|
504th
Parachute Infantry Normandy Pathfinders
The reason this update happened was due to
an email I received the other day. Gotta
love it when someone comes out and said I
was wrong as there was one soldier I didn’t
have as a Pathfinder.
Located the Morning
Reports showing that this person was beyond
wrong. But while looking for the Morning
Reports for Byron Peterson I came across
something of interesting about another 82nd
man.
T/5 Carl Selfridge
along with Private Peterson was transferred
out of the 504th to 82nd
Airborne Division, Headquarters Company.
Selfridge was busted back to Private and
moved to the 82nd Division.
Peterson was killed on
June 6 and what happened to Selfridge I
don’t know. The interesting part about
Selfridge was I could figure out that he was
the Company B Supply Clerk before being
busted and sent out of the Regiment. Always
fun to discover a little bit more about a
Regiment.
The 507th
and the 508th Parachute Regiments
were going into combat for the first time so
it was decided that the Pathfinders for both
would receive Security from men from the 504th
since they had been in combat since July of
1943.
28 men were attached to
both the 507th and the 508th.
Only 26 of those 28 men jumped into Normandy
as Pathfinders. Two men didn’t go in. The
first was Gene D. Lewis Company D of the 504th.
It turns out the Lewis came down with
hepatitis May 7, 1944. He was confined to
quarters to start. Lewis ended up going to
the Hospital for a month and came back to
Company D 504th the second week
of June. So even thought he was listed as
going to the 508th he never got
there.
The second man who
didn’t jump into Normandy was Jack Cockrell
from Company E of the 504th.
Cockrell was arrested at the end of May and
was sent back to Company D.
So there you have it,
26 504th men jumped as
Pathfinders Security into Normandy.
BN Siddall
May 30, 2023
|
