Which Beach is It?

We were constantly wondering where Dad actually landed as we were walking Omaha beach. There were multiple reasons for this given the general lack of available information at the time. First, the 467th AAA was deployed up and down the beach for general protection and assistance of the landing forces. Second, due to beach congestion issues, smoke, confusion many of the LCTs came ashore in unintended locations west and east of the St. Laurent location.

After our trip, in the last few months of 2011 actually, I was lucky to find records of the actual LCTs that carried the 467th AAA units and was able to piece together some of the puzzle. Also Hyman Haas’ biography helped tremendously since he was in the same Platoon of Battery A and in the same LCT that morning.

Dad landed as part of Unit 4, 1st Platoon of the 467th AAA Battery A which was the first 467th AAA Battery to land. The 467th AAA AW Battalion was attached to many different landing groups through the D-Day landings and often due to reduced air threats ended up applying their weapon carriages to the defenses in the hills.

As some 467th AAA Battery level organization background, there are 2 tracks to a unit an M15 and M16 and there are 16 tracks in all for a total of 8 units/16 halftracks in the Battery A commanded by Captain Napier at the time of the landing. There is a command unit.

From one record here was the plan:

6 June 1944 - Entire Battalion (less residue) landed on Beach 46, near St Laurent-sur-Mer, France as follows: Battery "A" 0830 or around H+120.

From my Dad’s oral record he says he was in around 0840-0900 (Hyman Haas predicts earlier 0800-0830 but there is likely a little slop here in the recollections). But its almost certain he wasn’t in one of the pushed back LCTs due to beach congestion or damage and he remembered going in with Captain Napier so this eliminates quite a few other LCTs. My Dad’s Sergeant was Robert Stratman and in an email from Hyman Haas he indicated that the unit was right behind them on the same LCT. Being in the same Platoon this likely makes sense and probable. From Hyman Haas’s account it sounds like the first platoon also moved to the right upon landing and was located near the middle-west edge of Easy Red.

From Hyman Hass’ Bio

“We left Portland harbor at about 8PM amidst much whistle blowing, it seemed as if every ship was blowing its fog horn. There were ships and boats of every description everywhere. I couldn't help reflecting that we had, since leaving Exmouth seen and were part of one of the greatest spectacular events ever. At this time during our departure from the port of Portland the scene of all those ships were overwhelming. Fast Cutters pulled up nearby and men with megaphones were shouting "GOOD LUCK" at us. They were cheering at us and we were cheering back. We took our place in a long line of LCTs and made our way into the English Channel. By the time it got dark I decided that I had better get some sleep. Up to this point I had given little thought of what the landings might entail. The thought that I might be killed or wounded never entered my mind. The spectacle was too overwhelming and besides I had so many details to see to that I had no other thought than to digest and memorize all the information that was given to me. I fell asleep immediately. Sometime later I was shaken awake by our Corporal; "Get Up, Getup, We're turning back, the invasions been called off." After I fully woke I went to our 1st Sergeant who told me the operation was probably postponed because of the weather. The weather looked good to me. I could feel no rain, spray yes. As there was nothing I could do about it I went back to sleep and when I awoke we were back in the same spot we were in before we left. I didn't know whether to be disappointed, or not.

     I can't recall the hour when we were told that the invasion was on again. That evening we repeated the departure scene over again. The same activities and spectacle. This time I didn't go to sleep. Again I couldn't tell the time when we heard the motors of hundreds of Planes. We couldn't see then as it was pitch black, we couldn't see our hand in front of our eyes. We kept on sailing our excitement rising. Whatever spectacle we had witnessed before would soon be replaced with another kind. In those latitudes there was only about 4 hours of dark at night. We first saw the first glimmers of light very early that morning and as it got lighter ships of all kinds became visible. Destroyers, Cruisers and Big Battleships. There were Ocean liners and men were climbing over the sides on nets and into small Higgins boats and then they started circling. We had stopped near a big Battle ship. At about 05:30, or so I think, it could have been earlier. The Battle Ship let go a salvo with all its big 15 inch guns. I had always wanted to hear what one of those salvos sounded like. The sound wasn't like the distant thunder I had imagined. It was like a very loud rifle shot with plenty of concussion. A sharp crack. Then the shell could be seen as all the shots were tracer. We then heard the Bombers overhead. They were to bomb the beaches. There seemed to be no end to them and all the cannonading from all the naval vessels acting as field artillery. To our right about a half mile away a LCT with rockets let go with all they had. Between the Battleship and the Rocket LCT we were witness to some terrific Bombardment. We were told that the battleship was actually firing in support of the Utah Beach landings. We never found out the name of the battle ship, perhaps she was the Texas.

