Dropping Into Bastogne: Pfc. John Agnew

Ken Harbaugh:

I’m Ken Harbaugh, host of Warriors In Their Own Words. In partnership with the Honor Project, we’ve brought this podcast back at a time when our nation needs these stories more than ever.

Warriors in Their Own Words is our attempt to present an unvarnished, unsanitized truth of what we have asked of those who defend this nation. Thank you for listening, and by doing so, honoring those who have served.

Today, we’ll hear from Private First Class John Agnew. Agnew jumped into Normandy with The Filthy Thirteen, a paratrooper demolition squad that became notorious for their insubordination and their signature look that included Native American style warpaint and mohawks.

Agnew then joined the Pathfinders, fighting in the Siege of Bastogne, the Rhine River Crossings, and Operation Market Garden.

In this interview, Agnew describes the Siege of Bastogne and The Filthy Thirteen.

Pfc. John Agnew:

Initially when the Pathfinders were formed, that was the way for all the first sergeants and company commanders that dump all the people they didn't want until the Pathfinder commanders, captain Lillyman and all start complaining, “Hey, we don't need deadbeats. We need people that we can know, you turn your back, the other guy's going to take care of you. And not the guy that's looking out for himself all the time because we can't operate like that.” And when you cease to work as a team, you cease to exist. The whole team goes. So, Pathfinders were a good bunch of guys, really, but you didn't have all that marching and drilling and all that crap.

But anyhow, we grabbed our own motorcycles. We didn't have any vehicles, so we stole whatever we wanted or needed. We had a crowd motorcycle, and an old recon car all shut up. And we rebuilt that and used that.

But even when we went on missions, when we went on that mission to put the 17th hour to Rhine, we didn't have any insignia whatsoever. All we had was coveralls. And I had my own gun because I bought it and took it with me. But we carried a pistol belt and just plain coveralls, no insignia whatsoever, nobody knew who we were, where we came from or what we were doing. And we had a pass. If we ever got picked up, they were to release us to get us back to headquarters.

So, I hate to say an elite group, but they were, they really were good bunch of guys. Even coming from different, different companies that we didn't jump with initially, we knew we could trust them.

When the Pathfinders went in, they went in the Pathfinder airplane. In other words, the Air Force had a Pathfinder group, troop carrier. And those planes were equipped with Pathfinder equipment. Not only the C-47s were Pathfinder equipment. So, we had a set, when we got on the ground, we set it up. It was a Eureka. And the plane set to that in the Pathfinder plane was a Rebecca. So, we set that up, they received our message for homing on the Eureka. And then we had a CRN 4, which was a big, long telescopic antenna. Well, about 16 feet high as I recall. And they put that a telescopic and locked it up and put wires down to establish a ground fields. So, the Pathfinders, paratroop Pathfinders jumped from Airborne Pathfinder planes. There was a team. And we didn't jump from just any old airplane. We jumped from the Pathfinder team. So, when we worked together, when we trained, we worked together both the Air Force and like I said, some of those guys were wearing around with jump boots. “Hey, what the heck's he doing with jump boots on,” well they had jumped to see what it was like for us. And a lot of our guys went up on the plane and followed them in the cockpit, watched what they were doing and all. So, it was a joint effort, both for the Air Force and us.

I myself didn't go into the Pathfinders until after the Netherlands, but when they went into Normandy, one of the sticks went down in the channel. And that's why some of our Pathfinders team there only has the two jumps because they only made the Netherlands and Bastogne where Jake and I made Normandy, Holland and Bastogne.

Now, when we went into Bastogne, actually we were — maybe I'm getting ahead of the story, but anyhow, when we've been into Bastogne, we were coming in low.

And you look down, there's a German gun looking right down the muzzle. Well, Colonel Crouch, he dove on that in placement and they thought he was going to crash. So, they all jumped out of there and then he pulled us up and leveled off and out we went.

See now if he hadn't have done that, they'd have shot us right out of the air. But we have a static line and we're loaded with equipment. So, when he'd done that and pulled up where we went down on our knees, and he had to pull ourself back up again because we were standing up going over the enemy or shooting.

First time I had seen him after all those years was at a Pathfinder reunion, and he come up and put his arms around me. I said, “Heck's going on here.” He said, “You're the first guy that ever came back to tell us what happened after we jumped out.”

And all those missions, they put people out Normandy, Holland and Italy and all, and never had anybody come back and tell them what we'd done got on the ground. You'd never think of it that way.

