07/05/2025
The Last Full Measure: Honoring the Heroes of VE-Day and the Legacy of Lt. James ‘Maggie’ Megellas
By Maggie Jr. –, May 8, 2025
Eighty years ago today, on May 8, 1945, the deadliest war in human history ended in Europe. Nazi Germany surrendered unconditionally, and the free world breathed a sigh of relief. But behind that hard-won peace was a generation of warriors who bore the weight of civilization on their shoulders. Among them stood Lt. James “Maggie” Megellas and his paratroopers of H Company, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division—men whose courage and sacrifice carried the torch of freedom from the deserts of Africa to the heart of Nazi Germany.
Megellas’ war began in the rugged hills of Italy. After rigorous training in North Africa, the 504th PIR parachuted into the bitter fight at Salerno and later participated in the amphibious assault at Anzio, holding their ground against repeated German counterattacks. It was there that Megellas first distinguished himself as a leader of uncommon bravery—calm under fire, unflinching in danger, and devoted to the lives of the men under his command.
In September 1944, Megellas and H Company parachuted into the Netherlands as part of Operation Market Garden. Their mission: to liberate the Dutch people and secure key bridges across the Rhine. In Nijmegen, while crossing the Waal River under relentless fire, they seized the crucial Waal River bridge in one of the most daring river crossings of the war. Despite the eventual failure of Market Garden to meet all its strategic objectives, the courage of the 504th PIR and the 82nd Airborne Division helped liberate Dutch towns and turned the tide in the Low Countries.
Then came the freezing hell of the Ardennes.
During the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, the 504th was thrown into the breach. In one of the most legendary feats of arms, Megellas led an attack near Herresbach, Belgium, where his platoon destroyed a heavily defended German position and he singlehandedly disabled a German Mark V tank using hand grenades. For this, he was recommended for the Medal of Honor—though, in his modesty, he never dwelled on the recognition. “The real heroes,” he said, “are the ones who didn’t come home.”
In the final weeks of the war, as the 82nd Airborne pressed deep into Germany, H Company was among the first to arrive at the gates of hell: Wöbbelin concentration camp.
The camp, which at its peak held around 5,000 inmates, had seen its population surge in mid-April 1945 due to evacuation transports from other Neuengamme and Ravensbrück subcamps. Over 4,000 prisoners—most already suffering from starvation, typhus, dysentery, and untreated wounds—had been crammed into squalid, hastily built barracks. When Megellas and his men arrived in early May, they found roughly 1,000 dead prisoners and only 3,500 survivors—barely alive, most lying in filth and too weak to stand.
What they discovered defied human comprehension. Starvation had driven some inmates to cannibalism. Bodies lay unburied inside and outside the barracks. The stench of death permeated the air. Those who could still speak begged for water, food, and mercy. The paratroopers of the 82nd—no strangers to death—were stunned by the scale of suffering they encountered.
They acted swiftly. The division forced local German civilians to enter the camp, witness the atrocities, and bury the dead. It was not vengeance—it was justice. The people who had turned away from the cries of their neighbors were now made to see the human cost of their silence.
From the sands of North Africa to the liberation of Italy, from the bridges of the Netherlands to the snows of the Ardennes, and through the gates of Wöbbelin, Megellas and his men went all the way to Berlin. They were there—not just at the end of the war, but at the moment when evil was finally brought low, and freedom stood victorious.
Lt. James Megellas survived the war and lived to 103, becoming the most decorated officer in the history of the 82nd Airborne Division. Yet he remained forever humble, always deflecting praise to the men he led. “I never did anything alone,” he said. But those who served with him—and history itself—tell a different story. One of leadership, fearlessness, and a devotion to duty that did not waver even in the darkest hours.
As we mark the 80th anniversary of VE-Day, let us remember that freedom is never free. It was earned on the beaches of Salerno, crossing the Waal River in Nijmegen, in the frozen woods of the Ardennes, and in the ghostly silence of Wöbbelin.
May we live our lives in a way that honors theirs!!!