     06:30 the bombardment stopped, with the Airforce and the off shore bombardment so terrific we couldn't see how anything could be left alive on the beach. We also knew the engineers had landed so they could blow up any beach obstacles. The morning though overcast was showing lots of light, we couldn't see the shore as there was much fog and smoke. All we knew was the first men were ashore. We couldn't estimate how far from shore we were, but at 07:00 AM a boat pulled near and again a man with a megaphone yelled at us;"Go On In, GOOD LUCK. Well that started us off. We began our run onto Omaha Beach.

     The run in took at least a half hour and probably more. We had no idea of what was happening on the beach, except as I looked over the side I saw the body of a GI floating by. A short while later a shell exploded about 20 feet away on my side. Somebody had targeted us. There were one or two more shots and Captain Napier yelled that everyone should keep our heads down during the run. We were near the beach I still couldn't see what was ahead, except that the smell of smoke was heavy. We could clearly hear the distinctive sound of German Machine guns. They had such a high rate of fire they sounded like a burp and that's how they got the name burp guns. We had long ago been told that and now we were hearing the sound again. We had found a clear spot through the obstacles and made for shore and soon the ramp was down and we started our motors. Every motor started and soon we were ready to land. Someone gave out with a Rebel Yell and our 1st Sergeant who had been looking out in the front of the LCT shouted back; "Shut up you shmuck! In a minute you may be dead!" The Captain's command Halftrack was off first and as he got on to the beach he turned right (West). We all followed suit. I found we weren't exactly on shore as when we went in I was sitting in the cab of the Half track with the driver and the water went up to my chin, I grabbed my rifle and the driver's Thompson machine gun and held them over my head. I thought the driver would be completely under water. But he wasn't and we were soon ashore and we turned right and made for our place 30 feet from the vehicle ahead of me. My M16 was soon 30 feet behind me. In minutes the entire platoon was ashore. The noises of mortars and German Machine guns were louder and as I looked ahead the shore was littered with landing ships and craft. All aflame. I didn't know where to look first when I looked up on the Bluffs ahead and spotted a bunker that looked to me to be built into the hills. At the same time I also spotted an American officer with a full handle bar mustache and wearing shiny cavalry boots running towards me pointing at that German Bunker. Captain Napier was standing near me and he said "Go Get it.. I immediately saw we couldn't fire ahead because of our barracks bags being piled up in front so I ran into the surf and signaled my two Half tracks to follow me into the surf. They caught on immediately and turned right and drove into the surf deep enough to cover our tracks and wheels. I took up a position behind the rangefinder and in an instant we opened fire. We missed our first three shots as a shell went past us. I made an adjustment on the rangefinder and the next 15 shots went right into the gun port of the bunker. All the time my M16 were firing their 4 50 caliber machine guns at the bunker. No doubt the Bunker was dead.

