffering 75% of the division's casualties in the process. Now, this grainy video shows the pass that the 511th used to head into the mountains from Barawan, and one record states, the journey defies description. Sucking mud, jungle

10:08vines, and vertical inclines exhausted the men before they had marched an hour. And for the sake of time, I just want to highlight some of what the 511th went through on Leyte in their drive westward towards Ormok Bay. So first, the environment was just awful. Leeches and insects were everywhere. The mud and rain ate away at their gear, while jump boots rotted to pieces. And the higher they went, in elevation, the colder it got in their rain-filled foxholes. And of course, tropical diseases like dengue fever left the angels miserable. And then there were the Japanese, who attacked like ghosts

10:42out of the jungle. Even the bravest paratrooper felt fear during his first bonsai attack as the enemy screened in the dense foliage, then charged en masse. The fighting was frequently hand-to-hand on Leyte, as the angels used bayonets, fists, helmets, and shovels as weapons. Japanese officers charged with samurai swords held high, and paratroopers blasted them with .45s stolen on New Guinea. Snipers hid in the trees, while other Japanese soldiers jumped out of spider holes, and reinforced positions had to be eliminated along the way. The 511th faced an enemy that fought to

11:18the death, and one paratrooper declared that after Leyte, hell was a vacation. The monsoon cloud cover made resupply difficult, and many in the 511th went seven days with nothing to eat, so your dinner tonight would be a feast beyond imagination. Some paratroopers lost 30 pounds on Leyte, and my hungry grandpa said that one time he looked over at his platoon sergeant in the foxhole, and he said, I wonder how he tastes. Grandpa later lost all of his teeth because of the malnourishment

11:49of Leyte. But the always-hungry, always-wet 511th kept fighting, and when three angels were wounded in a clearing, medic Robert Lesher reached Corporal Murray Hale first. After digging a bullet out of Murray's shoulder, promising to give it to him later, Robert crawled out into the open to treat the other wounded paratroopers. And the paratroopers back in the tree line warned the medic that it was dangerous out there, but he was fearless and he wasn't about to leave the wounded. It broke their hearts when a Japanese sniper killed Robert Lesher a few minutes later. And most of you know the story

12:24of Private Elmer Fryer, who earned the Medal of Honor on December 8th, 1944, while protecting his company's flank during a fierce enemy attack. Sergeant Wilbur Wilcox said that if not for Elmer, 2nd Battalion could have been wiped out. Now, Private Fryer is credited with killing 27 Japanese that day, saving the life of a wounded sergeant, and sacrificing his life to protect his platoon leader, Lieutenant Norvin Davis. Angels, the 511th's campaign is full of such inspiring stories.

12:54When the regiment set up on Rock Hill outside Mahonag, they endured several brutal bonsai charges, including one on December 18th. And 1st Battalion's Lieutenant Foster Arnett watched a mortar squad panic and collapse towards the center. So Foster immediately jumped out of his foxhole and charged the retreating angels, shouting, get your blankety blanks back in your holes. This is the family-friendly version tonight. Lieutenant Arnett courageously helped reorganize the defenses and the line held, but his arm was shattered by a Japanese bullet in the process.

13:27Later that day, Chaplain Lee Walker asked 3rd Battalion's exhausted paratroopers to kneel in the mud and join him in prayer to ask God for help in their time of need. Minutes later, these angels looked up to see the clouds part just enough for one C-47 to fly overhead to drop badly needed supplies. A Christmas miracle. Four days later, my grandfather's 1st Platoon of Company D attacked the enemy's last line of defenses, standing between the angels in Ormok Bay. When they reached the

13:59summit's crest, 1st Platoon's troopers found themselves face-to-face with the column of 150 Japanese soldiers. The platoon became pinned down until PFC John Bad Soldier Bittori charged the Japanese with his machine gun, firing from the hip as he did so. 1st Platoon's 35 men won the day, leaving 300 enemy dead behind. Well, the worn-out 5-11th came down from Leyte's Mountains on Christmas Day, the fourth Christmas in our story, while singing carols and carrying their wounded. It was a

Leyte Campaign

14:33Christmas they never forgot. After a short rest, which included a nice Christmas dinner that everyone promptly threw up because their stomachs were so emaciated, the 11th Airborne held a review for 8th Army's General Robert Eichelberger, who said, I am very keen about this 11th Airborne. They are small in number, but they are willing to fight. True then, true now. General Eichelberger told the division that they were headed to Luzon to liberate a people who had been crushed by the iron boots of tyranny for three years.

