The Men of World War II
Page 108
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Admiral Ramsay ended his June 6 diary with this entry: “We have still to establish ourselves on land. The navy has done its part well. News continued satisfactory throughout the day from E.T.F. [Eastern Task Force, the British beaches] and good progress was made. Very little news was rec[eived] from W.T.F. [the American beaches] & anxiety exists as to the position on shore.
“Still on the whole we have very much to thank God for this day.”10
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One soldier who did not forget to thank God was Lt. Richard Winters, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne. At 0001 on June 6, he had been in a C-47 headed to Normandy. He had prayed the whole way over, prayed to live through the day, prayed that he wouldn’t fail.
He didn’t fail. He won the DSC that morning.
At 2400 on June 6, before bedding down at Ste.-Marie-du-Mont, Winters (as he later wrote in his diary) “did not forget to get on my knees and thank God for helping me to live through this day and ask for His help on D plus one.” And he made a promise to himself: if he lived through the war, he was going to find an isolated farm somewhere and spend the remainder of his life in peace and quiet. In 1951 he got the farm, in south-central Pennsylvania, where he lives today.11
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“When can their glory fade?” Tennyson asked about the Light Brigade, and so ask I about the men of D-Day.
“O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honor the charge they made!”
• •
General Eisenhower, who started it all with his “OK, let’s go” order, gets the last word. In 1964, on D-Day plus twenty years, he was interviewed on Omaha Beach by Walter Cronkite.
Looking out at the Channel, Eisenhower said, “You see these people out here swimming and sailing their little pleasure boats and taking advantage of the nice weather and the lovely beach, Walter, and it is almost unreal to look at it today and remember what it was.
“But it’s a wonderful thing to remember what those fellows twenty years ago were fighting for and sacrificing for, what they did to preserve our way of life. Not to conquer any territory, not for any ambitions of our own. But to make sure that Hitler could not destroy freedom in the world.
“I think it’s just overwhelming. To think of the lives that were given for that principle, paying a terrible price on this beach alone, on that one day, 2,000 casualties. But they did it so that the world could be free. It just shows what free men will do rather than be slaves.”12
* * *
I. No exact figures are possible, either for the number of men landed or for casualties, for D-Day alone.
II. The parallel with the Maginot Line is obvious but should not be overstressed. As the Wehrmacht went around, not through, the Maginot Line in 1940, we cannot know if it could have been penetrated.
III. A Wehrmacht joke had it that if the plane in the sky was silver it was American, if it was blue it was British, if it was invisible it was ours.
IV. Honan went on: “Now that convinced me of the absolute futility of antiaircraft fire. There was one plane and he flew quite a regular course at a medium altitude with about 20,000 guns firing at him and he did a second circle and went away home.”
To attack the Atlantic Wall, the Allies needed assault landing craft. Andrew Higgins of New Orleans designed the LCVP “Higgins boat” and produced 20,000 of them, one of the great industrial feats of the war. (EISENHOWER CENTER)
There were other production miracles. Here U.S. Army Air Force gliders arrive in England crated in parts (foreground), are uncrated and have their fuselages put together (center), and have their wings attached (top) to complete the assembly. (WIDE WORLD)
All kinds of special craft were designed for D-Day. These are American-made “Ducks,” amphibious vehicles, being checked out after arrival in England. (WIDE WORLD)
American troops got to England in every kind of ship imaginable. The lucky ones rode on the Queen Mary, shown here during a lifeboat drill. In the first half of 1944, the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth brought more than a quarter-million U.S. Army troops to England. (WIDE WORLD)
The numbers of Yanks in Britain grew steadily, disrupting British life in many ways—but some things stayed the same. May 1944: Americans on maneuver, on Rockstone Road, Bassett, Southampton, while British civilians carry on. (IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM)
Training was intense and realistic. Here Supreme Commander Dwight Eisenhower and ground commander General Bernard Montgomery watch a tank exercise in March 1944. (U.S ARMY SIGNAL CORPS)
While the assault forces trained, the air forces pounded the French railway system. Here B-26 Marauders of the U.S. Ninth Air Force attack railway yards in northern France, May 2, 1944, as a part of the “Transportation Plan.” By June 6 over 76,000 tons of bombs had been dropped on rail targets. (IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM)
Landing craft at Southampton, June 1, 1944, part of the enormous buildup in southern England for the invasion. These are LCTs (Landing Craft Tanks) and LCHs (Landing Craft Headquarters). (IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM)
British Royal Engineers coming aboard an LCI (Landing Craft Infantry). (WIDE WORLD)
American LSTs (Landing Ship Tanks) at Brixham loading up for the invasion, May 27, 1944 (WIDE WORLD).
