About James H. “Pee Wee” Martin
On June 6, 1944, as a member of the 101st Airborne Division, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Battalion, G Company, Martin parachuted into Normandy, landing near Saint-Come-du-Mont, behind Utah beach. He fought in the Normandy campaign for 33 days.
On Sept. 17, 1944, he jumped into Holland in the leading wave of Operation Market Garden, fighting 60 days there. In December his division was trucked 100 miles to the Western Front to defend Bastogne in the Battle of the Bulge.
They fought in Germany in 1945, occupying Hitler’s mountain home in Berchtesgaden. As the lightest man in the regiment, Martin received the nickname “Pee Wee,” which he said he was proud of.
Martin is a featured veteran in the 2010 documentary, “The Americans in the Bulge,” by Livingbattlefield Productions. It is the third part of the “American Road to Victory” trilogy of documentaries, being shown in numerous public television markets.
SUGARCREEK TWP., Greene County — World War II veteran James H. “Pee Wee” Martin cannot get over the reception he received when he returned to Normandy for a six-day visit in June to sites he fought at on D-Day, June 6, 1944, and after.
“People over there mobbed us everywhere,” Martin, 90, of Sugarcreek Twp., said. Everyone wanted his autograph and picture.
“Some of the women came up and hugged me and cried,” he said. “They were little girls back then, and said we released them and got their freedom.”
Martin, a member of the 101st Airborne Division, parachuted into Normandy over Utah Beach on D-Day, then went on to fight the Nazis in Holland and at Bastogne, the Battle of the Bulge, earning a Purple Heart and Bronze Star.
His return to Normandy this June was as a representative of the 101st Airborne Division.
“I don’t want anyone to view us as heroes,” he said. “We were just doing our job, what we were trained to do. We knew the risks. A hero is someone who does something out of character, like saving someone from a burning car. We may have been brave, but we’re not heroes.”
Martin traveled to D-Day celebrations with Doug Barber of Bellbrook, a Centerville middle school history teacher, and two other WWII veterans and their friends and family on a trip organized by New Albany resident Mark Easton, vice president of sales for IBM.
Easton is a friend of Max Cleland, a former Georgia senator, now secretary for battlefield monuments. Cleland and President Barack Obama invited Martin and the other D-Day veterans as VIPs to the rededication of the newly repaired Point du Hoc monument above Normandy Beach. President Obama was not at the rededication, but Cleland and Sen. John Kerry were, Martin said.
Barber has been helping document Martin’s WWII participation at Normandy. He said he knew WWII veterans were held in high regard by the French people, “but I was taken aback by the outpouring of gratitude expressed when we were in Normandy.”
The two visited Paris, Omaha Beach and areas the 101st Airborne helped liberate.
While in Normandy, he met people he had corresponded with for years. Also, “I got to meet two of the Germans, Heinrich Laufert and Gerd Schwetling, I fought against, and we’re now friends,” he said.
Like him, they were paratroopers, members of Fallshirmjager 6 (regiment), a German airborne infantry.
“There is a bond between airborne people that transcends ideology and political boundaries,” Martin said. “We can talk to each other and forget all the bad stuff.
“It was a wonderful trip. I enjoyed it very much. Meeting and talking with the people was the best part,” he said.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2341 or kullmer@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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