80 years ago this week. 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment. Two soldiers of an M9 2.36-inch bazooka section blow out a Japanese pillbox at Heart Point, on Corregidor Island, Philippines on or around 19 February 1945. Note their slung M1A1 Carbines and the billowing parachute silk overhead.
Talk about a recruiting poster! Signal Corps Photo SC 201373 by Pfc. Morris Weiner.
Some 2,050 men of the Rock Force: 503rd PIR; 462nd PFABn; and 161 Abn Engr. Bn, landed topside on Japanese-held Corregidor on 16 February 1945 to destroy Japanese gun positions and allow ground forces to close in on the facility. The unit suffered 169 dead and 531 wounded in addition to more than 210 injuries in the drop itself.
It was the 503’s third combat jump of the war, having landed at Nadzab in New Guinea’s Markham Valley in Operation Alamo in September 1943 and at Noemfoor in Operation Table Tennis in July 1944.
They wouldn’t jump again until February 1967 when elements of the 2nd and 3rd Bn, 50rrd PIR would leap out over Katum, South Vietnam as part of Operation Junction City.
They are currently part of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, based at Caserma Del Din, Vicenza, Italy.