Gliding Into Sicily: Samuel Fine

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 Samuel Fine. Fine served as a glider pilot in World War II, tasked with landing in enemy territory to drop off troops. After landing, glider pilots were often instructed to make their way back to allied territory on foot.

In this interview, he describes the Invasion of Sicily and Operation Market Garden.

Samuel Fine:

My name is Samuel Fine.

I had previous flying time before I got into the service. I got into the service in late April of 1942, and after I took some intelligence tests to see what I was equivalent to do I told them I would like to get into the Air Force because I was a pilot, and they were surprised that I was a pilot and still a civilian at the time, and so I said, "I'd like to get into the Air Force." And they said, "Well, we can send you down to Miami and you can train either as a airplane mechanic or a radio mechanic." So I says, "Okay, very good with me."

While I was down in Miami Beach, that's where they sent me from out in Yaphank, Long Island, and I was there about all week when they were teaching me which is my right foot and my left foot, short order, drilling. And a clerk came on the golf course when we were training, said they were looking for glider pilots, and being a pilot, I didn't know what a glider pilot was so I says, "I don't know what... What is a glider pilot?" He says, "I don't know, but I'll find out for you. Give me your name." I gave him my name.

Next day I was told by the sergeant to fall out and go to the captain's office. I was concerned, "Well, maybe I did something wrong or what." I didn't know. I went to the captain's office and I told the clerk that I was told to come down. He says, "Oh, all right. Sit outside there and the captain see you shortly." After a while, a few other trainees came in and sat down there the same thing as I did, and pretty soon the captain opened his door and he says, "Come on in, gentlemen." When he said gentlemen, I sat there, was looking around for someone else to walk in, but he motioned us inside his office and he says, "Gentlemen, you're getting in on the ground floor and you'll be a sergeant and in a week or month you'll be lieutenant and, I don't know, in six months you'll be a major or something." He kept rattling off and I had no idea what he was talking about, but being a good listener, I just listened. Then he says, "You go back to your barracks." Or not barracks, but we slept in a hotel room. "Get your gear and meet down and the truck will pick you up."

Following orders, I did that. The truck picked us up, took to the station, and there was a fellow with a manila envelope and I asked him, "Where are we going or what is this all about?" He said, "You can't ask questions. You keep quiet. You just follow instruction." Being a good solider, I followed the instruction. We got on the train and it took us about three or four days to get to Chicago, and all that time I never knew where we were going or what was our purpose. After we got to Chicago, a truck picked us up and took us to another railroad station, and when we were there one of the fellows says, "Well, gentlemen, you're going to flying in school." Oh, I was quite relieved and happy.

When we got to Janesville, Wisconsin, a private instructor says, "I'm going to teach you how to fly." And so then I raised my hand and says, "Sir, I know how to fly. I have a private license." And he was surprised and says, "How many other fellows?" And there were three other prospects that had previous flying time, so he says, "Well, you fellows, I will check you out to see if you're able to fly these Taylorcraft that they had on a field." And he checked us out and says, "You fellows will have to fly cross-country while I instruct the other students actually how to fly." In the week and a half of cross-country flying, not once after we took off did the four of us come back together. We flied all over the countryside.

Then he checked us out flying the Taylorcraft and the... We had to do dead-stick landing. That is we shut the engine off and fly without any power and make a landing on a field, and we had to land in a certain area, in a circle within that certain area, and then... Or after, oh, I don't know, a week or so of spot landing on a dead-stick landing, he checked us out and certified as pilot. We were certified to go to pilot training. After we graduated at Stuttgart, Arkansas in November of '42, we became what they call flight officers. At that time, there were no pin insignias available as flight officer, so we used to have to take second lieutenant pins and paint them half blue to give us the flight officer insignias. And then we were shipped to the 316th at Austin, Texas Del Valle Air Base. As we joined the 316th, the flight echelon took off and went to the Middle East.

