Gerard Dillon was born in New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana] in January 1920. His mother was a housewife and his father was a manager for Manhattan Rubber Company in New Orleans. He had one sister and three brothers. One brother was in a tank destroyer battalion in the Pacific. Dillon worked in offices from the age of 12 to about 20. He attended four years at LSU [Annotator's Note: Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana]. He then moved to Tulane [Annotator's Note: Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana] and graduated June 1941. He took the bar exam in July and was admitted to the bar in September. He read the papers and listened to the radio because the war in Europe was a big subject. Nobody was thinking about the Japanese until 7 December [Annotator's Note: 7 December 1941, the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii]. Dillon was based at Camp Croft, South Carolina [Annotator's Note: Spartanburg, South Carolina; now Croft State Park] but was in Spartanburg, visiting a friend of his father's that day. He was eating dinner when the news came over the radio about Pearl Harbor being attacked. Everyone was told to go back to their base, so he did. He had been drafted into the Army before the war. He had tried to get into Naval and Army aviation, but his vision kept him out. He also tried the V-7 Program [Annotator’s Note: V-7 US Navy College Training Program, 1940 to 1945] in the US Navy. He could not get in because he had not studied trigonometry. He then tried to get into the legal corps but did not have the experience. That is when he decided to wait to be drafted. That happened on Armistice Day [Annotator's Note: annual commemoration of the armistice signed ending World War 1, 11 November 1918], 11 November 1941. He did not mind going into the Army. Everybody thought they were going for a year and then getting out. Then, 7 December came around and everything changed.

Gerard Dillon went to Camp Croft, South Carolina for infantry basic training from November until January [Annotator's Note: November 1941 to January 1942]. He took an advanced course for the next month then applied for, and went to, officer's training school at Fort Benning, Georgia. He was then assigned to the 76th Infantry Division, 77th Infantry Regiment at Fort Meade, Maryland. He was there for three months. He was told that Air Corps [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces] recruiters were coming to Fort Meade. He went to see them but his vision was not good. The recruiter told him to go talk to a parachute [Annotator's Note: airborne] recruiter. Two weeks later, he went to the parachute school at Fort Benning. He took a two week leave on the way. This was in 1943. It was a one month course. About 30 to 40 percent did not pass for either physical or mental reasons. The physical program was strenuous. They ran five miles every day and ran everywhere instead of walking. The ones who really wanted to be in it were the ones who stayed. He had wanted out of the 76th Infantry Division because the other men were decrepit physical specimens. As an infantry officer, he would not want to be around them. The paratroopers were in tremendous physical shape. They did 25 mile hikes with full packs.

Everybody was scared the first time, and every time they jumped out of an airplane. Gerard Dillon says that if you were not scared you were not normal. They did not know if the parachute was going to open because someone else packed it. They packed their own parachutes in jump school, but after that, riggers packed them. At any time, a rigger could be told to go jump with the chute he had just packed. They took extreme care in packing them. It was a thrill to jump. The only persons in the planes that jumped were the first and last men. The others were pushed out. After jump school, the officer was the first man to jump and a sergeant was the last. The landings were very soft at jump school. Very few refused to jump. He was assigned to the 507th [Annotator's Note: 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division] in the Alabama area of Fort Benning [Annotator's Note: Fort Benning, Georgia]. Dillon was platoon leader in Company H. He stayed with them for about two months and then became the S-2, Intelligence Officer, of the 3rd Battalion. The job was easier than being a platoon leader. He did that duty until he went overseas in November 1943 to Portrush, Northern Ireland. Just before Christmas, the 2nd Airborne Brigade came to Portstewart, Northern Ireland with Brigadier General Howell [Annotator's Note: US Army Brigadier General George P. Howell] as the commanding officer. He was looking for an adjutant, and Dillon was sent there on temporary assignment. He was glad because the job was easier, the food was better, and the accommodations were better. He stayed there until two or three weeks before Normandy [Annotator's Note: Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. Howell told Dillon, that he was going to lead a unit across the beach. Howell gave him a choice to go back to his regiment and jump in, or go with him across the beach. Dillon returned to his regiment and was assigned as the platoon leader of 3rd Platoon, Company G [Annotator's Note: Company G, 2nd Battalion, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division]. He held that job for the rest of the war.