But when we went into Bastogne and we were in England, we didn't have all our equipment with us because we were over there training on other things, I mean our own armament and everything else. So, we ended up going in there with field jackets and anything we could scrounge out the Air Force. And of course, the smoke, they had to smoke and all them supplies there. So, we drew that and then we realized that we had to take more smoke than we initially planned. That's the jump in the Bastogne.

I was really worried about my buddies as a matter of fact, we were alerted and when they tell you go to the head of the chow line, something's going to happen because that — especially if you're in the Air Force area, no way you buck the line. But nobody said nothing there to go, they figured we're gone somewhere. But when you go up the head of the line in a chow line, you know something's going on. So, we were of course our jump master and both officers, they had decided instead of one plane, we take two planes in case we lose one, then we still may be able to get through. And we drew all the smoke and everything we needed and, and most of us all had Thompsons, which we seldom jumped. I jumped to those three enormity and them one and another one. But this, you need a fast rate of fire in case we do get in, like I said, we're not having any perimeter guards this time. We're going on in our own, so there's only the 10 of us, nine men and an officer in each stick. So, there's only 10 men. So, you want all the firepower you can carry that doesn't get in the way of doing your job. In other words, equipment is more important.

Well, initially we were in the air, and the mission was aborted. They called us and told us to turn back. And “What the hell's going on here? Those guys need us.” And we were told the outfit, moved into where we were supposed to jump. And then they said, “Well, it's partly cloud cover because the future clearing in the air to bring in the supplies didn't shoot conditions.”

So, I still don't know the real reason why the mission was aborted. But anyhow, we flew back to land and then we put men in — left everything in the ship, shoots and everything. Left two men to guard. And the next morning, I guess it was 6:30, something like that, we loaded up and off we went again. And just the two planes, I think Peter Perdon was our co-pilot. Crouch was our pilot. Colonel Crouch, Lionel Woods was the pilot, Lieutenant Lionel Woods and leader colonel the second ship. And that was Gordon Rothville ship. And we got the short straw, whatever it was. So, we jumped first. And we were notified him by putting out smoke if we landed safely in safe territory for the airplane to circle 180 and come around and dump the second stick.

And if we hadn’t been wiped out or something, then they had to find another DZ .

The dropped zone. If you get more busted up, the mission is shot, you lose too many men. And we had practiced jumps. We lost half a regiment before D-Day there, you're making a demonstration jump for Churchill and Eisenhower. And we lost a lot of guys that night. I happened to be up training with a British with three other people at that time. So, I didn't make that jump luckily. But a lot of my buddies ended up in the hospital, never even went into combat with us. They were so banged up just on a practice jump. So, we know we're going into a place like this. First of all, we're looking for a hole in the wall. We didn't have a big area. We had a pinpoint drop where we had to go, so there was no guessing. Or we got a mile here or a mile there. None of that.

I think the whole area was maybe a mile and circumference. And then we dropped right on the outside edge of Bastogne. And we had us set up in an area where you could actually bring in gliders too.

I think the biggest concern was accomplishing your mission. Even if you're banged up, you're still going to go. Like I was all bloody and everything. I couldn't eat for about a week until we got a bunch of powdered eggs. And I think I ate powdered eggs for a week or so before I could eat.

Yeah, that was the hardest landing I ever had. Well, when I looked down, I seen a big tank with straight bogies. So, I figured “Oh-oh, tiger tank.” So, I'm trying to get my Tommy gun out so I can shoot on the way down. And all of a sudden, I hit wham, it come back, smashed my whole mouth. So, I was a bloody mess. But that was the hardest landing we had.

We just assembled, one little officer come running over. And I found out later who it was. We called him shifty filer. He was our dentist, and he used to shake. So, we used to get a kick out of him, shaking, trying to do our teeth. But he patched me up and we had no hospital. The hospital was overrun. The two officers had to go to headquarters report and find out where they wanted the DZs set up. That's the drop zone and the LZ, as for the gliders coming in. We didn't have much time. So, we got all our equipment together and we ended up in a corrugated shed like temporarily. And the crowd … come in. And they zeroed in on us and blew that off the top of our head and nobody got hurt, luckily.

Then we found the highest point we could find in that separate brick pile. With the radar equipment you want the highest point you possibly can get so that your planes can hone in with not no interference, trees or anything else. So, right across the road from the DZ that we were setting up, when I say set up, we put out orange panels and then in a T shape. And then on top of that T, the intersection point is where you put the holophane light. Call a burp beacon. That's one that you can control and flash towards the plane, handheld. So, to set the Eureka up and the CRN 4, we wanted the highest ground we could find.

