WWII 506th PIR 101st Airborne Division “Toccoa/Long March” Identified Photo For Sale

506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, "Long March" photograph Extremely rare. Very few personal photos of this event exist outside of the journalist/published photos that were taken.Only ships within the U.S.Ships from 92822Buyer pays priority shipping. Insurance can be provided at buyers expense.Information regarding photo:Photograph from album of Pvt. Donald Artimez in H Company, 3rd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division at Camp Toccoa in Georgia.Photo shows company members on the march. Pvt Artimez is wearing patched up M41 jacket marching alongside 1st Lt Edward S Mehosky wearing a patched up A2 and knuckle duster in waist band.The Long March was a roughly 115-mile trek from Camp Toccoa to Atlanta where they would pick up a train to Fort Benning to attend Airborne school. This initial march was conducted by the 2nd Battalion. The 3rd Battalion instead would be transported to Atlanta by rail where they would then march from Atlanta to Fort Benning. These marches were done to break a previous record set by the Japanese military. The ability for soldiers to take photographs, like these, during training was very limited and was more often done by news journalists. In the book “Tonight We Die As Men” by Ian Gardner and Roger Day, Pvt. Don Artimez’s jump into Normandy is mentioned. As he descended a German soldier, equipped with a Schmeisser submachine gun, noticed and shot at him. Pvt. Artimez would be hit 23 times in the legs and lower waist. When he landed, he had no feeling from the waist down and was unable to move. The German soldier, thinking he had been killed, slowly approached him and checked his pockets. Pvt. Artimez was able to pull his jump knife and drive it into the side of the German soldier where he would collapse dead on top of him. They would stay in this position until he was found by fellow paratroopers the next day. Miraculously Pvt. Artimez would survive and make a full recovery, however, he would not return to duty.

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