Gerard Dillon learned from working with General Howell [Annotator's Note: US Army Brigadier General George P. Howell] that there was going to be an invasion of Europe [Annotator's Note: Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] but he did not know where. He did not find out until he got to the hangar at the departure airdrome. He saw the sand tables [Annotator's Note: small scale map for military planning and training] there and was given maps the day before [Annotator's Note: 5 June 1944]. They were locked into the airdrome then. Before they left Nottingham [Annotator's Note: Nottingham, England], they had been issued live ammunition, Gammon grenades [Annotator's Note: No. 82 Gammon Bomb hand grenade], and anti-tank mines. Dillon had gone to an exhibition that had a fully equipped paratrooper without his chute. It was being used to test the Mae West [Annotator's Note: common nickname for inflatable life preserver] life preserver to see if it would support him. When the paratrooper jumped into a pool, he sank straight to the bottom with the inflated preserver on. When they were loaded onto the aircraft for the invasion, they were all wearing a yellow Mae West. They complied with Army regulations. The men were seated outside their planes and then told to go back in. Like condemned men, they were given their last meal, red beans and rice and SPAM [Annotator's Note: canned cooked pork made by Hormel Foods Corporation]. Nobody actually knew what they were getting into. Dillon does not think there was any tension or nervousness. Everybody was scared. If you weren't scared, you weren't normal. Dillon did not want to be around a soldier who was not scared. A soldier who is not scared is either drunk or nuts and he is going to get himself killed. To be scared, yes. To show fear, no.

Gerard Dillon was fully loaded, had his face darkened, and was ready to go [Annotator's Note: on 4 June 1944]. About six o'clock in the evening, he and the men were taken back to the truck and went to sleep. He slept like a log. The next day they were loaded up again and got inside. Everybody knew they were leaving that night [Annotator's Note: the night before the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. They sat in the plane for a couple of hours. Everybody was talking and playing like they were not afraid or nervous. He told his platoon they would be flying over water and they could rest assured he would not jump them into any water. The Army Forces pilots were as green as they were. When they got over the coast, they could see what looked like a fireworks display on the Mississippi River. The flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire] was very heavy. He could hear it going by and hitting the plane. As they went inland, it gradually subsided. Dillon was looking down and the green light came on [Annotator's Note: the green light in his transport aircraft indicating that they were over the drop zone and it was time to jump from the aircraft]. He was looking straight down at the Merderat River [Annotator's Note: Normandy, France]. He could see a reflection of water. They did not jump until they crossed that river. They ended up in the 505's [Annotator's Note: 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division] drop zone which had been cleared. They landed and it was like an exercise back in the United States. All they had to do to reassemble was go in the opposite direction of the aircraft. The whole platoon did that and not one man was missing.

[Annotator's Note: Gerard Dillon was a platoon commander in Company G, 2nd Battalion, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division. He and his outfit parachuted into Normandy, France on D-day, 6 June 1944 and landed just past the Merderat River.]. The regiment's objective was to be on the opposite side of the river. To land there, he would have had to jump all of his men into the river. Many would have drowned. With their type of harness, they could not get wet. Water would shrink the harness immediately. Dillon knew exactly where they were. They started heading towards the river and came across a single German with a squirt gun [Annotator's Note: German MP-40, or Maschinenpistole 40, 9mm submachine gun]. He shot one burst and they returned fire. He does not know whether they hit him or not. One of the squad leaders, named Setaro [Annotator's Note: no given name provided] came up and said he had been hit. He had a bullet hole in his stomach. Dillon told the medic to fix him up and then rejoin the platoon. He never did see Setaro again. They went to the railroad track alongside the river and headed to a bridge across the river. They heard gunfire and were told to dig in. This was at night. They stayed there until morning. Dillon was ordered to take his platoon down to another bridge and reinforce the group trying to take the Douve [Annotator's Note: Douve River, also called Ouve] bridge. They went through the fields to get there. They passed through a town and the French welcomed them with eggs on bread. They arrived at their destination but were told to go back to the bridge at Vierville [Annotator's Note: Vierville-sur-Mer, France]. When they got to the road between Sainte-Mère-Église and Vierville, they came under artillery fire. All of them hit the ditches. A jeep started coming up the road. General Ridgway [Annotator's Note: US Army General Matthew Bunker Ridgway] was in the jeep with his arms folded, looking from side to side at the men in the ditch. Seeing him, every man got up and started walking toward Vierville. They were told to go back and occupy where they had originally been. No one had been hit by the artillery fire.

