09- CIB from WWII – Airborne Infantry- “Devils in Baggy Pants”
Prelude to interview with Darrell G Harris- CIB of an Airborne Infantryman [06:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadIn this episode of the H21-Southern Branch-Austin, Texas, Chapter of the Combat Infantrymen’s Association, we give you the prelude and introduction for the upcoming interview with Darrell G. Harris, who was awarded the CIB in World War II as part of his participation with the 504th PIR (Parachute Infantry Regiment) …
of the 82nd Airborne Division…
This brief audio episode starts with the written entry that was found in the diary of a German Officer in World War II who opposed the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR) of the 82nd Airborne Division on the Anzio beachhead:
“American Parachutists–“devils in baggy pants”–are less than 100 meters from my outpost line. I can’t sleep at night; they pop up from nowhere and we never know when or how they will strike next. Seems like the black-hearted devils are everywhere…”
This episode also deals with the book that was written by Darrell G. Harris which is called Casablanca to VE Day: A Paratrooper’s Memoirs. We will be conducting the interview very shortly in the San Antonio, Texas, area–which is home to Darrell G. Harris. Having been an Airborne Paratrooper with several combat parachute jumps during World II — including Sicily in 1943 and Operation Market Garden in 1944 (i.e., the invasion of Holland, which was the largest airborne operation in military history) — Darrell G. Harris describes in his short book of 26 pages his experiences in World War II, from his days in the North African theatre (Casablanca) to the final occupation days in Germany.
For a view of the back cover of the book, click here to view the PDF document: 
At the end of this episode, the uneasy question that plagues a CIB-awarded combat infantryman’s mind is that of survival, or of “making it through alive.” Darrell G. Harris gives his perspectives in the old poem from Omar Khayyan, who once said:
“We are no other than a moving row
Of magic shadow shapes that come and go,
Around the sun-illumined lantern held
At midnight by the Master of the show
But helpless pieces of the games He plays
Upon this checkerboard of nights and days;
Hither and thither moves, and checks and slays
And one by one back in the close lays.
The Moving Finger writes, and having writ,
Moves on, nor all your piety nor wit
Shall lure It back to cancel half a line,
Nor all your tears wash out a word of it.”
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We look forward to this interview, and we wish to thank–in advance–Darrel G. Harris for his willingness and cooperation to share with us his experiences and perspectives of what an Airborne Infantryman sees as the value of one of the first CIB awards in the U.S. Army. In particular, we will wait to catch the feeling and emotion of the anticipation, fear, dread, uneasiness and dedication as he prepared for his combat parachute jumps in World War II right before he boarded the planes:
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