Army heritage days is an annual event held in may at Army Education center in carlyle, pennsylvania. Hundreds of hobbyists conduct dd talk to the public about the military from the American Revolution to the war on terror. The theme this year was dday 75th anniversary. Next on american artifacts we visit a living history camp to learn about the experiences of the armys 517th parachute Regimental Combat Team. U. S. Soldiers who fought in the Maritime Alps of france 75 years ago during the autumn of 1944. Good morning. I am part of a Group Representing f company of the 517th parachute regiment part of the unit called the 517th prct short for parachute Regimental Combat Team. It is a largely forgotten, over shadowed unit of the war because it was a smaller unit, numbered about 2500 men throughout the war. It was comprised of three smaller units, the 517th parachute frant regiment, the 596th airborne engineer company and the 460th parachute Field Artillery battalion so those three units together made the Regimental Combat Team. The higher army command would attach them to larger units and divisions where they were needed as needed throughout the war. We are representing them during the french alps. They protected the right flank of the main advance of the u. S. 7th army up the river valley. That came from the invasion of Southern France in august, 1944, the second invasion of france, the forgotten invasion over shadowed by operation over lord the famous normandy operation. Original bali they were to take place simultaneously and named hammer and anvil, to trap the germans and push them out to liberate france but due to the Landing Craft and aircraft fire command was not able to have both operations at the same time and normandy was deemed the more important and as we know from history what happened there. But operations during the Southern Operations war delayed until august, 1944 and that originally took place on august 15th. Troops began to scramble up the beach. Prepared for an enemy onslaught. Not a single german soldier appeared. Mine detector squads cleared the roads to permit our tanks to continue on their way. German prisoners were herded on to the beaches for removal to ships. By midnight of august 16th the french commandos had been contacted. It was so smooth that by noon the following day a beach head 20 miles long and five miles deep had been established. We are representing them during the Maritime Alps campaign which was after the initial invasion when they were protecting the right flank of the main advance. They were in combat for approximately 90 days. They were on the lines fighting the germans in the south of france. They were in the Maritime Alps protecting the right flank, aggressive patrolling and siege warfare going hilltop to hilltop routing the germans out of the area because the germans were dug in there for the entire occupation of france and they just had to take hill top to hill top to fight them. Here we have an o. P. Or outpost, a head of the main line of the troops dug in, like an Early Morning system, two man fox hole. We have sand bags and shelter halves for more protection from the weather. You would see more instances of logs and tree limbs over to provide more heavy duty protection from artillery mortar fire. Normally the longer youre in an area the deeper you would dig in to give yourself more protection. The 517th at the time theyre in the Maritime Alps were in a set area that they were working from sending patrols out so they had time to dig deeper and more elaborate fox holes because the germans were firing on them with their artillery mortar pieces so there are many instances of the soldiers of the 517th needing better fox hole protection like we have here. To our right, we have a larger fox hole that would sleep three or four men that would be an example of the 517th fox holes away from the, behind the o. P. That is what the assault, essentially the soldiers were living in at that time during their campaign. We like to do this here because it gives actually the kids get an opportunity to see what it was like that some of these soldiers, how their life was during the war. You can slide that on. You might be surprised how heavy it is. We dug these for the displays for Army Heritage days. It took several hours. We had entrenching tools the soldiers were issued. We used the sand bags for the dirt we dug out. But as i said, the unit were portraying being they were in the area in the south of france for that prolonged period of time, this gives the idea of the more well entrenched fox hole they would have at that particular campaign. It is just as simple as digging down into the earth and building up around you because what that gives you is protection from, as i said before, the german artillery mortar fire they were receiving on their end and where their lines were. You get below the ground level and the more cover you have on top it is going to protect you from any artillery or mortar blast as opposed to standing out in the open. World war ii shelter halves, you can only water proof so much. The rain we had last night, they kept us relatively dry from that rain. But the time period in autumn of 1944 they actually ran into snow in the end of september of 1944. There was one day they woke up to 6 to 8 inches of snow on their shelter halves. Because they were in the Maritime Alps it was colder than the riviera where they had come from. There were days they woke up and they felt like a piece of plywood on them because it got that cold it felt like they had a piece of plywood on top of them instead of a piece of canvas. They would make a bed roll which is essentially one shelter half with either one or two blankets tied with the shelter half rope that was a suspension line that soldiers could carry with them and it would kind of be like a sleeping bag but you would easily