Tucker's Troopers

The odyssey of the 504^th was long in World War Two: Casablanca, Oudja, Kairouan, the ill-fated jump Sicily which the widely spread troopers completed succesfull despite a ‘friendly fire’ night jump, the emergency night drop at Salerno and the subsequent battle for Hill 424 and the town of Altavilla, where the regiment picked up its motto “Strike Hold”, the bitter fighting in the Italian mountains and the amphious landings at Maiori and Anzio, where the regiments nickname “Devill’s in Baggypants” was derived from a German diary.

Then on to England where 27 volunteers were accepted for the dangerous task of jumping as pathfinders in Normandy, indicating the jumpfields before the remainder of the 82^nd Airborne Division, less the 504^th, would descend. Several others went in by glider acting as bodyguards for division staff officers. A daylight jump in the Netherlands followed where the regiment crossed the Waal River in broad daylight under heavy enemy fire.

Three months later the 504^th threw back Kampfgruppe Peiper at the Belgian town of Cheneux and blocked the German advance until the regiment spearheaded many attacks in January 1945 to regain terrain that had been lost by other units. The German Siegfried Line couldn’t stop the 504^th in February 1945 and it was only against numerous enemy forces that A Company had to leave the town of Hitdorf am Rhein in April – after putting up a stiff fight that . A rapid advance to the Elbe River and several months in Berlin as part of “America’s Guard of Honor” concluded the impressive record of the 504^th in World War Two.