When we joined the 316th, a squadron commander wanted to know... He looked at the roster and says, "What is a glider pilot?" He'd never heard of a glider or a glider pilot because they took off before we had joined them, and we told him, "That's something you tow behind." He says, "Do you fellas fly?" And we said, "Yes." He said, "Well, that's all I want to know." And so he made us second pilots on the C-47s, and we got a lot of flying time flying through the desert during that time because they were very short of pilots and they had to fly 10, 12 hours a day constantly. They were actually what they call commercial aircraft. We had to fly everything from toilet paper to carry generals and equipment and things like that. What we should tell you is that we were attached to the British Eighth Army and we had to fly whatever they wanted us to fly.

In about, oh, I think it was May, we were reassigned to the 62nd Troop Carrier Group, and while we're at the troop carrier, we did the same thing with them. They didn't have any gliders either. Then they became just flying cargo. Then one day, a group of glider pilots took off and they were going to Casablanca and some of us were stayed behind, and I personally felt slighted. I said, "Gee, you don't want to stick around all the time. You want to do something." So I went to the CEO and I says, "Look, how come we were not sent on that mission?" He says, "We got you assigned for another mission." So I said, "Good." I thought we were going to fly someplace else. Next thing we know, we were shipped out or we were attached to the British Glider Regiment, and we were there to instruct the British glider pilots in flying the CG-4A. They had their own glider, which was the Horsa, and they didn't have enough gliders for a mission. They didn't tell us what mission, which later on we found out that we were going into Sicily and instructing the British gliders. We had one chance of sitting in the right seat and the British glider pilot sat in the left seat, and the next flight we had to stand behind the British glider pilots and the one who sat in the right seat sat in the left seat and another one sat in and they rotated, but we were never able to sit anymore.

Then we were briefed by Colonel Chatterton that the American glider pilots would go in as copilots and be observers to report back to our commanding officers of what we saw and what took place on the operation.

After briefing and told us where we were going to land and what our LZ would be and our route to Sicily, we were supposed to pass by Malta and fly to Sicily at the edge of the port point. We would fly up the coast until we got to our cutoff point. The tow plane pilot would give us information when we should cut off. We were supposed to fly towards Sicily at about 1000 feet and climb to about 15, 1800 feet, and we'd cut off over the beach and land.

After forming, we dropped down to about 50 feet right over the water, and I don't know if it was spray or rain, but we were buffeted by heavy winds and our windshields were constantly sprayed with water and we barely could make out. But I don't know if I mentioned this, that this was a night mission, and at night the tow planes had little blue lights on their wings and we were able to see the tow plane with these blue lights. After we had flown a short period of time, my copilot...We never introduced each other. We just said, "Hi." And I sat down on the right side, he sat on the left. I never knew who he was. He never spoke a word. We just flew together. After about, oh, a half hour, he asked me to take over. He couldn't see the plane. So I said okay and I took it and I flew it from there until we landed.

Now, as we got to the point in Sicily, the anti-aircraft searchlights and the anti-aircraft fire started up, and all along the coast the tow planes got heavy right feet and kept going out to sea further and further away from the shoreline. When we got below Syracuse, the tow plane pilot says, "Get ready to tow off." And we were flying at about 1100 feet. I says, "No way can I get in and land at this altitude. You got to get in closer before I'll cut off." And he came back to me, says, "I can't get in closer, but I'll take you up a little higher." I says, "Good, a minimum of 2500 feet, and 30,000 feet I'd be happier." He says, "All right, I'll try that." And he went up, climbed to 2500 feet. He says, "Now you got to get off." I said, "Okay." I cut and I went through the searchlights and flak, and to me it was very outstanding. It looked like a Hollywood premiere, and I landed through there. I don't know if we were hit or not, but none of us in the cargo or the plane. I had 15 British airborne and a ammunition cart.

After we got past the shore, I was able to make out some landing fields and I glided in nicely, made a nice soft landing, but the field was a very short field and there was a big stone fence in front of me. It was a moonlight night, I was able to see, so I headed my right left wing into a tree to slow us down, and it did slow us down and I just stopped short of the fence. As I unbuckled, shots came fired into the glider from the fence and I hollered to the troops, "Get out in a hurry." And during that evacuation of the glider, one of the British airborne was shot in the back. I was shot, and as I unbuckled my safety belt I got hit twice and was knocked out of my seat and I hit the floor.