15:04One Catholic priest being held prisoner by the Japanese turned to a nearby nun, and he said, If we're going to get out of this alive, we better pray. And she replied, If we're going to get out of this alive, God will have to send the angels. I mean, ladies and gentlemen, the movie script writes itself, While the bulk of the division did land amphibiously on the southern Luzon beaches of Naxubu,

15:44which are beautiful when you're not under fire, the 511th Parachute Infantry jumped onto Gaitai Ridge on February 3rd and 4th. But when General Swing went to send the 511th off, he noticed one paratrooper sitting on the ground without any equipment. The general, of course, inquired where his gear was, and this angel painfully stood up, and General Swing could see that his stomach was wounded very badly. And the angel said, I just left the hospital. I heard we were making a combat jump, and I didn't want my buddies to go without me. So General Swing went back to his jeep, grabbed his personal rifle, his poncho,

16:19pulled the helmet off of his driver, and gave the gear to the paratrooper and wished him well. After landing on Tegaitai, the 511th led the division's push into southern Manila, where they ran straight into Japanese defenses designed to hold back an entire core. So pillboxes were on every corner, and they were connected by interlocking tunnels, which also led to naval and anti-aircraft gun emplacements the Japanese were using as anti-infantry. So the 511th attacked, taking one street, one pillbox, one block, one reinforced position at a

16:51time. They assaulted bridges, crossed rivers, and cleared buildings, all while feeding and caring for Filipino refugees along the way. This was urban warfare at its worst, because the Japanese were burning and rampaging their way across the city, raping as they went. 3rd Battalion's Walter Cass wrote to his family, The air was constantly filled with artillery and mortar salvos, the banging of rifle fire, the chatter of machine guns, and the whine of ricochets. It was into this maelstrom that the 511th

17:21pushed into the city, clearing Emus, Perignacay, Nicholsfield, and Fort McKinley. The 11th Airborne Division did what on paper an airborne division is not equipped to do, but it came at a cost. During two weeks of fighting to save the people of Manila, some companies in the 511th suffered 70% casualties, one of whom was Manuel Perez, who earned the Medal of Honor at Fort McKinley for single-handedly destroying 12 pillboxes and killing officially 18 Japanese. And I say that

17:52because his platoon sergeant Max Pollack said, it was more like 75. Manuel was killed one month later outside Santo Tomas. And since he is from my old hometown in Oklahoma, I was able to pay respects at his grave last year. Of note, the 11th Airborne Division's only Medal of Honor recipients are from the 511th PIR. Another name considered for the medal was Sergeant Mills Lowe, who commanded a remote machine gun position near Abilang, when he and his 24 men were engaged by over 300 Japanese. Lowe's angels

18:26held their own during the first four assaults, but ammunition ran low. So the sergeant led a scrounging party to collect enemy weapons, and they returned just in time to help fend off a fifth bonsai assault, while the Japanese gathered and massed for a sixth charge from the front and the rear. And Sergeant Lowe was moving between positions to direct fire and encourage his men, but eventually the Japanese broke through the perimeter, and the fighting became hand-to-hand. The enemy overran one of the guns, so Sergeant Lowe cleared that gun with grenades, killing eight Japanese, and then manned the gun. The next day, his men said

19:01that they counted 50 enemy dead by Lowe's hand alone. Now, I have read through hundreds of the angels' accommodations, and in the words of PFC Robert Leroy, there were no boys in this fight. Nothing but men, blood, sweat, and tears. The legacy of the 511th Parachute Infantry is one of heroes. And on February 23rd, 1945, those heroes executed the division's famous raid on the Los Banos internment camp, where over 2,000 civilians faced death and starvation under Japanese guards until the angels came down

19:38from heaven. The 511th's Company B dropped from 400 feet and rushed to liberate the camp. The rest of 1st Battalion came across Laguna de Bay and Amtrax to protect the camp during the evacuation and assist with the internees. And when those rescued prisoners reached friendly lines at Muntinlupa, they were in line to eat pea soup when they looked up at the American flag flying overhead. We have to remember, these were everyday men, women, and children. These were civilians

20:08who had been snatched from the jaws of death by the angels. And when they saw that flag, they started to cry, and they sang, God bless America. Last year, I sat down with one of the last living internees rescued that day, Patty Kelly Stevens, who, if she were with you today, she would say, God bless the angels. And my friend, Staff Sergeant James Wilson jumped on Los Banos with Company B, so we talked about the raid quite a bit before he passed. But he later said of the 511th, we were the best there ever was. Indeed, the 511th PIR was an elite unit which destroyed

20:45every enemy they faced, and the people of Luzon were grateful for it. So when the 511th liberated the Manila Brewery, the thankful owners sent the 511th a tanker full of fresh beer as a thank you. PFC Delbert Bob Hayes wrote to his family, we got the ice and put it into our helmets, then set the beer in our helmets. Sadly, Bob was killed just before the war ended, so angels, perhaps on special occasions you can make your own Bob Hayes to honor the fallen.

21:15Well, the war went on, and the 11th Airborne turned south in April of 45 to clear the Lipa Corridor, then the Malapuño Mountain Range, where Japanese forces had massed for a last-ditch stand against the Americans. The 511th's paratroopers cleared the enemy out of caves and reinforced positions with flamethrowers, demolition charges, pack howitzers, and courage. On April 20th, a patrol from E Company was led by Lieutenant Norvin Davis, the same officer whose life had been saved by Elmer Fryer on Leyte. But when Japanese defenders on Hill 2380 opened up on

21:49E Company's troopers, they inflicted several casualties, and the patrol was ordered to withdraw. But as they did so, carrying their wounded and their dead, another group of Japanese opened up inflicting even more casualties. Lieutenant Davis elected to stay with the wounded until a relief party arrived. He would not leave his men behind. It was a courageous decision that would cost him his life. One month later, on the 23rd of June, the 511th's 1st Battalion participated in the last

22:20airborne operation of World War II at Apari, which helped seal off Luzon's Cagayan Valley. And then two months later, on August 30th, the 511th joined the 11th Airborne as the first full Allied unit to land on Japan, where this division raised the American flag. General Douglas MacArthur selected troopers from the 511th for his honor guard on Japan, and I still don't know if the general ever found out that the 511th's troopers on his honor guard were stealing from his personal stores of wine and caviar. The 511th's angels helped secure the departure docks for the surrender ceremony on

22:55the USS Missouri, and C-511th's former CO, Major Tom Messereau, he was entrusted to carry the surrender documents from the Missouri to Washington. Such history. The fourth Christmas in our story is of

Post-War Legacy

23:10course Christmas of 1945, during which many of the 511th's veterans were discharged. They gratefully returned home to enjoy holidays with their families, and went on to lead wonderful lives, but they never forgot the regiment that they had served in with such pride. Which brings us to the fifth and final Christmas in our story. Your Christmas. Your story. In six months, you will be the 511th. I hope you will be as proud of your heritage as those original angels were. They made the regiment the best there ever was

23:45in the past. Only you can make it the best there is today. Honor the 511th by keeping it, as Private Sidney Smithson once declared, the toughest, best damn outfit in the world. I know you can, and I know you will. And should the 511th be called upon again to defend our nation and our freedoms on some future battlefield, may God have mercy on our country's enemies, because even the Holy Bible tells of the destruction that falls on those who face the wrath of angels who come down from heaven. Make us proud, angels.

24:20Merry Christmas.