82ND Airborne John Steele Chapter - Ottawa, IL

Robert and Marylea Dumke


Robert H. Dumke 82ND Airborne 2ND Btn 505 HQ CO

dumke01.mp3
Morris Illinois Radio Interview given by Robert Dumke
About the events of D-Day 1944
505 Veteran Robert H. Dumke - Radio Interview. This also has a small part of Colonel Krause's pre D-Day speech to his troops. (Takes about 20 seconds to begin.)

dumke02.mp3
505 Veteran Robert H. Dumke - Another Radio Interview (takes about 10 seconds to start playing)




Photo taken in Naples Italy after the liberation.  
A gratefull family gave him a bath, washed his uniform, and took this photo with a home made box camera. 
He carried the photo home with him.

www.505rct.org/contents.asp

Left to right
Brothers Bob and Leonard Dumke
Robert H. Dumke 82ND Airborne WWII 2ND BTN 505 HQ CO
Leonard C. Dumke 82ND Airborne WWII 2ND BTN 507 HQ CO








 

 I would like to share a story my Father Robert H Dumke shared with his children (me included) every Christmas Eve. Dad was 82ND Airborne 2ND BTN 505 Battalian Headquarters Co. They were in the Ardennes Forest on Christmas Eve. The line was moving forward. It was very cold and the snow was deep. Headquarters was moving into a home that was occupied by a family, a husband, wife and two small children. For their safety they had to leave their home. Out into the snow and cold with only what they could carry.

It broke Dad's heart. He told the story every Chrismas Eve, quietly to one of us, as he told the story his voice would crack and he would get tears in his eyes. He never got over that night in the Ardennes near Trois-Ponts.

I'm the 82ND Airborne and this is as far as the Bastards are going!
 

List from Robert H Dumke's stick in Market Garden
Jump 53 miles inside hostile territory at Nijmegen, Holland (September 17, 1944)