I recall a uncle of mine telling me this story. He was in the 82nd and was with the gliders. He was in just about every glider invasion. This time they were hauling a jeep and 14 troops. He said they were cut loose at night. The maps they had to land with showed empty field but was now orchards and barriers! His LT wanted him to carry field cross,s. Uncle eldon was very supersticous and balked at that, but of course the LT won. Eldon said the Lt strapped himself right next to him. He said the LT got his head blew off by ground fire next to him.
He said they crashed, nosed over etc. He said when he woke up his face was in the radiator of the jeep. He said just him and one other guy out of the 14 lived. The other guy was badly wounded too, uncle had his back injured and face completly smashed. They crawled off together and was able to get away in the dark as the krauts mopped up. He said they hid for three days and nights before they finaly contacted other troops. He said a old farmer and his daughter helped them and hid them in some hay as the krauts were hot on them. He said they watched from hideing as the krauts exicuted the farmer and daughter. Then going back across the channel their boat got hit and they had to get rescued again. He lived with me for awhile in the 70s. He got a heart attack, had open heart surgery in the early days of it. He had a stroke on the operateing table and it affected his mind. He had never married. He committed suicide in 1973. I have some local home paper writeups on him at the end of the war. somewhere and will try to publish them here when I can find it. He also first hand told me of being one of the first in a death camp that they found and discribed the horror he seen. Some were still alive. I also have some souveniers he gave me. One is a russian pocket watch. I asked him how he got that. He laughed and said he took it off a russian solider. They were waiting at the rhine, and he said the first russian he seen he threw down on and took the watch. He said, hell I thought he was a jap!