Howard Hensleigh

Ben:  There is a good chance Wayne Cross's grandfather told more than Col. Graves that the Bergstein attack would look like the back end of a butcher shop.  I have a vague recollection that Tom said he told the Corps CO who requested paratroops for for what he considered an impossible mission.  The dates on Mark Stewart's morning reports match match the dates of the report Wayne would like me to look at, but I don't know how to access it from Wayne's reference.  If he or anyone else can send me the report, I will be happy to look it over.  The morning reports show that Scrappy Stewart was wounded at Bergstein three days after the fighting began.  He went from assistant platoon leader to platoon leader and may have become the company executive officer after that.  Jim Bennett commanded H Co. after Jackson left.  It is curious that some of the morning report entries are signed by Marty Fastia, who commanded I Co. at one time, but never had any connection with H Co.  "Lucky Jack" Jackson commanded H Co. shortly after the Jump into S. France until he got out on points in Joigny. 

Howard Hensleigh

Note to Brad Stewart:  Scrappy was the nickname that followed your father into the 517th.  If he didn't jump with us into S. France, he must have joined us there.  My for sure recollections are around Joigny, France.  There will be some way I can copy the pictures and get them to you.  I had them here a few days ago, but they are back in Petaluma at my daughter's.  There were jump schools in Sicily so he may have gotten his wings there or been an instructor there.  Do you know where he went to  jump school?  If you can find his service record it will tell you quite a bit.  Best regards,  Howard Hensleigh

Partricia and Roland Orengo

Hello Ben and Bob

We read your last email and we bought on amazon the DVD "kings for forth" to watch it.
We will let you know if it was filmed around Sospel.
thanks for this information.

Kisses

Patou and Roland Orengo
Sospel, France

Howard Hensleigh

Note to Brad Stewart:

It just occurred to me that Edward (Ed) M. Athey, who was with H company all the way, would know your father.  Ed does not use the Internet, but you can contact him at 409 Shasta Ave., Yreka, CA 96097.  I'm sure Ed can give you more details of the H Co. action in which your father participated and a more definite date of his joining us.  I am quite sure it was in S. France since he is on the December 1944 roster.  He undoubtedly rode north with us in those 40&8s.  Although the authors of the Odyssey focused more on the 1st and 2nd Bns. you can follow the actions of the 3rd Bn. and H Co. in it.    I can tell you that H Co. did a valiant job at Bergstein, Germany and only 14 of the company walked out on their own feet when we were relieved.  If your father was reluctant to talk about  this operation, I can well understand it.  Howard H.

Bob Barrett

Kenton,

You looked in all the right places to see if there is any record.  I did not find any either.  One other place that I check is the casualty reports (They are scans of paper records like the Dec 44 roster, so they do not show up in the Search.)  But we only have the casualty reports for I Company until August 44.  Again, no record.

The bio does not mention Southern France, so he could have come in as a replacement later, but then I would expect him to be on the December roster.  Maybe he came in even later.  But for him to serve in “the Ardennes, Rhineland and Central Europe”, I would expect that he would show up in either the December roster, or in the list of Decorations. 

Memories are generally fuzzy.   But he does seem certain about enlisting young and about being a paratrooper, and the locations could be correct.  So it is impossible to tell for sure. 

Bob Barrett