AUCTIONS Poulin's Online Firearms Auction, December 3-5, 2023 501ST US INFANTRY (AIRBORNE ORIGINALLY) REGIMENT,

1129 501ST US INFANTRY (AIRBORNE ORIGINALLY) REGIMENT,

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This item SOLD at 2023 Dec 03 @ 11:18UTC-5 : EST/CDT
Category Firearms & Military
Auction Currency USD
Start Price 150.00 USD
Estimated at 300.00 - 500.00 USD
1ST BATALLION FLAG, VIETNAM ERA. 3' x 4' regulation double applique hand and machine embroidered eagle and crest on a blue field, gold fringe. The flag is Army Blue and features the regimental crest in the center of the Eagle. On the left side streamer is the word “Geronimo,” an homage to the great Apache leader and the unit's battle cry ever since the days of the Airborne Test Platoon. The Thunderbird represents Airborne troops and the blue and yellow colors on the flag are from the Dutch town of Veghel, which they liberated in September 1944. The Lion above the Eagle represents the gratitude of the Belgian Army citation and Croix de Guerre for holding Bastogne, which itself is represented by the key held by the Lion. The flag was inspected and dated November 13, 1967. The 501st Infantry Regiment (Airborne originally) is one of the Army's most famous units of the 20th Century. The regiment was first created at Camp Toccoa in northeast Georgia in mid-November 1942 with the legendary Airborne Test Platoon, which had originated the airborne/parachute concept for the US Army, as part of the core of the 1st Battalion. Colonel Howard Johnson was the regiment's first commander and would hand-pick the unit's leadership. His demeanor was very much in the mold of the early airborne officers of the day. For those familiar with the TV mini-series “Band Of Brothers,” know well the hard driving training that the airborne volunteer recruits underwent which included runs up Mt. Currahee. Johnson set the record for time in running Currahee for the 501st.After completion of their basic training, the regiment was sent to Fort Benning in March 1943 to earn their jump qualifications. Upon completion, the unit was sent to Camp MacKall in North Carolina. The regiment remained there until January 1944 participating in several maneuvers in Louisiana, Tennessee and North Carolina before being sent to England. Training there was no less tough as they went into more of a combat jump mode preparing for their eventual use in the invasion of France although the actual goal was kept secret from the troops. With June 1944 on the close horizon, unit leadership as well as that of the 101st Airborne Division, to whom they were an organic component, received briefings on the D-Day task ahead of them. Soon the unit was sequestered (as were the rest of the units tasked for D-Day) and the full mission was told to the troops at large. On June 5, 1944, the 501st Airborne Infantry Regiment was to fly in transports to the invasion front in Normandy. Two battalions (1st and 2nd) would take off from one airport while the 3rd Battalion used a different one which helped disperse the aircraft traffic and space at airports. The goal of the 501st was to be dropped close to the town of Carentan and capture canal locks and bridges nearby. As anyone with a passing knowledge of D-Day's airborne operations knows, the troop for the 101st Airborne, the 82nd Airborne and the British 6th Airborne Division all dropped off their drop zones for a large number of their component units. While making it harder to concentrate combat power for taking objectives, this did sew a lot of confusion behind German lines with so many parachutists popping up all over. This served to disperse the German response. Poor navigation and German flak helped break up the transports which lead to this occurrence. As the Sun came up, the landings took place with several US, British and Canadian divisions landing and linking up with the scattered paratroops. The 501st would lose nearly 900 men in this action, killed, wounded and missing. The airborne units would take place in capturing area towns like Carentan as well as bridges and take out German artillery before being relieved from action and being sent back to England to recover, accept replacements and re-equip for their next mission. Several other airborne operations were planned and canceled as the Allies, after finally breaking out of Normandy, tore across France at a pace that far outpaced their logistics planning. No one expected the Germans to collapse after the grinding war of attrition that had taken place that ground them down. The reeling Germans fell back towards Holland and Belgium and their West Wall. Finally, in September, the 501st Infantry along with the rest of the 101st Airborne and the 82nd Airborne Divisions plus the British 1st Airborne took part in Operation Market Garden which was British commander Bernard Montgomery's plan to concentrate an offensive in Holland to