Another Son looking for his father's story

1. Your Name: Dale Johnson
2. Age: 60 How long have you been interested in WWII? 55 years
3. Origins: Wisconsin USA
4. Specifics: I am researching my father's activities in WWII as an 82nd AB paratrooper that jumped on D-Day. He was in HHC 3/508 PIR, fought and was wounded and captured on 6 June and spent time in the Rennes POW Hospital. I am a retired LTC from the US Army
5. Hobbies: Wargaming all periods, all forms, miniatures, computerized, board games
6. Other: Napoleonic Era, Middle Ages
7. Miscellaneous: I am visiting each location where my father was in Europe to write his story

Edited to add:

Here is what I have so far on what he did and where he was.

28 December 1943 my father sailed from NYC on the USAT James Parker and arrived in Belfast Ireland at dawn 9 January 1994. He was transported by train to Port Stewart, Ireland Cromore Estate for bivouac. Trained in night patroling and had his first experience with hedgerows. Left Cromore by train on 10 March for Belfast to load on a ship for Scotland where he debarked in the Firth of Clyde port of Greencock. Got on a train for Nottingham where they got on trucks to go to Wollaton Park for another bivouac.

End of April 82nd tried a full division drop but was foiled by bad weather.

The 3rd Battalion 508th PIR was assigned the mission of defense of the drop zone (Drop Zone N) South of Amfreville being carried there by the 313th Troop Carrier Group probably the 29th Troop Carrier Squadron. When they dropped the battalion was widely scattered and the Battalion Commander was dropped out of zone and didn’t get back to friendly lines for 5 days. My father was in position 14 in his stick, on the way to drop on D-Day he swapped places with the trooper in position 13 who thought it was an unlucky position. That trooper died in the plane from flak or machine gun fire before getting to the DZ.

German defenders of area were 91st Division (1058th Regiment, 1057th Regiment, 6th Parachute Regiment (OPCON)), 709th Static Division (709th AT (SP) Battalion), 100th Panzer Replacement Battalion (S35, R35, Light Russian tanks). 1058th RGT located near Montebourg.

My father never saw a live trooper after he left the plane and he described his landing location as a field almost on top of a German tank park. (Note: the only armored unit in the area was the 100th Panzer Security and Replacement Battalion). He fought all night keeping Germans from getting into their tanks. He was wounded twice once in the left shoulder where the rounds were deflected by belts of machine gun ammo he was carrying and once through the right wrist. He passed out from the wounds after using up all his ammo and grenades in the early morning. He awoke around noon with German troops passing by and surrendered to them as he had only his bayonet left to fight with.


After being patched up by the German Battalion Surgeon at an aid station at a large farm house he was put in the barn. One hour later the aid station was bombed by fighter bombers and few survived. The Germans then moved him on a wood burning ambulance to the next POW collection point, but on the way fighter bombers attacked the ambulance wounding my father again. He was the only survivor of the ambulance. He waited for another German truck to pick him up as he could only crawl and was now bleeding from wounds to his face and right arm.


He remembers passing through a town with an Arc d'Triomph (he thought it was Paris but I don't think so) finally getting to the Rennes POW Hospital on 13 June. He was there until 2 August when Rennes was attacked by VII Corps, 4th AD CCA and 8th ID/13th Infantry Regiment. CCA attacked north Rennes 1 August 1944 but were repulsed by small force of 91st Division plus 2 replacement battalions and Luftwaffe 88s. Evening 1 August 4th AD shells town and is repulsed again. During this bombardment my father and two other wounded POWs kill the only German guarding them and escaped into Rennes. They were picked up by French Resistance and hidden.


On 2 August 13th Infantry was ordered forward to attack doesn’t arrive until evening 3 August and CCA sweeps around Rennes to south-east almost surrounding town. Lead battalion of 13th Infantry gains foothold in northern part of Rennes in evening 3 August. German’s receive permission to withdraw 2300 hours and leave town by 0300 hours 4 August. In the morning 4 August 13th Infantry attacks in force unopposed into Rennes.