I laid there for a minute while waiting for all the troops to evacuate, and as they got evacuated, I got up. I was able to get up. I got on my knees and crawled to the door, and my knees were very wet and I thought, "Geez, I must be bleeding terribly." As I got out, I put my hands on my knees and all I saw was what the troopers had vomited up, so I wasn't bleeding that bad.

We got out and we went up a small dirt road, and we met another group of airborne troops that had landed with another glider. And then we had a conference there and they decided that half the troops would go to the nearest road and the other would go cross-country to our destination, the bridge below Syracuse.

In short time, we start crossing. Then we would come across a tower with the guards on it and they would start firing at us, and we were in an olive grove and we'd jump from one tree to another tree until we got out of range, and then we kept walking on for, oh, I don't know, maybe an hour or so, and we finally reached our destination, the bridge.

After waiting at the bridge for Montgomery's troops to show up, the Italian brigade or something came down from Syracuse and start firing at us. We had a band of I would say approximately 30 to 40 men at the bridge defending.

We were battling this group off quite a while, and we were starting to take a lot of hits. Soon after, they weren't able to make headway, they start dropping three-inch mortars on us and that really took a toll. We had a lot of wounded, a lot of kill. Then we had to fall back and the British lieutenant said to me, "Look." Well, said to all of us, I should say, not me alone, "We'll try to hold them off till nighttime and then we'll swim down the canal to the open sea. Maybe we can escape that way."

We were able to hold them off for a little longer, and then they start lobbing phosphorus grenades on us. I don't know if you know what phosphorus grenades is. They explode and they burn you. They don't kill you outright, which was torture. The lieutenant says, "We better give up. We can't make it." And they wanted someone that had a piece of white cloth to signal our surrender. I took out my handkerchief and handed it to him, and he put it on his rifle and we surrendered and they waved us to come out of the ditch onto land. Oh, I got my third hit. Before we would hit the canal, I was hiding behind a bush and they were firing at me and I got another hit in the shoulder, almost in the same shoulder. And before we surrendered, the British lieutenant says to me, "Yank, you did a good job. I'm going to recommend you for a couple of bonds." I don't know what the hell bonds was, but later on I found that was British awards.

And we surrendered, and then we were taken prisoners, and when I got out of the ditch the Italians were hollering me and I couldn't understand Italian. Then one of the British says, "You better drop your gun belt. That's what they were hollering about." So I dropped my gun belt, they took us and they searched us and took anything personal on us. They took our IQ cards and things like that and they laid them on a donkey cart. Then they marched us away along the... There was a canal and a, oh, brook or a river. We were down there, we were walking along that, and I was in the rear and I was the only American there.

And, oh, after we were gone and reflecting my coming misery, w e would stopped for a pause for a moment, I don't know what, and there was gunfire, and one of the Italian soldiers jumped behind a tree. And as he did that, he dropped dead from a shot coming from a British captain. He hit him right in the head. I couldn't imagine how he hit him. But soon after that, the panic starts striking the Italian soldiers. Two of them jumped in front of me into each other and, seeing the panic, I reached out and grabbed their rifles and I took one of the rifles, gave it to the British airborne, and I had it. And they were starting to run away, so I fired over the head because I didn't want to hit any British. I says, "Let them go, let them go, let them go." And the British airborne, the other didn't fire at all. He let them go, and meantime we took about 15 or 20 Italian prisoners and we walked back and the British captain was a patrol in front of the tanks, and he rejoined his tank patrol and we went back and took our prisoners back to the bridge. From becoming a prisoner, we became prison guards.

And we stayed there and, oh, I'm not sure, maybe an hour or so. Then the tanks finally rolled up and we cheered them on, and they stopped and spoke to us for a while and we told them of our experience, a British lieutenant, and a tank lieutenant, and I think it was a colonel with him, and they said, "Look, we'll pass on and you follow us. We want to march into Syracuse as a conquering force." So we did that and we had to march on, and I met another Yank whose name was Harold Russell. He somehow landed on Sicily too but further north.

The rest of the airborne glider troops landed mostly in the sea because they tried to make it from 1100 feet, about a mile out to sea, and they were never able to make it, and we lost quite a number of troops, both airborne troops and glider pilots, in that bay of Syracuse.

