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Regarding our bet, as to whether or not I could put
Col. Sink within 300 yards of the spot on the map he had pointed to at
the briefing (this spot was the site chosen for the 506th’s CP—“T
or no T”—Col. Sink landed within 200 yards [see
photo of “the bet”], but like many paratroopers
landing in the darkness, Sink wasn’t immediately sure exactly where he
was. Not one to wonder long, he heard a dog barking at a nearby
farmhouse, went over and banged on the door.
“Fermez la
porte,” he yelled several times. There was no response.
He banged on the door. “Fermez
la porte!”
“I believe that means ‘close the door’,”
Capt. Edward Peters told Sink, whose high school French was a little
rusty. “So it does,” replied Col. Sink.
“Ouvrez la
porte!” came the revised question.
The farmer quickly appeared at the door, Sink
produced a map, and without further delay, the Frenchman pinpointed
Sink’s position, at Culoville, in a group of farm buildings, right
where he was supposed to be. His party left, and established themselves
at the CP before 0200. (Marshall, 254; Rapport & Northwood, 101;
Koskimaki, 265).
By dawn of D-Day, approximately 1,100 of the
101st’s troopers were at or near their objectives. Col. Sink, shortly
after dawn, had made contact with his 2d Battalion. He had been unable
to contact the 3d Battalion, which had lost its CO (Col. Wolverton) in a
German ambush of the 3d Battalion DZ; however, survivors of this drop,
under the leadership of Capt. Charles Shettle, had already captured the
3d’s objective, and later that night, in conjunction with elements of
the 501st at the locks to the west (near La Barquette), sandwiched
Heydte’s 1st Battalion--now trying to withdraw into Carentan—in
between the two relatively small American forces. In the confusion, the
Germans thought the attack was much larger and more coordinated and
surrendered to the American troopers (Galvin, 343).
As the day developed, more 101st soldiers gathered
around the 506th CP, and Sink had a detail tow back a captured German
105mm artillery piece. By the end of D-Day, of the approximately 2,500
troops of the 101st Airborne who were in concentrated positions, the
largest concentration of these men “were with Colonel Sink in the
vicinity of Culoville.”
“That evening Generals Taylor and McAuliffe and their
headquarters party arrived at Colonel Sink’s command post at
Culoville. Culoville was not the safest place in Normandy; twice that
afternoon Colonel Sink had had to rally his headquarters force and even
the walking wounded to drive back German infiltrating attacks on the
command post. It was here though that the greatest strength of the 101st
had tended to center and it was to Colonel Sink that General Taylor
assigned the execution of the Division’s most important D-plus-1
mission,” the securing of the highway and railroad bridges over the
Douve River (Rapport & Northwood, 128-35).
Go to Hard
Way to Earn Your Pay
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