Albert W. Mitchell

Captain Albert W. Mitchell, U.S. Army Serial Number 0 395 318, 101st Airborne Infantry Division, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, Third Battalion, Headquarters Company, S-2 (Intelligence Officer)

This is my dad, Albert W. Mitchell, and me in 1943. This was about the last time I saw him.

Dad was born in Kyrock, Kentucky December 5, 1915. He graduated from Kyrock High School in 1933. He matriculated at Western Kentucky State College in Bowling Green, KY Sept. 15, 1934. He signed a pledge to teach two days later. In 1935 he was awarded the Robinson Medal for best declamation. In 1940 he became a 2nd Lt in ROTC Company A and was President of the Officer's Club. While attending Western he met my mom, Glenna Bishop. Romance commenced and they were married. He graduated from Western with an A.B. Degree on May 31, 1940.

Dad and Mom in 1941

After Pearl Harbor, Dad joined the Army and volunteered for the paratroopers. Certain training ensued (see Band of Brothers by Steven Ambrose for details). I was born in early 1942.

Dad was commissioned a Captain in the 101st Airborne Infantry Division, Screaming Eagles, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment , Third Battalion, Headquarters Company, S-2, U.S. Army. He shipped out for England in January, 1944.

From January, 1944 through June 5, 1944, Dad was based in England, stationed at Kambourn, Birkshire, preparing for the invasion of Europe.

On the evening of June 5, 1944, Dad, the jumpmaster, and his "stick," the men he would jump with, were at Welford Park, 7 miles NW of Newbury, Birkshire, England preparing for take-off. They were visited by the Allied Supreme Commander, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower. My father introduced the men in the stick to the General.

Cpl. Vincent Blau was a member of the stick. He wrote down the names of the men in the stick -- reporting them 8-28-07 as follows:

Capt. Albert W. Mitchell (KIA Normandy)

1/Lt. Jack Thornton (deceased)

1st Sgt. Clarence E. Spangler (KIA Normandy)

1st Sgt. Paul Wilsie

Cpl Vincent F. Blau

PFC William G. Braddon (deceased)

Private Duane F. Van Pelt

Private Virgil F. Zahn (deceased)

PFC Archie C. Phillips

Prv. Joseph Roseman (KIA Holland)

Prv. Matton L. Castle

Prv. George D. Morris (KIA Normandy)

Cpl. Frank A. French (KIA Normandy)

Prv. William K. Bramel

Sgt. James Currie

Cpl. Leo Westerholm (medic)

About midnight, the C-47's took off with the paratroopers fully combat-equipped. They encountered heavy German antiaircraft fire over Normandy in France and lost their course.

At about 1:28 am, June 6, 1944, my father kicked a bag of ammunition and equipment out the door of the C-47, and jumped. First Sgt. Clarence E. Spangler, also a Kentuckian, followed. They were followed by Jack Thornton and 13 more paratroopers. These paratroopers, in Stick 20, landed near Baupt, France about 6 miles southwest of their intended drop zone at Hiesville . And they landed among unexpectedly high concentrations of German troops. Most were killed or captured. Information about the 101st Airborne's commanding officers on D-Day is here.

My father and Sgt. Spangler were equipped with .45 caliber machine guns. Shortly after landing, others in the stick heard those machine guns firing steadily. The guns had a distinct sound which was different from the German machine guns. My father's map case was found near Marais after daylight on June 6.

Mark A. Bando writes in "The 101st Airborne at Normandy" (Motorbooks International, 1994), p. 138

"After a brisk firefight outside the village of Baupt, more 3/501 troopers were killed and captured, including Cpl. Johnny Clapper (KIA) and Pfc. George King (POW). Capt. Albert W. Mitchell, S-2, and Sgt. Clarence E. Spangler did a splendid job, reportedly shooting forty Germans between them before they were wounded and captured. Capt. Mitchell had grown a magnificent handlebar mustache before the invasion, which extended from ear to ear. Col. Howard Johnson, who had 'banned' mustaches in the 501st because they made the men look 'old,' had ordered him to shave it off. Mitchell, who waxed the mustache proudly each day, had refused.

