Memorial

More information

William Larson was the grandson of Swedish immigrants.

Operation Percy Red was an operation to parachute an Office of Strategic Services group into the Haute Vienne area of German-occupied central France to establish liaison with the local resistance forces.

Under de command of Capt William Larson, the group was tasked to aid the resistance forces in the area. On 1 August the group departed Harrington in the UK in four aircraft, but only one of these found the dropping zone and dropped its load of four men and a significant quantity of weapons and supplies. Two more aircraft made successful drops during the course of the following night, and the last was successful on 5 August. On landing, the first group was scattered over an area of streams and woods, and it took them several hours to assemble at a point at which they were greeted by the local resistance force. This latter had fought a German unit passing through the area, and it took the US and French groups several days to reorganise. When the full 18-man strength of the operational group had been assembled, the Americans moved 50 miles (80 km) to Sussac, the centre of local resistance activities.
On 10 August it was learned a German armoured train was moving from Limoges to repair a section of the railway which had been cut by the resistance. The group located the train, which had stopped at St Germain, and laid demolitions ahead of it. During the morning of the following day the train approached but stopped before reaching the spot rigged for demolition. A firefight then broke out but, with the Germans disconcerted by the fire of a Bren light machine gun, the Americans blew the track and withdrew. In the exchange of fire Capt Larson was fatally wounded.