THE 505 PARACHUTE INFANTRY REGIMENT FIRST used pathfinders in September 1943 during the jump into Paestum (Salerno), Italy. It was rather unusual, as they had cans filled with sand and gasoline to fire up so the oncoming pilots could see the C47’s carrying the paratroopers. The jump went off rather well and far than better the debacle of the July Sicily misdrops, where only a few landed anywhere near their D Z around Gela and the Allied beach invasion force.
After the 82d and the 505 concluded their combat in the Italian Campaign in late October and were in reserve in Naples, Generals RIDGWAY and GAVIN, as well as the C47 Troop Carrier Command, decided the lessons learned by the terrible Sicily drops needed correction and use of new radar electronic equipment and lights on the regimental DZs.
About 126 men from the 504 and 505 Parachute Regiments were hand picked for their ability and their officers knew them well enough to go through some difficult training and many night practice jumps. Our C47 Troop Carrier Pathfinder pilots had more experience than the younger new Air Corps men.
We departed Naples by C47 and landed at Comiso Airport, Sicily. There were many US Army aircraft at this base and we settled in for about ten days of training. Captain Jack Norton (Lieutenant General, USA, ret.) was one of the leaders, but he was so ill with yellow jaundice and malaria (which many of us got in Africa), he was on sick call most of the time. But we all trained with the British radar and halo lights, using all equipment in day and night jumps.
The British radar was in a big bag and very difficult to jump with strapped to your right leg with a ripcord and 15 foot static line to release after you jumped. It would hit the ground first, rather hard. The seven-man light team jumped with their lights strapped on so all our pathfinders equipment was on our body. Nothing was dropped in a separate bundle. All the men were from different regimental companies and we got to know all our comrades rather well. That was unusual as we usually only knew the men in your own platoon and company as close friends.
After Comiso Pathfinder training, we returned to Naples and in late November got on the US Frederick Funston for Belfast, Ireland, where the regimental officers and men were reorganized and then we were transported over to Quorn, England, where we landed in January 1944.
The pathfinders trained at the North Witham British and American airport Base with all new American equipment and lights. The radar was now much smaller, jumped as a chest pack weighing about 40 pounds. It was far better than the British leg pack and easy to assemble.
Our Pathfinder training in England was separate from our regular infantry company daily schedules. One week, each Pathfinder would be with his platoon doing his combat infantry training and duty. The next week, we would join the same C47 pilots and crew we had trained with in Sicily. This went on from February until the end of May 1944 when we went to our locked-in camps to wait for orders to jump into Normandy.
The training we engaged in at North Witham was excellent, and the 505 Pathfinder teams loved the job. We were as good as any team in the business. During the approach to the drop zone, the first four men were close to the officer jumpmaster, looking down at the DZ target. When the green light came on, we exited very fast and subsequently landed very close to each other.
In Ste. Mère-Eglise, on D-Day, we had three separate C47 aircraft for each battalion of each 82d regiment, i.e. the 505, 507 and 508 PIRs. Our 505 C47 pilots were very experienced and on entering the cloudbank cover and knew what to do—descend quickly.
On approaching the Ste. Mère-Eglise Pathfinder target for each battalion, the pilots immediately lowered their altitude from about 700 feet to about 400 feet. Flying above 500 feet was the disaster area, as the C47s loaded with jumpers were in a cloudbank and could not see the ground or the pathfinders’ lights. However, the 505 PIR pathfinders landed right on our DZ. Almost all other 82d and 101st Airborne Division pathfinders had some kind of problems which resulted in either their radar or lights not being activated.
The 505 PIR landed without much ground opposition, except for some men who were dropped in the middle of the town including John Steele, whose chute caught on the church steeple. We had the best, most proficient Pathfinder drops of both divisions in Normandy.
My A Company 505 PIR 1st Platoon officer and leader was Michael Chester. He was also the original commander of our 1/505 Pathfinder team. He was a courageous and fearless officer who made all four combat jumps and received Silver Star and Bronze Star decorations for valor. He was badly wounded in Normandy and (with Red Dog Dolan) at Mook, Holland. We became very good friends after the war and he stayed in the army. In later life, he became a college professor. He convinced me to go back into the US Army Reserve (1962) as I did, retiring as a colonel. You never forget a man like Mike Chester.