Arnold L. Holt

Serving as a 1st Lieutenant in the US Army Air Forces he co-piloted an American Waco glider and landed near Hamminkeln. Arnold L. Holt saw his comrades being killed and was hit by a shell fragment. A German family initially helped him before US Army medics were able to evacuate him to a field hospital.

1st Lieutenant Arnold L. Holt (1923-2006), 61st Squadron, 314th Troop Carrier Group, co-piloted a Waco glider and landed on LZ „N“ near Hamminkeln on March 24th, 1945.

The pilot of the CG4-A was Max L. Hunt. We left Poix, France in glider no. 35 that contained us two pilots, two British soldiers and a two wheel covered trailer. The trip was uneventful until we approached the release zone. To the left we could see gliders that had landed in a group, some of whom were burning. Hunt decided not to land there so he turned to the right and we landed in a small, plowed field surrounded by woods. Hunt did a good job of bringing the glider to a stop with no injuries. This field also contained a farm house. Upon landing the British soldiers kicked out the V door behind the pilot and left the glider running a short distance and hitting the ground. Hunt left his seat and went through the door. I pulled the rip cord on my flack jacket but forgot my seatbelt. When I got to the door Hunt was outside the glider but his foot was wedged between the tire and fender of the trailer. I asked him if he was hurt and he said no. I then got his foot free and he crawled away. I jumped out, ran a few steps and hit the dirt. I remember the first British soldier out was not moving and I decided he had been hit. The Germans started shooting with machine gun fire and mortar, pinning us down. I was talking to Hunt when he was hit in the head by mortar fire and was killed. A short time later I was hit in the right hip by mortar fire and also by machine gun fire in the right shoulder. Altogether I was hit eight times. I told the second British soldier I was wounded and he was on his own. He then stood up to surrender and they killed him.

A short time later three German soldiers came on the field. They carried me to the farm house a short distance away. There at the house was an older German couple, a girl probably in her early twenties and a three year old girl. The German soldiers left me there with the German couple. They put me in the kitchen near the stove and cared for me. I remember the German soldiers were pretty mad. They were taking things from me and the old German lady was mad at them. She made them put my things down and leave. Later in the afternoon the old German man signaled to me that our troops were nearby. I gave him my identification card letting them know where I was. They came in and gave me some first aid and then left. The family fed me and did all they could for me, even putting me in their bed the following morning. I was with the German family until approximately noon the 25th before I was taken out by medics on the hood of a jeep. I was taken to a collection point where I was put in an ambulance and taken to a field hospital. I was treated there for a day or so and then flown to a hospital in England. There a fuse of mortar was removed from my right hip. It measured one and one half inch by one inch high and in the shape of a cone. I was in the hospital in England for approximately 3 months, then sent back to the States to a hospital at Camp Carson, Colorado. I received my discharge one year to the day that I was wounded.