H/501 medic Leo Westerholm was among the prisoners near Baupte, when Mitchell and Spangler were brought in. He wrote in his diary:

'1st Sgt. Spangler and Capt. Mitchell came in all beat to pieces. The Jerry was mad as the dickens at them and we found out later why. The Jerries told us they had 'murdered' and officer and two men. The captain and sergeant told us they didn't expect to see the end. They were taken to Cherbourg, interrogated, and shot. Their bodies full of lead were found later in a mud hole. That's war, I know, but I know both were married and the sergeant had two children.'"

My father, Spangler and numerous other 101st Airborne paratroopers were captured by German troops on June 6. They were taken by the Germans to a pit dug in the ground. It was about 10 feet deep and 20 feet by 20 feet. My father, Sgt. Spangler, and medic Leo Westerholm were put in the pit. Also in the pit were George L. King, Lester Howard, LaVerne French, Johnny Clapper, and Captain Hotchkiss from I Company, along with several others.

At or about 3 pm on June 6, King talked with my father and Sgt. Spangler. My father said, "Remain calm and cool." Dad appeared to King to be upset, "as we all were, about having been captured," said King. Dad told King that he had been hit on the head when he was captured.

Dad told King, in the pit, that he did not think he was going to "make it." He was the "intelligence officer" (S-3) for his company, and the Germans apparently knew that. They came to the pit and demanded that Dad and Spangler identify themselves and climb out. Otherwise, the Germans threatened, they would set off the bangladier mines hanging in the pit and kill everyone in it. Dad and Spangler climbed up ladders and identified themselves.

On June 8, 1944, the 101st Airborne mounted an attack on its regimental objective, St. Com du Mont. It was defended by units of the German 6th Parachute Infantry and by captured white Russians.

In a patch of woods -- about 1/3 acre where the bodies of paratroopers hung in the trees -- 101st Airborne paratroopers discovered a ravine which contained the bodies of both American and German soldiers. They saw the dead bodies of both my father and Sgt. Spangler. Their wrists were tied behind their backs; they were covered with blood. It appeared that they had been tortured before they were executed.

By Western Union telegram dated July 6 at 1022P, the U.S. Government dispatched a telegram to my mother at 601 6th Street, Corbin, Kentucky, which reads as follows (black background with white text): "THE SECRETARY OF WAR DESIRED ME TO EXPRESS HIS DEEP REGRET THAT YOUR HUSBAND CAPTAIN ALBERT W MITCHEL WAS KILLED IN ACTION ON NINETEEN JUNE IN FRANCE LETTER FOLLOWS = .. ULY 10 THE ADJUTANT GENERAL. JUL 7 904A" No following letter has been found.

The U.S. awarded dad this posthumous Purple Heart.

Because bodies were often booby-trapped, the paratroopers could not touch the bodies. Graves registration crews recovered their bodies later. My father's body was buried June 20, 1944 in grave 58, row 3, plot F of the US Military Cemetery, St. Mere Eglise, France.

His body was removed in December, 1948 and transported to Fairview Cemetery, Brownsville, Kentucky. I was there at age six with Mom and remember the ceremony distinctly at dusk, ... rifles firing salutes, taps from a bugle, and a military man handing me a folded American flag from atop dad's casket.

The British Government placed dad's name on the American Roll of Honor at St. Paul's Churchyard, London, as an American serviceman who, after being based on British soil, was killed in combat in World War II.

For a detailed history of the paratroopers on D-Day, visit here. Also here.

For a history of the 501st PIR, visit here.

And visit the site of Mark Bando, Historian for the 501st PIRA: 101st Airborne

Whoever tortured and executed Albert Mitchell and Clarence Spangler, prisoners of war, violated international law. On the other hand, many of my father's 101st Airborne comrades have gently explained to me that they, too, violated the law in those terrible days. One American paratrooper told me of his machine-gunning to death six weaponless German soldiers who were seeking to surrender. He was furious, he said, and he had no time to take prisoners.

View Gen. Douglas MacArthur's Tribute at West Point to American Servicemen: Duty, Honor, Country

"War is at best barbarism.... Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengence, more desolution. War is hell." William Tecumseh Sherman, Graduation address at Michigan Military Academy, June 19, 1879

I would be grateful to receive any information from any source that can provide further details of my father's military career.

Return to Mitchell Family

Return to Mitchell Home Page

You are visitor number

since Oct. 1, 1997

You can reach me by e-mail at: mitchel4@ix.netcom.com
Phone: (818) 968-6119