Operation Market Garden was an unsuccessful operation that was fought in Holland. Sadly, the success of the operation depended on the taking of nine bridges, one of which was over Rhine River. The plan called for an airborne drop by the 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions on September 17, 1944, followed by troop filled gliders. The plan was to quickly seize the main roads, bridges and key communication centers in Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem. This would effectively cut Holland in half and cut a corridor for British armored units all the way to the German border. The 101st Division’s mission was to secure the fifteen miles known as Hell’s Highway while their 502nd Regiment was to parachute into Holland. The 502nd was to seize the bridge over the Dommel River and the railroad bridges at Best.
The 502nd gathered up and sent Private Henry Lewis Jackson and his 3rd Battalion through the gates of hell into the Zonsche forest. There, they met stiff German resistance as they tried to move toward the town of Best and their heavily defended bridge. They desperately fought their way to within 100 yards of the bridge before the Germans blew it up. Company “G” of the 3rd Battalion (502nd Regiment) of the 101st Airborne Division paid a heavy price for the ground they gained.
One of paratroopers killed in the fighting with Company “G” on September 19, 1944 was Private Henry “Buddy” Lewis Jackson of Jay, Santa Rosa County, Florida. He was born on July 23, 1925 and dropped out of high school in his freshman year. His widowed mother worked as a seamstress for the WPA trying hard to support her family a on salary of $330.00 per month. Henry helped by working for the Alger Sullivan Lumber Company until WWII when he enlisted in the Army on October 28, 1943.
His family was notified after his death, but his body was not sent home until after the war. He was buried in the Mount Carmel Cemetery where he joined his father William “Willie” Robert Jackson and later in 1995 by his mother Minnie B. Carden (Pugh).
Pensacola News Journal Article of 12-4-1944
Gravesite of Private Henry Lewis Jackson, USA KIA WWII,
Company "G", 3rd Battalion, 502nd Regiment, 101st Division
502nd Regiment loading for parachute
drop of September 17, 1944
502nd Regiment fighting in Best