[…] Major General James Gavin’s 82nd Airborne had seized the south edge of the big bridge at Nijmegen, nine miles to the south of Arnhem. But British tank columns could not dash over the span and race on northward to link up with the British paratroopers until the Nijmegen bridge was completely in Allied hands.
Therefore, Julian Cook and his troopers were to cross the swift-flowing Waal and capture the north end of the bridge.
As the minutes ticked past and the British boats failed to show, the American paratroopers grew more tense and angry. Let’s get it over with! was the mood. They waited… and waited some more. Still no boats. Nerves were taut to the breaking point.
Lieutenant Harry F. “Pappy” Busby pulled out a pack of Chesterfields, lit one of the cigarettes, then tossed the nearly full pack away. “I won’t need those anymore,” Busby said calmly. Then he pitched away his Zippo lighter. “Won’t be needing that either,” he told a comrade, Lieutenant Virgil F. Carmichael.
Finally, the boats arrived. Grimly, the GIs tumbled into them and began paddling furiously for the far bank. A torrent of machine-gun fire raked the craft. Survivors of the crossing charged onward and took control of the north end of the bridge. Pappy Busby was not with them. He was laying on the north bank of the Waal – dead.
Source:
Breuer, William B. “Peculiar Premonitions.” Unexplained Mysteries of World War II. New York: J. Wiley, 1997. 188-89. Print.
Original Source Listed:
Author interview with participant Virgil F. Carmichael, March 1994.
Further Reading:
James Maurice "Jumpin' Jim" Gavin
[Rivier Waal (Waal River)]( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waal_(river)
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