THE UNITED KINGDOM

“Won’t ya have a spot o’ tea?”

On December 9, the 505 landed in Belfast, North Ireland, and moved by truck to the small village of Cookstown. After North Africa, Ireland was the “Garden of Eden”.

Here is some information from John McCann, our Irish connection and writer of " Passing Through."

Recently (November 2008), in Ireland and Britain, we commemorated our war dead on Remembrance Sunday. This day is similar in many respects to your Veteran's Day. Leading up to it, the local newspaper in Cookstown asked me if I would like to contribute some stories and photographs from my book recalling the American presence in the area during WWII. Well, immediately I thought of the 505 and preceded to send them enough material for a three page spread. The PDF's are attached to this and a following email. They are quite large, so I hope you can download, read and enjoy them.

Also attached is a PDF file of a poster (warning: this is a big 5mb file) they produced to advertise the Remembrance Day issue of the paper. It was visible in almost every shop window throughout most of Northern Ireland. Just in case some of you do not recognize the men visible, they are:

Lieutenant Stanley Weinberg (front middle) and members of ‘B’ Company taking a break from weapons practice at Ballymultrea firing range, February 1944.

Here are the two remaining newspaper articles:
Ireland-MC-13-11-08-039.pdf
Ireland-MC-13-11-08-040.pdf

Unfortunately, the stay in paradise would be short. By mid-February, the paratroopers were in their training area in England—Camp Quorn. Replacements once again filled the losses of the regiment and intensive training for the assault on “Fortress Europe” began.

On March 22, Batcheller was replaced by Lieutenant Colonel William E. Ekman as commander of the regiment. Major Winton was transferred to the division and command of the 1st Battalion was given to Major Frederick C. Kellam.

THE BEGINNING | NORTH AFRICA | SICILY | ITALY | THE UNITED KINGDOM | NORMANDY | HOLLAND