Dear Ben:

This is a note to Jean-Loup regarding the attack on St. Cezaire, in Southern France. I am sending it through Mail Call because it may be of interest to others. It has taken a few days to organize my thoughts and set aside the time to answer a good question. The 4^th of July, our Independence Day, seems an appropriate time to write about the 1944 independence of St. Cezaire. As well, we wish all our 517^th buddies, their families and our French friends a glorious, happy Holiday.

The American Revolution started April 19, 1775 up in the Lexington, Concord, Old North Bridge area. On July 4, 1776, more than a year later, we declared our independence. It took George W. and his embattled farmers more than five years after that to wind it up. On October 19, 1781, the French Navy assisted George Washington in making Cornwallis realize the game was up. Not long after that, the French decided that the novel American idea of government by the people might work in France. They also succeeded in throwing off their yoke. The battle for those ideas still rages today. So, there is a common link between the liberation of St. Cezaire and our 4^th of July, 2005.

St. Cezaire will always remain as a cherished spot in my memory. That is because of the mayor’s car and a beautiful young French girl who was visiting her aunt or uncle and her grandmother. But, we will get to that after an attempted answer of your question regarding the battle for the town. I will state the facts from memory and as I have been able to reconstruct them.

St. Cezaire was a 3^rd Bn. 517^th Parachute Infantry objective. It was composed of G, H and I rifle companies and Hq. 3^rd with light 30 caliber machine guns, 81 mm. mortars and the communications section. G Co. and I Co. were the attacking companies. G Co. was commanded by Captain Grant Hooper. I Co. was commanded by Martin Fastia, but really run by Lt. James P. Birder, the other lieutenants and the noncommissioned officers. of I Co. H Company, commanded by "Skip" Morris, was in reserve. Hq. 3^rd. commanded by Captain Joseph T. McGeever, was in support. The break through that allowed the town to be taken without many more casualties is set forth in the citation awarded to Frank Dallas. I was delighted to see that his family forwarded its text to you. Frank was always in the forefront of I Company’s combat action. I thought of him as a Pennsylvania deer hunter. Although he is now blind, he had excellent eyesight and lightning reflexes. He dispatched six German soldiers near Col de Braus before any of them could raise their rifles in defense. When out of combat, which was not often, he engaged in sports or other activity that kept him in excellent physical shape. My understanding of the breakthrough was by observation and discussing it afterwards with the front line men involved. It is my distinct remembrance that private McQuade was also instrumental in I Co’s. breakthrough. I learned after the War that McQuade was an American Indian (now commonly called Native American). He was an excellent combat man, quick and a sure shot. Out of combat, he was Dallas’s exact opposite. Lt. Col. Melvin Zais, who commanded the battalion until just after the S. France jump, got McQuade out of Italy to make the jump and also to avoid proceedings against him for his shooting an Italian Fascist in a bar room fight. In the attack on St. Cezaire, the following G Co. men were killed: Privates First Class Hector H. Colo, Jesse C. Goswick, and Charles F. Stanford, and Private John A Staat. Lt. Richard Spencer who led a G Co. platoon in the attack was wounded with a chunk of enemy mortar shrapnel in his cheek. To my knowledge, there were no I Co. men killed in this attack. That was largely due to the effective work of Frank Dallas, probably with some assistance from McQuade.

I thank you in advance for indulging me in the following personal remarks. The official write-up of the attack on St. Cezaire appears on page 71 of the Paratroopers’ Odyssey prepared by members of the Combat Team. You should be able to access this book on our website. I find this version, as well as other accounts in the book humorous, in that they are based on information I furnished the officer who took credit for writing much of the text. But, he never uses my name in contrast to where C Co. is involved. There he uses his own name frequently. For example, the 3^rd Bn. men who rescued Doc Plassman and our jump casualties in Montauroux were Private First Class Frank Longo and me. We were sent there in an old black sedan specifically for that purpose by Col. Graves and Lt. Col. Zais, then respectively, the combat team commander and executive officer. I acted as 3^rd Bn. S-2 from D plus one and officially was made S-2 in Callian before the St. Cezaire attack. I was also the patrol (of one man) mentioned in the text that probed and found that St. Cezaire was occupied by several hundred Germans. An enemy machine gun fired on me missing by inches. I hit the dirt and got back to Callian only to be fired on again there by a drunken paratrooper while I was shaving that same day. Patrolling alone is foolhardy. I did it twice in S. France, but never again.

Now about the mayor’s car. Rene Benoit, a French Canadian from Vermont, was in my S-2 section. It was our job to find out about the enemy. To do this we needed transportation. Rene who spoke American French, learned that the mayor of St. Cezaire had a four door Fiat in very good shape. Without asking me, he requisitioned it, apparently without any enthusiasm or perhaps permission on the mayor’s part. He painted S-2 on the doors and the S-2 section left town in it. Unfortunately for me, my commanding officer, Capt. Joseph T. McGeever, was selected to remain in St. Cezaire to make peace with the civilians, headed up by the mayor. I do not know what the mayor told Captain "Mac" but he gave me the worst chewing of my life.

The people of St. Cezaire were wonderful. They lined the road to Grasse as we left town. I spotted the young lady mentioned above and told Rene to stop the car. I got out and kissed her on both cheeks. She was startled I am sure, but if you can locate her today, I am sure she will remember that young paratroop lieutenant. We had dinner the night before at her grandmother’s house. She supplemented our terrible K rations with fresh vegetables and made a banquet out of it. The evening before the young lady helped me with my French pronunciation, gleaned from a little paper booklet made available to us before the invasion. Years later when I was in Paris as legal advisor to our US Mission to NATO, I understood the movie dialog better when the film was shot in Southern France than when shot in the North.

You have indulged me, now I would like to end with a request. Many of our remaining 3^rd Bn. members have fond memories of the people of St. Cezaire and Callian who, after we landed off course, assisted us in getting to our drop zone near le Mott and le Muy, and later as we liberated those towns. If there are any remaining who remember any of the incidents mentioned above, we would love to hear from them. We can translate from French to English, so do not let a language barrier interfere.

My highest regards, Howard Hensleigh