82nd Airborne, D-Day

From: jim sterner

One of the men I worked with at Mobay ( now Bayer ) told this story. His name was Bob Abernathy. He was in the 82nd Airborne and jumped on D-day in Normandy. When he landed, he broke his leg and couldn't walk. He crawled under the hedgerow ( which were very dense and wide ) and hid as long as he could. He was finally captured, and the Germans taking care of the prisoners were just keeping ahead of the allied advance. When they finally realized they had to do something to speed up, the German officer in charge pulled his side arm and started walking toward the prisoners. Bob said he put the pistol to the head of one of the prisoners and just stood there for a minute. He finally shook his head, lowered the pistol and turned around and walked back to the trucks and left all the prisoners there. That was the last action Bob saw. The leg was broken so badly, they had to ship him back to the US and he spent 14 months in and out of hospitals. He walked with a pronounced limp to the day he died. Thank you Bob.