Pennsylvania’s Jordan Brown appreared on the national TV news program Fox & Friends to talk about his role in the WWII Foundation’s Richard Winters Leadership project. It was great publicity for the project and for our junior fundraiser Jordan, who has been an important part of making the leadership monument project in Normandy, France a reality.
Please click here to view Jordan’s appearance on Fox & Friends
ESPN’s sports issues oriented program Outside the Lines aired two segments with former Red Sox legend Curt Schilling, who talked with host Bob Ley about the WWII Foundation’s efforts to honor those who led the way in Normandy, France on D-Day.
To view the segment on ESPN please click here.
Outside the Lines originated its program from the National Museum of World War II in New Orleans, LA.
Among a few other veterans’ related topics, the program focused primarily on Major League baseball star Curt Schilling’s efforts to honor the veterans of World War II.
Schilling talked with ESPN anchor Bob Ley about the Richard Winters Leadership project in Normandy, an initiative that is being led by Tim Gray, a two-time Emmy Award-winning film producer from Rhode Island.
The focus of the effort is a leadership monument in the village of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, Normandy, France. The monument is a likeness of Maj. Richard Winters of Easy Company, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne and features a quote from Winters on the abilities of American soldiers to accomplish extraordinary things under combat situations.
The leadership monument in Normandy will be dedicated in honor of all those Allies who led the way on June 6, 1944.
Major Dick Winters was commander of Easy Company on D-Day. E-Company was made famous in the book Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose and the HBO series by the same name produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg.
On Sunday, September 18th CNN (Cable News Network) interviewed Richard Winters Leadership project junior fundraiser Jordan Brown regarding the 12 year old’s incredible efforts to raise $100,000 for the Winters project.
Jordan joined our fundraising team just over one year ago and has helped us raise $87,000 to date for the Winters project. He’s done this through community outreach in his home state of PA and in his hometown, which is located in the same area Major Dick Winters grew up and lived his life after WWII.
Jordan’s efforts began with selling ‘Hang Tough’ wristbands and expanded out with helping our senior team to coordinate major fundraisers for the non-profit project in Providence, RI, Washington, DC and Lancaster, PA.
To learn much more about the Richard Winters Leadership project and donate, please click on this link. Thank you to Jordan Brown for his incredible passion for this project.
To view Jordan’s interview on CNN, please click on this link.
COLLEYVILLE, TX — Through a hail of German bullets and exploding shells, the soldiers of Company H, 504th Parachute Infantry frantically paddled their way across the Waal River in The Netherlands on Sept. 20, 1944.
Lt. James Megellas, known at “Maggie” to his men, and half of his platoon occupied one craft in the initial assault across the river. Their objective: Capture and hold the northern ends of two bridges at Nijmegen. Those bridges were to be part of the lifeline for the air and ground campaign known as Market Garden.
The other half of Megellas’ platoon was in the boat next to him, until it was hit by a shell, spilling the men into the river. Many of the other boats were also ripped and punctured by bullets and shells, forcing troopers laden with gear to swim across the swift river.
It was the combat engineers’ responsibility to get the British-supplied boats across the river and back to ferry more soldiers. But, like many of the others, Megellas, lacking a paddle, used what was handy to get to the other side as soon as possible.
He used the butt of his Thompson submachine gun.
“Fear gave way to hysteria,” Megellas, now of Colleyville, wrote years later in his book All the Way to Berlin. “The fear of making it never entered my mind. I was one of about 250 fanatical men driven by rage to do what had been asked of us.”
What was asked of these men — boys really, ages 17 to their early 20s — was to cross the river, run more than 200 yards in the open to an embankment, clear out the German soldiers, fight their way to the bridges and secure those bridges before they were blown up. All of it in the face of an enemy determined to use any means to stop them.
That the men of the 504th, which was part of the 82nd Airborne Division, succeeded was due to their determination, their “rage,” as Megellas put it.
