Airborne in the South Pacific

The 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment expanded into a Combat Team with the assignment of the 462nd Parachute Artillery Battalion on 29 March 1944 and the 161st Parachute Engineer Company on 13 September 1944. During its more than three years of service in the Southwest Pacific Theater, the 503rd served in five major combat operations. They jumped into Markham Valley, New Guinea, on 5 September 1943, in the first successful Airborne Combat Jump in the Pacific Theatre of Operations. Two Battalions of the 503rd jumped on Noemfoor off the coast of Dutch, New Guinea early in July 1944, followed by an amphibious landing by the other rifle Battalion a few days later. One Congressional Medal of Honor was awarded to a trooper posthumously. The 503d Parachute Regimental Combat Team made a major amphibious landing on the Island of Mindoro, in the central Philippines on 15 December 1944. Then the 503rd Regimental Combat Team jumped on Fortress Corregidor on 16 February 1945 to liberate that Island from occupying Japanese forces. This was the most vicious combat action in which the 503rd engaged during its existence. There were 6550 Japanese on the Island but, only 50 survived. The 503rd lost 169 men, was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation and another Medal of Honor. The 503rd also engaged in fierce battles against frantic Japanese resistance in the mountainous areas of Negros for more than five months. At the end of the War with Japan in August 1945, about 7,500 of the surviving Japanese troops surrendered to the 503rd Parachute Regimental Combat Team. Official U.S. War Department sources estimated the 503rd killed over 10,000 Japanese troops during its combat operations in the Southwest Pacific.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Markham
• Valley
• New
• Guinea
• 462nd
• Parachute
• Artillery
• Battalion
• 161st
• Engineer
• Company
• 503rd
• Infantry
• Regiment
• Mindoro
• Corregidor

[jphill4]

My father was a member of the 503rd. Luckily, as he got older, he shared some stories with me.

[Aaron9986]

Cool.