My father gets back to England on or about 7 August and is hospitalized. He is returned to the 508th for limited duty just before Market Garden and stays in England doing administrative duties due to his wounds during the operation. He is sent back to the US in November 1944 and becomes an instructor at Camp Mackall for the rest of the war.

 

Great Story! Your Dad was a extremly lucky guy surviving this with only "light wounds". Welcome aboard!

Regards

Ulrich

 

I can think of 2 Arcs in Paris alone (the one at the Place Charles de Gaulle and the Caroussel one with 3 arches) . Thne there are other one sin severla cities, for instance Nancy. Do you have a picture ?

 

Great story Dale. Thanks for posting and welcome here!

 

Dale, Welcome. My father (deceased) served in the 13th Infantry, 8th Division. I combed through the 13th Infantry After Action Report and did not find any mention of liberating POWs. However, in his memoir (Copyright 1949), titled One More Hill (New York, Toronto et al: Bantam Books, The Bantam War Book Series, 1983,1987)
Amazon.com: One More Hill (Bantam War Book Series) (9780553234428): Franklyn A. Johnson: Books
Franklyn A. Johnson describes "Stalag 221," a POW hospital in Rennes attended to by American, Canadian, and British medical officers and sergeons, themselves POWs. The building was a former girl's school in downtown Rennes. A German Major was in charge. Johnson was a veteran of the 1st Infantry Division and had fought in North Africa, Sicily, and was eventually wounded in Normandy, captured, and wound up in Rennes. He writes that although the patients were a mix of all units, several were American paratroopers, but he does not get any more specific. He describes the morning of the liberation by GIs in a jeep with 13th Infantry markings on its front bumper. They happily handed out cigarettes and candy. The 13th Infantry GIs told Johnson that had the German resisted one more day, American artillery was being prepared to totally destroy Rennes.

Incidently, in 1994, I had the good fortune to travel to France with a group of 13th Infantry veterans for the 50th Anniversary. We were welcomed in Rennes at the Hotel de Ville with a parade and dinner, 50 years to the day: August 4, 1994. As of 1994, the town officials of Rennes thought that only the American 4th Armored Division had liberated Rennes. A group of veterans, our tour guides, an active duty American Army officer, and myself straighten them out on the 13th Infantry's role in being the first American troops to enter Rennes (while the 4th Armored units surrounded the city and blocked all roads leading in and out). They assured us they would change the city's historical account.

Let me know if you are able to get hold of Johnson's book. If not let me know and we can work something out about getting you the pages related to Stalag 221.

It is also a good idea to contact the city of Rennes. This web site is their official site: Google Translate

Relatives of US liberators are welcomed with open arms, and I am sure they would go all out to arrange to help you locate the former site of Stalag 221.

Good luck. It seems, if for only briefly, our fathers were in the same locale during those early days of August 1944.

Greg C.

 

Thanks for the story Dale, welcome to the forums!

 

The Arc d' Triomphe is a mystery. I wonder if there is a listing of arcs for Brittany to maybe nail down possible locations.

A girl's school in Rennes for Stalag 221? My father said that there was a peach or pear orchard next to the camp and that he and another trooper walked over to it and got some green peach/pears. The German guards shot over their heads to get them to come back to camp. They got stomach aches from eating the green fruit. He indicated that they never got much to eat and it was mostly German black bread. To the day he died he did not eat any dark bread. Also the 3rd Army War Diaries for that week show capturing medical supplies in the St Vincent's College hospital. I believe that is located in NE Rennes. So I am not sure if downtown Rennes is the right location.

I will look up that book for more info.

I have an OB that indicates that the HQ for the 100th Panzer Training and Replacement Abtielung was in Francquetot south of the drop zone. Does anyone know any detail of the organization? Where the sub-elements were located?