Back to The Netherlands
Now, almost 67 years later, Megellas is on a trip back to the Waal River, Nijmegen and those bridges. He is going with two of his former sergeants, Bernard Cheney of Bangor, Maine, and Bill Hennigan of St. Paul, Minn.
A film crew is documenting Megellas’ return to some of the European battlefields that he crossed in more trying times. The documentary, to be called James Megellas: All the Way, is being made by Tim Gray, a Rhode Island-based film maker as part of a series. The former soldiers are expected back home this week.
“This will be a documentary on leadership in combat in World War II,” Gray said before departing for the trip. “It is not a history of the war, but a history of Maggie’s war. What he did. How he led as a platoon leader.”
Megellas, now 94 years old, says in his book that “wars are not fought on maps by moving pins designated as armies and corps. They are fought on the ground by squads and platoons of young soldiers.” And those soldiers are led by junior officers and non-commissioned officers — the sergeants and the corporals — who are the same age or slightly older.
But “being an officer and a platoon leader did not automatically command the respect of the men,” he says in another part of his narrative. “It had to be earned, and that could be done only by leading.”
Gray agreed that out of World War II came great leaders, not just the generals like Dwight D. Eisenhower and George Patton, “but also the men who actually fought.”
He said Megellas is “a fascinating guy,” who remembers everything about his war experiences. “It seems like men in war are born to lead,” Gray said. “You talk to men in his platoon, and they say he made all the right calls, he led from the front and he earned the respect of his men.”
Filming nearly finished
Gray said the trip to Europe will bring the filming for the documentary almost to a close. He has followed Megellas to World War II reunions and even to a Green Bay Packers-Dallas Cowboys football game, where the former soldier was a featured guest. He hopes the project will be ready to air on television later this year.
Megellas ended the war as a captain and the most-decorated officer in the history of the 82nd Airborne Division with 25 medals and decorations. Those decorations include the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Presidential Unit Citation. He also was selected in 1945 by his commanding general, James Gavin, to receive the Military Order of Willhelm Orange Lanyard from the Dutch Minister of War. More recently, Megellas has been nominated twice by congressional resolution to receive the Medal of Honor based on his actions during the Battle of the Bulge.
By Steve Norder snorder@colleyvilletexascourier.com:
By David Filipov
Globe Staff / March 27, 2011
NATICK — Morley Piper stood in a room filled with the things his enemy once carried and tried to tell a story that after 66 years he still does not understand: How he survived the bloody assault on Omaha Beach on D-Day, when so many of his fellow US infantrymen did not.
As Piper reached back for those memories, a small crowd waited in a hall stocked with mortars, machine guns, and grenades taken from the battlefields of Europe. Steel-jawed soldiers glared from authentic Nazi propaganda posters. An air raid siren wailed.
The audience had come on a recent Thursday to the Museum of World War II in Natick to the hear front-line accounts from Piper and other members of his dwindling generation.
Until this year, only a select group of World War II buffs and researchers was allowed into this astonishing trove of wartime artifacts hidden in a squat warehouse off Route 9. Now, for the first time, the highly secretive museum is offering public tours guided by veterans like Piper in a setting that lets visitors see and touch the mess kits they carried, the uniforms they wore, and the weapons they fired on battlefields over six decades ago — and share in the memories they have kept ever since.
“Most of us thought we weren’t going to make it off the beach,’’ said Piper, of Essex, who was a 19-year-old second lieutenant when he commanded a platoon in the 29th Infantry Division that landed on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944. Of the 40 men in his platoon, 17 survived.
Piper told visitors how German defenders had pinned down his company in the sand. He told of the exhilaration he and others felt when they broke through a hole in German fortifications. Piper was eventually awarded a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. But he dismissed his commendations with the modesty common in veterans of the war. “It was nothing special to get the Bronze Star,’’ he said. “I don’t talk about it much now. It’s hard to do.’’
Other World War II veterans have gone public with their stories, but until now, no one has done it in this particular setting — a museum that actor and producer Tom Hanks has described as the “Holy Grail of World War II.’’ The idea is to bring to life the events chronicled by the more than 5,000 letters, battle plans, weapons, and other relics assembled in the 10,000 square-foot space through the insights and sensations that only someone who was there can share.
