Drop Zone: Southern France – Unit Histories (Part 1)

This will be the first of nine articles on the Allied and German units featured in the game.

Part 1: US 509^thParachute Battalion Combat Team
Part 2: US 517^thParachute Regimental Combat Team
Part 3: British 2^nd Independent Parachute Brigade Group
Part 4: Airborne from Panama—US 551^st Parachute and 550^th Glider Infantry Battalions
Part 5: Allied Glider units
Part 6: German 148^th Reserve and 242^nd Infantry Divisions
Part 7: German Kampfgruppe von Schwerin and LXII Corps

Unit Histories – Part 1: US 509^th Parachute Infantry Battalion Combat Team

We begin our survey of Allied Airborne units in Southern France in the order of arrival—first to land was the 509^th Parachute Battalion Combat Team (PBCT), including its eponymous 509^th Parachute Infantry Battalion (PIB) and the attached 463^rd Parachute Field Artillery Battalion (PFAB). It was somewhat unusual to attach an entire battalion of artillery to one battalion of infantry—typically an artillery battalion supported a regiment of three infantry battalion. In this case the location of Drop Zone (DZ) C made the difference. From DZ C, the 463^rd PFAB’s 75-mm pack howitzers had the range (8.8 km/5.5 miles) to support almost the entire Task Force. These two units included the most experienced veteran paratroopers in the entire US Army.

The 509^th, known as the “Geronimos,” was the very first American Parachute Infantry Battalion (PIB) created. Initially named the 504^th PIB when activated in October 1941, the battalion was re-designated four times, until finally the Army settled on the “509^th PIB” in December 1943. On 8 November 1942, the 509th executed the first American combat para-drop operation, and the longest in US Army history, by seizing Tafarquay Airport in Oran, Algeria, after a grueling 1,600-mile flight from England. Just a week later, the Geronimos conducted a second combat jump at Youks les Bains Airfield, near the Tunisian border. Linking up with Free French forces, the 509^th continued fighting as infantry. After sitting out the invasion of Sicily, the 509th, then under LTC Doyle Yardley, made its third combat jump on 14 September 1943. This drop was at Avellino, Italy, was forty miles behind the Salerno beachhead. The mission was a disaster, with 123 casualties, including Yardley, who was captured.

LTC William Pelham Yarborough – Enlisted in the United States Army in 1931 and obtained an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, graduating in 1936. Served in the Philippines until February 1940, when he was transferred to at Fort Benning, Georgia, where he volunteered for the airborne forces. As Test Officer for the Provisional Parachute Group in 1941, he designed the paratrooper’s boot, the paratrooper’s uniform and the parachutist’s qualification badge (jump wings). Continuing his service after World War II, he was appointed commander/commandant of the US Army Special Warfare Center at Fort Bragg, from 1961-65, where he became known as the “Father of the modern Green berets.”

LTC William Yarborough became the next commander of the 509^th. Back in 1942, as a member of the London Planning Group, Yarborough planned the airborne phase of Operation TORCH. When the Paratroop Task Force departed Land’s End, England on November 7, 1942, Yarborough flew with the 509^th, but his airplane was shot down by a Vichy French fighter. A week later, Yarborough parachuted at Youks les Bains Airfield. In March 1943, Yarborough was named commander of the 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR), 82nd Airborne Division. In July 1943, the 504^th made a jump into an allied controlled DZ in Sicily, and Yarborough led his battalion throughout the ensuing fighting. When F Company of 2/504 was ambushed by Italian forces at Tumminello Pass, Yarborough was relieved of command. Transferred to the 5^th Army airborne staff office, he organized the night drop zone to receive the latest elements of the 82nd Airborne Division, to relieve the beleaguered beachhead at Salerno.

Soon after Yardley was captured, Yarborough was given command of the 509^th PIB. His battalion fought with the 1^st Ranger Battalion in the mountains near Venafro, Italy, between October and December 1943. Next, the Geronimos, as part of Colonel Darby’s Ranger Force, made an amphibious landing at Anzio in January 1944. At Carano, the outnumbered 509^th repelled a German counter-attack with small arms fire and hand-to-hand combat. Despite being overrun and incurring heavy casualties, the 509th helped to save the Allied beachhead. The 509th earned a Presidential Unit Citation for the fighting at Carano, the first awarded to an airborne unit.

The 456^th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion (PFAB) was the very first parachute artillery unit activated. Many of its members had been in the Army’s original Parachute Field Artillery Test Battalion. The 456^th PFAB made its first combat jump in Sicily on July 9, 1943, with the 82nd Airborne Division. The 456^th later supported the 1^st Special Service Force in the Battle for Monte Cassino and then at Anzio. On February 21, 1944, while on the Anzio beachhead, the 456^th was split into two battalions. The new 463^rd PFAB was composed of “A” and “B” batteries. “C” and “D” batteries remained with the 456^th, which was transferred with the 82^nd Airborne to Great Britain. The half-strength 463^rd PFAB was commanded by Major Neal. When Neal was seriously wounded and evacuated from Anzio on 31 May, the battalion executive officer, Major John T. Cooper, Jr., was placed in command. The 463^rd PFAB continued supporting the 1st Special Service Force during the advance to Rome. After the fall of Rome, the battalion received some 200 replacements to fill out “C” and “D” batteries and bring its roster to full battalion strength.

This was the command structure of the 509^th PBCT on D-Day 15 August. The pre-dawn parachute jump was called Mission ALBATROSS, consisting of 13 Serials. Only the units listed in Serial 4 made it to DZ C, and are featured in the Drop Zone: Southern France game. Serial 5 was mis-dropped and fought a separate action, as will be explained in an upcoming article.

SERIAL 4

Commander: Lieutenant Colonel William P. Yarborough(509^th PIB)
1/2 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion

Headquarters & Headquarters Company: Captain Edmund J. Tomasik

A Company: Captain Ernest T. Siegel

1/2 463rd Parachute Field Artillery Battalion

Executive Officer: Major Stuart M. Seaton

½ Headquarters & Service Battery: Captain Aubrey Milne

A Battery: Captain Bill H. Gerhold

D Battery: Captain Vic J. Tofany

1^st Platoon, 596^th Parachute Engineer Company: 1st Lieutenant Raymond C. Hild

SERIAL 5

Commander: Lieutenant Colonel John T. CooperJr(463^rd PFAB)

1/2 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion

Executive Officer:

B Company: Captain Ralph “Bing” R. MillerJr.

C Company: Captain Jessie H. Walls

1/2 463rd Parachute Field Artillery Battalion

½ HQ & Service Battery

B Battery: Captain Ardele E. Cole

C Battery: Captain Roman W. Maire

Both serials had about 600 men. Serial 4 had only one rifle company (A) from the 509^th and only one firing battery (A) from the 463^rd. However, the lack of riflemen and howitzers was compensated by the greater number and type of other heavy weapons found in the 463^rd artillery batteries and the 509^th HHC’s Machinegun and Mortar Platoons. The table below provides a comparison: