101st Airborne by Mark Bando

101st Airborne by Mark Bando

Author:Mark Bando
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MBI
Published: 2011-03-25T16:00:00+00:00


Reg Davies

On September 19, 1944, 2/502 was attacking through the Zonsche forest on the flank of 3/502, trying to turn the tide in a desperate situation. Advancing west across a field, Company F was pinned down by effective fire from a quad-20mm antiaircraft gun that fatally wounded Sgt. Wilson Lee and wounded several others. The German AA gun was horse-drawn and was delivering fire from a stopped position on a road.

Lieutenant Colonel Steve Chappuis got around the left flank of the gun crew and realized he needed an effective weapon to knock out the 20mm guns and their crew. Spotting Reginald Davies, a member of the 2nd Battalion light machine-gun platoon, Lieutenant Colonel Chappuis personally asked Reg if he could work his way close to the 20mm crew and take them out with his LMG.

Reggie began dragging his A6 LMG along the road in a crawl, approaching the gun crew from their right flank. His assistant gunner crawled along parallel to him in the roadside ditch holding aloft the belt of .30-06 armor-piercing ammunition. When Reg got about one hundred yards from the gun crew, they noticed him approaching.

While the 20mm’s kept firing toward F Company, two German riflemen opened fire on Reg and his assistant with Mauser rifles. With the element of surprise gone, Reg opened fire on the gun crew, watching his tracers find the target. He killed the security men, the gun crew, and the horses and kept firing until the ammunition supply exploded. This was accomplished with the total expenditure of less than sixty rounds of ammunition. Chappuis personally wrote Reg up for a Silver Star that he received soon thereafter.



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