“The only way a person can experience more personally this cataclysmic period is to look into the face and hear the voice of an ordinary person who rose to the challenge of extraordinary times and saved the world,’’ said museum director Kenneth W. Rendell, who assembled and owns the collection. “To look into the eyes that witnessed the turning point of the century is deeply moving and unforgettable.’’
The eyes of Samuel Bernstein, a Randolph resident, briefly teared up as he recounted his role in the assault on the island of Iwo Jima in the Pacific. “Please bear with me, I don’t like doing this,’’ Bernstein said, his voice faltering. But, he added, “I owe it to the boys who didn’t come home.’’
The visitors were rapt as Bernstein, who was a 20-year-old machine-gunner in the Fifth Marine Division, described “36 days of hell’’ from the beach landing on Feb. 19, 1945, to the last, desperate battle.
Against the backdrop of mess kits, medals, and letters soldiers had written home, Bernstein recalled the surprise counterattack by the island’s Japanese defenders on the last day, which killed the two other men in his foxhole. The men had handed in their ammunition before boarding the ships that would take them home. Bernstein had kept two M-1 rifle rounds as souvenirs.
“They saved my life,’’ he said.
The museum plans to use the proceeds from the tours with veterans to raise money for its own project to keep history alive: a documentary film called “Saving the Reality,’’ which compiles first-hand accounts of more than 50 combat veterans and others who witnessed war and its consequences, including Holocaust survivors and civilians on the home front.
The three-hour tours will run on Thursdays and Saturdays through the Fourth of July weekend, and cost $100, which is a tax-deductible donation. The museum also offers unguided tours for $25 on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
“People who have the interest know the value of the experience of being able to interact with these veterans while also supporting the goal of preserving their stories in the film,’’ said Tim Gray, who is producing the documentary. He added that the museum will donate copies of the film to schools and libraries in Massachusetts.
Veterans speak at exhibits that match their experiences. Piper spoke in a section that contained the complete plans of the invasion of Normandy, a mannequin of a French woman outfitted in a wedding dress stitched together from a US paratrooper’s parachute, and a bust of Hitler that had come into the possession of General George S. Patton, who then trained his dog to urinate on it. In saving the reality, Rendell does not attempt to sanitize it; the bronze bust is streaked with stains.
The museum keeps its address a secret: Visitors find out where it is only after they have made their reservations. When they arrive, they must pass through a metal detector, under security cameras, and they sign a release promising not to photograph or make videos of the collection. They must make reservations at least two weeks in advance, and no one under 18 is admitted.
“It’s a one-of-a-kind collection in the world, and because it’s hands on, you don’t want anyone leaving with something they shouldn’t leave with,’’ said Gray. “Museums have safeguards in place so that someone doesn’t walk off with a van Gogh or a Monet. This is a collection of the real stuff and you can’t put a price tag on its historical value.’’
The value of the guided tour was evident when Jon D’Allessandro, a World War II buff who owns a construction company in Avon, chatted with Richard Dinning of Natick, who flew more than 30 missions over Europe as the pilot of a B-17 bomber in the 351st Bombardment Group.
Dinning told the story of a bombing raid in 1944 when he had decided not to put on the flak jacket and helmet he was supposed to be wearing, and instead left them under his seat, “because it was easier to fly that way.’’ At one point, he felt shrapnel hit his plane, but no one on board could find the damage. It was only after the bomber landed that Dinning saw that the shards had pierced the plane directly under his seat — and been stopped by his body armor.
“If I’d have worn my flak vest I might not be around,’’ he said.
After the war ended, Dinning flew freed French prisoners of war, who had spent nearly five years in a Nazi camp, from Austria to an airport south of Paris. He recalled when the B-17 flew across the French border.
“There wasn’t a dry eye on the plane,’’ Dinning said. “There’s no satisfaction in combat, but that was a good mission.’’