Gerard Dillon was in Vierville [Annotator's Note: Vierville-sur-Mer, France] when he got his first introduction to the German 88 [Annotator's Note: 88mm multi-purpose artillery]. They would hear the explosion and then they would hear the shell pass over. They [Annotator's Note: the Germans] shelled the area all afternoon with 88s and howitzers. They quickly learned the difference and what to do when they heard them. At eight o'clock that evening, Lieutenant Eskridge [Annotator's Note: no given name provided], commander of what was left of Company G [Annotator's Note: Company G, 2nd Battalion, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division], including Dillon's platoon, became the company commander. Schwartzwalder [Annotator's Note: US Army Captain Floyd Benjamin Schwartzwalder; commanding officer, Company G] was not around. He [Annotator's Note: Lieutenant Eskridge] told Dillon he just volunteered to go on patrol and report to Colonel Alexander. Alexander was in a ditch just back of Vierville. Eskridge told Dillon that he had gotten word from General Ridgway [Annotator's Note: US Army General Matthew Bunker Ridgway, Commander, 82nd Airborne Division] that he had to send a patrol across the river and the flooded area to Colonel Timmes [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant Colonel Charles J. Timmes]. Dillon was told to tell him to hold out at all costs. He told Dillon it was essential that he got to him. At nine o'clock, Dillon and two staff sergeants crossed the railroad bridge over the Merderat [Annotator's Note: Merderat River] and started going across the inundated area. They only carried their rifles, ammunition, and grenades. They were in that area all night long. The water was up to their knees until they hit the ditches and then they had to swim. Once they got to the high side, he told the sergeants to spread out and run like hell to the farmhouse. They all made it without a shot being fired at them. After they got into the farmhouse, they saw a young soldier go out to get a calf that had been killed. As soon as the soldier got out into the open, machine gun fire killed him in the same area Dillon's group had just run through. After he delivered his message to Colonel Timmes, Timmes told the lady at the farmhouse to hang their clothes in front of the fire to dry and feed them. She cooked the best chicken fricassee he ever ate in his life. It had been a little over 24 hours since he had eaten.

[Annotator's Note: Gerard Dillon had been sent to deliver a message to US Army Lieutenant Colonel Charles J. Timmes to hold his position near the Merderat River, France.] Colonel Timmes had about 200 of his men at his location. He informed Dillon that he would be his adjutant and told him to dig a hole [Annotator's Note: foxhole] in the back of the farmhouse they were in and keep an eye on that area. Dillon had several people with him, and they had a whole perimeter defense. On the night of D plus one [Annotator's Note: D-Day plus one day, 7 June 1944], Johnny Marr [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant John Marr, commanding officer of 2nd Platoon, Company G, 2nd Battalion, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division] and Schwartzwalder [Annotator's Note: US Army Captain Floyd Benjamin Schwartzwalder] were at the farmhouse. Johnny took Dillon to a road in the back of the apple orchard and told him there were mines there. The road led to a German headquarters. They had killed a German Colonel in the Medical Corps who had a map with all of the drop zones of the 82nd Airborne Division. Timmes [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant Colonel Charles J. Timmes, Commander 2nd Battalion, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division] told Marr he had to get back across the inundated area [Annotator's Note: next to the Merderat River]. A lady at the farmhouse said there was a brick causeway [Annotator's Note: La Fiere causeway] under the water there. Johnny and Mattingly [Annotator's Note: US Army Private James Mattingly, scout] found that causeway and crossed the area. They ran into people from a glider regiment. [Annotator's Note: They had met up with the 1st Battalion, 325th Glider Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division.] They told the battalion commander about the causeway. Johnny was sent to find General Ridgway [Annotator's Note: US Army General Matthew Bunker Ridgway, Commander, 82nd Airborne Division] and inform him. Ridgway said to go attack Cauquigny [Annotator's Note: Cauquigny, France]. The battalion came back and went through Dillon's area. When they got to Cauquigny they were counterattacked. They moved back into Dillon's perimeter where the attack was repulsed. Dillon was not in the attack. The Germans attacked again that afternoon and were repulsed. D plus 3 [Annotator's Note: 9 June 1944], was the attack on the causeway from Vierville [Annotator's Note: Vierville-sur-Mer, France] to Cauquigny. Dillon only heard it but did not participate in it. There were no more attacks by the Germans towards them. There was no communication between Timmes and Ridgway. Dillon is sure Timmes would have been ordered to attack toward Cauquigny.

