(extracts from book S. Ambrose)
"On the beach, General Cota began to encourage men and small groups to move, saying, "Don't get killed on the beach, if you have to die, go on the cliff, but get out of here or you're sure to stay there forever." To Captain Raaen (of the 5th Ranger Battalion Commanding Cie), he said, "Your men are Rangers, I know you will not let go."
Cota went to find Colonel Schneider (commanding the 5th Rangers Battalion) at his PC on the pebbly slope. Cota remained standing; so was Schneider.
According to one witness, Cota said, "We're counting on you Rangers to open the road." Sergeant Fast, Schneider's interpreter, remembers Cota saying, "I expect the Rangers to open up the road."
Although Cota said exactly, the Rangers' motto has become: "The Rangers open the road" ("Rangers lead the way"). It's a good, well-earned motto, but as it implies that the Rangers have come ahead, it needs a focus.
The Rangers didn't think they needed a kick from General Cota to move forward. "There was no or little apprehension to cross the barbed wires and climb the hill," recalls Corporal Gale Beccue of B/5Ran. "We had done this so many times in training that it was a habit." A soldier and he did their job, they placed an explosive pole "bangalore" under the barbed wires, opened a passage, and then they came forward. They met with little opposition: "The Germans had had to retreat to prepare positions back." Meanwhile, German artillery concentrated on the following ships (LCI 91 and 92), making the beach "a lot worse than when we landed there."
As for the motto of the Rangers who would like them to have opened the road to the 116th Reg., it must be agreed that the first company organized to have climbed on the cliff of Vierville is the company C/116. By the time the Rangers landed, many 116th partyers had already left. They preceded the Rangers.
This is a detail, the Rangers certainly did not intend to minimize the role of the 116th when they adopted their motto, but the fact is that it shockes some survivors of the 116th Regiment.
As Captain Raaen crossed the barbed wires while driving his men, he remembers, "There was little Tony Vullo, the smallest of the battalion, lying in the ruins of a small fort, the pants lowered, and being treated for the buttocks wounded by a bullet." He had been hit by a single bullet that had crossed his two buttocks leaving four separate holes. "Of course, the guys made fun of him by passing by."
For sure, climbing the cliff was done safely. Lieutenant Dawson and his section of company D/5Rgr were in this case. He reached the top, ran parallel to the coast along the ridge, firing or throwing grenades at the Germans in the trenches below.
As he climbed, Captain Raaen's headquarters company was blocked by the firing of a machine gun. Lieutenant Dawson saw where it came from. It was 75m below the ridge of the cliff, held by two men. Dawson pushed his shooter to the BAR gun, but the Germans saw him and killed him.
Dawson took over the BAR, attacking the position by pulling the gun to the hip. The 2 terrified Germans jumped out of their fort and fled up the cliff but Dawson shot them both.
That cleared Raaen. He climbed up, encountering a lot of grass and brush smoke. "Can we put on the masks?" asked his men.
Raaen doubted that it was useful, but he reluctantly accepted. As the smoke was thickening, he decided to put his own. He took off his helmet, put it between his knees, and with his left hand opened the lid of the bag and pulled out the mask. He had forgotten the apples and oranges that were stuck: they fell down the slope.
He put on his mask, sucked a good shot, "and I almost fainted. I forgot to remove the air inlet cap. I had to remove the mask, suck smoke again, put the mask back on, remove the stopper before I could breathe easily. I regained my mind, moved in two steps and got out of the smoke. I was so furious that I kept the mask for another four or five meters to punish myself for faltering by putting on this mask."
Private Carl Weast heard "Gaz!" shouting. Weast put on his mask but he had the split visor and he could see from the smell that it was only grass burning, "then I ripped out this damn mask and threw it away.
This was the last time I wore a damn mask in the war." Private Weast was furious. He wanted to know, "Where was the aviation that should have upset everything? I don't see a single crater of bombs anywhere! I haven't seen any anywhere."
Captain Raaen had already learned on the beach that it was necessary to give something specific to do to men who were afraid. When he climbed the cliff, he learned a few other lessons: not to trust the intelligence blindly and not to get ideas on a terrain that we didn't see ourselves.
"When we looked at the maps and patterns of Normandy," Raaen says, "we saw the hedges surrounding the fields. Of course, we knew the English hedges." Like almost all other officers, Raaen assumed that the French hedges were like the English - bass, compact, built both to bar and to jump over the fox hunt. The aerial photos did not give the height of the hedges.