     Breathing heavily with excitement I recalled the Halftracks out of the surf and now we were standing by and we could see the results of the German machine gun, mortar and artillery fire. There was complete Chaos on the beach in front of us. On our right all Giant LSTs, LCTs, LCIs were afire and exploding ammunition. It was difficult to see if any one was alive in, or on the ships and craft. To our left on the shore were tremendous amount of dead and wounded soldiers lying about in all positions, as we looked further we could see parts of bodies, arms legs, heads. We made our way through this Valley of death taking machine gun and mortar hits and adding to the casualties. We went through a blown hole in a wall, many of our GIs had taken cover by this wall and they died in groups or just been blown apart. We made our way through the opening of the wall and found ourselves on soft beach sand. and then the mortaring began . The sound of their coming sounding like the fluttering of a small birds wings I noticed an infantryman jump into a fox hole and a mortar shell went in with him.We were out of our Halftracks and under them for cover, some of the mortars flew right into three of our tracks. Suddenly the mortaring stopped and then A large LST blew up and sent a large amount of burning oil over our heads putting the bluffs ahead of us on fire. It seemed to me that every thing was on fire and that it wouldn't be long before we would all be dead. Panic wasn't far away. Somehow we kept together and soon we got the order to proceed ahead to the Beach exit and ride to the top of the bluffs. The Beach exit was called Exit E 1 and it led to the town of St. Laurent. On the way up the road we paused in front of the bunker we had knocked out and there were two wounded German soldiers lying on the parapet of the bunker: one of them was vomiting blood. As we waited to go on Macneil the Chief of section 2 ran over to me and shouted "Hey that's your bunker." For a while I thought he was accusing me of killing the Germans. Of Course he wasn't. Everyone was in a keen sense of excitement. We all were gasping for breath even though we weren't moving. We moved on away from the unsettling scene of the dying German soldiers. We Made our way to the top of the bluffs and soon the sounds of battle began to recede from our area and we began to breath a little freer. But not for long. We had dug foxholes and, from force of habit in training, a latrine. It was that latrine that a sniper took aim at. He wasn't a good shot as he missed whomever he aimed at, but whoever used that latrine had a shot aimed at him. We knew about the sniper and we couldn't locate him. Still whoever came to us and asked where our latrine was we pointed at it and sent the guy to it. A shot was followed by near hysterical laughter as the latrine user began to scatter away. None of us could explain why it was that we never warned any one away. We actually were looking for the sniper to show himself and he did to one of our men in another section who aimed his 4 50 caliber machine guns at him and stopped the comedy. We were off the beach and the sun came out and warmed us. We were soaking wet most of the day and now we began to dry. The most depressing thought we had was that what we had endured even though it seemed we had won a toehold on the beach was this day was only the beginning. We had no sense of victory, only dread. We had seen war up front there was nothing ahead but more of the same.. We weren't wrong.

     We stayed on the top of the bluff, a sort of plateau where eventually an airfield was built, three, or four days without any incident aside from the spectacular displays of AA fire coming from the ships anchored off the beach. Some, not many, German bombers came in after dark and dropped bombs, or tried to bomb the ships. I watched the display as we were told not to fire at night from our position. I recall the one time a lone german plane scored a hit. The ship blew up with a terrific explosion that turned the area blood red. The strange thing was that all the ships were firing and did so every time a german plane come buzzing over the ships. The sky was literally filled with tracers and explosions and not once did they bring a german plane down. At that position we sort of recouperated from the trauma of the landings. I recall the first food we ate was over 36 hours since our last meal. As armored and mobile troops we carried plenty of food and the utensils to cook though at that time we had the 10 and 1 rations which weren't bad. In addition we were issued, before we left the marshalling area, some sort of concentrated Chicken Soup which came in a self heating container. To heat the soup we pulled a string, or something and the soup heated. We each were issued 4 cans. and that was the first food we ate when we finally simmered down. The soup was delicious and we wolfed down three each before we decided to stop. After that we sort of normalized we took the waterproofing off our Half Tracks and made coffee. We had lots of ground coffee and we kept a pot on our stove. We also were issued a small two burner gasoline stove that you had to pump up before you lit it. We even gave passing Generals coffee.

       We would have been satisfied to stay in that spot for the duration but we got our march order after three, or four days. Our position atop the bluff felt like home, we never went far from it, not even to go back and look the landing beaches over. We'd seen enough of the landing Beach.”

The following map is an overlay map I made of what i could gather of landings from LCT after actions and verbal histories from 467th members.

