NORMANDY 1944
New pictures added when found
As much as possible these photos follow the story told in Normandy 1944 - A Young Rifleman's War. Those who have not read the book may find the inclusion of some pictures puzzling, such as the shot of an alley door in Cherbourg. In the limited space allowed I have tried to explain their relevance. Thanks for taking time to look.
Major General Raymond O. Barton, commander of the 4th Infantry Division in Normandy. A compassionate man, he was dismayed by the staggering number of casualties in his division.
Major Richard J. O'Malley, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, for 33 crucial days. Killed by a sniper July 16, 1944. The Iron Major was both a commanding and inspiring figure to the men in his battalion. He always led from the front, never from battalion headquarters, and could often be heard shouting, "Follow me!" during a frontal attack. Had he been making the tactical decisions rather than Lightning Joe, progress would have been as fast or faster and with far fewer casualties.
Alfred Marie, a true hero of the French Resistance. At the age of 18 he acquired a small radio transmitter that would send messages from his home on a farm at Sainte-Mere Eglise to a man with a stronger set that could relay them to England. Had the radio been discovered by the Germans he would have been executed on the spot. Today the radio is in a museum near his ancient stone farmhouse.
We thought that sixteen weeks of basic training had us prepared to face battle-hardened German soldiers on an equal footing. We were wrong. Our battalion was not lucky enough to live in these modern heated barracks with latrines.
Because our convoy of 55 ships could move only as fast as its slowest member it took us 14 days to cross the Atlantic.
It was a familiar site everywhere in the south of England at the beginning of June, 1944 - troops leaving for staging areas, the next step on the road to Normandy.
Church on the town square in Ste.-Mere-Eglise. An effigy of a paratrooper whose chute was caught on the roof hangs there today.
The fighting for the little town of Montebourg was brutal, see-sawing back and forth as one side would capture it and then be driven out again.
The crazy-quilt pattern of irregularly shaped fields around Montebourg (left) was typical of the entire American sector in Normandy. Each field was bounded by high, thick dirt hedgerows that might more fittingly be called embankments. The highway going off toward the lower right leads to Sainte-Mere Eglise. The 4th Infantry Division fought a bitter battle in these fields and the town itself.
Riflemen move cautiously past dead Germans. The Germans always tried to take their dead with them but there were times when it was impossible to do so.
Knocked out German tanks along a back road in Normandy. Without knowing the circumstances it is difficult to visualize what happened here.
My first look at a Tiger tank came early on a day that began quietly on the Sainteny front. A Tiger had come forward from Das Reich's support position . . . The morning calm was shattered by the sudden roar of a powerful engine that could only have come from a German tank. Bill Medlin, a rifle squad leader, called out, "Bazooka men!" . . . The tank we quickly recognized as a Tiger came through a break in the front line hedgerow several fields away, turned in our direction and came lumbering toward us . . . I considered the courses of action available to me. Running like hell leaped to mind, but that wasn't allowed and in any event a man can't outrun a tank. I didn't even consider seeking shelter in a slit trench. One of the most sickening of all the sights I had seen was watching a man dive into one, then continue to watch as a Panther stopped with one tread over the hole and slip that tread until it slowly peeled the man away. A more horrible death was unimaginable. (What happened is continued in the book NORMANDY 1944 - A YOUNG RIFLEMAN'S WAR).
They died defending Cherbourg. Although badly outnumbered, Germans always put up a fight
The dreaded German 88, the weapon many experts say was the finest of World War II. Originally an anti-aircraft gun, it was modified for ground warfare and was mounted on Tiger tanks. It could deliver deadly timed fire, but was a direct-fire weapon so while many Americans believed all artillery fire came from 88s, most of it was delivered by 105 mm howitzers. This gun is displayed at Fort du Roule.
A knocked out Sherman tank rests among the rubble of a Cherbourg street.
The port of Cherbourg viewed from Fort du Roule high above the city. A red Sealink ferry arriving from England is visible. The detail in this photo is amazing when enlarged. Cherbourg photos by Jackie Stodghill in 1985.
From a street in Cherbourg, Fort du Roule is barely visible atop the hill that towers over the city. The vacant area in the foreground had not been rebuilt 41 years after the battle.
Our billet during our brief stay in Cherbourg was the local office of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. That seemed a little ironic to me because my grandfather, J.T. Lynch, spent most of his life as an agent and regional manager for Met Life. On the side street to the left of the building is the wall where the 150 G Company casualty rolls were stacked.
The wall where G Company's 150 casualty rolls were stacked. The unpleasant job of opening these blanket rolls and sorting the contents fell to a pair of 18-year-old riflemen from Northeast Ohio, Mike Spinelli and me.
The small door in the alley opening on the side street where the casualty rolls were stacked. In the room behind the door is where Donald Lewis, the weapons platoon sergeant, waited for us to bring him the unopened roll of a close friend. In the background on the other side of the street is the Pasteur Hospital.
