Arthur F. Gorham
Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Fulbrook Gorham (January 11, 1915 – July 12, 1943) was a United States Army officer and paratrooper.
He led the unit from its inception until Operation Husky, the July 1943 Allied invasion of Sicily, where he was killed in action.
Clarke followed in his father's footsteps graduating from West Point, serving in an airborne unit, fighting in Vietnam at Khe Sanh and commanding at every level from a platoon to a brigade.
After his high school graduation, having not secured a sought-after appointment to West Point, he attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, for a year where he played football winning his "numeral."
[7] After taking the West Point substantiating examination in February 1934 he spent time at Stanton Preparatory Academy in Cornwall, New York.
[8] While at West Point, Gorham was known for pipe smoking, surviving academics and maintaining a famously clean M1 rifle.
In November 1941 he graduated from the newly created Airborne School receiving a "Certificate of Proficiency" signed by then Major Robert Sink and, more importantly, a set of silver jump wings.
So in February 1942 then-Captain Gorham took his B Company, 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment to Alta, Utah, where the United States was testing the concept of dropping paratroopers into the Alps behind the Germans and having them ski down to attack and harass their lines of communication.
Brigadier General Walt Winton has written: “he exemplified the good commander, demonstrating leadership, concern, initiative, and intelligence.
When the regiment made PCS [permanent change of station] was locked down at Fort Bragg, prior to deployment, Colonel and Mrs. Gorham threw open their quarters on post to shelter the battalion's officers and their wives.The article goes on to report this observation by General Winton: Our radio call signs in that era were assigned rather whimsically, probably by the regimental communications officer, and Art's call sign was Hard-nose.
[20][21]In the summer of 1942 the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment was activated in the tarpaper shack Frying Pan area of Fort Benning, overlooking Lawson Army Airfield.
In Combat Jump: The Young Men Who Led the Assault into Fortress Europe, July 1943 (page 53), Ed Ruggero writes: Like Gavin, Gorham also spoke quietly.
[24] On the night of July 9, 1943, the paratroopers of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment loaded aircraft and departed the coast of North Africa for the island of Sicily.
LTC Gorham congratulated Sayre for capturing an Italian fortified farmhouse and over 20 machine guns and then they began organizing a defense, anticipating an enemy attack from the north on the road from Niscemi.
The paratroopers, following LTC Gorham’s command, allowed the advance guard to close to within point blank range, then opened fire killing or capturing them.
The reasons for the tanks not doing so are not clear, but it is not hard to imagine that the crews were stunned by the volume of fire the troopers put out with their 20 machine guns.
Writing after the war, then-Colonel James M. Gavin, Commander of the 505th PIR, who was fighting with another band of his paratroopers to well to the east of Objective Y, said “Colonel Gorham and his small group of troopers...Accomplished all the missions assigned to the entire regimental combat team.
William B. Breuer in Drop Zone Sicily describes the action: Gorham “grabbed a rocket launcher and edged his way within range of a menacing Tiger Tank which had continued to roll forward.
Gunners in the Tiger spotted the parachute leader and fired an 88mm shell at Gorham at point blank range.
The citation for the Distinguished Service Cross he was awarded for his actions reports: “Lieutenant Colonel Gorham personally manned a rocket launcher and destroyed one tank.
In Phil Nordyke's Four Stars of Valor, page 425, he explains: "Colonel's Gorham's death is listed in Army records as July 11, 1941.
"[35] In his book, On to Berlin (page 47), Gavin wrote "Colonel Gorham and his small group of troopers and the lieutenants from the 3rd Battalion, 504th, accomplished all of the missions assigned to the entire regimental combat team.
"[36] General Ridgway, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, probably put this in the best perspective when he wrote to Gorham's widow: "The action which resulted in his death was typical of his inspiring leadership, for it was he that personally instilled the spirit of the attack at a time that those around him were thinking only of defense, and in person led the attack, which succeeded.