Red is likely the rough area for the 2nd Platoon which landed slightly later on the famed LCT-30 and met with significant resistance. Blue is my best estate of the 1st Platoon area (Capt Napier had all halftracks go right (west after landing)) and this could have kept them out of some harm. To shoot at WN65 means likely Sgt Haas would have to have moved slightly east into position in the surfline after being told to go after it in order to get a clear shot at the gun. The LCT for platoon 1 was bound for Easy Green but could have easily drifted East into Easy Red territory as many LCTs in this area drifted Eastward that day.

 

HEADQUARTERS

FIRST UNITED STATES ARMY

APO 230

GENERAL ORDERS NO. 58 15 September 1944 Technician Fifth Grade Prue M. Collier, Medical Detachment, 467th AAA Battalion (SP), United States Army, for gallantry in action on 6 June 1944, in France. Early on D-Day, Technician Fifth Grade Collier, landing with his platoon on Omaha Beach under devastating enemy artillery, mortar, machine gun and rifle fire, completely disregarded his own safety to render aid to the wounded. He continually exposed himself to the incessant enemy fire for a period of 5 hours despite the pain from serious leg wounds and it was not until additional aid men had arrived that he agreed to be evacuated. The spirit of self-sacrifice of Technician Fifth Grade Collier in disregarding his own safety and injuries in order to help his comrades saved many lives and was an outstanding factor in maintaining the morale of the men on his beach. By command of Lieutenant General HODGES:

HEADQUARTERS FIRST UNITED STATES ARMY APO 230 GENERAL ORDERS NO. 64 28 September 1944 Sergeant David M. Feit,Corporal Charles B. Patton,Private Glenn D. Bussard,Private Ben G. Clay, 467th Antiaircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion (SP), United States Army, for gallantry in action against the enemy on 6 June 1944, in France. Their platoon was pinned down on the beach on D-Day by very heavy machine gun fire, when a landing craft loaded with infantrymen struck an underwater obstacle nearby and overturned, throwing all the men in to the deep sea. The enemy immediately directed machine gun fire on the men struggling in the water, but these men voluntarily and courageously left their relatively safe place on the beach and swam out through the heavy fire to aid the wounded and drowning men. They assisted in rescuing some 15 infantrymen and by their heroism set an inspiring example to the men of their unit. By command of Lieutenant General HODGES:

HEADQUARTERS XIX CORPS APO 270 GENERAL ORDERS NO. 43 11 October 1944 Captain Raymond T. Napier, Coast Artillery Corps, 467th Antiaircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion (SP), United States Army, for gallantry in action against the enemy in Normandy, France. On 6 June 1944, Captain Napier, landing on the beach at 0840 hours, despite numerous beach obstacles and intense machine gun fire, immediately set out to locate a well protected position for those of his vehicles which had cleared the landing craft. Moving steadily inland under intense enemy fire, Captain Napier, making quick decisions based on his reconnaissance, was able to move his vehicles so that they were never hit by enemy artillery fire. Captain Napier's leadership and disregard for his own safety contributed immeasurably to the establishment of the beachhead and reflect great credit upon himself and the military service. (Award made posthumously.) By command of Major General CORLETT:

HEADQUARTERS FIRST UNITED STATES ARMY APO 230 GENERAL ORDERS NO. 10 17 January 1945 Captain Paul N. McCarthy, 467th Antiaircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion (SP), United States Army, for gallantry in action against the enemy on 6 June 1944, in France. On D-Day, Captain McCarthy's battery was subjected to concentrated 88mm and mortar fire. Many vehicles carrying vital supplies of ammunition received direct hits. The resulting fires and explosions threatened the lives of his men and necessitated the constant shifting of the vehicles. At great personal risk, Captain McCarthy, braving the enemy fire, personally directed the unloading of ammunition and evacuation of the vehicles. By his heroic actions and courageous leadership, Captain McCarthy reflected great credit on himself and the military service. By command of Lieutenant General HODGES Next: Snails on the Hills

First Look at Normandy Beaches

Our first view of the Omaha Beach area was beautiful and we stopped by directly on the way from Cherbourg in our rental car. There was a beautiful set of memorials to many of the Allied units and participants that had landed at the Vierville draw entrance and we walked through and read many of these monuments. Then we walked down the beach for quite awhile.