carry what you needed to keep you dry and warm as best as they could. With the 517th being they were in an established area for almost 90 days they didnt carry too much around. If they went on patrol theyd take ammunition and rifles depending how long the patrol may be, maybe a ration or two. They would be of course back to their main line, main fox holes. Other units, pushing into germany, soldiers would carry what they need on their back. They might have a bed roll. They would carry essentially what they have in their pockets. They would carry a gp bag or gas mask bag. They would carry maybe some rations in there, an extra pair of socks. Bare essentials. Theyre on their feet and they want to be as light as possible. What we have here is somewhat of a small supply point, boxes, ammunition crates, examples of k rations and 501 rations the basic field ration of world war ii that the army had. A k ration was a boxed meal. There was three meals, three boxes made up a days worth of rations. You had breakfast, dinner, and supper. Various menu. Breakfast may be canned ham or eggs. Canned chicken. Two types of crackers essentially a graham cracker, club cracker, four pack of cigarettes in each box. Cigarettes were an issued item. You would have either instant coffee, a lemon or orange powder to make a drink, sugar, fruit bar type breakfast bar, chocolate bar, maybe care mels but designed by a nutritionist to get the needed calories in a meal for a soldier in the field away from a regular meal. Unfortunately instances throughout the war some soldiers were eating these for weeks, a month or two at a time and it was not designed for that long where they were having adverse effects, they werent getting that regular meal and were actually suffering from that. This is a squad level stove. Not all soldiers would have this. From our research and photographic evidence, in the alps kind of where they were established, they had these. This would be carried and shared by a squad. It runs on modern coleman camp fuel but enough to heat up multiple cups of coffee or if they are fortunate to have a pot or so to make some proper meals. Talking to one of the f company vets who recently passed away, ray hess, from bethlehem, pennsylvania told us a story, one time when they were in the Maritime Alps they had a can of roast beef they were cooking. It was actually on a camp fire but they were cooking the can of roast beef and the next thing they knew they heard german artillery coming in and he had his cup of coffee he had just made. They dove into their fox holes just as the german artillery shell came in. They zeroed in on their fire. He dove in, luckily didnt spill his coffee but they came out and said if we hadnt moved wed all have been wiped out because they zeroed in on our camp fire with our roast beef and the roast beef was gone. We were looking forward to it. The field rations, they could eat them cold or heated up. If the soldiers had the luxury of a stove like this they would heat up their coffee or even the canned meat. Other instances they would actually rip apart the box. You had two layers. A wax layer, which was water proof, and your outer cardboard layer. They would rip these up and burn them to make a small fire that they could possibly heat up their rations with. So this is an item you would not see with all soldiers during the war. But in the case of the 517th during their maritime out campaign that was an item we saw that they used. What we have here, this is a standard riflemans for an m1 grand the cartridge belt which would hold the mblock clips of 30. 06 rounds. This is the cover for the folding entrenching tool. You have the carlyle pouch that held the first aid kit which was a bandage, which also had a pack of sulpha powder which would be administered to the wound to help fight infection and we have the canteen pouch. Right here we have an m1 carbine, m1 grand and m1 a1 carbine used by paratrooper units and made folding for ease of jumping with. At the time period were portraying the 517th even though they were airborne theyd initially have the folding stock but through our research we found the longer they were on the lines due to damaged or lost m1 a1 carbines they would be supplied with whatever was available so we see instances of the standard nonairborne m1 carbine coming into play for this particular unit at that time in the Maritime Alps. This is a b. A. R. Or browning automatic rifle. It was a it fired a 30. 06 round, which was the same round as the m1 grand took. It had a 20round box magazine. This is a weapon that you did not always see with airborne units as it was not part of what is called their table of organization and equipment. In the case of the 517th, though, it was a we saw evidence of them using it in the Maritime Alps. They found that it was a good weapon to help clear out the dugin germans out of their pill boxes and bunkers. It was for their type of warfare in that theater. They found it was a good way to put down suppressive fire as they were clearing out the entrenched germans. Were very fortunate that the 517th prcp association has a great website, the association started by the vets and now run by their family members unfortunately because many of the vets have passed away or are up in years. But there is a ton of information, photographs, history, personal accounts the vets had submitted. They have a great website. That is one of our resources we take from personal accounts, personal photographs that were able to build our impression and display based solely on those photographs, those accounts. Theres also great books out there, battling buzzards which is a great history on the 517th. First Airborne Task force, which is a reference book which covers the Airborne Division that took place or that was part of operation dragoon. In normandy you have the famous divisions that went in the night before the main beach forces. Airborne soldiers went in the night before to secure important towns and crossroads. We find the invasion beaches before the infrantary divisions hit the beach head. At that time there was no large Airborne Division in the mediterranean needed for this. 