The 502nd Infantry Regiment (502nd IR), previously titled the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment (502nd PIR), is an infantry regiment of the United States Army. The regiment was established shortly after U.S. entry into World War II, and was assigned as a regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, "The Screaming Eagles", one of the most decorated formations of the U.S. Army. The regiment saw substantial action in the European Theater of World War II and was inactivated in 1945, shortly after the end of the war. Reactivating in a new form in 1956, the 502nd Infantry has served in the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, Iraq War, War in Afghanistan, and Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq. Since 1974, the regiment has been classified as an Air Assault unit.
Currently, 1st Battalion & 2nd Battalion are active, both assigned to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).
History
World War II The original 48-man Parachute Test Platoon was formed at Fort Benning, Georgia. Four parachute infantry battalions were planned to follow.
On 1 July 1941, the 502d Parachute Infantry Battalion was activated at Fort Benning under the command of Major George P. Howell, under orders dated 15 April. Howell had served as executive officer of the 501st PIB (not to be confused with the later 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment). Initially composed of two skeleton companies sliced off from the 501st, the 502d lacked much, from parachutes to small arms. This kept the battalion understrength until more men could be recruited at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Activation of the next two battalions, the 503d and 504th, was put on hold until October 1941 because there were no more men or equipment on hand at Benning.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 and the German declaration of war on the United States four days later accelerated every kind of military planning. On 30 January 1942, realizing a battalion was too small to conduct offensive operations and survive to fight again, the War Department hurriedly authorized the activation of four Army parachute regiments. On 24 February 1942, each of the three companies of the 502d was consolidated with a company in the 1st Battalion of the new regiment, which bore the same numerical designation. The 502d PIR, less the 1st Battalion, was officially activated on 2 March 1942; Howell was promoted to colonel and appointed commander, but left that same month to command Benning's parachute school. He passed command to his executive officer, Lieutenant Colonel George Van Horn Moseley Jr., who would command for the next two years.
In August 1942, following the activation of the 101st Airborne Division at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana, the 502nd PIR moved from Fort Benning to join the rest of the division at Fort Bragg. The integration of a selected parachute unit into a partly draftee division that for the most part was not jump-qualified led to problems, some of which could only be solved through training. Throughout the rest of 1942 and into 1943, the 502nd took part in the 101st's grueling training program, which consisted of individual, unit, and combined division training. In March 1943, the 502nd took part in a series of wargames across the Carolinas; later that year, it exercised across Tennessee.
On 4 September 1943, men of the 502nd boarded the SS Strathnaver bound for their new home in England. After breakdowns and saltwater contamination of the ship's drinking water, the regiment was stuck in St. John's, Newfoundland. On 4 October the SS John Ericsson picked them up, and they arrived in Liverpool on 18 October. They settled into quarters in the small villages of Chilton Foliat and Denford in Berkshire, England, which would be their home for the next seven months. The Regiment's troopers continued their rigorous training which included hikes and daily close-combat exercises. Instructions were given on a wide variety of topics, including first aid, map reading, chemical warfare, and demolitions. Other training was held on the use of German weapons, since enemy dead were considered a source of emergency resupply. Company- and battalion-sized parachute drops were rehearsed heavily. The largest of these rehearsals was Exercise Eagle, a division combat drop in May. It didn't go well; H Company dropped short of the objective, while high winds and rough landings injured over 400 paratroopers across the division, many of whom were then not available for the Normandy jump three weeks later.
Normandy
Flying out of RAF Membury and RAF Greenham Common in the first wave to depart, the 502nd PIR headed for Drop Zone (DZ) A. The unit's mission was to secure two northern causeways leading inland from Utah Beach and destroy a German battery of 122 mm howitzers near Saint-Martin-de-Varreville. Captain Frank Lillyman, officer in charge of the regiment's pathfinder platoon, was the first American jumper of the night – celebrated as the first American paratrooper to drop behind German lines in the Allied invasion of Normandy."Frank Lillyman Is Dead at 55; First Paratrooper at Normandy," The New York Times, 8 March 1971, p. 36 He hit the ground at 00:15 on the 6th, his habitual jump cigar clenched in his teeth. The pathfinders soon learned they'd been misdropped, so they made no effort to get the rest of the regiment lost with them and left their radios and beacons turned off. Coming in unguided, the formations of C-47s broke up in a combination of low clouds and heavy enemy anti-aircraft fire. Some planeloads, including two sticks of A Company, were dropped over the English Channel and drowned. Consequently, most of Colonel Moseley's troops landed way off their designated DZs, up to away. Colonel Moseley badly broke his leg and had to relinquish command to his executive officer, LTC John H. "Iron Mike" Michaelis.
