US AIRBORNE

Un tout grand merci à Hazel Muller, fille de Leslie Neiman qui a accepté de répondre à mes très nombreuses questions sur son papa.

Leslie E. Neiman was born April 19, 1923 in Tyler, Minnesota. His dad was William Neiman, he was German and his mother was Thora Jacobson Neiman, she was Danish. He had two sisters and two older brothers. His father worked for the railroad so the family moved a lot to different cities in Minnesota and South Dakota.

 “He was a great hunter when he was young; he loved to hunt ducks and geese. He was very young boy when he got his first rifle. I think his family had some hard times as he didn’t have nice clothes.”

Before the war, Leslie was in high school where he was very good at sport.
“He was a great basketball player and a great softball player.”

He was enlisted on February 19, 1943 Leslie Neiman volunteered for the paratroopers.

“He chose the paratroopers because the pay was better! He was sent to Camp Walters, Texas and then to Fort Benning Georgia. He completed five jumps from a C 47 and earned his sterling silver wings.”

Leslie Neiman was incorporated into the 507th PIR where he joined Company G.

Little boy with his first rifle.

Leslie Nieman and his friend Jack Lay in Alliance, Nebraska.

Once patented, 507th Paratroopers will participate, from 6 March 1943 to 12 days with great maneuver with the 3rd US Army in Louisiana. Then the regiment was sent to Alliance in Nebraska for training with the Troops Carriers.

“The 507th performed more jumps while stationed at Alliance Airbase than anywhere else in the country.  The jumped for blood drives for the wounded and bond drives to finance the war.  They trained extremely hard and went on marches of 18 to 20 miles with their full combat gear on, they went day and night on the marches sometimes with only an hours sleep.” 

At the end of the summer, the regiment was placed under the observation of fourteen officers of the Airborne Command.

The last movement in the United States is a stay in the Black Hills in South Dakota.

Finally, November 23, 1943, the regiment was transferred to Camp Shanks and to Fort Hamilton in New York before embarking on HMS Strathnaver and Susan B Anthony, two Libertyship, towards Northern Ireland. Here the regiment was officially attached to the 82nd Airborne Division. The training lasted three months on site. Then the men took the train to Tollerton Hall, Nottingham, England.

“He was said that they were three miles from the city. They lived in tents. He wrote it rained there all the time.”

On the night of June 5 to 6, the 507th PIR made ​​its first combat jump and also its baptism of fire.

“He didn't speak about the war. In the letters he sent to my mother during this period, he said nothing except, "Don't worry about me, I'm right.

He says also that he lost a lot of good buddies.”

The 507th fought in Normandy until July 12, 1944 it returned to England. During the 36 days of fighting, the regiment counted 938 casualties, killed, wounded, missing in action.

In England, the regiment was assigned to the new 17th Airborne Division freshly landed from the United States. In England, the training resumed including several parachute jumps. The 17th Airborne under the command of General Miley did not participate in Operation Market Garden. It was held back as a reserve unit. The 507th PIR was sent to Barton Stacy in the South of England.

“In England, my father broke his wrist in a jeep accident. This should be in November 1944."

Training resumes with the hope of being able to celebrate Christmas at the camp. But the Germans will decide otherwise. On 16 December 1944, the Germans attacking in the Belgian Ardennes surprising the Allies.

“He never spoke of that time. The only thing I know is through the letters he wrote to my mother. And the only thing he told was that it was cold and he got there at Christmas time. He was with the 17th in Wilshire, England and on Dec 24th, 1944 they boarded the c 47's and went to Chartres, France and then on Christmas Day they were transported by truck and went into Belgium and fought with the Third US Army. He said in a letter that when they were marching in Belgium German planes shot at them.”

On January 2, the 507th was sent to the area of ​​Bastogne, near Chenet. The regiment was kept as a backup during the next three days in anticipation of an German counter-attack. Despite the lack of combat, the men had to fight against the cold and humidity. I must say they were not equipped for this kind of weather!

Photo prise en Allemagne en avril 1945.

However, once the 17th Airborne had finished cleaning the western sector of Bastogne, the 507th PIR was sent to attack through Luxembourg to take a defensive position along the Our River.

The battle lasted until 10 February 1945 when the regiment was relieved by the 6nd Armored Division. Paratroopers are sent to rest at Chalon sur Marne in France. The Ardennes campaign lasted 45 days and lost 741 men killed, wounded and missing.

At Chalon, replacements arrived to make up losses.

“He wrote that he was back in France and that it was a rest camp and it was cloudy and rainy. And he said that now that he was out of combat he was planning on going to town more often as he hadn't had a pass since December.”

During this period, the 507^th’s paratroopers prepare and train for a new mission, Operation Varsity. The objective is to jump to the other side of the Rhine in Germany to prepare the advance of British and American troops near Wesel.

"This is what he wrote before Varsity: Don’t worry about me, I'm fine. No chance to write, I guess by the time you get this you will know that we jumped in Germany as part of 17th Airborne. The war news sounds good, the Krauts are sweating it out, can’t be long."

Leslie Neiman still fought nearly two months in the 507th PIR until the end of the war May 8, 1945.

“After the war I think he was in Epinal, France and some of the troopers had enough points to go home, he was in the 505. They didn't know yet when they were going to Berlin. They had an inspection in July I think and paraded before General Ridgeway. He wrote that he gets to go to Switzerland on a furlough for 7 days. It was in July Col Raff said they would be located by a lake when they go to Berlin. Howard Huebner told me that they stayed by a lake down the Autobahn and it went straight down the highway to the Brandenburg Gate. My father wrote in August that it took them 4 days by boxcar to get to Berlin.”

He remained until December 1945 in Berlin where he was suspicious of the Germans.

“He said they couldn't talk to the German people. He said the Krauts are no good. He said when they would drop a cigarette the Germans would run to pick them up.”

Although the city suffered damage from the war, they lived at the time in beautiful houses.

“He said cigarettes would sell for $100.00 a carton and the Russians would buy a watch for $200.00. He said they couldn't send money home because of the Black Market.”

Finally, in December 1945, he went home.

Photos taken by Leslie Nieman in Berlin in 1945.

 “His discharge papers say December 19, 1945 at the separation center in Camp McCoy, Wisconsin. The campaigns on his discharge papers say for battles: Normandy, Ardennes, Rhineland and Central Europe. I still do not know why he was sick when he got home; I am thinking exhaustion and being rundown. He had told my mother that he never had a glass of milk the whole time he was gone until he got into New York and the Salvation Army gave the men milk. My mother said he was real thin when he got home and his ears rang for years from the guns, he would always ask her if she could hear the ringing.”

For nearly a year, Leslie Nieman remained in Tracy, Minnesota, where his parents lived. He did not work so he was exhausted. After a year, he worked with his father at the railroad. He also loved fishing and hunting with his father and brothers. He never spoke of the war. The only time it was a private conversation with his father.

"He was also a good softball player and joined a team when we lived in Tracy. He was very good at all sports and was a good bowler and horseshoe player. He played a lot of horseshoe and softball when he was in England."

Photo taken in England