"As soon as we arrived on the plateau, we saw that the French hedges were different. In France hedges form a pile of land 2 to 4 meters high, with thick brush on it, large roots and they were real barriers. We couldn't cross a hedge. We could climb up there and find ourselves stuck at the top in a jungle of thorns, trunks, roots, branches, everything!" In general, there is only one passage, to allow the farmer to enter with his cows and equipment, but the passages were guarded by machine guns.
"The Germans dug into a hedge, put a machine gun in it, and then cut a murderer forward, providing him with a range of fire and full protection. We couldn't even see where they were shooting."
Finally the Americans learned to fight in this environment. But the methods, with specially equipped tanks, were only developed after 2 weeks of fighting. And besides, there were no tanks on the cliff of Vierville on June 6.
When Raaen installed his company PC in a field outside Vierville, he was shot with artillery. He quickly learned another lesson. "After 5 minutes of artillery fire, you learn when you have to dive and when you don't have to. You can find out from the sound of the shell coming where it's going to hit. If you're 50 meters away, it's too complicated to throw yourself on the floor. You keep walking. Of course, if it has to fall closer, you flatten yourself and pray."
As Colonel Schneider climbed up the hill, he crossed a column of German prisoners. Schneider told his interpreter, Sergeant Fast, to see what he could get out of it. Fast wasn't trained for it, but he did it.
"I chose the youngest, the timidest in appearance, the lowest grade of the boaches." After some threats, he was cooperating. The prisoner gave the position of the minefields and indicated fortifications hidden in the cliff. He says that there were no Germans in Vierville (which was true), but that there were "many" of them inside.
While Raaen made contact with K/116, Colonel Schneider pushed his 5th Rangers Battalion across the Saint-Laurent to Vierville road, with the intention of bypassing Vierville south to reach Pointe du Hoc. But the lead companies were blocked by machine guns fired from the hedges south of the road. 3 times Schneider tried to overflow them, only to be arrested by others.
"We came across the most inextricable network of Germans ever seen," recalls Private Donald Nelson. "We were nailed to the ground without being able to move." Colonel Schneider arrived to see what was happening.
"Snipers ambushed," replied Nelson.
"Can't you get them?" said Schneider.
"No, sir, we can't even see them," Nelson replied.
Schneider took off his helmet, put it on a stick he lifted.
"As soon as the helmet showed up above the hedge," Nelson said, "the snipers shot at it. That's how we could have some."
Nelson was quite "head on the front line." He wanted to know more, so he crawled with a friend on the hedge, "we took off our helmets and we saw a group of 5 Germans installing a machine gun right across the street, about ten meters away. We didn't move, watching them. They finished setting up, armed the machine gun with a bullet in the cannon. I waved with my foot to my comrade, he answered the same and they were lit. I covered my comrade who went to see if they were dead, they were."
Sgt. Vic Miller's Story, 5th Store Good
Day of 1944. - I don't remember getting on the transport ships very well. We were on two British boats that made us cross the Channel. I don't even remember the name of mine among the two cited in my notes. In any case, we were on board. The assault barges, the LCAs, were suspended from the bosses around the transport. In my memories we were told that they would have gone far beyond the position that would have allowed us to climb in directly, lest we could then take them down, and therefore we should go down by the nets along the hull. In fact we got into the LCA in a high position, and they were then taken down with us on board, to be put in the water.
But first of all, I remember that they gave us a good breakfast with eggs on the plate and that's all I remember. I don't remember what I was wearing as clothes. I guess it was our lattice, but I can't swear. Anyway, I'm sure I had a light combat jacket, probably meshes, we all had paratrooper boots at the Rangers. My personal equipment as a Section Sergeant had an M1 rifle, so I had a belt with all the ammunition for M1. I had binoculars, a barbed cup in my belt. I add that I was wearing the binoculars in the back between the M1 ammunition pockets, rather than in shoulder straps. The barbed cup was hanging from a pocket. I had a grenade launcher in a pocket hanging from the belt. I had my gourd in the belt. I had a compass on my belt. I had an emergency kit on my belt. We had combat knives. I used to wear it to my pants belt instead of the ammunition belt. And I had a bayonet, sure, but it was on the backpack. We were carrying light bags, I remember, without our blankets. It was standard equipment anyway. I forgot to mention a very important tool, a trench shovel. Of course we had to take gas masks, we had them. I also had a Hamilton watch, 17 rubies, provided to everyone, and we had an automatic para knife, whose blade came out by pressing a button. That's all I remember about the personal equipment I was wearing. Naturally in the bag, there was an impermeable canvas, bowls and cutlery, essential things. And then we put on lifeguards, and finally we got into our LCAs that were down and we're heading for the coast. We were given 2 bags to vomit, and in my memories, out of 30 and a few men, only 2 did not use it. Probably everyone used the two. But certainly they were widely used, and I can say that, tight as we were, there was no room to lean firmly, so if someone was sick, if he had no bag, he had to vomit in the neck of the one who was in front, and it was not pleasant.