take three key bridges including one on the Rhine River to cross and get behind German lines. The 101st Airborne was assigned the southernmost bridges at Eindhoven, Zon, Saint Oedenrode and Veghel, which was the target bridge of the 501st. The rest of the British Army would drive along a road and cross streams at each of the bridges captured by the airborne troops spearheaded by their XXX Corps. The plan was very risky with over 100 miles to move to get to the final bridge and hoping for such surprise that the Germans could not take down any bridge along the route. With the drop being conducted in daylight, most of the drop zones were reached properly. The 1st Battalion of the 501st, however, landed some 5 miles east of its planned drop zone. Despite this error, the bridges Vechel, their objective, were captured intact. The most difficult part of this plan was maintaining the drive to the 1st Airborne Division, a battalion of whom had captured part of the Rhine bridge and dealing with German counterattacks trying to close the road and prevent a link up. Eventually, while the two American divisions did their jobs, the British were dropped too far away to be reached in time and only a portion of the division made it to their objective. The bulk of the division was captured or killed and the end game of the attack failed. For the 501st, they remained in place fighting for several more days under German artillery and mortar fire. On October 8, 1944, a mortar round fatally wounded Colonel Johnson. The regiment also lost over 650 men. The 101st was withdrawn after several weeks of fighting and sent to France to rest and rebuild. That rest was cut short when the Germans launched the battle of the Bulge on December 16, 1944. A day later, the 101st was called to help plug the line at a small Belgian town called Bastogne. With the division and assistant division commander being away on leave, the command fell to Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe who was the division artillery commander. The 501st lead the division and after a cold truck ride arrived in Bastogne about 2230 hrs. McAuliffe then sent them towards Longvilly to establish a road. To the east the 28th Infantry Division had sacrificed itself delaying the German attack in the center of the Bulge allowing the 101st to arrive in time and the remainder of that division fell back to the town. The 501st held their line for the rest of the campaign while the division became one of military legend for their valiant stand along with a portion of the 28th Division, part of the 106th Division and a combat command of the 10th Armored Division. The stand of the 101st earned them a Presidential Unit Citation, which became the first ever awarded to an entire division. After the defeat of the Germans in the Bulge the Allies launched their own offensive driving to and crossing the Rhine River. The 101st Airborne drove into Bavaria where their war ended. They were sent back to France to begin training for the invasion of Japan which thankfully never came. The 501st Parachute Infantry were disbanded in mid-August 1945 with the rest of the division deactivated in December. Their disbandment did not last long, however, for in August 1946, the 501st was reactivated as the 510st Parachute Infantry Battalion and stayed on the active roster until late November 1948. They were called back into service in 1951 and became part of the training command serving in Kentucky at Camp Breckinridge and again at Fort Jackson in South Carolina. In 1956, the 501st and the reactivated 101st Airborne Division were sent to Fort Campbell in Kentucky as a test organization for new Army concepts. In April 1957, the 501st Parachute Regiment was redesignated as the 501st Infantry Regiment with the 1st Battalion becoming the Headquarters and Headquarters Company of the 1st Airborne Battle Group, 501st Infantry. A portion of the 501st was attached to the 82nd Airborne Division in September 1957 serving at Fort Bragg. New Army reorganizations brought new changes and in February 1964, the detachment to the 82nd Airborne was relieved from that division and returned to the 101st Airborne with that group becoming the 1st Battalion of the 501st. The war in Vietnam found the division deployed there fighting in a dozen campaigns and battles. The 2nd Battalion of the 501st fought in the battle known as Hamburger Hill where they earned a Presidential Unit Citation. The 2nd Battalion was deactivated in July 1972 while the 1st Battalion, 501st, was deactivated in June 1984. However, in October 1989, the 501st Regiment came back into active service assigned to Fort Richardson in Alaska with the 1st Battalion added to the 6th Infantry Division. CONDITION: good overall, several small holes in blue field caused by rodent, embroidery is complete. (02-19982-39/JS). $300-500.
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