GIs line up for cigarettes just before loading up on the landing craft. One soldier said, “No, thanks. I don’t smoke.” “You might as well take them,” the quartermaster replied, “because by the time you get where you’re going, you will.” He was right. (WIDE WORLD)
Men from the 4th Division, U.S. First Army, loading up on an LCI, June 2. The weather was fine, although the wind was coming up. (WIDE WORLD)
A prayer service on an LCI. “Priests were in their heyday,” a coastguardsman recalled. “I even saw Jews go and take communion.” The censor has blacked out the division shoulder patches. (WIDE WORLD)
Ike with the 101st Airborne at Greenham Common, 1900 hours, June 5. Lt. Wallace Strobel has the card carrying his plane number, 23, around his neck. “Go get ’em,” Ike is saying. (U.S ARMY SIGNAL CORPS)
LCT 763 moves toward shore as USS Arkansas opens fire with her 12-inch guns. Arkansas, commissioned in 1912, was one of the “old ladies.” “This was more firepower than I’ve ever heard in my life,” said a correspondent who later covered Korea and Vietnam. “Most of us felt that this was the moment of our life, the crux of it.” General Omar Bradley said of the initial salvo from the warships, “I never heard anything like it in my life.” (IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM)
USS Nevada opens fire with her ten 14-inch guns. Nevada had survived Pearl Harbor, the only battleship to get underway on December 7. (U.S. NAVY)
At 0537 a half-dozen German E-boats made the only Kriegsmarine attack of D-Day when they dashed in as close to the Allied fleet as they dared and unleashed a volley of torpedoes. The only hit was on Svenner, a Norwegian destroyer. “A flash of explosion occurred amidships,” an observer recalled, “followed by . . . the burst of fire and smoke that shot high into the air. Svenner broke amidship and sank.” (U.S. COAST GUARD)
A weapons carrier moves through the surf to Utah Beach, its antiaircraft gun pointed skyward. No German planes appeared. (U.S. ARMY SIGNAL CORPS)
Utah Beach, seen from above about midmorning, June 6. Thanks to the air and naval bombardment, and to the airborne troops behind the German lines, at Utah the assault went close to schedule. (WIDE WORLD)
Men from the 4th Infantry Division moving ashore at Utah, late afternoon, June 6. (U.S. COAST GUARD)
Although the landing at Utah was relatively easy, there were casualties. Here medics give first aid to wounded troops at Les Dunes de Madeleine. (U.S. ARMY SIGNAL CORPS)
Gliders bringing in reinforcements and supplies to the 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions behind Utah Beach on the afternoon of June 6, over troops from the 4th Division at Les Dunes de Madeleine. (U.S. ARMY SIGNAL CORPS)
There are no photographs of the airborne night landings and action, and precious few of the paratroope
rs’ fights on June 6. Here some Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne meet some local belles in Ste.-Marie-du-Mont, behind Utah Beach, the morning of June 7. (U.S. ARMY SIGNAL CORPS)
A Higgins boat set afire by a German machine gun. The coxswain, Coastguardsman Delba Nivens of Amarillo, Texas, managed to get the craft safely ashore, unload the men, put out the fire, and return to the transport for another load. (U.S. COAST GUARD)
Unidentified troops in a Higgins boat moving into Omaha Beach, about midmorning, June 6. (U.S. ARMY SIGNAL CORPS)
Robert Capa of Life magazine went in with the second wave at Easy Red sector, Omaha Beach, with Company E, 16th Regiment. He took 106 pictures, got off the beach and back to Portsmouth late on June 6, then took the train to London and turned in the film for development. The darkroom assistant was so eager to see the photos that he turned on too much heat while drying the negatives. The emulsions melted and ran down. Only eight photos survived. Here are two of them. (WIDE WORLD)
(WIDE WORLD)
The first waves of GIs at Omaha were hit by a tremendous barrage of machine-gun and rifle bullets, 88mm and 75mm cannon, exploding mines, mortars, and hand grenades. Company A of the 116th Regiment was the first ashore—and took more than 90 percent casualties. Here a shell-shocked soldier of the 16th Regiment collapses by the chalk cliff below Colleville. (TWO PHOTOS: U.S. ARMY SIGNAL CORPS)
Men from the 16th Regiment under the cliff below Colleville. At this point, about 0800, the assault plan at Omaha was dead, and the troops—who had lost their weapons in getting ashore—were leaderless and dispirited.
General Dwight David Eisenhower, Supreme Commander Allied Expeditionary Force. (U.S. ARMY SIGNAL CORPS)
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel on an inspection trip to the Atlantic Wall, early May 1944. “Our only possible chance will be at the beaches,” he declared after taking command of Army Group B in France in January. He was a whirlwind of activity, full of determination. (EISENHOWER CENTER)
Rommel ordered mines of all types, as well as barbed wire and wooden and metal obstacles, placed along the beaches. Here German troops run for cover as an Allied reconnaissance aircraft flies low over the beach. By mid-May a half-million obstacles were in place. (IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM)
Belgian gates were underwater at high tide, topped with mines. These were piled up by American bulldozers on Utah Beach on June 8. (U.S. ARMY SIGNAL CORPS)
The Germans poured millions of tons of concrete into the Atlantic Wall. This fortified position, at St.-Marcouf behind Utah Beach, had steel-reinforced concrete walls thirteen feet thick. Despite furious air and naval attacks it was still firing on D-Day plus two. (U.S COAST GUARD)
Wounded men from the 1st Division at Omaha Beach. (U.S. ARMY SIGNAL CORPS)
Survivors from a destroyed Higgins boat are helped onshore. This may have been the only battle in history in which the wounded were brought forward, toward the front line, for first aid from the medics. (U.S. ARMY SIGNAL CORPS)
By midday, junior officers and noncoms had taken charge and led small groups of men up the bluff at Omaha. By 1400, men from the 29th and 1st divisions were working their way inland. Here troops disembark from a Higgins boat. On the beach are half-tracks and a Duck. (U.S. ARMY SIGNAL CORPS)
Once the beachhead was won, the Allies had a seemingly inexhaustible flow of reinforcements to bring into the battle. Here a Sherman tank unloads from an LST at Omaha Beach, June 8. (U.S. ARMY SIGNAL CORPS)
A part of the price of victory. Coastguardsmen haul a sailor up over the side of their landing craft; he had survived the sinking of his Higgins boat after it hit a mine off Omaha Beach. (U.S. COAST GUARD)
The coxswain of this Higgins boat was hit by machine-gun fire off Omaha Beach. He is being moved from his craft to a Coast Guard transport for treatment and eventual transfer to England. (U.S. COAST GUARD)
An LCT brings out wounded assault troops from Omaha Beach. They were taken to LSTs serving as hospital ships, then to England. Total Allied casualties were about 4,900 killed, wounded, and missing. Of these, more than 2,000 were hit on Omaha. (U.S. COAST GUARD)
The cliff at Pointe-du-Hoc. The rangers climbed it in the face of fierce resistance. Returning to the scene ten years later, the CO, Col. James Earl Rudder, asked a reporter, “Will you tell me how we did this?” (COURTESY OF MRS. JAMES EARL RUDDER)
A portion of the battleground at Pointe-du-Hoc. Rudder’s men took fearful casualties driving the Germans out of their fortifications—but by 0900, June 6, they had accomplished their objective, the destruction of the big guns. (COURTESY OF MRS. JAMES EARL RUDDER)
