American Valor Quarterly Issue 6 - Spring/Summer 2009 | Page 18

It seemed at this point that I was able to stick my head up and
down without drawing fire from our right, as we had been getting
from atop the cliff and the entrenchments over the huge pillbox.
There was only occasional fire. It had slacked off. The base of the
hill to our front started looking safe and inviting. I felt it would
be just a short dash across the pond through a little flanking fire
from the pillbox on our right to put us beyond the pillbox’s side
vision. It worked textbook style, except for some unexpected help
and being in the wrong place at the right time.

Troops of the 1st Infantry Division assemble on the beach before
moving inland, while additional infantrymen disembark from their
landing craft in the distance.

Most of the time that we were behind the shingles we kept our
faces buried in the side of the bank. Shingles are small stones that
resemble river rock and had been built-up like a roadbed. They were
smooth and mostly flat, just right for skipping across a stream back
home. But these stones burst like grenades when hit by a bullet
and we had to keep our faces protected from the rock fragments.
At the top of the roadbed was concertina wire. It would have to
be blown. This was another miss for the rockets that fell short.
Many times calls would sound out for different men in the
company. Efforts were being made to regroup without much
success. One couldn’t just answer “Here!” and stand up and walk
over to the caller. You couldn’t even roll over the man alongside.
This would put you too high and you were sure to get hit. You had
to crawfish backwards and side crawl like a crab with your head
towards the roadbed. This didn’t give you much protection, as many
men were hit while trying to shift along to regroup. Any movement
seen above the roadbed would bring fire, both rifle and machine
gun. The tide was now almost lapping at our feet. Dead bodies
were washing in and I’m thinking, “It’s time to do something, but
what?” Sticking your head up would draw fire. Occasional incoming
artillery fire was increasing. There obviously was no way backward,
only forward. I began to raise my head up and down for real quick
looks ahead. I could see a narrow pond ahead with marsh grass.
Between the pond and us was the wire strung on the roadbed, and
beyond that was a three-strand wire fence with tripwire only on
the front of it. Beyond the pond was another fence without trip
wires. There was a sign on the fence that was in German, but two
words I did understand were “Achtung Minen.”

The unexpected help came from a man small in size, pushing a
long bangalore torpedo under the wire on the roadbed. I don’t
know where he came from, but suddenly he was there within
a few feet on my right. The torpedo was in two sections. He
exposed himself to put the first section under the wire. I realized
what was happening and I yelled to Rummell and Haughey and
they answered. I yelled, “We’re going through!” They must have
understood since they responded so fast.
The torpedo man exposed himself again to attach the second half
of the torpedo. Then he very carefully inserted the fuse lighter,
turned his head to the left (in my direction) and looked back to
see if he could back up. He pulled the string and pushed himself
backwards. I braced myself for the sprint forward but nothing
happened. The fuse didn’t light. After a few seconds the man
calmly crawled forward exposing himself again. He removed the
bad lighter, replaced it with another and started to repeat the first
moves. He turned his head in my direction, looked back, pulled the
string and made only two movements backwards when he flinched,
and closed his eyes as he looked into mine. Death was so fast for
him. His eyes seemed to have a questioning or pleading look in
them. His head was maybe three feet from the explosion, but it
didn’t damage him. It was an enemy bullet that killed him. No
fire had come from the Germans for a couple of minutes before
that and if they had held off only a couple of seconds more, who
knows? He might have lived.
My head was three or four feet from the torpedo and I was closest
to the path it blew in the wire. My men were right behind me better
than we had even done in practice. I went through the trip wire
high-stepping just as we did on obstacle courses. I was running so
fast I hadn’t made up my mind what to do about the wire fence
until I faced it. I literally dove through in a sideways dive. Hard to
believe I completely cleared those strands. Not one rip or tear in
my clothes or skin. I was into the pond in under ten seconds with
all my men except Schintzel and Galenti following. Troops on the
beach seemed to be holding back but not for long. They almost
beat us to the top of the hill.

AMERICAN VALOR QUARTERLY - Spring/Summer 2009 - 19

U.S. Army Photo

The pond was deeper than I thought, but we had been instructed
not to throw away our life preservers for this purpose. I didn’t
The round hill to our front rose sharply from the far edge of the need to inflate mine, but some of the men did. I felt more secure
pond, almost ball shaped, rounding off to our right into a draw with my head and arms only above the water. I was the first across
leading inland. On the right of the draw was a cliff-like high ground the pond and as I paused to take off the life preserver, I looked
as far as the eye could see, which got more cliff-like in the distance.