Sojourn in Hell

Billy Condon was drafted in the second round of the Selective Service lottery and inducted at Camp Grant, IL. He was ordered to Camp Livingston, LA, for boot camp and assigned to the 125th Infantry Regiment. Immediately after Pearl Harbor, the regiment was sent to California for more than two years of coast patrol. He made the most of his time in California, but in March 1944, the regiment moved again to Camp Maxey, TX. In May, 1944, he was one of 800 men selected from the regiment for...
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Billy Condon was drafted in the second round of the Selective Service lottery and inducted at Camp Grant, IL. He was ordered to Camp Livingston, LA, for boot camp and assigned to the 125th Infantry Regiment. Immediately after Pearl Harbor, the regiment was sent to California for more than two years of coast patrol. He made the most of his time in California, but in March 1944, the regiment moved again to Camp Maxey, TX. In May, 1944, he was one of 800 men selected from the regiment for shipment to England, where he found himself in the 325th Glider Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division. Billy arrived too late to participate in the Normandy invasion. Still, after glider training, he led his men into combat on September 23, 1944, the third airlift of Operation Market Garden, the invasion of Holland. With his tow plane crippled by German anti-aircraft fire, his glider was cut loose and landed nineteen miles short of the landing zone. Besieged by troops of Panzerbrigade 107, the Americans held out for several hours until their ammunition was exhausted, leaving no choice but to surrender. As a POW, Billy survived a succession of four German POW camps, starvation, horrific train rides in freezing conditions, and forced marches between camps in the brutal winter of 1944-45. Liberated in April 1945 by Soviet troops, the Allies locked down Stalag III-A and the POWs became bargaining chips for Stalin. Frustrated by the inaction, Billy and two fellow POWs slipped out of camp, appropriated a German vehicle, and drove to the River Elbe to meet American troops. Transported to Camp Lucky Strike near LeHavre, France, for medical evaluation and intelligence debriefing, he then boarded a ship for New York. After three months of recuperation at Miami Beach, he was finally discharged on October 16, 1945.