PFC H. C. Robinson
Today we honor and remember PFC H. C. Robinson of the 101st Airborne Division.
Private First Class H. C. Robinson of Baker Battery, 907th Glider Field Artillery Battalion (GFAB), was born in Jonesboro, Craighead, Arkansas, to Horris C.C. and Annie S. (Stone) Robinson on September 13, 1923. He had five brothers, Homer D., Luther T., Harold S., Lawrence M., and Roy E. Robinson.
PFC Robinson enlisted in the U.S. Army at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, on February 26, 1943. He was sent to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where he trained for a Field Artillery position for a few months prior to volunteering to become a paratrooper.
He was then sent to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, for paratrooper training and completed his training after arriving in England in September 1943.After sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, PFC Robinson would be assigned to the 907th GFAB.
The 907th GFAB was part of the seaborne elements that landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day. PFC Robinson’s baptism of fire would take place as the 101st Airborne fought the Germans for the first time during this invasion of France.
PFC Robinson’s second combat mission was Operation Market Garden.
On September 19, 1944, he was aboard a CG-4A glider heading for the Netherlands. The flight crew was able to land their glider safely but it was in enemy-held territory. As German soldiers approached, a firefight ensued, thus killing the pilot, Flight Officer Jacob Arthur Reddick, while wounding PFC Robinson, who later succumbed to his wounds on September 20, 1944.
Another Screaming Eagle had soared to the ultimate height. 🦅
Two months earlier, his older brother, Private Lawrence Robinson, a sharpshooter in the 88th Infantry Division’s Fighting Blue Devils1, was killed in action while fighting the Germans in Italy.
Private Lawrence Robinson was sent overseas in October 1943 and fought on the Italian frontline since April 1944. He was killed in action on July 15, 1944, at age 22.
PFC Robinson died at an early age of 21. He was buried at Rose Hill Cemetery in his hometown and shares a stone with his older brother, PVT Lawrence Robinson.Happy Birthday in Heaven, trooper.
Lest we forget. 🇺🇸
In 1966, the family experienced tragedy again when the oldest son, Homer D. Robinson, was killed in an accident. During an afternoon ride on his horse to sell it to a prospective buyer, the horse became frightened, reared up, and fell back on him. Homer died later that evening of internal injuries, leaving a wife and two daughters behind. What a sad moment for his parents Horace and Annie, losing a third son at their old age.
Sources
Family Search
The Courier Chronicle, Thursday, November 2, 1944
Interestingly the nickname “Fighting Blue Devils” was taken from German propaganda. The enemy would blast the name over loudspeakers, thinking it would insult and demoralize the men of the 88th Infantry Division because it meant the Americans were deceptive and ruthless. However the men liked it and so the “Clover Leaf Battalion” was renamed to “Blue Devils.”