Synopsis
In 2004 the world was first introduced to The Filthy Thirteen, a book describing the most notorious squad of fighting men in the 101st Airborne Division (and the inspiration for the movie “The Dirty Dozen”).
In this long awaited work one of the squad’s integral members—and probably its best soldier—reveals his own inside account of fighting as a spearhead of the Screaming Eagles in Normandy, Market Garden, and the Battle of the Bulge.
Jack Womer was originally a member of the 29th Infantry Division and was selected to be part of its elite Ranger battalion. But after a year of grueling training under the eyes of British Commando instructors, the 29th Rangers were suddenly dissolved. Bitterly disappointed, Womer asked for transfer to another elite unit, the Screaming Eagles, where room was found for him among the division’s most miscreant squad of brawlers, drunkards, and goof-offs.
Beginning on June 6, 1944, however, the Filthy Thirteen began proving themselves more a menace to the German Army than they had been to their own officers and the good people of England, embarking on a year-of ferocious combat at the very tip of the Allied advance in Europe.
In this work, with the help of Stephen DeVito, Jack provides an amazingly frank look at close-quarters combat in Europe, as well as the almost surreal experience of dust-bowl-era GI’s entering country after country in their grapple with the Wehrmacht, finally ending up in Hitler’s mountaintop lair in Germany itself.
Throughout his fights, Jack Womer credited his Ranger/Commando training for helping him to survive, even though most of the rest of the Filthy Thirteen did not. And in the end he found the reward he had most coveted all along: being able to return to his fiancée Theresa back in the States.
Table of Contents
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
THE 506TH PARACHUTE INFANTRY PRAYER
1. MY EARLY YEARS
2. FIRST JOBS
3. MEETING MISS THERESA COOK: MY FUTURE BRIDE
4. THE OUTBREAK OF WORLD WAR II
5. DRAFTED INTO THE ARMY: PRIVATE JACK WOMER
6. BECOMING A STAGE PERFORMER
7. WAR GAMES IN THE CAROLINAS
8. THE JAPANESE ATTACK PEARL HARBOR
9. OFF TO EUROPE TO FIGHT HITLER
10. ARRIVING IN ENGLAND: FIRST IMPRESSIONS
11. VOLUNTEERING TO BECOME AN ARMY RANGER
12. OFF TO SCOTLAND
13. CAUSING TROUBLE IN DUNDALK!
14. BACK TO ENGLAND, AS RANGERS
15. RANGERS NO MORE
16. THE MAKING OF A PARATROOPER 1, 2, 3!
17. BECOMING ONE OF THE “FILTHY THIRTEEN”
18. LIFE AT THE WILLS’ MANOR ESTATE, LITTLECOTE, WILTSHIRE
19. AN ENCOUNTER WITH WINSTON CHURCHILL
20. PRELUDE TO OVERLORD: THE INVASION OF FRANCE
21. D-DAY MISSION DISCLOSED
22. THE INVASION IS ON !
23. OFF TO A BAD START: JAMES GREEN’S PARACHUTE
24. D-DAY
25. D-DAY PLUS ONE
26. NO TIME TO CRY
27. GOO-GOO AND PEEPNUTS ARE KILLED
28. CARENTAN—A RED ROSE FOR A SOLDIER
29. BACK TO ENGLAND
30. OPERATION MARKET-GARDEN: THE BATTLE FOR HOLLAND
31. THE JUMP INTO HOLLAND
32. EINDHOVEN
33. THE KILLING OF CORPORAL JOSEPH J. OLESKIEWICZ.
34. LIFE IN HOLLAND
35. GOODBYE TO HOLLAND
36. ON TO BASTOGNE: THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE
37. A USELESS REPLACEMENT
38. MIKE MARQUEZ AND THE SCREAMING MEE-MEES
39. CHRISTMAS DAY, 1944
40. STAYING WITH CIVILIANS
41. OH THOSE NINETY-DAY WONDERS!
42. TO THE FATHERLAND!
43. LIVING WITH THE ENEMY
44. THE WAR IN EUROPE IS OVER!
45. THE LAST PATROL
46. GOING HOME
47. SETTLING BACK INTO CIVILIAN LIFE
48. BRINGING PEACE TO THE HALE FAMILY
49. THE REMAINS OF THE DAY
About the Author
Jack Womer is a World War II veteran of high distinction. Jack was drafted into the 29th Infantry Division in April of 1941, and sent to Europe in October of 1942. Jack volunteered for the 29th Ranger Battalion, undertook training by British Commandos, and was among the relatively few men who met the extensive and rigorous requirements for becoming a Ranger. After the 29th Rangers disbanded in October of 1943, Jack volunteered to become a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne Division and, in January, 1944, was assigned to the Division’s 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment’s Demolitions Platoon, in the section known infamously as the“Filthy Thirteen”. He fought with the Filthy Thirteen in the Invasion of Normandy (D-Day), the Battle for Holland, and the Battle of the Bulge. Arguably the Filthy Thirteen's best soldier, Jack credits his not being injured and surviving the war to his Ranger training and God. Jack was eventually made buck sergeant of the Filthy Thirteen, a position which he held until the end of the war.
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