More information about the tours is available at www.museumofworldwarii.com.
David Filipov can be reached at filipov@globe.com.
By Edward Colimore/Inquirer Staff Writer
Sixty-six years ago Saturday night, Army Sgt. Bill Guarnere was dressed to kill.
Ammunition and hand grenades bulged from his uniform and a Tommy gun was slung over his shoulder as he sat in a C-47 transport on its way to Normandy, France.
By 1 a.m. – on June 6, D-Day – he parachuted directly into a firefight in the town square of Sainte-Mere-Eglise.
The same day, Edward “Babe” Heffron waited in England for his turn at combat and prayed for the success of the invasion, dubbed “Operation Overlord.”
The two South Philadelphia natives later fought across Europe as members of the unit made famous by the best-selling book Band of Brothers and HBO mini-series of the same name.
Now both 87, the veterans are fighting together again, this time for a Normandy monument that honors their former commander, Richard Winters, and leadership of the Americans on D-Day.
“He was a good man and a good officer,” Guarnere said of Winters, who has been in ill health in recent months and no longer gives interviews. “He knew what he was talking about and took care of his men. A monument is a wonderful idea.”
Heffron said he “had the utmost respect for Winters. He carried himself like an officer and looked the part. He spoke to you like he knew what he expected out of you.”
Winters, 92, of Hershey, was a first lieutenant with E or Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division when he and his men dropped behind enemy lines on D-Day to successfully knock out German artillery trained on the Normandy beaches. The commander later rose to the rank of major and received the Distinguished Service Cross.
The proposed bronze statue – depicting Winters running with an M1 Garand rifle – is expected to be erected in 2011 at Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, near the Utah Beach and Sainte-Mere-Eglise. It would sit atop a stone base bearing names of the units that fought at Normandy and include a quote from Winters: “Wars do not make men great, but they do bring out the greatness in good men.”
“This is not a monument just for Major Winters,” said Tim Gray, a documentary filmmaker (timgraymedia.com) and Kingston, R.I., resident who has been leading the monument effort. “We used him [Winters] as an example of what leadership was on D-Day.”
Gray began raising tax-deductible contributions for the project about a month ago, and has at least $25,000 toward the $400,000 needed to erect the monument and produce a film that will focus on the effort.
Curt Schilling – former pitcher for the Phillies and Boston Red Sox, and fan of Winters – is the national spokesman for the project and will narrate the accompanying documentary. “We’re reaching out to anyone and everyone,” Gray said. “We’re hoping people, individuals and corporations, will recognize what we’re doing.”
Among Winters’ biggest supporters are Guarnere and Heffron, who describe their own experiences while also praising Winters’ steady leadership.
Sgt. Guarnere was ready for a fight by the time D-Day arrived. He had just learned of his brother Henry’s death at the hands of the Germans in Italy and wanted revenge.
On the way to Normandy, Guarnere saw “constant flashes” of gunfire below. “If you ever saw a Fourth of July celebration, magnify that 10,000 times.
“I couldn’t wait to get off the plane,” he said. “I killed every German I could. That’s why they called me ‘Wild Bill.’
“I landed in the middle of a square and they [Germans] were shooting at us. They were kind of scared; we were scared, too.”
Guarnere and Heffron later parachuted into Holland on Sept. 17, 1944, as part of Operation Market-Garden, one of the largest drops of airborne troops in history.
The Germans “were very much surprised,” Heffron said. “You dropped and you held your ground. You did what you had to do.”
Heffron and Guarnere were called upon again in December to fight at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, as the German army tried – one last time – to throw back the Allies.
They were in a freezing, snow-covered forest when the German artillery zeroed in on the Americans there. Guarnere was helping a wounded comrade when a shell exploded, taking off his right leg. “I got whacked,” Guarnere said. “The medics came and got me into a jeep.”
Heffron continued on and was among the first soldiers to enter Adolph Hitler’s Eagles Nest, the German leader’s abandoned mountain sanctuary at Berchtesgaden. There, a German general and colonel asked to surrender to an American officer of equal rank.