On the morning of D plus 4 [Annotator's Note: 10 June 1944], the 90th Infantry Division moved into the area where Gerard Dillon was. The 90th was gung-ho and dug in. Dillon's outfit [Annotator's Note: Company G, 2nd Battalion, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division] was pulled back and went across the causeway [Annotator's Note: La Fiere causeway]. They moved from the farmhouse and marched through Cauquigny [Annotator's Note: Cauquigny, France]. For the first 600 to 700 yards there were mostly German dead stacked in the ditches on both sides of the road, two or three high. He guesses there were over 500 German soldiers. For the next 500 to 600 yards, the same situation existed with the 82nd [Annotator's Note: 82nd Airborne Division]. When someone got hit, the others would try and hide behind the dead bodies. It did not do the dead any good. That is the worst number of casualties Dillon saw in any battle. They regrouped their regiment in a field east of the Sainte-Mère-Église to Vierville Road and stayed for four days. On D plus 8 [Annotator's Note: 14 June 1944], they were told they were attacking to the east through the 90th Infantry Division who had not moved. Dillon crossed the causeway again and went through Cauquigny. They spread out along the road to Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte [Annotator's Note: Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte, France]. The 3rd Battalion, 507th, was to lead the attack. Dillon's platoon was selected to be the lead platoon. Schwartzwalder [Annotator's Note: US Army Captain Floyd Benjamin Schwartzwalder] took all of the 60mm mortars [Annotator's Note: M2 60mm lightweight mortar] from each platoon and lined them were the 90th was stopped. He was going to lay down a barrage on the hill. A captain from the 90th said they were not going to make it, as they had machine guns up there. Dillon said they were told to go, and they were going. He told the men in his platoon to go over the hedgerow and start shooting and start yelling. They went down that hill into a valley. In an attack you do not know who is hit, you just keep running and shooting. They crossed the valley and up a hill. Dillon and one of his sergeants who was a full-blooded Indian [Annotator's Note: Native-American] looked up to a machine gun right above their heads. They both pulled pins on grenades and dropped them over the hedge. They saw Germans going up a ditch to their left. The sergeant asked, "Lieutenant, you want a prisoner?" and then shot and killed him. That was the last German they saw on that hill.

Gerard Dillon and his outfit [Annotator's Note: Company G, 2nd Battalion, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division] crossed their objective and were told to dig in on the next hill. The Germans had already dug holes everywhere. They could dig the most beautiful foxholes. Sergeant Bello [Annotator's Note: US Army Sergeant Reynolds J. Bello], Platoon Sergeant of 1st Platoon, came over and told Dillon that he had been assigned to him as his assistant platoon leader. Dillon's assistant was to go to 1st Platoon. Dillon and Bello were sitting on the side of the hole and Bello took his helmet off. The next thing Dillon knew, there was a medic was trying to pull him out of the hole. Dillon said to get Bello and the medic told him he was dead. Dillon's helmet and web belt is what saved him from the shrapnel that hit him. The medics started leading him back to the aid station in an old barn on the road they had crossed. On the way back, Dillon saw one of his men lying in a ditch with his intestines exposed. He told the medics to leave him and take the other man. He never saw that man again. He was an ex-Marine [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps] who volunteered for everything. He volunteered to be the platoon point. Dillon does not remember his name as he had not been with these people very long. Dillon spent that night in the aid station. He was put on a stretcher and taken back to the beach. He went to a hospital in Southern England for a couple of months for an operation. There were a lot of 82nd [Annotator's Note: 82nd Airborne Division] guys there. Dillon has visited Bello's grave in Normandy, south of Caen [Annotator's Note: Caen, France], opposite Omaha Beach. It's a beautiful place. He and his wife have been there several times. There are well over 200 men from the 507th [Annotator's Note: 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division] buried there. The 507th started with 2,400 men and when it was finally relieved there were 700 left.

