Date of birth:

February 23rd, 1916 (Chicago, Illinois, the United States of America)

Date of death:

September 20th, 1944 (Nijmegen/Gelderland province, the Netherlands)

Service number:

31006980

Nationality:

American

Louis Frank Gentile “Lou” was born on February 23, 1916, in Chicago, Illinois, the United States of America. He was a son of Antonio and Angela Gentile, both Italian immigrants. Lou had three sisters and two brothers. After elementary school he also attended two years at high school but he didn’t finish that education. He went to work and became semiskilled upholsterer before he enlisted in the US Army in February 1941. He was single at that time. Although it is unclear when he was assigned to the C Company, 307th Airborne Engineer Battalion (AEB) of the 82nd Airborne Division ‘All American’, he went oversees to the European Operation Theatre with that unit and eventually held the rank of corporal.

Taking into account his final rank and the nature of his received awards, it is likely that Lou already served in C Company when it was attached to the 504th Regimental Combat Team (RCT) in Italy 1943-1944. It consisted of 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment with attached to it the 376th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion and C Company of 307th Airborne Engineer Battalion. 504th RCT, probably with Lou, was deployed during operation Husky, the landing at Sicily, Italy, in July 1943. Then the RCT deployed in operation Avalanche, the landing at Salerno, in September, followed by its advance to Rome as a mountain infantry unit. In January 1944, 504th RCT deployed in operation Shingle, the landing at Anzio. The RCT suffered heavy losses throughout its Italy campaign and couldn’t receive enough replacements and resupplies in time. So, 504th RCT, with C Coy 307 AEB, couldn’t partake in operation Overlord, the allied landing in Normandy in June 1944. The unit stayed behind in England to recuperate and train for the next operation.

On September 17, 1944, Lou took part in the airborne landings in the Netherlands, operation Market Garden. He jumped that day with his unit, 504 RCT, near Overasselt, so it could subsequently seize the bridges over the river Maas and the Maas-Waal Canal. In the afternoon of September 19, 3rd Battalion 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment had become divisional reserve of the 82nd Airborne Division. Lou and his colleague engineers, moved with that battalion, via bridge number 7 (near Heumen) to the southern suburbs of Nijmegen. That evening they made camp in the Jonkerbosch. That same night the commanding officer (CO) of 3rd Battalion, Major Julian Aaron Cook, received the order of General Gavin, CO of the 82nd Airborne Division, that his unit had to cross the river Waal the next day with canvas boats, in order to assault and seize the northern embankments of the two bridges near Nijmegen. Lou and his fellow engineers moved the next morning, together with the troopers of the 3rd Battalion, to the southern bank of the Waal, near the powerplant of Nijmegen on the NYMA terrain. They had to wait for the arrival of the canvas boats which had to be transported all the way from depots in Belgium.

Corporal Lou Gentile was part of the 3rd Platoon of C Company. His platoon had to row across the river in the first wave, to deliver I Company 3rd Battalion, 504 Parachute Infantry Regiment on the northern bank of the river Waal. In each of the 26 flimsy boats, three engineers and ten paratroopers were to cross. The engineers, after unloading the para’s, then had to row back to collect the next wave of troopers.

Lou was in the same boat as his platoon commander, 1st Lieutenant Partrick Mulloy. At 15.00 hours the assault commenced with an artillery and tank bombardment and at 15.15 hours the men, hauling their boats, ran to the Waal and then rowed across it. Lou was in the front of the boat and was hit by shrapnel of a 20 mm grenade, just before landing the boat on the opposite bank. He was heavily wounded. His platoon commander lifted him out of the boat and put him down behind some rocks that provided some cover. There Corporal Louis Frank Gentile died of his wounds. He was 28 years of age. He was initially buried in Molenhoek, Nijmegen. Later on request of his family he was repatriated and buried at St. Michael’s Cemetery, in Springfield/Hampden County, Massachusetts, the US.

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• Photo 1: Courtesy of Anthony Innarelli
• Photo 2: Findagrave.com by Mark Wing
• - BEEVOR, A., De Slag om Arnhem, Ambo Anthos, Amsterdam, 2018.
  - LUNTEREN, F. VAN, The Battle of the Bridges, Casemate, 2017.
  - NORDYKE, P., All American All the Way, Zenith Press, St. Paul, United States, 2005.
  - STEENBERGER, D. e.a., De Oversteek, De Gelderlander, Nijmegen, 2013.
  - https://www.oorlogsdodennijmegen.nl/persoon/gentile/57145ab3-fc6d-4b1f-b7de-8c581c3d0938
  - https://www.ancestry.com
  - https://www.uswarmemorials.org/html/people_details.php?PeopleID=31570
  - https://www.honorstates.org/profiles/482962/
  - https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/92644805/louis_frank-gentile
  - https://usairborne.be/accueil/acceuil-fran-ais/82nd-airborne/307thglider-engineer-battalion
  - https://www.geni.com/people/Louis-Gentile/6000000008669323912
  

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