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions were already in normandy. There were multiple, independent airborne units, one was the 517th pulled together to make what was called the first Airborne Task force which was another ad hoc unit. Other units were the 509th parachute infantry battalion, 550th, 551st. There was an independent British Airborne regiment. And actually if you heard of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team the famed japanese American Unit of the war there was a company of their antitank, their antitank unit that was actually giving very quick Glider Training. They were pulled from the unit and given quick Glider Training and attached to the 517th for a month, month and a half. That is important to know because the Airborne Troops you had proo had paratroopers and glider troops and these were standard infantry. It was not part of their training. They were pulled and here is some quick training. This aerial vanguard was to destroy enemy defenses and ease their comrades still at sea by keeping the foe from rushing troops to the coast. Swoopg down to tree top level our attack planes hit troops and supply trains with telling effect. In the calm of the morning the bombers rained destruction while the allied ships were along the french coast with enemy batteries. When they went in the night of the invasion and were jumping out of their aircraft, you hear stories of the normandy operations of the airplanes making evasive maneuvers to avoid the antiaircraft and that caused many misdrops. It was the same troop carry units so the same pilots and planes that dropped in normandy did the operation dragoon drop. During the normandy drop the pilots wanted to make up to the airborne the mistakes they made so they tried their best to stay on course. Unfortunately what happened is there was heavy fog over the area so there was misdrops due to heavy fog because the pilots could not see the pathfinder beacons to zero in on the proper drop zones. They saw the heavy fog and thought they were jumping into the mediterranean ocean so they were starting to strip equipment off to lighten their load to get the mae west life vest in place. They were preparing for water landing. Many soldiers stripping off the gear and getting life vests prepared for water landing, they start going through the fog and the next thing they know theyre on the ground. That is how thick the fog was. Actually we unfortunately dont have any because of the campaign were portraying but the 517th along with the first Airborne Task force, a unique uniform item, there was experimental camouflage that the airborne, first Airborne Task force tried out for operation dragoon. They literally spray painted their uniforms. You see the m42 paratrooper jump uniform which was a khaki looking o. D. Number 3 color uniform. They had the guys line up, put a Cardboard Box over their head and the engineers would hit them with the camouflage paint and off they go. It was actually from the commander colonel fred ricks that came down to camouflage the uniforms. Here we have an example of the 517th helmet. Overspray of the green and black and they would put the helmet net on and spray for a silhouette. Another example of the 517th helmet was they did not have the proper jump helmet you saw with other airborne units. They had the standard m1 helmet the infrantary had which was not good for jumping and they modified their chin straps. It was a very hot, humid area at that time so it is a cotton uniform with paint that actually made it even thicker and heavier and smell bad so the soldiers did not like that very much. Made them even more uncomfortable. A more serious issue was at the time with the paint, the soldiers were getting blood infections toou infections due to the paint. Once they were on the ground the paint made the uniform stink and the wound issues there was accounts of soldiers moving between objectives and if they came across a stream they were going off the road, walking through the stream trying to wash this paint off and getting back on the road just to get rid of the paint. It was an improvised camouflage system that didnt work the best. As i said before the 517th is an over shadowed, somewhat forgotten unit because they were a smaller unit in an over shatori owed theatre of the war in the south of france. We do that to tell the public about their stories. This is a great way to do it. You can read history in a book but to do firsthand accounts and have especially the young kids get that firsthand experience to try a helmet on, try equipment on, it is another way to teach and for us to learn about them. We are always researching the unit. There is always something coming out of the woodwork. We can learn and pass on their stories. The final line had been forged between our forces which landed in Southern France on august 15th and those which landed in normandy on june 6th. This junction closed the last escape route for the germans remaining in the south and west of france. Thus the fighting qualities of the soldiers, sailors, airmen of the United Nations defeated the enemy in Southern France. Their valor, stamina, and devotion to duty were beyond praise. You can learn more about the 517th parachute Regimental Combat Team at 517 prct. Org where youll find regimental history, photographs, and an extensive collection of soldiers stories. You can watch this and all other American History tv programs online. At cspan. Org. Week nights this month were featuring American History tv programs as a preview of what is available every weekend