The face of the enemy. Old men and boys made up much of the Wehrmacht manning the Atlantic Wall. Great care had to be taken in offering and accepting a surrender on D-Day. U.S. Ranger Alban Meccia wrote, “I saw a German officer shoot one of his men in the back when he started to walk over to us with his hands up. One of our guys saw a flag of surrender, and stood up to wave to the Germans to come on over, and was shot between the eyes.” (IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM)
Poles and Czechs—Ost battalion troops—on Utah Beach, gathered for transfer to the LST in the background for shipment to England. There are lots of smiles—but these prisoners later expressed their disappointment at being sent to POW camps in England rather than the United States. (U.S. COAST GUARD)
“For you the war is over,” and these German POWs—officers and enlisted men—couldn’t be happier. (U.S. COAST GUARD)
A badly damaged German fortification at Omaha Beach, showing the extent of the steel reinforcing rods and the thickness of the concrete. This fortification looked down on Easy Red sector and had a 75mm cannon that fired through the morning. It was finally put out of action by infantry tossing grenades into it. (U.S. ARMY SIGNAL CORPS)
A German soldier lies dead outside a machine-gun emplacement he so vainly defended on Utah Beach near Les Dunes de Madeleine. (U.S. ARMY SIGNAL CORPS)
A young American, two even younger Germans at Utah Beach. Hitler had bet that his youth, deliberately raised for this moment in his totalitarian society, would outfight the soft, spoiled children of democracy. Hitler lost the bet. (U.S. ARMY SIGNAL CORPS)
Maj. Gen. Percy Hobart attached all types of gadgets to the British tanks, this one a flail tank. The steel chains thrashing ahead of the rotating drum would set off mines harmlessly. (IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM)
Another of “Hobart’s funnies,” this one a thirty-foot metal bridge that folded in half. The Americans were scornful of such devices, but the British used them to good effect on their beaches. (IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM)
(IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM)
British troops from the 50th Division debarking from LCIs at Gold Beach, midday of June 6. (IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM)
Troops from the 9th Canadian Brigade, 3rd Canadian Division, going ashore at mid-morning on Juno Beach. The Canadians on D-Day paid the Germans back for Dieppe. They made the deepest penetrations of any Allied force. (IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM)
Arromanches and its artificial harbor, code name Mulberry, on the right flank of Gold Beach, in a photograph taken in September 1944. There was a similar artificial harbor off Omaha Beach, but it was destroyed by a gale between June 19 and 22. Between June 6 and 16, the Americans landed 278,000 men and 35,000 vehicles at Omaha, while the British had put ashore 279,000 men and 46,000 vehicles at Gold. (IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM)
Commandos from Lord Lovat’s Special Service Brigade landing at La Brèche on Sword Beach. Sherman DD (Duplex Drive) amphibious tanks are leading. (IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM)
Men of No. 4 Commando advancing in Ouistreham, supported by Sherman DD tanks still wearing their skirts. After taking Ouistreham in house-to-house fighting, the commandos moved inland to link up with the 6th Airborne Division. (IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM)
British casualties from the South Lancashire and Middlesex regiments being helped ashore on Queen White sector of Sword Beach, about 0750, June 6. (IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM)
Gliders of the British 6th Airborne Division near Ranville, about a kilometer from Peg
asus Bridge. Of the 355 gliders that took part in British airborne operations on D-Day, 100 pilots were killed or wounded. (IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM)