US AIRBORNE

A big thank you to Eugene Hart for agreeing to respond to me.

Eugene Hart was born on February 20, 1922, in Johnson City, Illinois. He joined the army at the age of 20. He was selected to join the 101st Airborne and was assigned to the Signal Company, in the message center.

"I worked as a 'teletype operator' with M209 decoders."

"The work of the Signal Company is essential to a Division. After all, we provided all the communications for the entire Division."

These devices were used to quickly encode and decode tactical messages.

Hart was not a paratrooper. He was brought to the front by glider.

Crossing the Atlantic didn’t leave him with good memories! “There were a lot of us, and there wasn’t water for showers. We started on a British troop transport ship, but the food was bad. We all got sick. The ship broke down. We stopped at a port to wait for another ship that would take us to England.”

In England, he stayed for nine months. He really liked England. He participated in the campaigns of Normandy, Bastogne, and the entry into Germany.

For D-Day, Hart was brought to Normandy by a Horsa glider. “This glider is bigger than the CG-4A; they are made entirely of wood.”

“I didn’t do much during this operation; our glider crashed. As I feared, the pilot miscalculated the landing, and we crashed. We landed very, very quickly. We went through a steel barrier at 85 knots (about 160 km/h), then the glider crossed a road, through a few trees, and out the other side. The tail and wings stayed in the trees. The fuselage continued into a field and was in pieces. Two men died in the crash, and one was shot on the way to the aid station. I know that the pilot and co-pilots seemed to be in bad shape; I never knew what happened to them. Only one man on board was uninjured. I had a knee injury and received the Purple Heart for it. After that, we just had to head to the beach to be evacuated back to England.”

Afterwards, he was sent to a small field hospital for three days before being sent to Lichfield in England. He did not participate in Operation Market Garden. He was among the last to leave England for Mourmelon in France. However, he was not in Bastogne during the encirclement. He entered Bastogne when the road was opened.

He does not hide that he was much luckier than others, such as those in the infantry regiments.

“I think being in the Signal Corps was much better than being in another unit, like the infantry, for example.”

He did have a close call in Bastogne:

“We had a close call in the town of Bastogne. We were in a truck on the way to our company when an 88mm shell fell right behind our truck. One man was killed, and another was badly injured in one of his arms. That was a close call for me; a piece of shrapnel passed through my coat sleeve. I was sitting right next to one of the men who was killed.”

Hart then entered Germany: “In Germany, we spent our time chasing the Germans. We chased them all the way to Berchtesgaden. I didn’t see any combat there.”

He would hate the Germans for the crimes they committed during the war. “And I still hate them.”

He was truly happy at the end of the war:

“I was very happy when the war ended. We were at the TCP (Traffic Control Point) in a small town in Germany (I don’t remember the name).”

His decorations include the Regular Campaign Ribbons and the Purple Heart. He finished the war with the rank of T/4 Sergeant. He brought home as a souvenir, or war prize, a .32-caliber 7.65 PPK pistol.

The first thing he did upon returning home was to reconnect with his wife, Ina. He also spent time with his mother, father, and sister.

“I had a good life after the war. When I came back, I resumed my old job at the Continental Can Co. in Chicago, Illinois, but I only stayed there six weeks. They made C-Ration cans. After that, I worked in a glass factory, where I stayed until my retirement at age 59 and a half. I've been retired for 25 years, and Ina was a wonderful wife, and still is. We had two wonderful children, a daughter and a son. We have two grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.”

The only photo that Eugene Hart found of himself on the internet. The scene takes place in Bastogne. He is the standing soldier with the weapon on his shoulder. Notice the Signal Company insignia painted on his helmet and the "Glider" badge on his chest.

Today, Eugene Hart at his home.