Clarence "Clancy " Lyall was born in Orange, Texas, October 14, 1925.He is half blood Cherokee Indian. His mother was a Cherokee. He moved to Pennsylvania in 1939 and entered the army in 1942. He went to Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania for introduction and was sent to Camp Blanding in Florida for basis training .(1943)
Training
history:
Airborne School in april 1943,
Communication school in July 1943.
Demolition School in August 1943
Instructor A Stage Airborne School September 1943
- March 1944.
In May 1944 he assigned Second Battalion, 506e Regiment, 101ste Airborne Division.
During Operation "Overlord" (June 6, 1944 D-Day) he landed in a tree,
two miles
from Ste Maire Eglise. He was heavily loaded with equipment and his good friend
Jim Campbell had to cut him down. They were a long way from their original
drop zone and were in the area of responsibility of the 82nd Airborne Division.
They were attached to B company, 508th Para Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne
Division for a few days fighting around Ste. Mere Eglise. After 3 days they
found their way back to Carentan.
After
Normandy he was assigned to Easy Company in Aldbourne, England August 1944.
There he was made ready for the jump in Holland (Operation Market Garden)
He landed in the Son DZ, north of Eindhoven.
The first he heard upon landing at the assembly point was an 88 firing down
the middle of the road moving across the canal on patrol.
Sgt. Radar, Mike Massoconni, Donald Hoobler, Pace and Clancy came upon a platoon
of German soldiers and annihilated same.
S September 18 and 19, 1944 he was involved in the liberation of Eindhoven
and then waited for the British Armored Guard that had to move in from the
South (Valkenswaard) but they were quite late. Clancy recalls a 14 year old
Eindhoven boy from the PAN (underground) who came up to Mike Massoconni and
himself and who started to show them where the Germans were hiding in the
houses. They than proceeded to clean those houses and captured about 6 Germans.
The young PAN-boy only had a small caliber pistol and Clancy gave him his
trench knife with his name on it, which to this day is in the museum in Son.
Mike and Clancy put a 30 caliber machine gun on top of a building in Eindhoven
for a better field of fire. They had a killing zone of three intersections
and they could
suppress any moment very well. But during the fighting, a German mortar came
down through the skylight of the building and they heard bottles breaking.
Clancy looked through the skylight of the building and saw they were sitting
on top of a beer brewery. Clancy: "Needless to say we then liberated
a few bottles."
September 22, 1944 the company moved to Uden, on their way to Arnhem as part
of Operation Market Garden. There, the Germans cut behind them and they were
surrounded in Uden. They broke through and went to Veghel, where they had
extremely heavy fighting.
September 24, 1944 Clancy's squad dug in in an apple orchard in Veghel, which
was a huge mistake. There, German artillery was so fierce and murderous, the
rounds would hit the trees and burst and the shrapnel would come down on them,
so foxholes were of no use at that point. They jumped out and ran for undercover.
September 25, 1944 they were attached to the British tanks and they cleared
Veghel with the loss of a few soldiers and one tank.
September 26, 1944 There was heavy fighting up and down Hell's Highway . They were protecting the British tanks on the small road, trying to get to Arnhem. It was like cowboys and Indians. They were running the gauntlet through the Germans as the Germans were firing continuously at them. There was one good ting: Clancy and Donald Hoobler knocked out a German half track.
Oct. 3,
1944 they moved to Opheusden on the river Lower Rhine where they had bitter
fighting with the Germans who were attempting to push them back. From Oct
9-21 they were holding defensive positions on the dike. This is to be seen
in the part 'Cross Roads" from the TV-series "Band of brothers"©
During those days they were doing extensive patrol work
and counter attacks on the Germans. Liebgott and Clancy captured 8 Germans
at that time. There was a German sniper in a jam factory about a thousand
yards away who was constantly pinning them down until Pace took aim and squeezed
of a round and shot him. It was a good shot. While counterattacking Clancy
was blown of the dike by a German mortar and wounded in his right leg. He
was evacuated and returned to his Company in November at Mourmelon, France..
December
17, 1944 they mounted trucks and left for Bastogne. Upon arriving, E Company
set up strong defensive lines at Foy and Bastogne. A large scale German attack
was defeated; they killed many Germans but lost Gordon.
