Emmanuel M. Foster was born in 1922 in Canada. His family later moved to Bingham, Maine. He enlisted in the U.S. Army on 30 July 1942 in Bangor, Maine. At that time he still held the Canadian nationality and worked as a crew dispatcher for the railways. After basic training he volunteered for the Paratroopers. After training at Fort Benning, he was assigned to I Company, 3rd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment.

He participated in Operation Market Garden, the airborne landings in The Netherlands, which aimed to capture the bridges over the Waal and Rhine rivers. This would open up the possibility of thrusting north over the Rhine and then into Germany, bypassing the feared Siegfried line.

After the landings and conquering the bridge, British troops would come from the Belgian/Dutch border and thrust north, over the bridges captured by the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions towards Arnhem, where the British 1st Airborne Division was tasked with the capture of the bridge over the Rhine.

On 20 September the 82nd Airborne Division attacked the important Waal bridge in Nijmegen by waterborne assault. In Nijmegen itself, the All Americans were fighting their way to the bridge with the help of British tanks. T4 and his I Company were stationed east of Nijmegen to ward off any German counter attack from the direction of Wyler.

Company I

508th Parachute Infantry Regiment

82nd Airborne Division

3rd Battalion, 508th PIR was ordered to protect the right flank, east of Nijmegen, against German counter attack from the Dutch-German border area. I company constructed several road blocks to block the road running from Beek to Nijmegen. One was located in the centre of the town of Beek. 83 men held this position with two anti tank guns. Strangely enough, this group was led by a Corporal, Cpl Robert Chisolm. All officers and NCO's of his platoon had at that point been wounded and were not able to take command. The reminder of I Company, under command of Lt. Foy Rice, manned road blocks near Kopsehof and the Klokkeberg. This was about two and a half kilometers from Beek.

In the afternoon of the 20th, German artillery started to shell Beek. After 15 minutes, the barrage lifted and the Germans started their expacted counter attack. Beek was defended by approximately 120 paratroopers. The German Kampfgruppe Becker was battalion seized.

The road block near Hotel Spijker was overwhelmed and the troops manning that position could only retreat in full to the hills of Beek en Dal due to well executed delaying tactics. Cpl Chisolm led these movements.

Beek fell after an hour of fighting. One platoon under Lt. Greenawalt stood fast at the Ravensberg. The others retreated. The Germans also attacked the Ravensberg fiercely, now defended by a 30-man platoon. The platoon managed to ward off the attack and force the Germans to take cover in surrounding houses. Meanwhile American artillery rained down on the eastern part of Beek.

map indicating the attack against Beek in which T4 Foster was killed. Map from
"Als sterren van de hemel" by Norbert A. de Groot (pg. 150)

The rest of the day, the Americans fought hard to regain control over the right flank that was attacked from north to south. They were aided by British tanks. Beek was retaken the next day.

T4 Emmanuel Foster was killed defending a roadblock in Beek. He was buried at the Temporary American War Cemetery at Molenhoek, on 23 September 1944. After the war he was first buried at Margraten. In 1947 he was brough back to the U.S. and reburied at Bingham Village Cemetery, Bingham, Maine.

“courtesy of the Find A Grave website
 (www.findagrave.com).”  

Bingham Village Cemetery, Bingham, Maine

See Also:
Pvt William Askren
Pvt Victory Havens

All Casualties of the 508th PIR, 82nd Airborne Division killed in Holland or buried at Margraten

Acknowledgements:
www.508pir.org
www.findagrave.com
NARA AAD
Norbert de Groot, Als Sterren Aan De Hemel, De Gooise Uitgeverij, Weesp 1977

Directions to Bingham Village Cemetery, Bingham, Maine

Posted 1 May 2008

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This website is dedicated to the men and women who died and/or are buried in The Netherlands during World War II.

 

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