Chapter 11 - Carnage and Courage
Normandy 1944: The First Crusial Days
Omaha Beach, 116th Regiment, Company A, H-hour 06:30[1]
In the 29th Infantry Division’s sector the first ramps dropped around 06:36 a.m. A Company, 116th Regiment was first on the scene. The men had discovered early on that they would arrive exactly at their predetermined site. But the beach, which should have been dotted with bomb craters in which they could take cover, was completely untouched. In fact, it was entirely without any type of cover, aside from the sprawling German obstacles that were infested with mines.
The company had planned to advance in three rows from each boat. The middle would go first, and then the outer ranks would fall to the sides. The first men tried it but they stumbled and fell, caught in a deadly crossfire that ruthlessly cut down anyone leaving the landing craft. Their blood stained the sea red. The fearsome gunfire came from resistance nests WN 71, WN 72, and WN 73, all situated on the drive to Vierville.
All order was lost. To the men, it seemed that the only way to survive was to throw themselves headfirst into the chest-high water. There, they would fight for their lives, weighed down by their equipment. Some were shot while in the water, succumbed to their wounds, and drowned. Others, badly wounded, dragged themselves onto the beach where they used syringes to inject themselves with pain-relieving medicine, only to be overtaken by the tide and drown a few minutes later. Some managed to reach the beach without being hit. These men discovered they were safer in the water than on the beach, after which some retreated into the sea. Survivors bobbed in the tide with only their heads sticking out, and advanced slowly from one obstacle to another. Many reached the shore this way.
Only seven-to-ten minutes after the ramps dropped, A Company had virtually ceased to exist as a fighting unit and was without leaders. The company was completely deprived of their officers. Lieutenant Clyde N. Gearing[2] was back where one of the company boats had wrecked about 1,000 yards from the beach. Everyone was dead except for Lieutenant Elijah Nance, who had been hit in the heel while leaving the landing craft and in the body once he reached the sand.
Lieutenant Edward Tidrick was struck in the neck as he jumped from the ramp into the water. He flailed in the water he fell, only five yards from Lance Corporal Leo J. Nash. Lieutenant Tidrick stood up to give Nash an order. Nash could see that Tidrick was bleeding profusely from the neck, and heard him shout;
“Go forward with the wire cutters!”
But there was no use; Nash had no barbed wire cutters. The lieutenant had exposed himself for a brief moment as he gave the order, and Nash watched as machine gun fire clove him nearly in half from head to crotch. German machine gunners along the ridge right in front of them were now firing directly down among the men.
The chaos on Omaha beach was now complete. All who was aboard LCA 1015, thirty men from A Company, were killed, including Captain Taylor N. Fellers and Lieutenant Benjamin R. Kearfoot. Exactly what happened to them will probably never be known,[3] but most of them were eventually found floating along the beach. Everywhere men still fought to survive in the water. They discarded their helmets, their gear, and even their weapons to remain buoyant. For each man the invasion had transformed from a well-planned infantry attack into an individual struggle for survival.
A boat carrying a medical crew came into the right of Lieutenant Tidrick’s boat. The Germans mowed them down en masse with machine gun fire. Their bodies washed up along the beach, bloody and grotesque. At this point, all attempts to advance against the enemy had stopped. They attempted to rescue the comrades they could reach, looking anywhere for movement among the leaderless men. The men in the water pushed the wounded in front of themselves to get them to dry land. Those who had already reached land crawled back and forth and pulled men ashore to try and save them from drowning, in many cases only to have them shot out of their hands, or even to be hit themselves.[4]
Second Assault Wave, H-hour 0700
The second assault wave was thrown into the chaos on the blood-splattered Omaha Beach. The adjutant of the 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, Captain Charles M. Hangsterfer,[5] stared into the smoke and the explosions on the beach. With combat experience from North Africa and Sicily, he understood the hell that was waiting for them there. Previous landings had been under the cover of darkness. This time they went in broad daylight. Well-protected artillery, mortars, and machine guns would open up against them on the open beach.
For Hangsterfer and the other men in the staff company, it was no pleasant thought. They would land on Easy Red at 7:00 a.m. Fifty yards from the shore, he saw clearly that the beach obstacles had not been removed. Logs with mines on top were sticking up in all directions.
The dead and maimed lay everywhere young boys, caught off guard by sudden death or the fear of death. Through the combat noise Hangsterfer could hear the heartbreaking screams of the wounded. No one could help them. They were bleeding to death, dying slowly beneath the low, threatening sky. A sky they unconditionally had loved, at least once upon a time, at home. Why must they die, he wondered. Why must they perish alone on this cold, raw, and lonely beach? Their eyes stared feebly. Their hands were cold and gray. Some reached out, grasping for something distant and unseen. God, they might have been thinking, where are you taking me? Everywhere they died. Father left son. Son left father. Brother left brother. Death harvested without regard for age or relation.
This grand morning had become a living nightmare for the two attack regiments of the 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions. A terrible price was paid in the water and along the beach. And it was here on Omaha Beach that Operation Overlord was seriously threatened.[6] The firestorm that raged against the unprotected infantry was indescribable. Everything seemed to come to a halt in paralyzed fear and powerlessness in front of this massive resistance. Wave upon wave of new infantry was thrown into the chaos at Omaha, only to end up trembling in the shelter of the gravel bank or sea wall. Many of the men didn’t even make it that far, as evidenced by the ever-growing number of corpses being dragged ashore by the surf.
Hangsterfer sought cover behind a low wall and attempted to analyze the situation. A great number of soldiers from the first attack wave were still on the beach, but they couldn’t stay there for long; they had to move inland quickly. The engineers used explosives to blow barbed wire off the top of the wall so the men could climb over. Beyond lay a swampy area that had to be overcome before reaching the actual hill behind the beach. Hangsterfer tackled the wall and dropped to the other side. To his amazement, they were not fired upon while climbing. He and the others crossed to the foot of the hill, where they took cover again. He looked around and saw that a large part of the company was missing. Decisively, he ran back and moved along the beach in search of the rest of the company. The scene playing out on the beach was gruesome. He saw burning landing craft, casualties, and wounded soldiers everywhere. Torn limbs, life jackets, rifles, helmets, and other personal belongings lay scattered across the beach. The smoke stung his eyes. And amidst all this chaos, he saw Robert Capa, the famous photographer, busily capturing photos of it all.[7] Hangsterfer collected whatever men he could find and escorted them across the swamp to join the rest of the company.
Omaha Beach, Dog Green, Close to the Vierville exit.
B Company’s first boats landed 26 minutes past H-Hour. Private Robert L. Sales was aboard company commander Captain Ettore V. Zappacosta’s boat.[8] The vessel was hit several times on the way in, but incredibly no one was injured.
But all the smoke, explosions and dead bodies in the water made the British coxswain lose heart.
"We cannot go in there!" he shouted. "We cannot see the landmarks! We have to turn around!”
Zappacosta, the company commander, was furious. He pulled his Colt.45 and aimed menacingly at the coxswain.
"By God, you'll take this boat straight in!"
The terrified coxswain stared blankly at the angry and clearly cursed American, whereupon he found it most sensible to continue as ordered.
The front ramp dropped about 75 yards from the beach, and Captain Zappacosta jumped out first. Sales saw him get hit in the leg and in the shoulder.
“I’m hit!” shouted Zappacosta.
One man in the medical crew, Kenser, shouted back that he would try to get him to the beach, but Zappacosta disappeared under the waves and did not resurface. Kenser jumped in after him but was shot dead mid-leap. Lieutenant Tom Dallas of C Company, who was following B Company to reconnoiter, was next. He reached all the way to the beach, but fate was awaiting him there. He was shot dead only moments after feeling French soil underfoot. Sales started out as the fourth man. He slipped on the ramp and tumbled into the water head-first. This probably saved his life, as he was the only man from Captain Zappacosta’s boat to reach the beach. All the others were either wounded or killed.
After a few yards in the water, he was thrown against a large, floating log. At the same time, a mortar shell exploded nearby and knocked him almost unconscious. Desperate, he grabbed the log and struggled to hold on. Through the foaming water and exploding grenades, a soldier from the A-company came and grabbed him. Resolutely, the soldier pulled out his field knife and cut Sales's jacket off him. Getting rid of the jacket, which had pockets full of water and much more, made it easier for Sales to stay afloat. At the beach, incredibly he had strength enough left to push it up past the high-water mark and use it for coverage. He was the only one from Captain Zappacosta's boat to reach the beach. All the others were either wounded or killed.
Sales watched as a soldier,[9] who had been hit three times in the face, crawled under the log. His face was a single large, open wound. The blood flowed in a stream down into the waves, which crashed over them. A first aid soldier bandaged him as best he could in the inferno.[10] Sales helped another man who had been hit several places in the leg. They all crouched down as best they could while the fighting raged around them. Lifeless bodies washed up to them and back out into the sea again.[11]
***
Inside one of the bunkers in WN 72, up on the hill above Sales and the others, it was chaotic. Karl Wegner felt the heat from the machine gun. He did not know how long he had been shooting at the soldiers in the olive-green uniforms down on the beach. The air in the bunker was breathless. Dust and gunpowder smoke made him hiccup. The smell of oil and sweat was penetrating. His second gunner, his friend, Willi Schuster,[12] worked intensively to ensure that ammunition belts fed into the gun without dirt, which could make them jam. The hammering of machine guns, rifles and exploding grenades was almost unbearable, even with cotton in their ears. Pieces of concrete splashed in through the loophole when projectiles slammed into the concrete. The question was how long they could last.
***
Eight-hundred yards east of the Vierville exit, an LCI[13] came towards the beach. The time was about 7:30 a.m., and the inferno was at its peak. On the packed deck stood Captain Robert Ellis of the 29th Divisional Engineer Troop. He glanced at one of the men who stood near one of the bow ramps. The soldier was carrying flamethrower equipment. As Captain Ellis watched, the man’s fuel tank was struck by enemy fire and in a flash, he was enveloped by a huge fireball. His body stiffened and he was thrown off the deck, over the rail, and into the water. The entire bow was engulfed in flames, and the men began to jump overboard.
Omaha Beach, Easy Red – Saint- Laurent-sur-Mer
It was 8:15 a.m. when the landing craft with the regimental commander of the 16th Regiment, Colonel George A. Taylor, landed on Easy Red. The colonel was not a big man with his 170 cm, but far from a puzzle. He had been with the 1st Division since Africa and was known to be an infantryman throughout. Although his smile looked nice, his blue eyes could almost nail someone to the wall.
The colonel's advanced command group had landed at 7:20 a.m., under the command of Lieutenant Colonel John H. Mathews. According to the plan, they should now have established the regiment's advanced command post a few hundred yards further east than where the colonel himself went ashore. The sight that met Taylor on the beach was more brutal and scarier than he had ever seen.
Higgins' boats drifted aimlessly around, while the water was stained with blood. On the beach there were countless dead bodies that had been blown to pieces. Heads, legs, and arms, torn from the lifeless bodies. A terrible sight, even for the most seasoned.
His second in command, Lieutenant Colonel John H. Mathews, was one of the first to be killed. Thirty-five others of Mathew's group were either wounded or dead. There were bloody bandages, rifles, and equipment strewn everywhere. At the single bank lay dead and wounded soldiers, and men just completely in shock.
Colonel Taylor led his men east along the beach to the place where the advance command post should have been. There was none. Most of the men were locked up on the beach. Taylor's fearless and careless move along the beach gradually attracted the Germans' attention, and machine gun fire swept towards them. Taylor saw the danger of continuing on the beach and paused for a moment. Amid the chaos, a runner came with a message for Taylor. This told him that Lieutenant Spalding had succeeded in blasting an opening in the barbed wire and had moved up the hill from the beach. He had no more than received the message before he got up and shouted to everyone around him:
“Two kinds of people are staying on this beach: the dead and those who are going to die! Now let’s get the hell out of here!”[14]
Encouraged by Colonel Taylor's appearance and powerful words, soldiers rose, one by one, and followed him toward the spot where Spalding and his men had blown the barbed wire barrier and continued up the hill.
Captain Fred Cercke, who led IPW Team No. 24,[15] followed the Colonel. He had decided to always be within sight of Colonel Taylor. To his men in the team, he had given the corresponding message that they should always be within sight of him, to avoid getting away from each other.
They made their way through a narrow path through some minefields and started up the hill. A little way up the hill, they met some prisoners of war, who came carrying their own wounded. They were all affected by the stresses they had been through.
Cercke quickly ordered them out to the side. Declared the area to be a gathering place for prisoners of war and started interrogations there and then. In fluent German, he asked one of the prisoners to see the payroll (Soldbuch). This book was to be always carried by German soldiers in their breast pockets, even when in combat. Cercke flipped through the book and paused for a moment. The surprise was great.
The soldier belonged to the 3rd Company, 914th Infantry Regiment, 352nd Infantry Division. This regiment, and this division, was, as far as he knew, 50 miles further south. They had been told that the only forces they would encounter on the beach were the 726th Infantry Regiment of the 716th Division.
Cercke checked several of the prisoners and found that they all belonged to the same unit. This information was immediately forwarded to the Intelligence Officer of the 16th Regiment and thence to the Division.[16] Captain Cercke sent an immediate message up to the regiment's S-2[17] and Colonel Taylor at the top of the hill. The regiment's command post and first aid station were established on a steep slope that provided good protection against fire from flat trajectory weapons.
The surprising and intense resistance the American forces faced on Omaha Beach was caused by the 352nd Infantry Division. They had not received information about this division's entry into the coastal defense. It was an intelligence loss that cost them dearly.
[1] 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Division
[2] Combat Interview, 29th Infantry Division.
[3] 16 Combat Interview, 116th Infantry Regiment, Co. A.
[4] As the tide would rise about 20 feet between 0600 and 1100 on 6 June, by 0900 it would be going up at more than an inch every minute. This was helpful for retracting landing craft, but dangerous for soldiers taking cover on the beach from German gunfire.
[5] Charles M. Hangsterfer, letter to author.
[6] Overlord was the code name for the Normandy invasion.
[7] Few of Capa’s photos amounted to anything. A processing error ruined most of these images, which in retrospect would have been a unique documentation of the invasion.
[8] Combat Interview 29th Infantry Division.
[9] Mack L. Smith
[10] Kemper
[11] Combat Interview 116, B-Company on D-Day
[12] 3 Company, 914 regiment
[13] Landing Craft Infantry.
[14] After Action Report CT 16 (Part of Combat Interview Headquarters Company CT 16) «The only people on this beach are the dead and those that are going to die. Now let’s get to hell out of here. ” The quote is often mistakenly attributed to General Norman Cota in both film (The Longest Day) and books.
[15] IPW (Interigation of Prisoners of War)
[16] Memorandum to Adjutant, FID, MIS, ETOUSA from IPW Team # 24, MIS ETOUSA, APO # 1, dated 27 June 1944.
[17] S-2 is here the regiment's intelligence officer