John and I felt we needed to give Dad some time alone to walk and reflect so we gave him some private space as he began walking down the beach and looking around. You could tell he was in deep reflection. After awhile he called us over so we rejoined him.

Dad wanted to take some of the sand back home with him so we had several film canisters with us that he began loading up with sand form Omaha. John and I also each filled up some canisters to bring home.

We walked up and down the beach for awhile exploring each draw and open space. In this Western section there were sidewalks and homes above parts of the beach since 1944 but it was still a fairly quite and serene beach and we were instantly impressed that things had not been overdeveloped over the 50 years since the landings.

The hills are still filled with bunkers, interlaced underground passages, and interesting artifacts. Its hard to erase the huge engineering efforts that went into setting up such an extensive German defense system and the scars that were also left from the liberating forces fighting their way off the beaches.

 

 

Next: Which Beach is It?

Port en Bessin: Our Normandy Home Base

Port-en-Bessin

A port village nestled between the American and British Landings became our “home base” of operations for the several days we explored the surrounding area. Hotel de la Marine was comfortable and we enjoyed the food, the town, and the general peacefulness of the town was relaxing and a perfect match for our moods.

A canal system comes from the ocean port into the center of town since the tides shift so dramatically this canal is required to keep the docked boats afloat at low tide. Here is Dad and I looking back into town and part of the Hotel de la Marine is on the right of us.

This was hotel were years ago Jean and Clara had driven Sandra and I from Angers for an overnight trip. Great food and a nice typical Normandy sea town. I absolutely love this place. They had done renovations which made it even nicer.

The town has a number of nice local shops for pastries and places for galettes (see later story). The Hotel de la Marine served a nice dinner back then and we splurged which was perhaps the best meal of the trip.

Here were are out on the pier jutting into the Ocean to the left are the cliffs above which we saw all the snails climbing through the grass in the morning that is discussed in another article.

I noticed that this plaque has been erected on the town pier for the 60th Anniversary commemorated the fact that the town was a major fuel supply area important to supporting fuel importing for the later inland campaigns.

 

 

Next: First Look at Normandy Beaches

Sainte-Mere-Eglise

On the way from Cherbourg was Sainte-Mere-Eglise and we stopped there for awhile to look at the town. The 467th AAA had moved to protect this area and other surrounding towns, Carentan and Isgny, in the weeks directly following the D-Day landings.

Some of the earliest landings by paratroopers at 0130 on June 6, 1944 occurred here and the buildings in town were on fire that night, likely from pre-raid bombings, making easy targets of the descending paratroopers. Many landed in the fires or were caught hanging from trees and poles and shot before they could cut loose. The German were also alerted in this area that something was up.

Paratrooper, John Steele, got caught on the spire of the town church, and could only observe the fighting going on below. He hung there for two hours, pretending to be dead, before the Germans took him prisoner. Steele later escaped from the Germans and rejoined his division when US troops of the 3rd Battalion, 505 Parachute Infantry Regiment and attacked the village with great success.

Who can forget the parachutist representing John Steele’s situation hanging from the Church steeple played by Red Buttons in the “The Longest Day”. The locals have immortalized the scene by keeping a replica hanging from the church to this day. Its right behind us in the below picture if you look closely.

Next: Port en Bessin: Our Normandy Home Base

The Ferry to Cherbourg

The next step in our journey to partially trace Dad’s pathway through Europe was to cross the English Channel.

We took a morning ferry from Portsmouth to Cherbourg, France and arrived in the afternoon. We reach Normandy soil via the sea just as Dad had done but as Dad said on the ferry trip over “Its alot nicer this time!”

We see the famous HMS Victory (we actually toured the previous day) and HMS Warrior on the docks.

We walk the decks and enjoy the fresh air and there is a a feeling of silent anticipation as we approach the Normandy Coast. As we look around, John and I try to imagine the sight of seeing ships “as far as the eye can see” crossing the Channel.

 

 

Next: Sainte-Mere-Eglise