The 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment

The 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment

503rd PIR Patches

For regular readers of this blog, you know that the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion started out the World War II designated as the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment. When I was doing my research for The Boldest Plan is the Best, I of course wondered what happened to the rest of the original 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment that the Geronimos left behind at Fort Bragg in 1942. After some reading, I found out that the 503rd PIR had an equally fascinating combat history. While I was living in Pennsylvania I visited the National Archives and the Army Heritage and Education Center and conducted the research to write a combat history of the 503rd PIR, "The Rock Regiment," during their time in the Pacific Theater. Unfortunately, life gets in the way (as does writing fiction) and that book (which I thought would make an excellent companion to The Boldest Plan is the Best so that the pair will cover early WWII airborne operations) will not be completed until next winter. In the meantime, I thought I would take the opportunity to provide some of the highlights of this little-known unit's record during WWII here.

Paratroopers from the 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment descend on Kamiri Airstrip, Noemfoor Island, July 2, 1944, as part of a strategic World War II operation.

After the departure of the 2nd Battalion for England in June 1942, the 503rd PIR formed its 3rd Battalion at Fort Bragg and continued to train as a two battalion regiment. They departed Fort Bragg on October 10, 1942, headed to Australia to join MacArthur's growing force in the Pacific Theater. On the way, they formed their missing 2nd Battalion from a company out of the 504th PIR recently formed at Fort Bragg, and three companies of the 501st Parachute Infantry Battalion that had been serving in the Panama Canal Zone. The old 2nd Battalion was at this time in England preparing to jump into North Africa as part of Operation Torch.  They were now designated the 2/509th PIR.

It took the 503rd PIR until December 2 to make it to Australia. The regiment spent the next nine months training in Australia and New Guinea. At the time of their first combat operation, one could argue that they were the most well-trained airborne unit in the American army. The first entry into combat was a jump on Nazdab airfield, in the Markham Valley of New Guinea, on  September 5, 1943.

Two battalions of the 503rd Parachute Infantry made an unopposed jump on Kamiri airfield on Noemfoor Island, off the coast of Dutch New Guinea beginning on July 3, 1944. The third battalion made an amphibious landing a few days later. Once Noemfoor was secured, the regiment was moved to Leyte in the Philippine Islands. The 503rd PIR was turned into a regimental combat team with the attachments of the 462nd Parachute Field Artillery Battalion and Company C, 161st Airborne Engineers. On December 15, 1944, the 503rd Parachute Regimental Combat Team made an amphibious landing on the Philippine island of Mindoro, where they fought to secure airstrips that would be used to support the invasion of the island of Luzon, and hence the retaking of Manila.

February 16, 1945 – Parachutists of the 503rd Parachute Infantry landing on “B” field, Corregidor Island. SC 201041 from the National Archives

The 503rd PRCT earned their nom de guerre when, on February 16, 1945, they made a combat jump onto the island fortress of Corregidor, "The Rock." Corregidor had become an important symbol to the United States as the last outpost of any size to fall to the enemy in the early stages of the Pacific War. Japanese sources have estimated that there were 6700 Japanese soldiers on the Island when the 503d Combat Team landed. Only fifty of those defenders survived. Almost 200 American soldiers died taking back Corregidor. The 503rd Parachute Regimental Combat Team was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for taking back "The Rock."

The 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment finished WWII fighting on Negros island in the Philippines. They were deactivated shortly after the war. After a history of activation and deactivation and a redesignation as the 503d Infantry, two battalions of "the Rock Force" are serving with the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, the "Sky Soldiers." Their home station is Vicenza, Italy, but the soldiers of the 503d Infantry have participated in multiple deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan during the Global War on Terror.

---

Books by Jim Travis Broumley

The Boldest Plan is the Best

In the fall of 1941, as the U.S. Army scrambled to prepare for the war they knew was coming, a new kind of soldier was training with a new way of getting to the battlefield – the paratrooper. The first to deploy to England and the first to jump into combat, while their more celebrated airborne brothers were still training in the States. This is the story of the 509th PIB

The Bridge at El Djem

Tunisia, 1942

Paratroopers Lieutenant Jack Bell and lead scout Corporal Roland “Rube” Roubideaux might be the only survivors out of their platoon after a failed mission to blow up a bridge behind enemy lines. Now they're going back to finish the job, tagging along with a detachment of British SAS desert commandos.

The Avellino Jump

Avellino Province, Italy, 1943 Paratroopers Lt Jack Bell and Sgt Rube Roubideaux, jumped with their battalion behind German lines in Italy to take pressure off the Allies’ tenuous hold on the Salerno beachhead. But they are given an additional mission by Col Addington, the mysterious OSS officer. They need to complete their battalion’s mission while also getting an Italian scientist safely to American lines. But first they need to outwit a fanatic Nazi officer and an Italian playing both sides.

The War in Venafro

Naples, Italy 1943 Lt Jack Bell is reunited with his cousin Nadia. The only problem: she is now the head of an organized crime family, and threatens to pull Jack and his friend Captain “Doc” Allen into her world to stop an American deserter from taking over. Meanwhile, friction grows between the veteran paratroopers and some of the new men, will everyone be able to work together to fight the Germans?

Anzio

Anzio Italy, 1944 - 1LT Jack Bell and his fellow paratroopers prepare to make a beach landing in Italy. The problem is that the civilians in Naples know where they’re going before they do. Along with everything else, Jack is put in the position of escorting OSS officer Boyd Carter on a raid of a German held blockhouse to “capture” an old friend. Now Carter is wounded and Jack is a prisoner. Can Jack’s friends and their green platoon leader mount an unauthorized rescue?

Operation Dragoon

Cpt Jack Bell and the rest of the 509th PIB jumped into Southern France as part of Operation Dragoon. Before the battalion can move out to attack the Germans in Le Muy, Maj Boyd Carter shows up with a mission for Jack. Rescue an Air Corps major, nine miles behind the lines and hidden by a group of French Resistance fighters. The Geronimos are outnumbered, but "Rube" Roubideaux has a plan to even the odds.