So, we happened to get across the road and just about the high ground, there was this big, big pile. They had been building a row of homes and they never finished it during the war. So, there was this great big, big pile, I guess bigger than this whole room.And we decided that that was a good place to set the Eureka. So, several fellas says, “Well, how come you got up in top?” I says, because I was the dumbest one. But they really — it was high. You had to boost it to get it up there.

So, I got up there and I set the Eureka up. And then what you do is put the headphones on and then you're listening for the planes coming in. Now the CRN 4, we can't turn that on yet because if you turn that on too soon, it's a lot easier for them to triangulate. Don't want to blow us out of there. They read the message going out and know that you're transmitting. So, you wait for the Eureka until you can hear the planes and then you say, okay, turn the CRN 4 on. So, I was the guy on top of the brick pile, and joke about getting up there, but you had to do things in a hurry. You don't horse around because you got 20 minutes or so and you got a whole block of planes coming in. And if they go in the wrong place, you're going to lose more so than the men. You'll be dumping all that equipment on the Germans. And that's the last thing you needed at that time. So, we didn't want to lose any planes though, or any equipment coming in because it was both ammunition and medical supplies, which was needed real bad. And they were designated by different colored shoots. So, as soon as our officers reported to headquarters that our Pathfinders there, were setting up, we're ready to bring the planes in, they notified the men’s and all the units to get a truck out there.

So, as soon as that stuff came down and hit the ground, it wasn't a half hour they were shooting back at the Germans with that equipment. They badly needed because artillery was down to maybe one or two rounds. So, and our guys were out there frozen in the first place. It was the coldest winter they ever had over there. And no ammunition, a little hard to take.

When I was on top of the brick pile one of those houses that I told you about had a pig out there. So, we were hungry, so these guys are going to have to get the pig. So, I'm on top of the brick pile and three of them went over to just to turn and there's 88s coming in on me. And I seen it hit one, two. And I said, “Get out of there.” I said, “There's 88s coming in.”

Well, the next one, after they got out, hit exactly where those three guys were standing. The next one went over my head. I could hear it go by, so like I said I have a guardian angel. Because if it had been the old experience, 88 men, like in Normandy, you walk down the road and they pick one man off, boom.

You wonder where he went. He is just gone, and it's not like you see in some of the movies. A guy gets shot and all, there's nothing there. There's an arm and the leg hanging in the tree somewhere. There's nothing left.

So, and you wonder who's next? But anyhow, I don't know if someone knocked the tank out, if it was a tank shooting at me or what it was, but thanks anyway. But I don't recall another shot coming over my head, but that one went pretty close. But if it had been one of them old guys, I wouldn't have been there. I’d have been gone.

You can drop the bundles anywhere in a clearing area where guys can get them and take them in. And some of the pilots going in and says, “Where the heck's everybody at?” Well, they were all dug in the ground. And when the stuff starts dropping, it looked like rats coming out of the holes in the ground. because the soil covered the snow, and they're rolling their foxholes and whatever cover they could get over top. So, the Airbus wouldn't get caught with Airbus.

So, even we jumped, “Where the hell’s everybody at?” Well, they were all dug in. And they had all the good spots. So, we're out in the middle of nowhere. After we brought the first planes in, then we ended up in a chateau with all our equipment. And then they start coming in bombing us, and they hit like a chateau, a big high building what it was, but a big basement. And that's where our guys were. And John Dewey, he had to go to the bathroom. So, every time he wanted to go out, a German plane would come in straight, he'd pull up his pants and run back in. So, after about the third time, I said, “John, I'll watch for you and see if there's any planes coming.”

So, while we were out there, the bombs hit the top of this building, set a lot of our smoke on fire, and the guys inside the bomb of the building were choking with the smoke. There was bars on these windows and they couldn't get out. So, I didn't even realize it. Jake said they had to crawl out. He says, “I come in,” and I don't remember that. He says, “I come in to take them out.” Well, what I'd done, I found a gas mask in the back of a truck, but it didn't seal because it was frozen. So, I got all this smoke too, but I got him, led him how to come out. He said they had to crawl over a bomb that didn't blow up. So, I didn't know that until this story was written.

