The Epic Struggle of the First Airborne Division
Reaches Division Headquarters

We met quite a bit of machine-gun and rifle fire during the trip. Upon reaching division headquarters we reported to Brigadier Hix. A glider pilot, who had followed our other three gliders down on the LZ, had told me earlier in the evening that the rest of our party had been hit by heavy 88-mm. and machine gun fire upon landing, and that he thought all had been killed. I reported this to Brigadier Hix and told him it looked doubtful as far as our having night fighters was concerned, but that I would try to get to the LZ the next day and see what could be salvaged. The next morning I got a jeep and started out for the LZ, but I was caught by mortars and pinned down for about half an hour. The jeep was badly hit and lost several gallons of water and gasoline. Therefore I did not expose myself by trying to start it, but crawled a few hundred yards down the ditch until I got back into the heavy woods.

Later that morning I saw S/L Coxon, who had become separated from the four enlisted men, and he gave me a rough idea of where they were. Within an hour I learned they were in danger of being cut off from us, and I had Lieutenant Heaps drive me down. expecting heavy sniper fire on certain parts of the road, I borrowed a Sten and we started. In a 100-yard stretch we heard the machine pistols of five snipers. I returned the fire, more as a bluff than anything else, but I may have hit one who was covered by thick foliage in a tall tree. At least, stopped firing.

Eventually we found the men, placed them on the jeep facing in all directions, and started back. We were no fired upon. Upon returning I met Lieutenants Geddes and Johnson, who said they had two "veeps" but needed a VHF expert. So I moved the RAF radio expert, Private Eden, around behind the headquarters buildings, and he started to work on the radio. I also move the other three RAF men to the back, since sniper fire had recommenced in front of the building.

That afternoon the mortars started, and from then on the place was under continuous mortar fire. At about 1700, Eden, the enlisted American radio man, Lieutenant Johnson, and I were standing by the jeep, trying to make contact with Allied aircraft, when a mortar barrage came over and a shell landed about 25 yards from us. We dived under the jeep, but both Eden and the American soldier were hit, the American three times in the back, Eden through the jugular vein. I looked at them and called for a stretcher. I knew Eden was finished, for blood was gushing from his throat and mouth.

I thought I had known what it was to be an officer, but I did not know it until then; for Eden, who knew he was finished, but could not talk  to me, gave me a look which told me that he completely depended upon me to take care of him. I patted him on the back, telling him I would look after him and he would be all right. He believed me. Lieutenant Johnson was tending the other wounded man, so I stayed with Eden until he became unconscious, although I was utterly powerless to aid him. Then I helped Lieutenant Johnson until the doctor and the stretcher bearers came. We did not even realize until later that several more shells had fallen near us.

The veep had been hit, but two channels were still working, and we finally got in touch with a Spitfire, but the pilot said he could not hear us because of flak. At the end of about 20 minutes he flew away. After that we were unable to reach any more aircraft, although one of us was calling day and night during the next 2 days, calling for "Boxwood" and "any Allied aircraft" and giving our call signs both as 1st Airborne Division and in our radar control station code. Late on the third day the radio was knocked out altogether by an 88-mm. shell.

After that day, Tuesday, the days were all jammed together and I cannot remember which day was which. There was an HF set in the attic at headquarters, directed by a British lieutenant from the headquarters section. The attic was full of chair cushions, with which we padded the radio all around, since the walls and roof were too thin to stop 88-mm shrapnel. Even so, the radio was knocked out four times by near bursts from 88's and mortars, but the mechanic always managed to keep it going. Lieutenant Geddes and I hoped to hear the voice of someone we recognized and who would recognize us, so that we could get an air cooperation message through without authentication; but we had no luck, although we alternated regularly, one of us on this set and one on the VHF set outside, taking turns with the enlisted men there.

After a day or two, we knew that the walls and roof would never stand the pounding, so we move the HF set out to the back also, in a dugout. The dugout was hit almost immediately, smashing the set for good. The snipers were everywhere, many of them directing artillery fire by radio. The German artillery, both mortars and 88's, was unbelievably accurate.