There were many patrol/ambush-recons. During the last
half of December, there were many contacts and fire fights on both sides.
January 2,1945 E Company attacks and clears Bois Jacques woods, north of their
position. The thousand yard attack was very bloody. Rader, Smith and Sholty
were wounded and Sawosko and Webb were killed. After the attack they returned
to their defensive lines were they were heavily shelled by the Germans. They
had many casualties. Clancy was wounded again but with no place to go, stayed
in his position and a medic took care of him.
Daar
werd Ltn. Ron Spears (r) weer hun commandant.
January
9, 1945 Easy Company with the 2nd battalion attacks Recogne. There was heavy
shelling and casualties to get to high ground near Recogne.
Easy Company goes into reserve on January 11 and 12. Several were wounded
and killed. Lt. Ron Speirs (below) became their commanding officer.
January
13, 1945 Easy Company moves to Noville to attack and clear the town and they
do the same on Jan.16 in Rachamps where sgt. Earle Hale was wounded.
Jan. 17 and 18 Easy prepares to be relived by the 17th Airborne and moves
toward Germany and Haguenau (Alsas-Lorraine)
Between
Feb. 5 and 25, Easy Company takes over positions in Haguenau; not much but
patrols. Clancy: "One of the patrols, Popeye Wynn damn near drowns
trying to cross the river on patrol.".
Finally moves back to Mourmelon (France) to refit on Feb. 25.
On March
15, the entire 101st. Airborne Division received the Presidential Unit Citation.
This was the first presentation to a whole Division.
Then Easy Company begins on the last part of WWII
On April
1, 1945 the Company leaves with the Division for the Rhine River opposite
Düsseldorf to contain the German forces in the Ruhr pocket.
April 20, the 101st. leaves the Ruhr pocket and moves to Berchtesgaden, were
the Germans are expected to make a last stand.
Clancy: "By the way, E Company,
506th received the last combat command of the 2nd World War and that was to
take Berchtesgaden."
April
28, they saw their first concentration camp at Memmingen (Bavaria) Clancy:
"There we saw some of the worst sights I have ever seen."
May 4th they were stopped along with Free French Army under General Leclerc
on the Autobahn due to bridges blown up by retreating German forces. After
knocking out their German defenders, the 506th engineers rebuilt the bridges.
Finally Easy Company entered Berchtesgaden at May 5. and for them the
end of the war was on May 8, two days before many German dignitaries were
captured.
The 506th Regiment was headquartered at Zell am See in Austria and de-activated in Nov 1945.
But for Clancy this was not the end of his military career.
Clancy re-enlisted and was reassigned to B Company 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division in Frankfurt. January 12, 1946 he made the victory parade with the 82nd on Fifth Ave. in New York. In 1948 he returned to Fort Bragg.
Recondo
training 1949:
Commando training in Dundee Scotland - Ranger training in Camp Hale Colorado
- Jungle training in Camp Blanding Florida.
In 1950 assigned to 187th Parachute Infantry Regimental Combat Team He made combat jumps on 20 Oct.20, 1950 in Suchon and on March 16, 1951 in Munsan-ni.
Reassigned
1952 "Advisors A Group 101" and in 1954 assigned for patrol, intelligence
gathering for the 29th
French Parachute at Dien Bien Phu. (see wings above) They left 14 days before
it fell.
Reassignment 1955 E Company, 506th Para Infantry Regiment, 101th Airborne
Division (Easy) at Frt Campbell Kentucky.
During his military career Clancy made 4 combat jumps. One of a few. From him I received the wings that are on this page which I appreciate very much!
He accumulated 25 decorations, citations while he was in service.
His civilian accomplishments::
VFW Commander
American Legion Vice Commander
Lions Club President
President, veterans of the Battle of the Bulge
Member of the 40/8's
Order of the Purple Heart
DAV
FOP
Southern Maryland Veterans Advisory Board.
He is married withLiz and he has 6 children and 8 grandchildren. His three sons all are paratrooper and his three daughters are married with men who are in the military. I wonder were they are talking about on a family party
pages
Peter van de Wal ©