I am trying to match the 82nd AB After Action Report drop map to the 100th's locations to figure out where my father dropped.

As artifacts I have my father's German Medical treatment papers, his letters to his future wife and my mother, 82nd and 508th patches, and his company group picture.

For others looking for information on 82nd AB in Northern Ireland I recommend 'Passing Through' by John McCann. When I went to Northern Ireland he gave me a guided tour of the bivouac sites and a bunch of stories about what it was like.

 

Welcome to the Forum, Dale. It was great to read about your father's experience.

 

I found some interesting reading from Gordon K. Smith indicates he was held at Stalag 221 until the 4th AD shelled the town. The Germans then moved all the potentially healthy POWs out of town on 3 August and sent them back to Germany. Unfortunately he did not remember my father at 221 or his escape.

Added:
According to the NARA site Frontstalag 221 was located north of Rennes in St. Medard and the Rennes Military Hospital Rennes France was considered separate. I don't have it in front of me but I remember the designation being Frontstalag 221b on the return address for his letter from captivity. Plus the NARA site has him liberated from some POW camp in Germany in April 1945 so I guess I got to get that fixed.

 

St. Medard-sur-Ille is a small town north of Rennes. I double-checked Franklyn Johnson's story. No doubt he labels the hospital in Rennes as Stalag 221, but it is certainly a possibility that he got some locales mixed up. Or, maybe the hospital in Rennes was designated Stalag 221, and a field camp for non-wounded POWS at St. Medard-sur-Ille was designated Stalag 221b.

Johnson was wounded seriously while on patrol, and taken into captivity by the Germans. He was operated on in a German field hospital, then moved "12 miles to the vicinity of St. LO." There in a Chateau was a larger hospital set up by the Luftwaffe that Johnson compared to an Allied General Hospital. He describes a 9-inch hole under his shoulder blade and the German doctors removed fragments from his lungs. He is aware that the German doctors had saved his life. On the afternoon of June 27, he and three other wounded GIs are placed in an ambulance, and told they are being taken to a hospital staffed by American doctors at Rennes. Johnson is worried about being strafed by Allied aircraft, and a couple times, the ambulance driver halted the vehicle, and dove in a ditch at approaching aircraft. The long bumpy ride was rough on Johnson's wounds. He writes, "Our excitment becomes feverish as I see a sign on a crumpled wall which says Rennes. We can hardly control ourselves as the breaks squeak, the ambulance halts, and a US Army Medical Corps captain opens the door. He smilingly announces that this is Stalag 221. We are home."

Johnson continues: " Stalag 221 is actually what the Germans told us it was - a hospital run by Allied officers under only general Axis supervision."

Then, "Having fought my way through this barrage [of questions from wounded men about news from the front; news from home, where other's units are located etc] which every newcomer survives, I began to learn something about Stalag 221. The hospital building itself is a former girls' school in downtown Rennes, and it houses 700-odd Allied soldiers who call themselves 'Kriegies.' Many are Paratroopers who dropped in the wrong areas on D minus 1 Day, while others from all different outfits from the three armies have been filtering in in the weeks since D-Day. (Someone reminds me that today is Wednesday, June 28, D-Day plus 22). The medical staff consists of American, British, Canadian, and French doctors aided by about fifteen part-time nurses and nuns who speak no English, and a few ward boys who were aid men in their units. Medical attention, sanitation, and food are unbelievably poor and everyone is sadly overworked. About half of the injured can leave their beds to assist the staff, but many of the bedridden are paralyzed or blinded."

If you try Google Earth, or MSN Maps, you can locate St. Medard-sur-Ille, still a very small town, and get an idea of the terrain surrounding it. Today a railroad links the town with Rennes. No telling how operational this RR was in the summer of 1944. Hope this helps.

Greg C.

 

In looking at the 4AD approach to Rennes it would appear that they overran Medard which on the NARA site is identified as for civilain POWs

My father clearly stated that there was a pear orchard next door and he dug a hole through a wall to get out into the orchard. Current downtown Rennes doesn't have any significant green areas (it has doubled in size since WWII) but the area of St. Vincent's College in NE Rennes does have a park next door and all the land surrounding it shows new building like suburbs.

So during WWII the college might have been near the edge of town. I don't know if it was a Girls School as I don't read French so I can't make out any history of the college.

The reason I focus on St. Vincent as the likely area of Stalag 221b is that the 3rd Army War Diary for the period indicates capturing 2000 tons of German medical supplies at St. Vincent College Hospital. Which indicates that a significant hospital is likely at that location. My father indicated that it was a serious hospital and that German and Allied wounded were treated there.

He also had a story about a German pilot coming in to visit some of the German wounded and he was describing some kind of dog fight when a photographer took a picture of the pilot. A German soldier told my father that the pilot was describing attacking the D-Day beaches. My father was sitting next to the photographer when he took the photo and my dad showed me a copy of the photo in a history book when he told me that. I haven't been able to find that picture lately tho.

My father also described going up to the 3rd floor of the hospital to watch the shelling by the 4th AD and then thought better of it and when downstairs. A few minutes later a shell hit the hospital 3rd floor where my father was. If I was preparing to attack Rennes I wouldn't be shelling the downtown area but the north side of town.

Attached are copies of the German medical papers for my father. The first and second entries (page 2) were made when he arrived and are clearly in English. So the idea that Allied doctors were treating him is plausible. All the subsequent entries are in French maybe indicating that there was French staff as well maybe the nurses.

 

Just checking back in with more information. Rennes Military Hospital was located on Rue Jean Mace' in downtown Rennes I have multiple POW accounts backing this up. The building was being shelled accidentally as the Regional Gestapo Headquarters was across the street. The French Resistance failed to mention this to the 4th AD/8th ID that the Hospital was next to the Gestapo. The French doctor (Professor M. Marquis) who was in the Hospital went through the lines and informed the US forces that the Hospital was there and they stopped shelling that area.

 

Thank you for adding more information as you find it, Dale.

 

Greg,

The Captain that greeted Franklyn Johnson was probably a Capt Gruenberg from the 101st AB who was probably a Battalion or Regimental doctor. I still need more info on him. The only other American doctor there that I have found so far was a dentist Capt Thornquist of the 508th PIR. I have found accounts of British doctors Major Oxley, Capt Nelson, and Lt James. The POW Camp Ranking Officer was a Major Gage (1/501st PIR). The British apparently debriefed each of the liberated POWs in Escape and Evasion reports and I have I guy in London feeding them to me from Kew.

 

I have found another American doctor from the 29th ID a Captain Lester Kolman who has an E&E report up on NARA. His E&E was linked with a list of 29 American Aidmen and orderlies that were there when Rennes was liberated. NARA is now has some 2300 E&E reports online.

I still haven't found any info on Capt. Gruenberg/Grunberg/Goenberg who apparently got sent away to the transit Stalag by the German in charge (Stabartz Lummp) for causing trouble.

 

Dale -

You never mentioned your father's full name. We had 43 men named "Johnson" in the 508th. If you clarify his identity I may be able to offer other details.

Dick O'Donnell
National Chairman
Family & Friends of the 508th PIR

 

Dick,

I have been giving you stuff for the 508th site. Father is Curtis L. Johnson, Headquarters Company 3rd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment.

I have gotten the Admissions and Disposition log from the Allied doctors at Rennes and several listing from the 35th Evacuation Hospital which was sent up to handle the PWs found at Rennes. I have compiled all the names into spreadsheet and I am finding and validating each name and unit. Someday I hope to start up a Website for the hospital including earlier use in 1940 to 1944 where they handled French Colonial PWs and British survivors from the St. Nazaire Commando Raid.