History of the 506th PIR

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In early 1942 the US Army’s Airborne Command was established at Fort Benning Georgia and in July the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment was activated under the command of Lt Col Robert F Sink.

For those that joined the 506th, intensive and exhausting training took place at Camp Toccoa, Georgia, followed by Fort Benning for parachute training and Camp Mackall, North Carolina for tactical training prior to large scale maneuvers in Tennessee.

In June of 1943 the unit was officially attached to the 101st Airborne Division and shortly after it crossed the Atlantic on the R.M.S. Samaria to arrive in Liverpool on 15 September 1943.

From Liverpool, troop trains took the 506th south to Hungerford and upon arrival, GI trucks then took them on to their English encampments in Aldbourne, Chilton Foliat, Froxfield, and Ramsbury.

Once settled in, the men of the 506th acquainted themselves with their new rural surroundings and continued the rigors of intensive training in preparation for combat.

In Ramsbury the men of the 506th were billetted throughout the village, with enlisted men in a purpose built camp and in the stables and outbuildings of larger private homes, whilst Officers were billeted within these same private homes.

As dawn broke on the morning of 6 June 1944, many men of the 506th had already paid the ultimate price for their endeavors and would never again walk the quaint streets of Ramsbury or Aldbourne. Meanwhile their buddies who had made it through the night continued to fight fierce enemy resistance and play a key role in the success of Operation Overlord the D-Day invasion of Normandy.

For those members of the 506th that were lucky enough to survive the battle of Normandy, it was not until 10 July that they were finally to return to England for rest, re-equipping and the replacement of those killed and wounded.

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A little over two months after returning to England, on 17 September 1944 the entire 506th regiment was to land in Holland as part of Operation Market-Garden, the first major daylight air assault attempted by the Allied powers.

By airlifting paratroopers and glidermen from the 82nd and 101st U.S. Airborne Divisions and England's First Airborne Division into Holland, the plan called for them to seize roads, bridges and the key communication cities of Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem. This would effectively cut Holland in two and create a corridor through which British armoured and motorized columns could proceed directly to the German border.

The 101st Airborne Division had to secure the Highway from Eindhoven north to Veghel, a fifteen mile stretch that would come to be referred to as ‘Hell’s Highway’.

The 506th’s mission was to seize the canal bridges at Zon and take the four highway bridges over the Dommel River in Eindhoven.

Once in Zon, 1st Battalion saw the two bridges destroyed as they approached, but Col Sink pushed on to Eindhoven and secured the Dommel River bridges thereby enabling the first British armour to enter the town.

For the 506th, Holland would become home until the end of November, 1944, when after fighting from town to town and repelling every counter-attack the enemy launched, they finally found themselves in a former French artillery garrison just outside the village of Mourmelon, where finally they could rest and re-equip.

	Darvin Lee and a buddy run through the streets of Chilton Foliat. Click to Enlarge

On 16 December, 1944, the Germans launched a major offensive through a lightly held sector of the Ardennes Forest and brought about what is now known as The Battle of the Bulge. The 101st were part of the Allied reserve and were immediately ordered to Bastogne, the Belgian crossroads town which was key to the German counteroffensive. The resultant defense of Bastogne undertaken by the 101st Airborne Division has entered the annals of military history, as despite being completely encircled the 101st fought off successive German attempts at breaking through the perimeter. Fighting was ferocious and heavy casualties resulted, amongst these the 506th’s 1st Battalion Commander, Lt Col James L LaPrade.

With resupply airdrops from US Troop Carrier C47’s finally breaking free of the appalling UK weather on December 23rd, the encircled men of the 101st received much needed ammunition and other essential supplies with which to maintain their defense, until on December 26th elements of General George Patton’s Third Army spearheaded by Lt. Col. Creighton Abrams of the 37th Armor Regiment broke through the encirclement and began the lifting of the siege of Bastogne.

On the 20th of January, the 506th moved to the Alsace Province of France prior to returning to Mourmelon, where as part of the 101st Airborne Division they received the Distinguished Unit Citation for their actions at Bastogne.

A move to Germany proper ensued on 2nd April when the 506th occupied positions facing the Rhine River south of Dusseldorf, Germany.

Finally, in the last few days of the war in Europe, the 506th received its final wartime mission, that being the capture of Berchtesgaden and Hitler's Eagles Nest, which was successfully completed on the 4th and 5th of May 1945.

On 8 May, Colonel Sink accepted the surrender of the German LXXXII Corps, commanded by Lt General Theodor Tolsdorf.

The 506th had gone from rural Wiltshire to the very seat of Nazi power in less than eight months and, having established its command post in Zell Am See it remained there until the end of July, when it moved to Joigny, France.

Final deactivation of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment came on 30 November 1945 and at this time its few remaining members were reassigned to other units.