“I said, ‘Well, I’m pretty rank,’ and got a lieutenant to take care of it,” said Heffron, who refused to return the salute of the German officers.
He returned to Philadelphia in late 1945 and decided to check up on his old platoon sergeant. He walked to Guarnere’s house, the two went out for a beer, and they have been inseparable ever since.
They still feel a strong bond and share a kind of celebrity as members of the “band of brothers.”
Many people phone them or show up at their houses just to meet them and shake their hands. Last month, a woman from France came to Guarnere’s door and gave him a bottle of wine.
They don’t enjoy the attention; they’d prefer to put the war behind them. But these days, they’ll endure it for the sake of their commander and the monument project.
Winters “deserves it,” said Guarnere.
Contact staff writer Edward Colimore at 856-779-3833 or ecolimore@phillynews.com.
Fond du Lac, WI – Germany’s Mark V Panther tanks were feared.
The tank’s high-velocity 75mm gun could pierce the steel armor of any tank fielded by the Allies during World War II. America’s Sherman tanks were no match against it, and with a top speed of 28 mph and an exceptional suspension and wheel system, the Panther could travel just about anywhere.
Including a road on the outskirts of Herresbach, Belgium, on Jan. 28, 1945.
James “Maggie” Megellas was leading his platoon into the Belgian town on that frigid evening when he saw the Mark V Panther taking aim at them. Megellas had just put his troops through a 10-mile forced march through snow drifts as deep as 2 feet. Armed with only a Thompson submachine gun and grenades, Megellas looked at the tank and knew what he had to do.
With an economy and efficiency that would make an ammunition supply clerk smile, Megellas used only two grenades to single-handedly take out the Panther tank that, though incredibly deadly at long range, was vulnerable to close-quarters combat. He threw one grenade to disable the behemoth and then ran up, jumped on top and threw another grenade into the crew compartment.
The Fond du Lac native then led his men on an assault of German forces holed up in the town. For his heroism that day, he was nominated for a Medal of Honor but instead received the Silver Star because the paperwork did not include the fact he had knocked out a German tank on his own.
Now 93, Megellas visited his hometown this week with a documentary crew.
In a letter to his sister, Megellas wrote, “We were in a battle like you wouldn’t believe and I killed 28 Germans tonight.”
Originally, two U.S. Army battalions of about 450 men were supposed to attack Herresbach at first light, but when officers learned two German columns were seen heading out of the town the evening before, two platoons of 28 men each, including Megellas’ platoon, were rushed forward.
“All of a sudden we found ourselves surrounded. We had them surrounded from the inside,” Megellas joked Monday. “We just opened fire on these guys.”
George Heib, who turned 18 during the Battle of the Bulge, remembers seeing Megellas in action.
“I saw this tank start shooting at us. I saw a figure run up to the tank and heard an explosion and saw a flash of light,” said Heib, now 83 and living in Fayetteville, N.C. “I said, ‘Who the hell is that crazy son of a (expletive)?’ ”
Heib later learned that crazy man was Megellas. He traveled to Fond du Lac this week along with three other platoon buddies of Megellas’ to participate in the documentary.
Highest decorated officer
Megellas was a senior at Ripon College when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. A member of Ripon’s ROTC, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army in May 1942. He volunteered to become a paratrooper and joined the 82nd Airborne Division fighting near Naples, Italy, where he was wounded and later participated in the amphibious assault on Anzio and Operation Market Garden, the airborne invasion of Holland.
He was part of the difficult crossing in flimsy canvas-sided boats of the Waal River in the Netherlands. In fact, in the movie “A Bridge Too Far,” in the scene where Robert Redford leads the crossing, Megellas is portrayed by an actor sporting a handlebar mustache. Shortly after the crossing, he attacked a German observation post and machine gun nest by himself, earning a Silver Star.
