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Up to Your
Neck
Ran across a post the
other day about a WWII C-47 that spoke of
the crew members and I realized I had the
manifest for the plane. Posted to the group
front and back and went on to other things.
Looked at the manifest
the next day I realized that the last three
men were Hq Co 1st Bn
(Headquarters First Battalion) 507th
Prcht Inf (507th Parachute
Infantry) soldiers including the Battalion
Commander Lt Col (Lieutenant Colonel)
Edwin
J. Ostberg, Radio Operator T/5 (Technician
5th Grade)
Robert L. Vannatter and the
Personal Security Pvt (Private)
Walter W.
Lisenby.
I’d spoken with Mr.
Vannatter back in 2009. He sent me his
account he’d written from years before and
also sent a photo of himself and the other
men from the Communications Section for the Hq Co 1st Bn. Vannatter had a
lot of information for his time in the 507th
Prcht Inf.
Based on
Vannatter’s
account both by letter, phone and Army
Documents (Morning Reports, Payroll Records,
Medical Records and 507th Yearbook) I knew
there was more than just what happened the
first day in Normandy.
This stick had soldiers
from both Co A (Company A) and Hq Co 1st
Bn 507th Prcht Inf. These 18
soldiers landed south of the La Fiere area
just west of the railroad tracks at 0230
(2:30 a.m.).
By 0430 both Lt Col
Ostberg and
Lt Col
Arthur J. Maloney with 150 men
located General
James M. Gavin. As the morning
progressed General Gavin along with Lt Col
Ostberg moved down the railroad tracks
towards Chef-du-Pont with 75 men.
Gavin returned to his
CP (Command Post) leaving Ostberg to seize
the Causeway west of Chef-du-Pont. After
cleaning out the town the Germans fell back
to the foxholes on the east end of the
Causeway. Late in the morning of June 6 Lt
Col
Ostberg leading the way charged trying
to dislodge the Germans there. Ostberg was
hit by machinegun fire and pitched over into
the Merderet River.
T/5 Vannatter had lost
track of Lt Col Ostberg and assumed he had
gone back into town. In the middle of the
day Vannatter and Pvt Lisenby decided to
find a way to approach the east end of the
Causeway out of sight of the Germans.
Vannatter took the left side and Lisenby the
right. Not seeing a way forward Vannatter
came back to the spot where he and
Lisenby
had started.
Lisenby had moved about
three feet before he was killed by a
machinegun. Pvt Lisenby had been the S/Sgt
(Staff Sergeant) for the Demolition Platoon
for Hq & Hq Co (Headquarters and
Headquarters Company)
until January 24, 1944
when he was demoted to Pvt along with one
other Demolition man. What happened we
don’t know but Lisenby was still highly
regarded as he was the Personal Security for
Ostberg going into Normandy.
In mid-afternoon
Vannatter and 1st Sgt (First
Sergeant)
Asa Ricks Co A 507th
decided to see if
Ostberg was still alive. Ostberg’s entire body was underwater except
for his head. Vannatter and Ricks worked
their way down to the swamp and pulled Lt
Col Ostberg out. It turns out he was still
alive and
would comeback to the Battalion in
July.
(Ostberg left 507th
in early August 1944 being promoted to 82nd
Abn Div (82nd Airborne Division)
Headquarters right before the 507th
left the 82nd Abn Div and went to
the 17th Abn Div (17th
Airborne Division) later that month.
In
January of 1945 Lt Col Ostberg took over
the 2nd Bn (Second Battalion) of
the 325th Gli Inf (325th
Glider Infantry) during the Bulge. On
February 2, 1945 Ostberg jumped onto a Tank
to get a better view of the battle he was
leading. He was
hit in the head and died
later that day at a Field Hospital.
(Men from the 325th said that
Ostberg was killed instantly by an 88 that
took his head off. It
just goes to show
that unless it’s a first hand account you
have to take it
with a grain of salt).
After Ostberg left the 507th
Maj
(Major) (soon to be Lt Col)
Benjamin F.
Pearson became the
Commander of Hq Co 1st
Bn. The 507th wasn’t used again
until the end of December 1944 in the
Bulge.
Vannatter was promoted to Communication
Chief as his superior S/Sgt
Peter F. Wolfe
was
wounded hitting a
landmine January 5th.
Later the same month January 27, 1945 Lt Col
Pearson was wounded running over a
landmine
as well. Being both Ostberg and Pearson’s
Radio Operator gave him a unique look into
the workings of a Parachute Battalion in
combat both in Normandy and the Ardennes.
Brian N. Siddall
April 3, 2023 |
