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Jake McNiece
World War II had its Eisenhower.
Its MacArthur. Its Patton.
And then there were the likes
of Jake McNiece, who apparently
never saw a fight he didn't
like.
An enlisted man, McNiece served
3 1/2 stormy years in the Army,
and in Europe in World War II
became knows as the leader of
the "Filthy Thirteen."
McNiece said that during World
War II he had a knack for fighting,
whether it was against the Germans
or while he was on leave or
had gone AWOL.
When he was being separated
from the Army in 1946, after
the war ended in 1945, McNiece
said he inquired about separation
pay for the good time he had
served.
He remembers a captain telling
him that it appeared he had
more bad time and he might owe
the Army.
As a soldier, McNiece admits,
he liked to fight, drink, chase
women, go AWOL and often landed
in the brig.
But, more than anything else,
McNiece was in the business
of fighting a war against the
Germans.
The gruff-talking 85-year-old
believes "The Dirty Dozen"
movie starring Lee Marvin, Ernest
Borgnine and Charles Bronson
was loosely based on "The
Filthy Thirteen."
In the 1967 classic, Marvin
played a U.S. Army major assigned
to train a dozen convicted murderers
for an assassination mission
targeting German officers.
"Hollywood," McNiece
says of the movie.
"They were all good men,"
he says of the other 12 members
of "The Filthy Thirteen,"
who were paratroopers.
But, he adds, "they were
misfits. We didn't salute officers.
We didn't mop barracks. We didn't
do all that crappy nonsense
that they had. But, we were
all good combat soldiers,"
who often wore Mowhawk haircuts.
"We weren't there to play
soldier. We were there to kill
Germans," McNiece said.
The Ponca City resident is the
author of a book titled "The
Filthy Thirteen." It is
subtitled "The True Story
of 'The Dirty Dozen.'"
McNiece said his co-author in
writing the book, Richard Kilblane,
at first said several people
"questioned whether these
things really happened."
McNiece said Kilblane, a former
Ponca City resident and now
an Army historian, became convinced
after around two dozen World
War II enlisted men and around
six commissioned officers said
they did.
This story is based on the account
by McNiece, who was a member
of the 101st Airborne Division.
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Book Description
Since World War II, the American
public has become fully aware
of the exploits of the 101st Airborne
Division, the paratroopers who
led the Allied invasions into
Nazi-held Europe. But within the
ranks of the 101st, a subunit
attained legendary status at the
time, its reputation persisting
among veterans over the decades.
Primarily products of the Dustbowl
and the Depression, the Filthy13
grew notorious, even within the
ranks of the elite 101st. Never
ones to salute an officer, or
take a bath, this squad became
singular within the Screaming
Eagles for its hard drinking,
and savage fighting skill and
that was only in training. Just
prior to the invasion of Normandy,
a "Stars and Stripes"
photographer caught U.S. paratroopers
with heads shaved into Mohawks,
applying war paint to their faces.
Unknown to the American public
at the time, these men were the
Filthy 13. After parachuting behind
enemy lines in the dark hours
before D-Day, the Germans got
a taste of the reckless courage
of this unit except now the men
were fighting with Tommy guns
and explosives, not just bare
knuckles. In its spearhead role,
the 13 suffered heavy casualties,
some men wounded and others blown
to bits. By the end of the war
30 men had passed through the
squad. Throughout the war, however,
the heart and soul of the Filthy
13 remained a survivor named Jake
McNiece, a half-breed Indian from
Oklahoma the toughest man in the
squad and the one who formed its
character. McNiece made four combat
jumps, was in the forefront of
every fight in northern Europe,
yet somehow never made the rank
of PFC. The survivors of the Filthy
13 stayed intact as a unit until
the Allies finally conquered Nazi
Germany. The book does not draw
a new portrait of earnest citizen
soldiers. Instead it describes
a group of hardscrabble guys whom
any respectable person would be
loath to meet in a bar or dark
alley. But they were an integral
part of the U.S. war against Nazi
Germany. A brawling bunch of no-good
niks whose only saving grace was
that they inflicted more damage
on the Germans than on MPs, the
English countryside and their
own officers, the Filthy 13 remain
a legend within the ranks of the
101st Airborne. |
