A Paratrooper's Panoramic View: Training with the 464th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion for Operation Varsity's 'Rhine Jump' with the 17th Airborne Division
After his induction into the U.S. Army in February 1943, Robert L. Wilson was lured into the airborne by the extra $50 per month hazardous duty pay. Upon earning his wings, he was sent to Camp Mackall where he was inducted into the 464th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion (PFAB) under the command of Lt. Colonel Edward S. Branigan. There he worked as a cook through February, 1945, when he and 5,000 other rotation troops were shipped overseas. Wilson arrived in LaHarve, France on February 22, 1945 - his 22nd birthday. Although initially assigned to the 13th Airborne Division, a new Table of Operation reassigned him to the 17th Airborne Division - the Golden Eagle Claw Division - known as "Thunder From Heaven." On March 24, 1945, Wilson - heavily laden with gear - boarded a "Gooney Bird" (C-47) in Chalons-sur-Marne, France, and flew as part of the 507th Combat Team in the largest airborne assault in military history. Wilson remained in Germany, moving beyond Wesel, guarding bridges, receiving a "battlefield promotion" to Cpl. T-5, and celebrating V-E Day before returning to the States in August 1945. While en route, he learned of the Hiroshima attack and arrived back at Camp Mackall as the U.S. declared victory over Japan. Robert L. Wilson, a salesman retired from Manufacturing Tool and Supply in Wichita, KS, together with his son, Philip K. Wilson, Ph.D., a historian in the Humanities Department at Penn State's College of Medicine in Hershey, Pennsylvania, recounts paratrooping adventures before, during, and after this historical period of Airborne warfare. Their historical memoir is substantiated by the authors' work in the U.S. Army Military History Institute and recent reunion discussions with other WWII troopers.