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 139 AEB HQ Message Log from 25 Mar 45 Message log from 25 Mar 45 reveals information concerning the capture of enemy prisoners, battle maps, miscellaneous materials and 4 artillery pieces. The enclosed message log spells it out and indicts the location. The information was reported to the 139th AEB HQ by Company B, and another message forwarded to Division by the S-3. The enclosed photo is typical of the types of artillery/flak pieces found around the Wesel DZs/LZs.
 This 88mm gun was left on the LZ and photographed by Adolph Byers, the Divisional Photographer.
 Training jump from Tail 42-21009 Tail Code “N” Reader Neil sent a few images which came from veterans of the 437th Troop Carrier Group stationed at Ramsbury. He believes the photos with several troopers are from the 17th Airborne Division. I’m not sure of the date of the photos. If anyone can shed any light on these please let me know.
The other photo depicts what Neil thinks is the personal aircraft of General Matthew Ridgeway. The plane was painted silver and was christened “Barque Good Fortune” Again…looking for any information on this hunch.
 Silver C47 Ramsbury 
Every now and then I run across a few small items belonging to someone from the 139th. I am grateful to add them to the collection and share them with everyone via the blog. CPL Johnnie Witter was assigned to Company A of the 139th Airborne Engineer Battalion. His name does not appear in the book “Thunder From Heaven” by Don Pay. Occasionally, names of members of the 17th Airborne Division are omitted from the comprehensive roster in the back of the book, as in this case. The obvious evidence corroborating his assignment to the 139th is here, but most likely he was transferred into the 139th right at the end of the war when the engineer units of the ETO airborne units were being shuffled to allow high point veterans to return to the US.
The enclosed photo is a bit fuzzy. Witter is the second engineer from the left. The photo was taken on 8 Jul 45 in Vittel, France where the 17th was stationed while it awaited passage home. The caption reads: “My Georgia buddy on the right, 2 boys from New York, on left. Not very good, will send some better ones later.”
 CPL Johnnie A. Witter, 139th AEB 8 Jul 45, Vittel, France
 Cover art for Blood on the Talon: Volume II As I approach the closing stages of building the house and continue to work with the printer on Volume I, I am looking forward to drafting Volume II, which will cover patches and insignia of the 139th Airborne Engineer Battalion. This volume will delve into the 17th Airborne Division SSI in great detail, and cover the details of the glider and parachute cap badge, the parachutists and glider qualification badge, and miscellaneous insignia worn by the engineers. I anticipate the format to follow Volume I, but will not include as many pages.
I will include numerous images, close-ups and detail of as many variations as I can pack into the book. Once I get into the draft, I hope to solicit input and images from collectors with regard to these insignia. I hope to cover as many variations as possible. Here’s the first draft of the cover. Once I unpack my collection, which has been in storage for a few years, I will probably find some other images to adorn the cover with.
 Raising Old Glory over Duisburg, Germany 20 April 1945 PFC Stanley A. Lilipski from Cleveland OH and CPL Farley V. Huddleston from Charleston WV raise the American flag in Duisburg, Germany. 1st Lt. William Langston from Dallas, TX, presents arms as the flag is raised over the city officially for the first time. Huddleston is from the 194th Glider Infantry Regiment, Langston from the 17th Airborne Division headquarters, and Lilipski’s unit is unknown.
The photo was taken on 20 Arpil 1945 by Signal Corps photographer T-4 L. P Payne.
SC-204680
Please forgive my lack of posts over the past few months. I am nearing the end of building a home for the family. To come in at budget I have opted to do almost all of the final work myself. That has been a learning experience and very time consuming. 6 more weeks or so and my family can move in from our temporary living conditions. So much for getting it done by Christmas…but I never said which year:-)
The past 6 weeks have been extremely busy for me. Aside from building my own house (I’m hanging all the sheet rock myself right now) I have been creating a website for book sales and working on the final editing. My wife, who performs professional proofreading and editing for books on various subjects, is nearly complete with the daunting task of correcting my errors in punctuation and adding recommendations here and there. We recently conferred on the project and have decided to change the font to a slightly smaller case. This single change will reduce the total pages of the book, reduce the overall printing and shipping costs. As a result we will list the book at $39.95 and pass the savings on to the reader.
The resulting changes have delayed the publishing date by as much as a month. I apologize for this delay, but I am sure you will be pleased with the changes and the cost savings. Publishing a large format (8 1/2 x 11) book can be expensive, and if the shipping weight is over four pounds, the costs grow heavily. We are working to keep both shipping and printing costs low. I will speak with the printer this week and hopefully will have a proof copy for final review soon.
Maj Cross, the S-3 for the 139th AEB drafted the enclosed Intelligence Annex for the Field Order for Operation VARSITY. It outlined the disposition of enemy POWs and civilians that would be encountered on and around Landing Zone “N”, where the 139th landed. 
The enclosed document details the time table for glider loading of Serials A-16 and A-17 which carried the 139th AEB into battle on 24 march 1945.
After their C-47 landed in Rheims, France, on Christmas, PFC Reich and the rest of the engineers rode on trucks to Verdun, France. Their first mission was to guard the bridges over the Meuse River after rigging them with explosives. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was concerned that if the Germans crossed the Meuse, the door to the west would be wide open. The 139th AEB stayed there for a week guarding bridges, going on patrols and conducting route reconnaissance. Reich recalls going on several patrols.
Mr. Reich shared a few stories about operation VARSITY. He recalls that the,
“…flight on the glider was a pretty good flight, not too bad. The glider pilot put it down in a field and it was still upright. We got out in a hurry and took cover. Nort (PFC Norbert Reed) was killed a little ways from me. We moved out and got together with the Platoon Sergeant and collected everyone and kept going on to the assembly area. The night was touch and go. We had to take cover and stick it out to the next day until it cooled down. Then we marched towards Muenster.”
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