D-Day at 75

Charles Schultz was a veteran of the Second World War, having served in the 20th Armored Division (there is now only one, with armor units being usually organized at smaller scales and integrated with combined arms). Here is what he wanted children to know about D-Day.



There are numerous inspiring stories, including that of Bill Millen and the bagpipes. Via Instapundit, which has many relevant posts today, here's a very good post from a surprising outlet. Just a short part of the whole:
Taylor leads his section crawling across the beach and over the sea wall, losing four men killed and two wounded (machine-gun fire) in this brief movement. Some yards off to his right, Taylor has seen Lieutenants Harold Donaldson and Emil Winkler shot dead. But there is no halt for reflection; Taylor leads the section by trail straight up the bluff and into Vierville, where his luck continues. In a two-hour fight he whips a German platoon without losing a man.

The village is quiet when Pearce joins him. Pearce says: "Williams is shot up back there and can't move."

Says Taylor: "I guess that makes me company commander."

Answers Pearce: "This is probably all of Baker Company." Pearce takes a head count; they number twenty-eight, including Taylor.

Says Taylor: "That ought to be enough. Follow me!"

Inland from Vierville about five hundred yards lies the Château de Vaumicel, imposing in its rock-walled massiveness, its hedgerow-bordered fields all entrenched and interconnected with artilleryproof tunnels. To every man but Taylor the target looks prohibitive. Still, they follow him. Fire stops them one hundred yards short of the château. The Germans are behind a hedgerow at mid-distance. Still feeling their way, Taylor's men flatten, open fire with rifles, and toss a few grenades, though the distance seems too great. By sheer chance, one grenade glances off the helmet of a German squatting in a foxhole. He jumps up, shouting: "Kamerad! Kamerad!" Thereupon twenty-four of the enemy walk from behind the hedgerow with their hands in the air. Taylor pares off one of his riflemen to march the prisoners back to the beach. The brief fight costs him three wounded. Within the château, he takes two more prisoners, a German doctor and his first-aid man. Taylor puts them on a "kind of a parole," leaving his three wounded in their keeping while moving his platoon to the first crossroads beyond the château.

Here he is stopped by the sudden arrival of three truckloads of German infantry, who deploy into the fields on both flanks of his position and start an envelopment. The manpower odds, about three to one against him, are too heavy. In the first trade of fire, lasting not more than two minutes, a rifleman lying beside Taylor is killed, three others are wounded, and the B.A.R. is shot from Pearce's hands. That leaves but twenty men and no automatic weapons.

Taylor yells: "Back to the château!" They go out, crawling as far as the first hedgerow; then they rise and trot along, supporting their wounded. Taylor is the last man out, having stayed behind to cover the withdrawal with his carbine until the hedgerows interdict fire against the others. So far, this small group has had no contact with any other part of the expedition, and for all its members know, the invasion may have failed.

They make it to the château. The enemy comes on and moves in close. The attacking fire builds up. But the stone walls are fire-slotted, and through the midday and early afternoon these ports well serve the American riflemen. The question is whether the ammunition will outlast the Germans. It is answered at sundown, just as the supply runs out, by the arrival of fifteen Rangers who join their fire with Taylor's, and the Germans fade back.

Already Taylor and his force are farther south than any element of the right flank in the Omaha expedition. But Taylor isn't satisfied. The battalion objective, as specified for the close of D Day, is still more than one half mile to the westward.
Back in the "another grim milestone" days of the Iraq war, the press appeared to delight in reporting that the American death toll had climbed by five hundred that year, or a thousand. On D-Day, nearly as many Allied forces died as would die in the whole of our war. Perhaps they had a better cause; or perhaps it was the same cause, as some of us believed. In any case they are due the greatest honor for the weight they bore in defense of the cause of human liberty.

4 comments:

Texan99 said...

I was just coming here to post this precise excerpt. "That ought to be enough."

MikeD said...

And to put those 28 men in context, in World War 2 a US rifle squad was supposed to consist of 12 men. A platoon might consist of 3-5 squads (but let's go conservative and say 3) plus a platoon sergeant and a lieutenant. A company would consist of 3-5 platoons (again, let's say 3), a first sergeant and a company commander. If Baker Company consisted of 28 men on that day, that meant (at a minimum) they had taken more than 60% casualties (probably more) and yet still fought on even when engaged with what sounds like an actual German motorized company (and bear in mind, for the vast majority of the German Army, motorized transport did not exist, so those were likely SS troops and not Wehrmacht (and thus better armed and equipped). It's possible that they were not SS, but I find it unlikely given those trucks.

And like Grim, it always bothered me when they trotted out the "grim milestone" nonsense, completely neglecting to mention that we lost more men in an hour 75 years ago than we'd lose in a year or two in Iraq or Afghanistan. And it NEVER escaped my notice, that once President Obama was elected, the "grim milestone" tally stopped being reported.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

I believe we lost 3000 in a training exercise for D-Day.

I was up at the Veteran's home today, visiting a 101 y/o who was part of parachuting in during the invasion. I saw a 97 y/o who went ashore at Omaha while I was there. I hear they do a nice ceremony, but I got out before it started, leaving my guy at his place in his wheelchair.

A recurring story here is that because the French-Canadians spoke the language, they were given duties of trying to talk homeowners into letting them stay in the barns or finding out information in the villages as they moved forward, especially over the first week before the "real" interpreters could make their way there. I'm guessing the same happened with Cajuns.

douglas said...

Much of what was conveyed by SLA Marshall in his accounts is highly questionable. Quite a few issues have been brought up and conflicting accounts of his own performance in going and getting the information for his documentation. Even research by his own son years later for a book determined that he lied about a great deal, but still attributes some fact to his histories.

I think it's better to take his accounts as historical fiction, much like "Saving Private Ryan". There's certainly points that ring true, but many questions as well. It's unfortunate, because his accounts are so moving and emotionally connect with the reader, but perhaps that's a clue about the historical reliability of what was supposed to be first layer historical record.