Hi Steve, Thanks and well done on that send thanks to Leona as well please.. All I need now are 2 Americans left Cheers Tom Steve I should give you this mission been trying for some time to find the last two Americans and seeing how good you did this one
My Grandfather Charles Moon and Carl Alden Scott grew up together in Columbus. Carl and my Gramps were like brothers. They were very best friends in grade school and in high school and enlisted in the Army together. They both wanted to enlist before they were drafted. They were told by the Army recruiter that there was a special program being put together and if they enlisted they would have duties other than infantry. The both signed. They both went to radio school together and then were separated. My grandpa went to basic training two weeks before Carl. Both were in an SID program for radio operators. My Gramps went into the 3103rd and Carl was recruited by the OSS and trained as a paratrooper. Tonight is Thanksgiving and my Grandpa was telling me the story of his best friend that died in Holland. He never knew exactly what happened but was under the impression that he was executed somewhere in Holland. We never knew that he was in Arnhem. My Grandpa asked if I could look up his Army group and the 3103rd on the computer. We found some info and then he asked if I could look up his best friend Carl Scott on the computer. This is where I found all of your posts and a few other descriptions of events on other sites. I also found a picture of Carl in uniform with the other members of team Claude. Incredible. We just didn't know. My Gramps grew up in an orphanage and when he came back from Europe he and his brother Lee Moon, who also served in Europe went to live with Carl's mother Bessie. My Grandmother was Bessie's next door neighbor and that is how my family started. We just celebrated Grandpa's 89th birthday this month, he's going strong and is healthy. My Grandparents have been married 63 years now. They'll celebrate their 64th anniversary in January. Thank you all for the research you've done. My family learned a great deal this evening and we are very grateful. Carl meant a lot to my Grandpa (and obviously a lot to my family) and I've heard him say many times that there isn't a day that goes by that he doesn't think of his best friend Carl. RIP Carl Alden Scott
Thank you - I am pleased to have been able to help it is nice when we can give some closure to past events Steven
I appologize for my reaction on a post from several years ago. But i think it can be interesting. My name is Ingrid Oostendorp, i live in the Netherlands. In the next few years our company, which has been in the family for almost a 100 years, can apply for 'Hofleverancier'. Translated it means 'Appointment to the Court of the Netherland'. This would mean a lot for me and our family. In order to make this request, your company has to meet al lot of requirements. One of them is a indispicabel history. During the last few weeks i've been investigating my fathers and grandfathers past. Thus i recovered some surprising incidents. My father was one of the 3 dutch man, who where involved in this operation. They were selected by IS9 to perform a mission in occupied Holland. The mission went terrible wrong, and my father was asked to write a witness report for the US army. This way i recovered the names of the people involved, the objectives of the operation and the way the mission tragicly ended. To be short; Fred J. Rau and Gilbert M. Chinn, detached to the 327th glider infantery regiment leaded the mission. Also involded in the mission was Carl Alden Scott, a US member of a Jedburgh team. My father reported; the Americans were leading the way. We (the 3 dutch people) were in civilians clothes and armed with pistols. Suddenly we're detected, flares went up an machineguns started to rattle. The soldiers covered us, but were hit shortly afterwards and went silent. But by doing so the've giving us the oppertunity get out of the line of fire and take cover. We went back to the landingspot. The boat was gone. One of the duch men went into the water and swam away. My father and the other dutch men waited for the american soldiers to get back. The germans didn't advance, so they waited and shouted for 15 minutes. After that they persumed that the soldier had decaused. They decided to swim back. Remember this was november 2 at one of the coldest winters Holland ever experienced. As experts (before this mission my father was a 'Rivercrosser') they managed to do so. They ware able to get back at the army unit. Afterward; Fred and Gilbert were killed. Carl however was hit and unconscious. After some time he recovered somehow, and since the Germans didn't dare to go into the fields he was able to reach the shore. The boat and dutch members were gone at that time, so he went into the River and tried to swim across. The river over there is pretty wide, has a strong current and was very cold at the time. Sadly he drowned. The US army was replaced by the britisch army. My father was drafted into the dutch army (stoottroepen) to assist the britisch/canadian troops. In feb/march they went to Germany and my father got hit in his leg. He recovered and was detached to a unit that escorted dutch POW back to Holland. My father never spoke about the war but once or twice; about this affair. He was moved to tears and said that he owed his life to the courageous american soldiers who offered their lives for him and his fellow dutchman. My father passed away april 2000.
Ingrid - Welcome and a very interesting post. As you're probably aware the other two dutchmen involved that night were L H A Vis and Henk van Loenen. After witnessing Carl Scott being shot your Father, Johannes, rejoined Henk and they swam back together as Vis had returned earlier with the rubber boat. Official records show that Scott died of gunshot wounds and was buried by the Germans, near Wageningen, on the 2nd November. Shortly after this incident Henk was sent to England to learn how to operate S Phones and how to parachute as he was then, at Christmas 1944, dropped back into Holland, to work for IS9 and also identify suitable artillery targets. Last September I watched his son, Gerard, make his first parachute jump, landing in the same field where his father had landed, near Ede, all those years before. John
I am sorry for the very late reply to these posts. I missed your response years back and just found it while searching the internet for some information regarding my grandfathers friend Carl. Thank you all again.