The Pathfinder mission in the Bastogne was critical for the success of the whole mission because as I said before, as soon as we got in, the Pathfinders got in there, the officers alerted headquarters and all those units, the 10th armored and seven of the ninth and seven of the 28th. And seventh of one … I want say what it was 106th that were grabbed up. They were all put under command in 101st at that time.

So, if we hadn't had that drop, no supplies, we'd have been overrun because like I said, they had nothing left. Our units were down to maybe two shells. You fire one every half hour if you can. And the guys were in foxholes, some of them completely run out of ammunition, nothing left. They went in with maybe one or two bandier of ammunition. So, it's like if you're tired of a long march and you're marching and all of a sudden you hear a band playing, man, just straighten up and walk in there. It's just like that getting ammunition and food.

And a lot of the fellas, because I was on top of the brick pile and bought them, they called me Moses because it was Christmas day. That was the best Christmas present they ever had. That was manna from heaven.

But I think the real reason we won is because the man upstairs was on our side. And there's no question in my mind about that. We could have very easily been wiped out.

I think they saved a lot of lives because not only for ammunition, medical supplies, those guys are half their feet are frozen off them, and when you start getting medical supplies, and not only that, when you drop bundles, the bundles are packed.

So, they didn't smash when they hit the ground. Well, they just shredded those bundles up and wrapped that stuff around their feet to keep themselves from freezing and warm. So, a lot of the supplies like I said, bundles and burlap.

There was one in one town where the Burgermeister, rang a church bill and had everybody come to bring all their bedsheets for camouflage because of the snow because they were getting knocked off. You get it, like if you'd do any deer hunting, you'd rather hunt in the snow because you can't get away from it.

And when bringing the medical supplies in too, you never left your buddy out there because if you know anything about it any hunting or anything in the snow, trying to get back and get somewhere when you're wounded, you'll leave a crimson trail.

So, the enemy's going to know right where you're at and end up catching up when you're sticking a band aid in it. So, I think the medical supplies had as much to do with the success and even the wrappings of the bundles and stuff, and the parachutes, the guys wrapped themselves up and shoot.

So, all that equipment saved a lot of lives, not just to equipment to fight back with. And like I said, manna from heaven, a lot of powdered eggs. But man, I loved them powdered eggs then because I couldn't eat anything else.

So, I kind of grinned when somebody called me Moses, the guys I hunt with because they know what I'm talking about, they know what I was involved with and they go out in the morning in the dark and say, “Go ahead Moses, lead the way.” I said, “Okay, I'd done it before.”

Our biggest limitation was the equipment and not the Pathfinder equipment to jump with, but we had to depend on the Air Force we were assigned with for vehicles. Like when we went over to Rhine, we depended on an Air Force guy. We went to stop at a place in Riems. The guy driving the truck left the truck and the truck got stolen on us and that was in Riems.

And we went to the MP headquarters. Oh, you — left your truck. And they'd come tearing down the steps straight at a time and says, “Who was that?” I said, “That was a Pathfinder. Somebody ran off with our truck.” And boy there was hell to pay, if we hadn't got that truck back.

But they were a great bunch of guys. Like I said, I don't like to brag, but they were the elites. You could depend on everyone, I don't care whether it's the 501 or the 502 or the 506 or regiment or another regiment, or even the 82nd guys, we’d have a separate insignia and that sit there and no matter where you see a Pathfinder, we're buddies.

Even they're Vietnam Pathfinder, wherever we are. As a matter of fact, Lieutenant Williams ended up as a full colonel in charge of the Pathfinders all the way into Vietnam. So, we call him Little Willie. We didn't call him officer, sir, but little Willie does. That's how close we were.

But there was a — it's just like I say, the men in the 506, we had a lot of replacements, but the guys from Toccoa that had the hard training, they're the guys that came back. So, that shows the training pays off. And the same thing with the Pathfinders. When you meet a Pathfinder, I don't care who he, where he is from, or Jerusalem Pathfinder or where he is from, he is one of our buddies.

Ken Harbaugh:

That was Private First Class John Agnew.

Thanks for listening to Warriors In Their Own Words. If you have any feedback, please email the team at [email protected]. We’re always looking to improve the show.

And if you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to rate and review.

Warriors In Their Own Words is a production of Evergreen Podcasts, in partnership with The Honor Project.

Our producer is Declan Rohrs. Brigid Coyne is our production director, and Sean Rule-Hoffman is our Audio Engineer.

Special thanks to Evergreen executive producers, Joan Andrews, Michael DeAloia, and David Moss.