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Requisitioning transportation was
part of the overall task of airborne
troops. These are the experiences of
(Supply) Sergeant Robert R. Webb, of
“HQ” Co., 3rd Bn./506th in his book
Freedom Found, page 81-82, after
landing on the Drop Zone in Son,
Holland:
“Now I had a mission to perform.
I had to get all the bundles into
some kind of conveyance and get them
off the DZ and down the road to the
bridge at the Wilhelmina Canal. I
found the only farmhouse was just
off the DZ. I headed for it at once.
I went to the barn and found a horse
and wagon. Just what we needed! I
started to harness the horse and a
little Dutchman came out of the
house and protested my taking his
horse. He was a wonderful little
fellow and was about seventy-five
years old. He was going to whip my
ass right there if I insisted on
taking his horse and wagon. I tried
to explain why we had to have his
horse and wagon for a while but he
would not hear of it. His daughter
came out and could speak a little
English.
I explained to her how urgent it was
for us to get these supplies up to
the Canal and she told her father.
He looked at me and smiled and told
her to tell me that his horse and
wagon were fully at my disposal and
he would drive the wagon anywhere we
wanted to go. I said “God bless you
sir” and we became friends at once.
I helped him to harness the horse
and then got up on the wagon seat
with him and off we went. He stayed
with us for three days. He showed us
what the Dutch people were made of.
We picked up all the bundles we
could find that had ammunition and
medical supplies in them. We found a
bunch. I took everything out of the
bundles and it took up less room in
the wagon.”
Here is an account of a Dutch point
of view of this type of
requisitioning:
Jo van der Linden in Jan van Hout’s
collection of “Memories of September
1944”.
Jo was with his family at the farm
on the Northern outskirts of
Eindhoven, watching as paratroopers
advanced towards Eindhoven on
September 18th 1944.
"[…]
A while later a second group came
into our yard. With the aid of a
special booklet, their commander
asked my father if the horse that
walked in pasture out back belonged
to him. After an affirmative answer
he asked to tie the horse in front
of the cart which stood on the yard.
My father agreed, under the
condition that one of us could go
with them. Apparently he was
thinking about the future and didn’t
want to loose the horse and cart. Of
course I, a 16 year old, was jumping
to go along. But that did not
happen. One of the farm workers went
with them.
[…]
Later that day I went to the
kindergarten school next to the
Vlokhoven church and there I saw 15
to 20 dead Germans lying piled up,
criss-cross on top of each other.
That was one of the things that they
used our horse and cart for. I
remember very well that it did not
affect me at all. I had more of a
feeling like ‘serves them well’.
This in a bitter contrast to the
American Captain (Killey) (sic) who
was also lying there with a lethal
gunshot wound under his left jaw. He
was killed in action that morning
across from the windmill in
Vlokhoven. On the square stood a
halftrack which was presumably used
to pull canons. Later, these canons
were put out of action and stood on
the T-junction of Klooster Dreef,
Woenselse Straat and Frankrijk
Straat.
[…]
The horse and cart, and the farm
worker who was sent along with it,
were probably separated during the
bombing of Eindhoven by the Germans.
The combination of horse and cart
later ended up with a horse trader.
He aid to have been given the horse
and cart. But from whom remained
unclear. Anyway my father had to go
through a lot of trouble to get the
horse and cart he borrowed to the
Americans back. But with the help of
the police he finally did it."
Use of farm carts by paratroopers:
See also
Battle Study # 5 for photographs
of farm carts at the Woenselse Rail
Road Crossing and
Battle Study # 7 for pictures of
carts bringing the equipment of
paratroopers on the Museum Lawn.
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