Megellas earned two Silver Stars, two Bronze Stars, the Distinguished Service Cross, two Purple Hearts and other commendations, making him the highest decorated officer of the 82nd Airborne during World War II, said Sgt. 1st Class Steven Mrozek, 82nd Airborne Division historian from 1984 until 2005.
Though Wisconsin’s congressional delegation has tried to intervene on Megellas’ behalf, the quest for an overdue Medal of Honor is still pending.
Captivating story
A few years ago, Tim Gray picked up Megellas’ book “All the Way to Berlin” at a Rhode Island bookstore and was captivated by his story. Gray, a former television journalist, founded his documentary company in 2005 and specializes in World War II films. His first film “D-Day: The Price of Freedom” aired on PBS stations across the country and won two Emmys.
Noting that combat veterans all have stories to tell, he chose Megellas because of his heroism and because his men were willing to follow him anywhere. Gray also was intrigued by the efforts of Megellas’ battle buddies to get him the Medal of Honor.
“This isn’t a film about strategy. This is about a man who did extraordinary things and had extraordinary leadership capabilities. He was a hero,” Gray said.
Gray raises all of the funds for his World War II documentaries, produces them and finds a distributor. He’s not sure when the one-hour documentary, which will likely air on PBS, will be completed but plans to take Megellas to Europe next spring to visit old battlefields. The film crew shot footage of Fond du Lac and Ripon College this week. Gray is still raising the $100,000 it will cost to make the documentary.
Megellas, who now lives in Dallas, was surprised when Gray called to ask if he could make a documentary about his life.
Still hale and hearty and sporting a leonine mane of white hair, Megellas has been to Iraq and Afghanistan to visit 82nd Airborne troops. He is looking forward to celebrating his 94th birthday in March.
“People always ask me the question, what do I owe my longevity to? My answer is – I haven’t yet completed my mission.”
Donations to fund the documentary of James “Maggie” Megellas can be made at www.timgraymedia.com with a note saying that donations should go toward the “James Megellas All the Way” film.
Tihe Richard Winters Leadership project received a nice mention in the February edition of World War II Magazine. Our 11 year old fundraiser Jordan Brown was saluted by the magazine for his extraordinary efforts to raise money for the project. Jordan has now raised over $30,000 for the monument and film initiative. Thank you to Jordan and all of you who have contributed to this very worthy endeavor. Look for another mention of the project in the April edition of Military History magazine.
World War II Magazine
Fourth’ Grader Raises $20,000
to Honor War HeroAn ll-year-old Pennsylvania boy raised over $20,000 this fall to support the construction of a statue in Normandy of Major Dick Winters, the D-Day veteran made famous by the book and HBO miniseries Band of Brothers.
Jordan Brown (above), whose home in eastern Pennsylvania is only a few miles from the farm where Winters, 92, lived, decided to start raising money after reading a newspaper article about the effort to build the monument, which will ultimately require $400,000 in donations. “He said, ‘Mommy, I want to make sure this happens;” Yasmin Brown, his mother, told reporters. “When he came to me, there was no way I could say no to this. There’s so much good in this. It was good on so many levels.” Jordan has raised much of the money by selling army green rubber wristbands, inspired by the yellow Livestrong bracelets that support cancer research, inscribed with the words “HANG TOUGH”-a phrase Winters often used in combat to inspire his men. His parents helped him get started by giving him the first batch of 1,000 wristbands for his birthday. “We need to thank these heroes before it’s too’ late;’ Jordan told reporters, saying his goal is to reach $100,000.
The Winters monument is part of an effort called the Richard Winters Leadership Project, led by a Rhode Island filmmaker, Tim Gray, and supported by many of the men who fought with Winters through France and Germany. “This is not a monument just for Major Winters,” Gray, who is making a documentary film about Winters’s leadership qualities, told reporters. “We used him as an example of what leadership was on D-Day.”The proposed bronze statue is expected to be raised in (2012) at Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, a small town near where Winters and his company parachuted into France.
(Information on donating to the monument foundation and ordering a wristband can be found online at timgraymedia.coml donate.)
