Jerry remembered that while flying towards Utah Beach in Normandy in the very early hours of 6 June 1944, he saw two paratroopers at the door of his plane being sucked out of the plane by the deflagration caused by the exploding German Flack shells = anti aircraft artillery shells. They were never seen again.
At one point during the battle of Saint Mere Eglise on 8 June 1944, an Officer was calling for three men and a Medic to volunteer for a very special mission, Gerard Baszner was chosen not only because he was a Medic, but also because he was small and skinny; the task required a Medic capable of going into the Church tower and climbing out a narrow church window, where the stain glass windows had been before they were blown out during the bombing of the area.
Most people remember seeing pictures of the Sainte Mere Eglise church steeple, where still today a fake U.S. Paratrooper is still hanging by his parachute. Soldier John Steele was injured by the German as he was coming down over Sainte Mere Eglise in Normandy on “D” Day. His parachute unluckily hooked itself to the church steeple.
Gerard Baszner was the Medic who went to the rescue of the paratrooper, who was injured in the hip and the ankle, the injured soldier was dehydrated, Jerry immediately gave him an I.V. ( Intravenous) shot, then he dressed his injuries the best he could and with the help of the other paratroopers cut the parachute lines and brought down soldier John Steele, who survived the ordeal.
Gerard J. Baszner remembers fighting in the Normandy “Edge Rows” These are little fields and pastures surrounded by raised earth, which with time have been covered by bushes and trees, These edge rows were a nightmare for our Infantry and Armored vehicles, they were literally natural anti tank barriers; the Germans could hide machine gun nests and ambush our infantry soldiers. He was going from one injured soldier to another, he was taking care of their injuries, when all of a sudden his patient said: ” Look this German soldier just slit the throat of one of our fallen men and he is pulling a ring off the finger and going through his personal belongings, take my rifle and kill him” Jerry answered :” I cannot fire a weapon, I am a Medic”.
The response of the injured soldier was :” Your job is to save my life ! “Are you going to let this German kill us ?” Jerry realized that he had no choice, he took the rifle and fired three bullets in the German’s chest. Jerry then ran to see what the German was really doing, sure enough he found out that the Kraut had slit the throat of one of our soldiers and had already collected watches, rings, etc.. from dead Americans. Then Gerard Baszner added ” I had no remorse, I had done my duty to protect my injured fellow soldiers.” After the battle of Normandy the 505th P.I.R. was sent back to Nottingham, England for more parachute training. On the second training jump Jerry was badly injured, a knee injury which was serious enough not to allow him to be a paratrooper. He was transferred to the 130th General Hospital, which specialized in treating “Shell Shocked” infantry men.
Before ending the Paratrooper episode, I should mention that the original encounter between Gerard J. Baszner and the 82nd Airborne Officer was at Nottingham, England. Also it should be known that they were two reasons Jerry was injured during his last training jump. First the wind was much too strong and secondly paratrooper always carried excessive loads because they were always landing behind enemy lines. In this case Jerry was carrying extra medical supplies in a special leg bag, unluckily due to the wind and the prop-wash his leg bag wrapped around his leg and when the parachute snapped open all the muscled above and below the knee were stretched and damaged. Jerry was a patient of the 312th General Hospital. As he could not run and kneel he was removed from combat duty and transferred to the “Red Ball Express”. This very large outfit was a transportation unit, created by General George S. Patton, who wanted to give top priority to the transportation of supplies to the front line troops. General Patton wanted to have fuel, ammunition, weapons, and food provided on a twenty four hour per day system. He ordered a circle “Red” steel plate attached to the front of each vehicle assigned to the “Red Ball Express.”
The MP ( Military Police) soldier, assigned to any intersection, was given orders to wave through any vehicle carrying this insignia. Example: If a jeep carrying a General and a “Red Ball Express” truck arrived a the same time a any crossroad, the MP waved the truck to pass first. Gerard Baszner remembered driving a two and half ton truck, he was assigned to move gasoline and ammunition from Omaha Beach to the front lines. One day one of the front wheels of his truck slid off a LST (Landing Ship Tank) ramp, he had to have his truck towed off the ramp. As his knee muscles improved Jerry was reassigned to the 130th General Hospital, which specialized in treating “Shell Shocked” soldiers. He remembered going to Spa and also to Liege to get supplies from the 98th General hospital. The 130th General Hospital was moved to the Mont de la Salle Seminary in Ciney, Belgium, where it stayed until VE Day, which means Victory Day in Europe or 8 May 1945. Because of his experience Jerry was assigned to the operating room and he was also responsible for the central supply of the unit.
Standing (l-r):
Woody Ford, Medic, 107th Evacuation Hosp
Gerard Baszner, Medic, 505th PIR
Rose Dewing-Young, Nurse 130th Gen. Hosp.
John Delmore (Brother was in the 99th Inf. Div.)
Christian W de Marcken in our kitchen in Paxton, MA
Sitting (l-r):
Helen Najarian-Rusz, 59th Evac. Hosp.
Dorothy Taft-Barre, 16th General Hosp
Marjorie Baszner
Submitted by Christian de Marcken, Associate