Down From Heaven - The 11th Airborne Division in World War II & Beyond · Jeremy C. Holm

The Battle of the Stone Courtyard

·28 min·1 clip

Captain Cavanaugh orders his men to “go over the wall,” and the courtyard assault begins under fire.

1. Down From Heaven - The 11th Airborne Division in World War II & Beyond focuses on the Battle of the Stone Courtyard at Emus during the Luzon campaign. 2. Jeremy Holm speaks as a former American bobsled athlete, an 11th Airborne Division historian, and the author of three books on the Angels and World War II. 3. The episode asks how the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment fought its way from Tagaytay Ridge toward Manila on February 3, 1945. 4. Holm ties the story to his grandfather, Lieutenant Andrew Carrico, and to his grandmother Jane Carrico, whose support for the division story he honors. 5. The company reaches Emus after the bridge at Route 2 is blown, and D Company is tasked with finding another crossing over the Emus River. 6. Holm says a Filipino on a bicycle told U.S. troops where the Japanese barracks were and that the bridge might be blown at 10 a.m. 7. The troop movement leads the paratroopers to a large walled courtyard with stone buildings that turns out to be the old Emus Arsenal. 8. Holm explains that the arsenal had been built to manufacture and repair armaments during the Philippine-American War. 9. The Japanese have mortars and machine guns covering the approaches to the bridge, so the courtyard becomes a blocking position for the 11th Airborne advance. 10. Captain Stephen Cavanaugh spreads 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Platoons for a double envelopment along the north and south edges of the compound. 11. When Cavanaugh realizes he has no way to signal the machine gun crew, he orders the men to “go over the wall.” 12. The assault sends young paratroopers across the open grounds while rifles, Thompsons, grenades, mortars, and machine guns all fire at once. 13. Holm names several casualties, including PFC Arthur Klebov, Staff Sergeant George Taylor, PFC Ed Rathart, Sergeants Clifford Tosler and Donald J. Hyatt, and Privates Everett Shaw and Anthony G. Walter. 14. PFC Norman G. Red Zadorian is described as a civilian photographer who brought a camera to Leyte, and Staff Sergeant Henry F. Gumm is identified as a 511th rigger who trained men at Fort Benning. 15. Sergeant Wilbur Wilcox says that without a flamethrower, the division might have saved lives inside the stone building. 16. Tech Sergeant Robert C. Steele climbs onto the roof, tears a hole above the remaining Japanese, and helps force the enemy out of the upper room. 17. General Robert Eichelberger watches the action at Emus with Colonel Frank Bowen and Driver Clyde, and Steele later receives the Distinguished Service Cross. 18. Holm’s tone is commemorative and detail-heavy, with first-person family references, quoted veteran recollections, and map-based battlefield explanation. 19. Listeners interested in 11th Airborne history, Luzon, and battlefield tactics will get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners wanting a short, light wartime overview may skip the dense unit-by-unit combat detail.

As heard by us

A close, human account of a courtyard assault, where tactics and memory stay tightly linked.

A courtyard fight on Luzon is the anchor here, but the account keeps widening to show how one assault sits inside family memory, divisional legacy, and a larger effort to preserve history.

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Why you'd press play

For when you want a courtyard assault told as tactics and family memory.

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