[Annotator's Note: Gerard Dillon was wounded in France.] Dillon was in the hospital from June to September [Annotator's Note: 1944]. After being released, he took one week leave and went to Torquay on the south coast of England. He then reported back to his regiment [Annotator's Note: 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division] which had moved to the south of England. Nobody knew anything about him. You just showed up when you got out of the hospital. He went back to Company G, 3rd Platoon. There were very few men left from the Normandy invasion. More than half were replacements. They started training to jump across the Rhine River. That was delayed by the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. Dillon went to the Bulge with the last battalion to leave. On Christmas Day, 1944, they flew from the south of England to where the 82nd Airborne [Annotator's Note: 82nd Airborne Division] had been. He had read about the battle in the Star and Stripes newspaper. As a lawyer, he worked court martials at the Division level. By this time, the 507th had become part of the 17th Division [Annotator's Note: 17th Airborne Division]. Dillon was up at general court martial acting as judge-advocate prosecuting. They were in the middle of a trial when someone came in and said for everyone to report to their units immediately, including the accused. That was the day before Christmas Eve. All of the other units had left then, so they had all the turkey they wanted to eat. They left at dawn on Christmas day. They flew to France and spent the night. They were then sent up to the Meuse River. The 17th Airborne Division was stretched almost 20 miles to defend the Meuse. After two days there, patrols found out the Germans were out of gas and were stopped. The next day, they were taken to the South in the British, Montgomery's [Annotator's Note: British Field Marshall Sir Bernard Law Montgomery], zone. They were to attack and meet up with the British 6th Airborne coming from the North. Dillon and his outfit arrived the day before the British. They saw them coming with a German sitting on the front end of the jeep. The company commander was Bill Miller [Annotator's Note: US Army Captain William J. Miller, Jr.], the ex-adjutant of the 507th. The unit had not bathed or shaved for well over a week and he [Annotator's Note: Miller] went to have tea with the British. He returned and said he could not believe what he saw. Everyone was all cleaned up and immaculate. That did not last very long.

[Annotator's Note: Gerard Dillon was with the 17th Airborne Division when they met up with the British 6th Airborne during the Battle of the Bulge.] They were taken into an area near Chisonge, Belgium. He says all of them remember the hill two-thirds [Annotator's Note: two-thirds of a mile] south of Chisonge. Everything was frozen. There was over a foot of snow. Dillon got word to report to battalion headquarters [Annotator's Note: 2nd Battalion, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 17th Airborne Division] with two squad sergeants. Johnny Davis [Annotator's Note: US Army Major John Tyler Davis], the battalion commander and friend, told him he had to go find an infantry division that was stuck somewhere south of them and find out where the front line was. He found the company commander and then went back, thinking his duty was done. He was then told they were to attack through them and take the hill south of Chisonge. Dillon led the column back there and told the commander he was there to take the hill. He was told he could not get their because they [Annotator's Note: the Germans] had machine guns. An artillery barrage was fired on the hill for five minutes. They would not think anyone could survive it, but they did not count on the German ability to dig fortifications. They were in log pillboxes [Annotator's Note: type of reinforced, dug-in guard post, normally equipped with slits for firing guns] with two feet of mud on top. They could take a direct hit and survive. They did not draw one bit of fire moving in. Almost on the top of the hill, a machine gun opened fire, but no one was hit. Dillon got his mortar squad sergeant and he got the gun. Over the radio, Dillon was told he had reached his objective and to dig in. Dillon disagreed but pulled back. They could not dig a hole so all they could do was just lay on the ground. About that time, Company H [Annotator's Note: Company H, 2nd Battalion, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 17th Airborne Division] started attacking on their right. When they got into the woods, all hell broke loose. It was cluttered with Germans. After they clear it, Johnny Davis set up the battalion CP [Annotator's Note: Command Post]. The Germans then started a ten hour artillery barrage. They could finally dig holes. When a shell landed, they went there and started digging.