1st Battalion, under LTC Patrick F. Cassidy, was the only battalion of the entire 101st to come down on target, and that through blind luck. 1st Battalion secured Saint Martin-de-Varreville by 06:30, sent a patrol under SSG Harrison C. Summers to seize a German barracks at Mésières, "WXYZ" objective and set up a thin line of defense from Foucarville to Beuzeville. 2nd Battalion, under LTC Steve Chappuis, moved inland from its drop zones. Meanwhile, the 3rd Battalion led by LTC Robert G. Cole was responsible for securing the two causeways coming inland from Utah Beach. Undaunted by the confusion, LTC Cole gradually collected whatever men he could find both from his unit and anyone else's (at one point including 1LT Dick Winters of E/506th). Cole eventually achieved his objective in time to secure the beach landing of the 4th Infantry Division.
LTC Cole was in the lead five days later as the 502nd was part of the division's effort to capture the town of Carentan. Moving the 3rd Battalion down the causeway toward the Ingouf farm under heavy German fire, LTC Cole ordered a bayonet charge. Capturing the objective, LTC Cole was nominated for the Medal of Honor. His executive officer, Major John Stopka, was nominated for the Distinguished Service Cross. On 29 June the 101st was relieved from VIII Corps and sent to Cherbourg Naval Base to relieve the 4th Infantry Division elements who had the German garrison pinned down in that seaport city. The 502nd returned to England shortly thereafter for refitting, earning a Presidential Unit Citation for the campaign.
The summer of refitting was punctuated by several planned combat jumps to capture objectives in front of the advancing Allied ground forces, yet every jump was cancelled as the tanks got there first.
Operation Market Garden
Operation Market Garden was a British plan that would be the first major daylight jump attempted since the German invasion of Crete four years before. Set for 17 September 1944, the airborne troops were to seize roads, bridges and the key communication cities of Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem, thus cutting the Netherlands in half and clearing a corridor for British armored and motorized columns all the way to the German border.
The 101st mission was to secure the of highway stretching from Eindhoven north to Veghel. Under the command of Colonel Michaelis, the unit was to land in the Netherlands on DZ C, seize the small highway bridge over the Dommel river north of St. Oedenrode and the railroad and road bridges over the Wilhelmina Canal at Best. The 502nd was also given the mission of guarding DZs B & C for the subsequent glider landings. Shortly after 13:15 on the afternoon of 17 September 1944, after an uneventful daylight drop, the men of the 502nd gathered up and headed for their objectives. 1st Battalion went north to capture the little town of Sint-Oedenrode. 2nd Battalion secured the glider LZ. 3rd Battalion sent patrols through the Zonsche forest, trying to move toward the town of Best and the bridge. German resistance was tough in the vicinity of Best, but the 3rd Battalion spearheaded by Captain Robert Jones' H Company fought their way to within of the bridge before the Germans blew it up. In fierce fighting around the bridge, Private first class Joe E. Mann, already hit twice, was killed when he threw himself on a German grenade to save the other soldiers in his foxhole. That same day, LTC Cole was shot and killed elsewhere in the Zonsche Forest. Cole died before formally receiving his Medal of Honor for the Carentan charge, while Private Mann would receive it posthumously. They were the only two members of the 101st to earn the nation's highest honor during World War II.
On 26 September, a German artillery shell hit a tree by the 502nd's Regimental CP. LTC Michaelis, 1st Battalion's LTC Cassidy, the regimental S2 and S3, the division G2 and G3, and the commander of the supporting 377th Artillery Battalion were all hit. Without a regimental XO, and with Cassidy and Cole both down, 2nd Battalion commander Steve Chappuis took command of the regiment. After securing their hard-won objectives, the men of the 502nd moved north with the rest of the 101st to take hold of defensive positions on 'The Island', southwest of Arnhem. It was here that the 101st would fight some of its toughest battles during its time in the Netherlands. Eventually they were withdrawn to Camp Mourmelon, France for rest and refit.
Battle of the Bulge
Just after dawn on 16 December 1944, the Germans launched a major offensive west through the Ardennes Forest. Their goal was the port city of Antwerp where they hoped to choke off the Allied supply lines. Almost the only American theater reserve were the two refitting airborne divisions. The 101st was ordered to the vitally important town of Bastogne, Belgium, the central road junction in the Ardennes. The 101st was jammed into trucks for an overnight rush to Bastogne on 18 December. They were soon surrounded along with elements of several armored and artillery outfits. The 502nd held positions on the north and northwest portion of the surrounded city. In an attack that took place on Christmas morning in the village of Hemroulle, numerous German tanks penetrated the line. Simultaneously farther north strong German infantry elements infiltrated the town of Champs. Two of the German tanks which drove north from Hemroulle attempted to bypass the regimental CP at the Rolle Chateau, only to be tracked down by bazooka and grenade-toting paratroops. Finally, on 26 December, the 4th Armored Division of Patton's Third Army broke through the encirclement to reinforce the defense.