551st Parachute Infantry Association

1 month ago

The NIGHT JUMP at Lake Kenny-Cameron, NC...79 years ago today

On March 2, Mr. John Bellefontaine will be 98 years young...

A little over 79 years ago, at the age of 18, this French Canadian (who came to the US when he was 17) had met up with the 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion at Camp Mackall following their time in Panama. As John was settling into his new Battalion they participated in a night drop on February 16, 1944, two weeks before his 19th birthday. They took off from Pope Air Field in NC with full battle gear. To his surprise he landed in water up to his chin and as he took a step forward he started to go under, so he instinctively stepped back to where he could breathe and finally made it to shore. Mr. Bellefontaine continued, "Later I found out that eight of my buddies on our plane had drowned. We did not have quick release chutes so it was very difficult to remove the straps to get out of the harness as it was dark, and we could not see the water as we descended. Those who drowned were PFC Shelly Ferguson, T/S John Hoffman, PFC Kenneth McGrotty, PFC Ishmael Petty, SGT Benjamin Preziotti, PFC Zoelse Ramsey, PFC Norval Reed and PVT John Wafford."

In Rome, while preparing for their Southern France jump for Operation Dragoon, John ended up putting his French skills to use as an interpreter. He was assigned to translate two French teenagers from the French Maritime Alps. They pointed out the pill box positions and concentrations of Germans in the area on maps. The OSS had transported them from France to Rome to assist in the invasion and flew back to France with the 551st. Following Rochelinval John was evacuated to a hospital in Belgium for frozen feet, where he remained for a month wondering if his toes, or feet, would need to be amputated...a rough beginning and ending for his time in the 551st.

Happy early 98th John Bellefontaine, C company, 551st PIB!

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Additional details regarding that night jump 79 years ago through interviews of Major Emory Albritton, USA, Ret. and Colonel Douglas Dillard, USA, Ret., both also participated in that night training jump.

***FATAL NIGHT IN 1944 OMEN FOR BATTALION by David Evans of the Richmond County Daily Journal May 28, 2001 edition:***

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"Kneeling in the door of the C-47 transport plane, Jumpmaster Emory Albritton looked down on the North Carolina forests passing several hundred feet below him. He couldn’t see the waters of Kenny-Cameron Lake.
The green light that signaled the troopers of the 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion came on. One after another they went through the door, some to their doom.
It was the night of Feb. 16, 1944. The 551st was on a training mission coming out of Pope Air Force Base in Fayetteville.
“It was dark and there was mist on the ground,” said Col. Doug Dillard. “I wasn’t in the stick that went in the water, but as soon as I hit the ground I heard the shouting that men were in the water.”
Albritton, who later attained the rank of major, was in the stick, or group, of men who went in. His group of 43 men all went into Kenny-Cameron Lake.
The exercise began normally enough. Nine C-47s took off from Pope at 7 p.m. and the jump was scheduled for 8:20. On board the planes were the four companies that made up the 551st.
Their flight was circuitous, taking the group, which was flying in three V formations of three planes each, to a turning point over the Pee Dee River and coming in to the anticipated landing zone from the North.
“We were supposed to come in from a 30-degree azimuth and were supposed to jump between the lakes,” said Albritton. “Only A Company had the Mae West flotation devices because they were to be the closest to the lake.”
The planes had a wrong heading and came in from a 40-degree azimuth. The pilots realized their error and circled the formation. In confusion, the planes ended up dropping the troopers from B and C companies a half-mile from the intended drop zone, almost directly over the lake.
Albritton and the rest of the men tried their best to turn their parachutes away from the water, but it was too late.
“I couldn’t see the water until the last moment,” said Albritton. “I hit the top of a tree, did a complete flip and landed in the water. I was lucky. It was only up to my chest.”
Dillard and his A Company troopers could only watch as rigger trucks shone their lights out over the frigid lake and the floundering men.
People tried their best to help troopers out of the water, but for eight of the Soldiers, the combination of tangled rigging and freezing water was too much. They drowned in the lake.
“There wasn’t much we could do,” said Dillard. “We tried to help as much as we could. It was chaos.”
At roll call, seven men were accounted for dead and one was missing. Pvt. John L. Wafford remained in te lake until the next day, when permission to breach the dam using explosives was given.
“When the water got low enough, you could just see a little white speck of silk,” said Albritton. “He was in the deep part of the lake, in the channel, about 200 yards off shore.”
Albritton and two sergeants took a paddle boat into the lake and retrieved Wafford’s body.
“His hands were still tight around the suspension lines of his parachute,” said Albritton. “That water was so cold.”
“It had been dark as the dickens. That was a bad day, those were our buddies out there,” said Albritton.
The incident was a painful blow for the Battalion. The days that followed the incident were fraught with questions.
“This isn’t a hard fact and it isn’t first-hand knowledge,” said Dillard. “But the general feeling was that the mission that night was one that did not need to be conducted due to the conditions.”
Beside the lake now stands a 4,200-pound marble monument to the 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion. On it are inscribed the names of the eight who died that cold night in 1944.
Later, during the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes region of France, the 551st would overshadow the tragedy of Kenny-Cameron Lake with a greater sacrifice. Nonetheless, for the men of the 551st, the troopers who went into the water that night and did not come out won’t soon be forgotten.
Also on the monument at Kenny-Cameron Lake is the motto of the “GOYAs”, or Great Outstanding Young Americans, as the 551st referred to themselves as they charged into battle. It reads, “Atterrice Y Ataque” or “Land and Attack.”"