[Annotator's Note: Gerard Dillon rejoined the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 17th Airborne Division as they were heading to the Battle of the Bulge, or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, in Belgium.] Dillon had nothing in the way of warm clothes. He had no overcoat and no overshoes. He had two pairs of long johns [Annotator's Note: long underwear] and a Red Cross sweater. Lying in the snow, his uniform got wet and it turned to ice. The ice kept him warmer than he would have been because the wind could not get through it. They dug foxholes. He had a young replacement named Marmaduke Wiltse [Annotator's Note: US Army Private Marmaduke J. Wiltse]. He will never forget his name. When artillery fire started, he caught one right in his stomach that split him into pieces. Their runner, Reese [Annotator's Note: unable to identify], saw the boots. Dillon told him to get them off of the body. The artillery barrage stopped, and they saw tanks coming at them. An anti-tank group had 57mm guns [Annotator’s Note: M1 57mm anti-tank gun] set up on the road. The tanks were coming from Company H’s [Annotator's Note: Company H, 2nd Battalion, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 17th Airborne Division] side. The crew saw the tanks and ran away. Company H went down and took over the guns and fired at the tanks, who then left. They were not Tigers [Annotator’s Note: German Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger Ausf. E, or Mk. VI Tiger I heavy tank]. Johnny Davis [Annotator's Note: US Army Major John Tyler Davis] set up his CP [Annotator's Note: Command Post] in the woods. During the artillery barrage, they took a direct hit and most of the staff was wiped out, including Davis. Another casualty was Paul Leverett, the chaplain of the 507th. He was at the aid station and was killed when it was shelled. They called the place Cake Hill, because everybody was frozen stiff. That night, they sent a tank destroyer battalion to replace them. They left the hill and moved up into Luxembourg. The only combat on the hill for Company G [Annotator's Note: Company G, 2nd Battalion, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division] was a machine gun and the artillery barrage. Company H had a lot of combat chasing the Germans out of the woods. The next morning, they were put on trucks and sent to Clervaux [Annotator's Note: Clervaux, Luxembourg] along the Our River. They stayed there for the remainder of the Battle of the Bulge. They did not have bad combat other than artillery fire and screaming Mimis [Annotator's Note: Nebelwerfer multi-barreled rocket launcher] occasionally.

Gerard Dillon only had one situation where someone refused to jump. They were going to make a practice jump in France. They were preparing to leave when the platoon sergeant told Dillon they had a problem. One man says he is not going to jump. Dillon said to bring him to him. This was one of the college graduates. [Annotator's Note: Dillon gives the background.] They [Annotator's Note: US Army] had stopped the ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps] deferments because they needed troops. They took those people who were using it as a way to stay out of combat, and put them in the Army as replacements. This soldier had made his five jumps and was assigned to Dillon. He gave the soldier a direct order and sent him to the company commander. He does not know what happened to him. They loaded up for the jump across the Rhine River [Annotator's Note: 24 March 1945]. Through the grace of God, Dillon's battalion [Annotator's Note: 2nd Battalion, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 17th Airborne Division] was the lead battalion. When they approached the drop zone, they had no antiaircraft fire. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks if Dillon ever heard of Axis Sally, radio propaganda announcer. Dillon says no. The interviewer tells him she predicted a lot of flak. Dillon says it was accurate but not for them.] After they hit the ground is when all hell broke loose. At the end of the drop zone, they [Annotator's Note: the Germans] had 88s [Annotator's Note: 88mm multi-purpose artillery] and they had a turkey shoot on the next planes. Several went down. Dickerson [Annotator's Note: unable to identify], the regimental intelligence officer, got killed.

