American Battle Monuments Commission
08/09/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 08/09/2024 00:47
Why would anyone jump out of a perfectly good airplane? Part 2: The 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion “Geronimo”
If you joined the United States military today and aspired to be a paratrooper, there would be over 80 years of paratrooping experience before you. The odds of a large number of successful parachute jumps over the course of your career are overwhelmingly high. But imagine if, during this pioneering endeavor, you were one of the pioneers! This is exactly where the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion found themselves on October 5, 1941, having been designated as an airborne training unit[1]. The 509th got their nickname the "Geronimos" when Private Aubrey Eberhardt exited his aircraft and yelled "Geronimo!" to show that he wasn't scared. The nickname stuck and today the Geronimos still wear their catchword stitched to their unit patch[2]. The 509th went on to participate in several major operations during World War II.
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Corporal Burl J. Knapp, 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion (left) standing next to Nicole Celebonovitch, a member of the French Resistance. Corporal Knapp was killed by sniper fire on August 25, 1944 near La Napoule. He is buried at A-10-7 at the Rhone American Cemetery.
The 509th received their first mission in support of Operation Torch, and it would take place on November 7th of the next year. It was full of uncertainties. 556 paratroopers would fly 1,600 miles from England to North Africa where their mission was to take airfields at Tafraoui and La Senia[3]. If the Allies controlled the two airfields, which were either hard-surfaced or simply in better shape than anything else available, then the Allies could prevent hostile forces from using them during the upcoming amphibious landing in North Africa. The mission was plagued with communication issues, navigational problems, and bad weather. There was also the politically risky move of flying over Spain. Many paratroopers were dropped off target and some of the planes landed west of their objectives without dropping a single airborne soldier. It was not the success that the leadership was looking for but the 509th jumped from their aircraft and into the history books. They had executed the first real-world combat airborne mission in United States military history[4].
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Private First Class Clarence Bergeman, 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion, was a medic who was killed by artillery fire near Cannes. He is buried at B-10-4 at the Rhone American Cemetery.
The Geronimos would make their second jump in a matter of days to seize another airfield with better results[5]. Whether they knew it or not, every time the paratroopers of the 509th "put their knees in the breeze", they were adding to the book of "lessons learned" about parachute operations, including the first Pathfinder mission[6]. The 509th participated in five combat jumps before the war's end, their last being the incredibly important jump in support of Operation DRAGOON in Southern France.
Operation DRAGOON called for an airborne division, but the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions had already been tasked with Operation OVERLORD and withdrawn from the Mediterranean Theatre. The 1st Airborne Task Force was therefore created. Independent parachute units made up the task force, including the 509th. By now, the 509th was no stranger to being first (at Anzio, they were even one of the first airborne units ever to leave their parachutes in the hangar and instead execute a beach landing![7]), and they would be the first again. The Geronimos led the way, being the first paratroopers out of the door for the liberation of Southern France at 04h18, August 15th, 1944[8].
The primary mission of the 1st Airborne Task Force was to take the town of Le Muy and the surrounding area. Controlling Le Muy meant controlling the intersection that would allow access to the Rhône River Valley and deny German reinforcements. While many paratroopers were scattered off target, the 509th and the rest of the task force did manage to secure their objectives, helping to ensure the success of the operation[9].
The 509th continued with follow-on operations in Nice and Cannes and later moved to the French Alps where they would protect the flank of the U.S. 7th Army from German attacks from Northern Italy. Finally, in what would probably be their biggest test of the war, the 509th would fight in one of World War II's best-known battles, the Battle of the Bulge[10].
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Due to thick fog and low visibility, 17 paratroopers from B Company, 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion, were dropped into the Mediterranean off the coast of St. Tropez. All are memorialized on the Wall of the Missing at RHAC.
The end of the war signaled the end of most of the independent parachute units, but not for the 509th. The proud airborne tradition of the Geronimos continues today. Two battalions of the 509th still serve with distinction, being stationed at Fort Johnson, Louisiana, and Fort Richardson, Alaska.
[1]Jim T. Broumley, The Boldest Plan is the Best (Rocky Marsh Publishing, 2011), 20. First designated as the 504th Parachute Infantry Battalion, the unit would undergo several redesignations until it was the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion. In this article, the unit will be cited as simply the 509th.
[2]Broumley, The Boldest Plan is the Best, 15.
[3]E.M. Flanagan, Jr., Airborne: A Combat History of American Airborne Forces (Presidio Press, The Ballantine Publishing Group, New York, 2002), 43.
[4]William B. Breuer, Geronimo! American Paratroopers in World War II (Saint Martin's Press, New York, 1989), 35.
[5]Broumley, The Boldest Plan is the Best, 91.
[6]Broumley, The Boldest Plan is the Best, 123.
[7]Breuer, Geronimo! American Paratroopers in World War II, 159.
[8]William B. Breuer, Operation Dragoon: The Allied Invasion of Southern France (Presidio Press, California, 1987), 131.
[9]Jeffrey J. Clarke and Robert Ross Smith, Riviera to the Rhine: The European Theater of Operations, (University Press of the Pacific, Honolulu, HI, 2005), 104.
[10]Broumley, The Boldest Plan is the Best, 244-245.