Howard Hensleigh
Dear Ronald and Ben, To both of
Ronald's questions I can answer "yes". I received a letter from Victoria
(Tory) Woodhull Parlin, the daughter of James M. Woodhull, the brother of our
460th Robert P. Woodhull. I also spoke with Tory by phone and will call
her again this weekend. Tory's father was a Naval flyer overseas in the
Pacific when Woody was killed right beside Red Meline and me while directing
artillery in support of the attack of G, H, and I at Bergstein February 7,
1945.
Thank you for Woody's package from the U.S. Military
Cemetery Margratin, Holland. This is the cemetery in which all of our
losses at Bergstein are buried, except those who were returned to the
States. MG Maurice Rose is also buried there. During the first few
days of the Bulge, he with his depleted armored division was able to hold most
of his assigned defensive position, excluding Manhay, thanks to Bill Boyle, Don
Fraser and the 1st Bn.
The documents sometimes list Woody's outfit as the
517th P.I.R. and the 460th PFA. The PIR should have been PCT, 517th
Parachute Regimental Combat Team, of which the 460th and Woody were
members. Nowhere is the 101st mentioned so there is no question that the
reference to the 101st should be replaced by the 517th PCT on his grave
marker. If the cemetery officials are willing to do this, I ask that you
take it up with them. If they need anything from us, we will
comply.
It took me a few days to recover from looking through Woody's
documents because of the deep feelings Woody's death revived in my mind.
They contain letters of brother Jim, who passed away 18 years ago, and sister
Lucy A. Woodhull who is still with us. Woody's parents predeceased
him. This package gave me a first look at how the Army inter-related with
the family of one of our fallen troopers. I was impressed with its
thoroughness and the understanding manner with which letters were written,
letters that contained such bad news that they never could be happily
received.
There are usually some surprises in packages of this
type. Several of the letters are signed by MG Thomas B. or T.B.
Larkin. As a retired three star, Tom Larkin was one of my main clients
when I was Legal Advisor of our U. S. Mission to NATO in Paris 1958--60.
Tom was the man who organized the Red Ball Express that hauled the gas, ammo and
supplies to guys like Patton who were sweeping across Europe. Tom's trucks
went 24/7 and were repaired on the road by mobile repair crews to keep the
supplies moving. Unfortunately the 517th did not see any of them and
carried what we could on our backs.
The other interesting surprise
was that Woody's belongings listed several books including "Yankee From Olympus"
about Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. He said that there were two major
occurrences in his life-- being a Union soldier during the Civil War and becoming
a Justice of the Supreme Court, listed in that order of importance.
This book was hot off the press. I received a copy as a graduation
present in the Spring of 1947and its first publication was in April 1944.
I knew Woody had a girl friend who sent him the overseas version of Time, so she
or a family member supplied him with a copy of this excellent book.
Holmes also said, "Life is action and passion. I think it is
required of a man that he should share the action and passion of his time at the
peril of being judged not to have lived." What all you troopers can know
with confidence is that you shared the action and passion of your
times.
Howard Hensleigh
Note to Tom McAvoy and others interested in Fred
Harmon:
Fred and I had a good talk. I mentioned that I had a few
disabilities including the loss of Jan that will probably keep me from traveling
much. Fred said he had a few too, but we did not waste much time detailing
our aches and pains. Fred's voice was strong, his memory good and
considering that he is 86 (as I am) he seemed in good health.
Fred was an H Co. platoon sergeant who, according to Fred, some considered
the meanest man in the outfit. This came from his cuffing a few of the new
recruits to get them into line "so the lieutenant would get off my back."
Fred had a good word for all. He said the young guys fell into line
quickly and became excellent soldiers. He had great respect for what they
did in combat. He mentioned running through Lt. Stott's wiped out I Co.
platoon on the dash into Manhay. He was most complimentary about the
outfit, even including the officers. He mentioned "Lucky Jack" Jackson the
CO during most of the combat, Jim Bennet and Ed Athey who came in by glider
after his plane caught fire on takeoff and they got out before it
exploded. Fred's picture along with Ed Athey's is opposite page 197
in "Battling Buzzards". In our last day in combat at Bergstein, Fred was
one of the last men standing in Company H. As I recall you could count
them on your fingers.
Fred is the same old Fred. Howard
Hensleigh
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