[Annotator's Note: Gerard Dillon jumped into the Wesel, Germany area 24 March 1945, with the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 17th Airborne Division.] Their objective was a castle [Annotator's Note: Diersfordt castle]. Bill Miller [Annotator's Note: US Army Captain William J. Miller, Jr.], company commander, was injured on the jump. The replacement commander decided to attack the castle from an area with a wide open space to cross. He used another platoon than Dillon's. He got bogged down and told Dillon to go around the flank. There was no prior bombardment of the castle. On the way there, a tank came down the road and everybody cleared out. He [Annotator's Note: the replacement commander] got shot. Dillon got to the side of the castle the drawbridge is on. Dillon told his mortar sergeant there was only one way in and to burn it. He told him to take every white phosphorous shell had had and lay it on the roof. They knew there were civilians, including women and children, in it. It came down to who was to be saved. Do they sacrifice American lives for a bunch of Nazis, or do they sacrifice their lives. It was set on fire and the castle surrendered. The women and children came out first, and then the soldiers. The only thing rescued from the castle was wine and Westphalian hams [Annotator's Note: ham produced from acorn-fed pigs in Westphalia, Germany]. They regrouped that afternoon and evening. They were under British command then. They started an attack that night and met no resistance at all. In essence, the war is over. After about five miles, Germans were flocking towards them with their hands over their heads. The replacements started firing on the Germans. Dillon and the platoon sergeant had to get in front of them and tell them to cease fire. They got in trucks and headed towards Münster, Germany. They were at Halle [Annotator's Note: Halle, Germany]. The last of the German Air Force must have flown over that night. German planes knocked like diesels because of the low octane gas.

In Münster [Annotator's Note: Münster, Germany], Gerard Dillon got called to battalion [Annotator's Note: 2nd Battalion, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 17th Airborne Division] headquarters. Al Taylor [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant Colonel Allen W. Taylor] told him he got orders to report back to Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France]. Dillon was sent to the Order of Battle School outside of Paris. They had captured German automobiles and painted them olive drab and put stars on them. Taylor told him to take one to Paris and sell it if he wanted to. Dillon drove into Paris and delayed entering the school for a week. He had a 12-cylinder convertible sedan to drive around Paris in. He finally took it to a motor pool, dropped it and walked away. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Dillon if he knew someone named Consolvo, possibly Staff Sergeant William E. Consolvo.] Dillon said Consolvo was supposed to work with the Russians and get documents. The Russians got the documents and we got the shaft. Goldman [Annotator's Note: unable to identify], a warrant officer in the 507th ended up as a captain in the AG's [Annotator's Note: Adjutant general] office, 1st Airborne Army Headquarters. Smitty [Annotator's Note: unable to identify], who had been a Master Sergeant, was now a Colonel in the Reserves. Smitty was the adjutant general, and through Goldie, they worked it to cut Dillon's orders. Orders came through for Dillon to travel back to a company in France which was a separation center. He had a jeep and equipment. He turned it all in under the cover of darkness. Winer [Annotator's Note: unable to identify] and Dillon kept one jeep and their sidearms. The drove from Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany] to Belgium overnight through the Russian zone. They slept in a Red Cross hostel in Liege, Belgium and went to Campine [Annotator's Note: Campine, Belgium] the next day. They turned in their jeep and guns and were separated there. Dillon went to Antwerp [Annotator's Note: Antwerp, Belgium], boarded a Victory ship [Annotator's Note: class of quickly produced cargo ship] and went to Boston [Annotator's Note: Boston, Massachusetts]. He went to Camp Shelby, Hattiesburg, Mississippi and separated from the service on 14 October 1945. He was married in 1949.

Gerard Dillon and his outfit [Annotator's Note: Company G, 2nd Battalion, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 17th Airborne Division] were loaded into trucks and each truck was going at its own pace. Dillon was sitting in the front seat with his carbine [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic carbine]. The truck driver was speeding like he was in a hurry to get out of there. Dillon put his carbine to the driver's head and told him to slow the truck down or he would blow his brains out. He was not going to let him kill all of his men. He slowed it down real fast. They went back to a town to a nunnery where they took showers and got clean uniforms. After 40 days, they finally got a hot meal. They were sent to Mourmelon-le-Grand [Annotator's Note: Mourmelon-le-Grand, France]. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks if there was a German counter-attack on the Our River.] Dillon says there was no German attack that he knows of. Company G had medium casualties due to the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945], artillery mostly. They went to Mourmolon Le Grand between Reims and Épernay, the two champagne sectors of France. Al Taylor [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant Colonel Allen W. Taylor], who had been the senior company commander, was promoted and took over the battalion. He had two mess trucks. He sent one for food and one for champagne. Every night, the champagne truck would be there with no preference between enlisted men and officers. If you paid, you got champagne. They lived in tents from the end of February until April [Annotator's Note: 1945]. They were resupplied, reequipped, and received replacements to get ready to jump across the Rhine River.