George Koskimaki - Hells Highway: A Chronicle of the 101st Airborne Division in the Holland Campaign, September–November 1944

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Hells Highway

A Chronicle of the 101st Airborne Division
in the Holland Campaign,
SeptemberNovember 1944

George E. Koskimaki

Dedicated to the paratroopers and glidermen of the 101st Airborne Division as well as the brave pilots and crews who delivered them to participate in the Market-Garden campaign along Hells Highway. It is dedicated, also, to the brave men and women of the underground movement in the Netherlands during World War II.

CONTENTS

MAPS

Drawn by Peter Barnette

GLOSSARY

AA	Anti-Aircraft
AT	Anti-Tank
AWOL	Absent without official leave
BAR	Browning automatic rifle
CG	Commanding general
CO	Commanding officer
DZ	Drop zone
EM	Enlisted man
F/O	Flight officer
GI	Government issue; enlisted man
IP	Initial Point
LD	Line of departure
LMG	Light (.30 cal.) machine gun
LZ	Landing zone
MLR	Main line of resistance
NCO	Non-commissioned officer
OP	Observation post
Stick	Group of paratroopers jumping from same plane
Streamer	Parachute which failed to open properly
TCC	Troop Carrier Command
TCG	Troop Carrier Group
TCS	Troop Carrier Squadron
TO	Table of Organization

U.S. ARMY RANKINGS

Pvt.	Private
PFC	Private first class (one stripe)
Cpl.	Corporal (two stripes)
T/5	Technician 5th Grade (two stripes)
Sgt.	Sergeant (three stripes)
T/4	Technician 4th Grade (three stripes)
S/Sgt.	Staff sergeant (four stripes)
T/3	Technician 3rd Grade (four stripes)
T/Sgt.	Technical sergeant (five stripes)
M/Sgt.	Master sergeant (six stripes)
1/Sgt.	First sergeant (six stripes with diamond insert)
WOJG	Warrant officer junior grade
CWO	Chief warrant officer
2Lt.	Second lieutenant (one brass bar)
1Lt.	First lieutenant (one silver bar)
Capt.	Captain (two silver bars)
Maj.	Major (one bronze leaf)
LTC	Lieutenant colonel (one silver leaf)
Col.	Colonel (silver eagle)
BG	Brigadier general (one star)
MG	Major general (two stars)
LTG	Lieutenant general (three stars)
Gen.	General (four stars)

FOREWORD

H ells Highway as a historical work will make you feel as if you were there! My first encounter with the book was on an airplane, on the way to Holland in September of 1988, when George Koskimaki asked me to read a chapter of his original manuscript. After one chapter I was addicted. I wanted to read one more chapter, and then one more. My first reading of Hells Highway was disjointed because chapters arrived singly and in small multiples, until I had the whole book. I have read Hells Highway twice in its complete form and have reached the conclusion that it is the best story of a military action I have read.

George Koskimaki is a master at weaving the individual stories of the airborne soldiers with personal accounts of Dutch civilians to produce a story that could not be improved by the embellishments of a writer of fiction. This is high adventure that could not be imagined. It is told by those who experienced the airborne assault into Holland, kept the highway open for the British armored drive toward Arnhem, and the Dutch people who were liberated from years of occupation by the Nazi German forces.

If you liked A Bridge Too Far, you will love Hells Highway. This book tells how the Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne Division accomplished their mission by securing their assigned section of the highway to Arnhem. You will also learn from first hand observations why this airborne force, surrounded by the German army of occupation, found the task of keeping the road open so difficult that they named their objective Hells Highway.

Hells Highway is a history, most of which has never before been written. It is adventure recorded by those who lived it and put in perspective by an author who was also there and saw and wrote accounts about actions of the entire 101st Airborne Division. It is human drama on a scale that could not be produced by an author without the 612 contributors of written and oral accounts of the Screaming Eagles part in liberating a part of Holland.

The objective of Operation Market Garden, to cross the Rhine at Arn-hem, was not achieved. Ask any of the citizens of The Netherlands who were liberated from the German occupation by the airborne troops and they will tell you it succeeded for them. They prove it every year, in September, by celebrating their liberation and serving as perfect hosts to veterans and active duty members of the 101st Airborne Division who travel to Holland to be a part of the celebration of the anniversary of their regained freedom.

Hells Highway is a true story of liberators who dropped from the sky and those on the ground who were liberated and have never forgotten the bravery of airborne soldiers who survived and of those who made the supreme sacrifice for freedom.

Ivan G. Worrell
Executive Secretary
101st Airborne Division Association

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTORY REVIEW

T his is history as witnessed by participants in the greatest airborne operation of the entire war. The Market-Garden operation covered a period of a week, interrupted by bad weather during three days of the campaign.

The narrative includes the stories of pilots and crew members of the C-47 troop carrier transport planes, glider pilots, glider troops and paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division and one glider trooper from the British 1st Airborne Corps who was part of the 101st operation. The stories of former Dutch underground-resistance fighters as well as Dutch citizens are included in the account.

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