So we left, and it moved. The barges rolled and pitched a lot, it contributed to the sea sickness that was assailing most of us. So we moved to the coast, and as we approached, it didn't look like what we were waiting for. There was smoke. Apparently the grass was burning, after all the shells sent, and as we came closer, it wasn't very engaging, we saw tracers coming down on the beach, it meant that people were shooting at the beach, that if they were shooting, others were going to be hit and we were going there.
In any case, as we came closer and closer, we saw more and more details. There were obstacles, these triangles of steel pointing with their mines hanging, it seemed terrifying. And, of course, as I said before, bullets still flying on the beach. We could see the tracer bullets, the arrivals of shells, and as we advanced to the shore, we finally came to the point where the British owner of our barge said, "We touched, we touched." He dropped the ramp, and our Lieutenant, Lieutenant D. Anderson, I think, said "All out" and disappeared under the waves. Someone in front of him caught up and brought him back on board. I think it was Sergeant Charles Vandervoort who simply put his Thomson Gun on the boss's belly and said, "I think it's better to take us to the ground!" I can say that our boat, in these conditions, was the one that approached the sand closest among all the others, because we went out with water not higher than the knees! I don't blame this crew; as soon as we got out, they were able to reverse and get away from this pretty bad place.
At the same time, starting to land, I noticed that the 2ème Our Company's boat wasn't as lucky as us. They could not land with water on their knees, but at the waist, and as I was waiting for my turn to go out, I noticed one of the men from the section of this other boat, my friend with problems of Georges girls, who was not very tall, who was loaded with mortar ammunition, jumped with water up to the shoulders and could no longer move. So Sergeant Beccue, who has a pretty bad temper, rushed, caught him and dragged him to the beach.
Meanwhile, we got out of our LCA, and without any more trouble, we moved forward quickly and lay on pebbles above the sand. We've been told to wait for the officers to meet and decide on what to do. To describe the scene, one might notice that the tide was rising fast. There were a few wounded, scattered where they had fallen, some far enough, the sand turning into ever smaller benches with rising tide they shouted asking for help. There wasn't much that could be done from our point of view.
The tanks had been rigged with flotation systems - one had seen them before - with upliftable cloth skirts, and propellers. They had to get out at sea from their LCT and head with their propellers to the beach, ready to fight. The problem, from what I understood, is that they sank into the bad sea, so there were few tanks on the coast. One of them was driving on one side or the other, but seemed to do nothing, otherwise risking to crush injured people who could not deviate.
Anyway, we wanted to leave, but I was lying there next to Company Secretary John Spurlock, and I remember, while we were next to each other, that John carefully took the pebbles one by one under him to put them next to them, pushing his body more and more. It wasn't a bad idea.
Finally they decided what to do, that the area had not been occupied by the infantry arrived an hour earlier. They were still there on the beach instead of having established a bridgehead, including the road above which we should have crossed and that our mission would be to take that bridgehead. Then someone put a Bangalore under the barbed wires that were lying there - there was a sort of parapet and a barrier with many barbed wire lines. Finally they blew up the Bangalore and created a breach. We then started our ascent on the steep slope, still obscured by smoke. We went up, with hesitations of course, not knowing what was before us. It could be death. Nevertheless, we climbed up, following scents. There were signs everywhere: "Achtung! Minen!" and it is possible that this was mined, and then we would have jumped while continuing. Yet we had to go!
Suddenly, I didn't see one of the rangers in my platoon - there were two at that time - there was one missing, I went down to the bottom where I found him: "What are you doing down there?" "Well, we were told there were mines up there" I said "It's hard, but we go up there" and we continued. And suddenly, I saw I didn't know exactly what. He was actually a dead German, but I've never seen a dead man like that before. He was lying in his uniform, waxy skin, and I thought, it must be a model that someone set up there. If I touch him he's probably gonna explode, it's probably a trap. These are the thoughts that come to you when you see this for the first time.