The pilots didn't have enough training. We didn't have enough aircraft. Matter of the fact, we learned later that Lieutenant or Colonel Chatterton, the British Airborne leader, didn't want to go on this operation. He told Montgomery that this operation didn't seem very practical and they should avoid it, and Montgomery was told, "Colonel Chatterton, either you go on the mission or you get transferred out." So Colonel Chatterton as a brave soldier as he was, he says, "Okay, we'll go on it." He says, "These British glider pilots never had any night flying experience." And being a night mission, he told them. So the few hours we gave them a night flying wasn't very much because the same conditions we had in taking off. We had to fly through dust and things like that. It was a very poorly thought-out mission.

After we got into Syracuse and the troops marched on, I dropped out with a few of the airborne and Harold Russell. We went up on a hill there and stayed there for a day till more troops came. Then we went into town to the port to see if we can get evacuated back to Africa. We finally got on a Dutch ship and they took us, they gave us blankets, we laid on the deck, and they fed us, and we went back to Africa.

We'd had to take a boat while the air echelon flew back to England, and we flew to England. W e landed, oh, about a week later in Scotland, and we joined our outfit and we were stationed in the Midlands in Cottesmore. That was the British headquarters for their troop carrier.

Then we start preparing for D-Day. Because of our long experience, or not experience, or period of time spent overseas, the high command decide we weren't going in as gliders, but we would drop paratroopers. I mean 316th would drop paratroopers. A lot of us glider pilots were sent to navigational school. We learned navigation, what, course, they could teach us in a short period of time, and they made us copilot navigators, some of us, and that's what we did. We used to fly around England, navigating for experience and things like that. And I was selected to go with one of the power pilots on a navigational copilot up on the D-Day. We didn't have to do much navigating, we just flew... We followed the fellow in front of us and we came on back and landed.

Prior to Market Garden I was sent back in June 20th after D-Day for R&R. Well, when I went home I finally was convinced to get married, and I was gone for 90 days, 30 days travel to the States, 30 days for R&R in Atlantic City, and 30 days travel back. I get back in September prior to Market Garden, and we were briefed on Market Garden and told that we would have to fly, but we didn't go on the initial day, September 17th. We went on a resupply mission on September 19th.

On the 19th, I had a jeep and radio equipment, my glider, with a sergeant, 82nd Airborne 325th Infantry Division, as my copilot and enlisted man as the driver of the jeep. Before we took off, I gave my copilot instruction what to happen in case I was disabled en route or before we landed, and I said to him, "All you do is hold the wheel steady and look at that and see it stays above 90, and just hold it like that and probably glider land by itself. Might be little bit bumpy, but it will land anyhow."

Well, anyhow, when we took off from Cottesmore, we were circling around the formation and I noticed on my tow plane vapors coming off the right wing. At first I thought it was morning vapors, dew, but it was persistent. Then I suspected that it might be gasoline.

So we had intercom with the tow prime, and I told him, "I think you're losing gas in your right wing and hope you have enough to get over the Channel. Coming back will be your worry." So a head popped in the dome of the tow plane and probably the crew chief says, "Yes, there was gas." He lost the gas cap, so he asked me to cut off, and England every 10 feet had an airdrome, so to speak, so there was an airdrome below us and I cut off and I landed and he says, "I'll come in, land right behind you. And he did, and there was no planes or aircraft on the field so the crew chief went into the hangar, there was a hangar there, and he eventually came out with some caps and they tried them and he fitted it on and it wouldn't fit the airplane.

In the meantime, the whole echelon was gone. We were there alone, so he says, "I'll call back and find out what we're going to do." So he called radio back and they says, "Hook up and take off. They need all the equipment they can get." So we hooked up and we were the lone aircraft in the open field and we were flying across. We flew across and we kept flying and flying. I says, "Where the hell are we going?" But the pilot says, "We're lost, but we'll find our way." Pretty soon we were flying over Germany and the sun was shining and we were getting a small fire hitting the jeep. You heard the ping, ping, ping, and the enlisted man says, "What? Is it raining? The sun is shining." I says, "No, you just pucker up ."