Letter written on pale green German stationery in Cherbourg June 27, processed by the Army July 2, arrived in Akron August 1. Censored by Lt. Ford Crawford, killed July 7 on the Sainteny front. He had been company commander for one day. (see Another Commander Dies in the book Normandy 1944)
On the truck ride south from Cherbourg to the front near Carentan our convoy stopped beside this graveyard being filled with dead American soldiers. See story in Book Excerpts on the Navigation Bar. In 1948 many of the bodies were returned to the States, the others moved to the cemetery near Omaha Beach. The families of those shipped home probably didn't know the bodies had been buried in mattress covers.
An artist's conception of a graveyard under construction.
The arches over a sidewalk in downtown Carentan will be familiar to anyone who watched Band of Brothers. The fighting in the town was of short duration so damage was relatively slight.
Carentan's beautiful City Hall was undamaged during the fighting.
The theater in Carentan where I watched a movie while the tanks of Das Reich were advancing on the city. Nothing much ever changes in the tranquil little town.
Bringing bread home from the bakery is still a daily routine in Carentan.
The road leading south from Carentan to Periers rises gently to the high ground at the village of Sainteny midway between the two cities. Taking the high ground is an axiom of war so this road was the focal point of bitter fighting that continued for two weeks. Only a little blood-soaked ground changed hands during that time but casualties on both sides of the line were mind-numbing.
Two American divisions staged numerous daily attacks on both sides of the Carentan Road. In 11 brutal days the 4th Infantry Division was able to advance from the crossroads at la Verinesnil to a point just south of this map, a distance of less than 10 kilometers. The ground was defended by the 17th SS Panzer Grenadier Division and what remained of the 6th Parachute Regiment. The 2nd SS Panzer Division, Das Reich, made numerous forays from a reserve position. (A Carte Topographique map).
This wide, impassable marsh on our right flank and a flooded area to the left created a narrow isthmus along the Sainteny front. Some historians refer to it as the Battle of the Isthmus, others as being part of the Battle of the Hedgerows or the Battle of St-Lo. In some books it is called the Battle of the Sainteny Hill. Those of us there didn't call it much of anything.
Across the small, enclosed fields Germans usually awaited at the next hedgerow. This one is typical with tall trees growing from its summit. Three or four feet wide at the top, ten or more at the base, these thick dirt hedgerows bordering fields of all shapes and sizes were ideal defensive positions for the Germans. Attacking them was a nightmare.
On a back road near Sainteny riflemen use dead cows for cover. The number of slaughtered cows in Normandy was beyond imagining. They were everywhere. When any infantry veteran of the Normandy Campaign thinks back to the summer of 1944 dead cows leap to mind.
Death lurked in the darkness of the countless sunken roads such as this one leading off the Carentan highway. Riflemen had no way of knowing what lay ahead. It might be German machine gunners or grenadiers, it might be a Panther tank.
A curve in a back road always meant a firefight. What awaited when you rounded the curve, that was always the question.
All too often the answer to what lay around a curve was German machine gunners.
A squad attacks along a hedgerow. While much safer than a frontal assault, men were still exposed to enemy fire.
Sometimes there was no way to avoid doing this but it was not a way to ensude a long life. Four of the men are bunched too closely, a natural tendency. Can you see all eight men in the picture?
A cautious advance. It paid to be cautious, but being overly so and moving too slowly could be as dangerous as being too daring. The Germans felt that Americans were too hesitant and failed to take advantage of their huge numerical superiority.
Going over high hedgerows like these lining a farm trail was a challenging task. Especially so if you weren't sure of what awaited on the other side.
Bullet and shell pitted walls remain as a reminder of the 1944 battles.
The eyes of a German soldier stare out from the cover of Acts of War, an excellent book by Richard Holmes.
The aftermath of battle: helmets, a deck of cards, mess kits, letters from home, rifles. Note the stand-up rifle pits and the Sherman tank in the background. It appears this was the scene of a bitter hand-to-hand fight
Cigarettes in hand, these German SS grenadiers (riflemen) relax during a lull in the fighting.
This small, carefully maintained monument was erected by the citizens of the village of Sainteny to honor the 4th and 83rd infantry divisions.
This drawing on the cover of a 1945 Yank magazine accurately depicts the weariness of American infantrymen.
A radio like the one I carried at times.
Nebelwerfer - the dreaded "screaming meemie" rockets were fired from these mortars. They could be lined up so that 30 or more rockets could be fired at the same time.
A rifle squad moves across a road past knocked out German vehicles. The high hedgerow ahead would have been difficult and dangerous to cross. This was not a 4th Division unit or they would not have been wearing their near-white field jackets on the outside.
The Mortain battlefield. The arrow indicates where the 12th Infantry Regiment's Second Battalion attacked.
A dead German lies beside a knocked out Panther tank during the fighting north of Mortain. The Second Battalion was attacked by forty or more tanks moving south along the road from St. Barthelmy.