But we continued to climb and finally reached the top of the hill. We reached the coastal road that goes to Vierville and St-Pierre-du-Mont. We stayed there for a while and suddenly heard four snorings, four rockets (the Nebelwehrfers of Saint-Laurent) - I don't like those special weapons - that went over us and arrived on the beach, we could see the beach, and a LCI there, disembarking his troops by his side stairs - I don't know what it's called - and suddenly everything is engulfed in flames. I heard that a shell hit a soldier carrying a flamethrower, in any case everything simply disappeared into the flames. That's the kind of thing that happened. They continued to bomb the beach, and those rockets fell over there, we were happy to be above. So we continued and crossed the coastal road. I was pretty much at the tail of the company. The company consisted of 65 men, not a very large company, so it did not spread over a long distance, but they were advancing next to a kind of ditch along a hedge. At that point the battalion Commander, Lt-Colonel Schneider arrived, I heard him, it was very interesting. Apparently, we were supposed to receive some sort of support from an artillery group. Some Lieutenant arrived to see the Colonel and to tell him that they could only land a single cannon, and the Colonel said "Bravo, we'll be able to shoot there in front" and the Lieutenant replied "Sorry, Colonel, but it's too close. We cannot shoot at such a short range. We can shoot further." So it didn't help.
There must have been two companies of the 2ème Rangers Battalion to Support 5ème Rangers. 3 companies of the 2ème Attacking the Pointe du Hoc. 1 Company attacked the fortified point of the Point de la Percaea from which a lot was fired on the beach. And 2 Companies were to accompany us under the command of our Colonel, and in my memories, when they came to the report, they were only the value of a section for the 2 Companies. And we learned that one of the F Co.A.A. had sunk. Fortunately, it turned out that the men had passed on another ship and finally came to shore. Like my boyfriend Harry Vogler, with whom I had joined the Rangers, was in this band, I was happy to learn it later.
Anyway, we were there. And then they called for mortar fire, so we installed one and fired a few shots, where a counterattack was supposed to be, and at least it helped to push it back. Then they said we had to get into Vierville and take the village. So we moved. We were in the East, as I remember, and we crossed the village trying to find snipers or other hidden Germans, actually we ended the day like that. We finished on the other side of the village, on the west side, in some sort of perimeter, it was the evening, we were told to bury us there for the night, so I dug a trench long and deep enough, I lay there, after I suppose the longest day!
Anyway, I slept. Of course, we had sentries. I was woken up early the following morning (June 7) by the Captain calling "Baseplate - Base Plate!" That was the nickname given to me by the 1st.1st Sergeant for a motive understood by all those who knew the Army. - (in a section of mortars, the one carrying the base plate must only have a solid back, he doesn't need to know anything else!) - "Basic plate, is there room for me in your trench?" "No, my Captain" I answered" , "So it's better that you come this way". I got out of the hole, took my stuff and jumped to him, because we could be shot at any moment. He told me we had to come back and clean Vierville again, apparently snipers came back at night. We came back, and there were some instructive operations. At some point, I was squatting because I had a little problem with a sniper. We were shooting at each other and they didn't know exactly where the other was. So an American who had just arrived from the beach and from behind a wall called, "Get out and come here!" "I can't move, I'll be killed" "So I'm going to throw a grenade over the wall" It didn't seem appropriate to me, and fortunately I managed to get him to change his mind.
It should be added that, as a graduate student in horticulture, I had noticed strawberries, and later in the day I sat down to eat them! It wasn't exactly what I was supposed to do, but there were more and more troops on the ground that day, and it was great to see the dam balloons. Each ship had a balloon to prevent enemy planes from going down, it was grand, but one could not help but think that there were so many people out there, so many ships and so few people down. The night before, it had been worrying to see all those who were not there and who should have. Fortunately, we were able to hold, move forward and so on.
I only have vague memories of June 6. After all these years, they remain weakened. It was an exceptional day. I don't remember being really scared. We were trained for it, I wanted to participate. I almost missed him for being hospitalized and reassigned. After the Depot, I wasn't as good as I was before, after all these rigorous trainings. But it was a strange feeling to want to participate in D-Day. It wasn't rational, but I don't regret it. Maybe those who didn't get away with it regret it, I'm sure. It's life. These are my memories of June 6. Things may have been more exciting and tough the next few days, but that's what happened to me personally on June 6.