And we finally made a 90-degree turn, and as we flew I noticed some parachute on the ground. I told the tow pilot that, "That must be the 82nd Airborne. Let me cut off here." I knew we were lost. I said, "Let me cut off here and I'll find my way around." He says, "Okay." I cut off and wished him luck, and he went back and I came and landed and there was nobody around, just the parachutes. I landed on top of the parachutes and there was nobody, and I noticed there was a lot of civilians off the field, and they start coming towards us and I told the sergeant, "Don't fire on them or anything, wait till they come here." As they got closer, I noticed they had orange boutonnieres and orange banners. I said, "Oh, that's the House of Orange." I says, "No, we're in the right country."

They came up and then I motioned them up to the... We finally took the jeep out, we lifted the nose up, put the jeep out, and we sat in the jeep. And as they came, I motioned them over and I says, "Where did the paratroopers go?" And they motioned, they said, "That way up that road." So I said, "Oh." I thanked them, and they were very happy and wished us luck and they were happy to see us because we had liberated Holland. We didn't invade them, we liberated them. And as we went up the road, after, oh, a mile or two, we came across an MP, and the sergeant asked him where his outfit was and he told him, so I got out. I said, "Wait a while." I get out, and he took off and I wished him luck. And I asked the MP, "How do I get the Brussels?" I knew how to get to Brussels to get evacuated. He says, "Follow this dirt road till you hit a main road, and the main road, you'll try to hitch a ride towards Brussels, south."

I was walking along this road all alone, and pretty soon out of the woods I heard a cry, "Hey, Fine. Where the hell are the pearls?" And out came one of my buddies who I always used to tell, "Stick with me, you'll wear pearls." His name was Flight Officer Frank Gain. I says, "What are you doing here?" He says he landed on the other side of the forest, so evidently I didn't land too far away from my LZ. As we started walking, Gain says, "Wait, let's take a parachute with us because we could use it for barter." So we folded up a parachute, cut the strings off it, and we walked to the main road and we stood there waiting in the bushes there, waiting to see what happened.

Pretty soon some lorries came by and I said, "Wait a second. Don't jump out yet till we see if they're British or German." And we noticed there were British, so we went out and we asked them for a lift. They says, "Yeah, hop on in." Well, we then start riding down. We had to jump out of the lorries, as they call them, not trucks, because German tanks were fighting on the road below. Oh, after several hours they motioned we can go ahead. We got down and as we passed where the tank fight was, we saw American and German tanks pushed off by bulldozers off the road to open the road and we finally got onto Brussels.

And on the way we met a lot of civilians and they all thanked us American troops and they were very happy. I came across one gentleman with a little girl, and he spoke half English, half Yiddish, and half Dutch, and he was telling me that he spent four years in a cellar. Some Dutch people kept him in a cellar with his little daughter for four years and this was the first day of full daylight that he had, and he thanked me and he cried and I cried. I still remember it.

We went further on down to main plaza of Brussels. We went into a hotel. We got into a hotel and we asked the hotel clerk for a room. He said, "I can't give you a room. I don't have any." So I took out my 45, I put it on a counter, and I says, "You'll find a room for us, won't you, sir?" He says, "Yes, sir, yes, sir." So we got to stay in the hotel, and then few of the other glider pilots came in and we all stayed. Naturally, we went around Brussels, we had a good time at the cafes, and we bought our parachute, the nylon, with the women for their favors and for liquor and food and things like that. We spent happy day. We spent several days until the MPs rounded us up and we had to go back to England where we get ready for another mission.

I didn't feel as a liberator, but I felt happy to be part to help these people, not only this gentleman, but all of the Dutch people. Because they were so outgoing to us. They offered us such little food. I know in my knapsack I had oranges, and I offered them to them and they didn't... We had oranges and we had a lot of candy. We don't take food. We take candy and oranges with us, and they accepted with... It was so graciously they accepted and thanked us, they wonder what they can give us, and that's why... They made us feel emotional, and then after that we felt lighthearted and as American young soldiers who weren't really soldiers but partying all the way to the battlefront.

Well, we got back to England eventually and we prepared for further missions, which I never went on except I was flying a lot as copilot there. And I always felt that here I was with a bunch of glider pilots from all walks of life and this was a comradery of youth, not like fellas going to school, but men who were together, well, practically four years, and there wasn't anything that they wouldn't do for me that I wouldn't do for them.

Ken Harbaugh:

That was Samuel Fine.

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