***details of John Bellefontaine's service came from an autobiographical summary of his actions during WWII ... See More from 551See Less from 551

551st Parachute Infantry Association

1 month ago

A fitting final act for the men of the 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion to honor the legacy of others. From their beginnings in the jungles of Panama, to making mass jumps from gliders at Camp Mackall, participating in the first battalion-sized daylight combat drop in US Army history at La Motte, liberating the first large city in the invasion of Southern France during Operation Dragoon, taking the first German general prisoner in the European theater at Draguignan, standing 96 days of frontline combat duty in the French Alps, participating in the first offensive raid in force during the Battle of the Bulge at Noirefontaine, fixing bayonets for a rare company-sized bayonet attack just after spearheading the northern counter-offensive for the Battle of the Bulge, to their ending...a final act in which they took a well-fortified town from a regiment of Germans who were defending a nearby bridge that was one of the last German escape routes over the River Salm and who also had the high ground…yet this company-sized independent battalion, at that point, overwhelmed those German defenses as they took the town and met their final objective of taking the bridge at Rochelinval. Within a month of their final mission they were disbanded with their records lost, missing, destroyed, or left behind and only 110 men able to continue right away, after a count of 752 men were listed in the battalion as of 30 November 1944, just prior to the Bulge. Disbanding was a sad event for this proud battalion, many buried their faces in their hands in disbelief when they heard the news that they were no more. Many were transferred to other units of the 82nd Airborne and were with those units by the end of the day.

It would not be until 1977 before the men of the 551st would organize and gather once again, this time as an Association with a different mission. For the next 30 years those forgotten heroes of WWII would be as industrious and dedicated to memorializing and remembering their lost brothers as they were to meeting all of their objectives during WWII. And in the end, when they were through and couldn’t continue, the decision was made, by them, for a final draw on the account of the 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion Association of $1825.06. It was a donation to the National Infantry Foundation for the new National Infantry Museum. When the descendants decided to stand the Association back up in 2018, it’s fitting that one of the first places visited during our first reunion was that new National Infantry Museum…FOLLOW ME…GOYA!!

A few other items donated to the museum over the years by the Association:

1. One oil painting, framed, by M. Hortman, 2002.
2. Plaque, 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion battle scene print certification of authenticity. Also includes Presidential Unit Citation dated July 2003.
3. Pocket insignia of the 551st Parachute Infantry done in bullion. This is a replica of the insignia that was used on brown leather flight jackets by the officers of the 551st during WWII.
4. Reproduction metal unit ID insignia of the 551st parachute Infantry.
5. 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion Association metal coin.
6. Shoulder insignia, reproduction. Says “First Airborne Task Force.”
7. Paper that explains the coat of arms and distinctive unit insignia of the 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion.

- Eric ... See More from 551See Less from 551

551st Parachute Infantry Association

2 months ago

The latest edition of The Left Corner Of My Heart is beginning to hit homes, and it seems to be on target. It has turned out even better than expected on all glossy pages...if the original photo was in color then it will be in color in the book. It is available through most major bookstore outlets like Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and is available in eBook format as well through the publisher for $9.99. The SAGA of the 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion is available once again in the words of the men of the 551st themselves! A few sample pages from a copy received today are shared here, to include the page with Ernest Scango...GOYA!

The 551st was one of only two independent parachute battalions to fight in Europe during WWII and ended up with an 83% casualty rate...and successfully met every mission assigned. This book is first-hand accounts of over 100 paratroopers of the 551st, our heroes, all directly transcribed and laid out chronologically by Dan Morgan after traveling all over the United States in the 70s to interview every GOYA he could find. Men of every rank and company.

It's been somewhat of a struggle to make this book available again. It became a GOYA multi-generational project. The last publishing company went out of business during COVID just after the last version was made available, so we had to find another on-demand publishing company. Part of the problem was that we couldn’t find a company that didn’t require it to be in a digital format and for a book that was created in the early 70s that was a problem. A grandchild of a GOYA completely recreated the book digitally…pictures, captions, formatting, retyped in the same font and all. The goal was to honor the look and feel of the original that we felt just couldn’t be done any better. Then copyright questions emerged, and Dan Morgan’s son got directly involved and of course Cheryl made the whole thing happen. Not to mention, many GOYAs themselves created it in the first place. There are a few additional pictures of men of the 551st in the index sections that weren’t available in the earlier version and beyond the index sections, is a separate section of the book, part two, that we labeled the Association Years. We wanted the main body of the book to be all about them and by them. We then added a little bit about them, by us. Further, the publisher we used is one a GOYA had used before, COL Dillard, for two of his books...GOYA!!

A link to the publisher, Xlibris...https://www.xlibris.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/849471-the-left-corner-of-my-heart

For overseas, a GB link... www.xlibris.com/en-GB/bookstore/bookdetails/849471-the-left-corner-of-my-heart

- Eric ... See More from 551See Less from 551