From 2009 - very interesting read. 90–year–old jumps again 2009-11-06 / Front Page - By Julia Rogers Hook Moffat T. Burris jumps with a paratrooper to recreate his mission fought in the Netherlands and Germany during WWII. Most people celebrate their milestone birthdays with a gathering of friends, a large meal, maybe some wine, and almost always cake and ice cream. Columbia’s Moffat T. Burris, a WWII veteran who turned 90 this past September thought it would be fun to jump out of an airplane in a re–enactment of the Operation Market Garden, a military maneuver that took place September and October, 1944. Operation Market Garden was an Allied military operation fought in the Netherlands and Germany. It was the largest airborne operation of all time. At the 2009 re–enactment, a three–day affair in Nijmegen, Holland, the Netherland’s Queen Beatrix was joined by Britain’s Prince Phillip and numerous other dignitaries including American General David Petraeus to pay tribute on the 65th anniversary to Burris and all of the men who participated in Operation Market Garden. Burris and one other veteran took the plunge and decided to jump again to commemorate the original mission. “He didn’t fare as well as me I’m afraid,” Burris said. “He had a rough landing and broke his collar bone.” Burris had also jumped at 75 on the 50th anniversary, but this time he said his family wasn’t too keen on the idea. “I wanted to jump solo like I did in ’44, but my wife and children said no,” he said with a laugh. “It took a little convincing to get my wife to give in to the jump at all.” When he agreed to a tandem jump with a Dutch paratrooper, the family reluctantly relented, he said. “I’m sure my children and grandchildren thought I was just a crazy old fool.” Burris remembers that fateful day 65 years ago and recalls that he felt like he was staring death in the face. “Our mission was to cross the Waal River in canvas boats and then charge over a half–mile–wide open pasture to seize a bridge filled with German soldiers firing on us the whole time,” he said. “More than half of my company died or were wounded crossing that river and in that pasture.” The idea behind the mission was to take pertinent bridges across Holland so that the Allied troops could get their tanks into Germany and ultimately end the war, Burris said. The river and the pasture was the path to one of those bridges. “The boats held about 16 or 17 men, and during the crossing, three in my boat were killed and seven were wounded,” he said. Burris said the men were easy targets for the Germans as it was broad daylight and his company had orders to charge into the open fire and take the bridge. “We were soldiers, and we did what we were told,” he said. But by the time it was over, only 17 men were left to take the north end of the bridge. More than 100 lay in the field and river, dead or wounded. One man in Burris’s boat was shot in the head and killed instantly, the blood and brains spraying over Burris and his men. When Burris, who was the company commander, and his men got to the bridge, a British officer then refused to move his tank any further. Burris said he and that officer had words. “I threatened to shoot him if he didn’t move the tanks to take the bridge and called him quite a few colorful names,” he said. Burris said that officer was at this year’s memorial, and they spoke for the first time since 1944. “General Petraeus introduced us, and I told the General that we had already met on the bridge 65 years ago,” Burris said. “That jogged his memory, and he remembered me then. He asked me if I was the man who threatened to shoot him and called him a yellow livered coward. I was proud to tell him yes.” Burris said that one of the most poignant moments of the event was something his son told him. “He was standing on the bridge looking at the river we crossed, and he told me he couldn’t help but think that if I hadn’t made it, he and none of his brothers and sisters nor any of their children would be here. As I looked at the river, I couldn’t help but remember the men that didn’t make it.” As part of the 65th Anniversary re–enactment, Burris and the other participants once again crossed the Waal River. “It was a little different this time,” he chuckled. “This time we had motorized boats, and no one was shooting at us.”
Posted on: Wed, 18 Sep 2013 22:13:00 +0000
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