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Operation Varsity and Captain Nixon from
the 101st
The 507th Parachute Infantry 17th Airborne
Division jumped into Germany on March 24, 1945.
In a
report given on March 27, 1945 1st Lt. John Carr Jr.
stated that Aircraft number 42-24102 peeled off from the formation, made a 180
degree turn then went into a vertical dive.
1st Lt Carr thought the plane had pulled out
of the dive, but this turned out not to be true. This plane crashed with all
onboard except for the jumpmaster of this stick,
1st Lt Ben Carollo. He jumped
just as the plane went into a vertical dive, and
survived the Central Europe
campaign and was awarded the CIB (Combat Infantryman’s Badge).
I located Ben Carollo's family just two days before the 61st
anniversary of Operation Varsity. He had two daughters and a son Dwight.
When he did speak of the war always had survivor’s guilt that he was the
lone man to escape the burning plane. The ultimate tragedy of this story is that
Ben Carollo developed Multiple Sclerosis in the early 1960’s and died from it in
1991. Dwight remembers his father stating that the other men should have
survived instead of him.
18 men died in the crash of plane 42-24102, chalk number
71. This was a stick of a Machine Gun Platoon from Headquarters Company Second
Battalion.
There were 5 veterans from the Normandy Jump in the stick. They were
S/Sgt’s John Staar and Edmund Moore, Sgt Murry Marshall, Pfc’s Eugene
Letourneau and Harvey Nugent.
The other paratroopers who died that day were
S/Sgt Leonard Brooks, Pfc’s Joseph Davanzo, Darrell Payne and Clyde Bowden,
Pvt’s Stephen Parker,
Bruno Arcangeli, Fabian Villalobos, Marion Green and
Arlan Hudson.
The men of the US Army Air Corps who died were the Pilot
1st Lt Donald Sundby, Co-Pilot 2nd Lt Paul Fort, Crew Chief T/Sgt James King
and Radio Operator S/Sgt George Paul. They are
pictured here in order from left to right in front of their plane.
After my article came out in 2006 about this
stick I was looking for even more information. Was lucky enough to call
Richard Archer who was a 2nd Lt making the jump into Germany.
In the distance Lt Archer saw a plane on
fire going down. The next day on a Patrol Archer found a plane. He
looked inside and saw all the troopers melted together with their static lines
still hooked up. Archer deduced that this very well was the plane he saw
going down the day before.
The plane had landed but it seemed to not
have any brakes as it went right through a barn with no wheels. As he got
near the nose of the plane there was the top half of one crew. When Archer
looked inside he saw the bottom half still strapped in the Co-Pilot's seat.
I'd been in contact with the brother of the
Co-Pilot just a few days before my call the Mr. Archer. I asked if he
wanted to speak with Mr. Archer and he said sure.
I called Mr. Archer up and gave the
brother's contact information. A few days latter Archer called and thanked
my for putting him in touch with the brother.
He said there was a coincide as they often
happen for paratroopers. The brother mentioned that he sold pipe organs
for churches. It just so happened that Mr. Archer's church was looking to
purchase one. You just never know!
What's interesting about this article was
the the fact it has already been told, albeit
incorrectly. In the mini-series Band of Brothers, while stationed in Germany,
Captain Lewis Nixon is assigned to jump as an observer for Operation Varsity.
Captain Nixon jumped with the 17th Airborne, 507th
Parachute Infantry Regiment.
After Nixon returns to 506th Battalion Headquarters, he had a heated discussion with Major
Dick Winters.
Captain Nixon states to Winters that only one or two other men
made it out of his stick before the plane exploded. While Nixon was in Stick
72, in reality it was stick 71 that went down.
I have spoken with Carl Jones who
was in Stick 72 and he was the one who informed me that the plane next to his
went down. After further research I was able to determine that
Stick 71 was the
ill-fated plane.
I’m sure that Captain Nixon thought it was his plane that
went down, after his chute opened he probably looked down and saw a plane
explode on impact and made the assumption that it was his plane. Well that, and
Hollywood taking a little creative license as well.
Killed in Action
Pilot 1st Lt. Donald P. Sundby 0-747917
Co-Pilot 2nd Lt. Paul I. Fort 0-784870
Crew Chief T/Sgt. James E. King 35612546
Radio Operator S/Sgt. George F. Paul 34670505
Morning Reports for these
soldiers KIA March 24, 1945
S/Sgt Leonard R. Brooks 13069286
S/Sgt Edmund C. Moore 15101927
S/Sgt John H. Staar 19096418
Sgt Murry G. Marshall 38157573
Pfc Clyde L. Bowden 36884111
Pfc Joseph F. Davanzo 32803646
Pfc Eugene R. Letourneau 31187392
Pfc Harvey L. Nugent 39388223
Pfc Darrell G. Payne 39027991
Pvt Bruno Arcangeli 33610997
Pvt Marion C. Green 34601180
Pvt Arlan A. Hudson 34867360
Pvt Stephen J. Parker 20274499
Pvt Fabian G. Villalobos 39233208
Brian Siddall
June 25, 2025
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