World War II Chronicles - American Veterans Center

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“Soldiers, sailors, and airmen of the Allied Expedi-tionary Force, you are about to embark upon theGreat Crusade towards which we have striven thesemany months. The eyes ofthe world are upon you; thehopes and prayers ofliberty-loving peopleeverywhere march withyou.

In company with our braveallies and brothers in armson other fronts, you willbring about the destructionof the German war ma-chine, the elimination ofNazi tyranny over theoppressed people ofEurope, and security forourselves in a free world. Your task will not be aneasy one. Your enemy is well-trained, well-equipped,and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely. But thisis the year 1944, much has happened since the Nazitriumphs of 1940, 41. The United Nations haveinflicted upon the Germans great defeats in openbattle, men to men. Our air offenses have seriouslyreduced their strength in the air and their capacity towage war on the ground. Our home fronts have givenus an overwhelming superiority in weapons andammunitions of war and placed at our disposal, greatreserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned,the free men of the world are marching together tovictory.

I have full confidence in your courage, devotion toduty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing lessthan full victory. Good luck and let us all beseech the

blessing of almighty God upon this great and nobleundertaking.”

--General Dwight D. Eisenhower addressing the Allied troopsbefore the invasion of Europe thatwould take place on June 6, 1944.

In the hindsight of history,many have come to believethat the success of the D-Day landings, as well as theultimate victory of theAllies in World War II, wasa foregone conclusion, aninevitable result of thesuperior might of theUnited States and its allies.In reality, the outcome wasfar from certain. In addi-

tion to this moving call for the Allied forces to ad-vance toward victory, General Eisenhower hadwritten, on July 5, 1944, a letter in which he acceptedfull responsibility for the failure of the landings atNormandy.

Of course the landings were not the failure thatEisenhower had feared, but an incredible success; asuccess made possible by the efforts of thousands ofmen and women, on both sides of the Atlantic, in thedays and weeks leading up to June 6, 1944. In thisissue of World War II Chronicles we feature the per-sonal experiences of some of these people who madethe success of D-Day possible. From the sands ofOmaha Beach to the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc, from thenurses to the Army Rangers, without their braveryand sacrifice, this “Great Crusade” may well havefallen well short of victory. WWII

World War II Chronicles

A Quarterly Publication of the World War II Veterans Committee ISSUE XXIV, Spring, 2004

D-Day60th Anniversary Special Edition

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World War II Chronicles - Spring, 2004 - 2

The Story of a ScreamingEagle in Normandy

The D-Day Memories of Donald BurgettArmy Paratrooper, 101st Airborne Div., 506 Parachute Regiment, Company A

I have been asked many times over the years why Ivolunteered for the airborne. The answer is simple.The attack on Pearl Harbor was an atrocity againstour country and the American people. That singleact welded all Americans to one cause as no otheract could have done. Americans wanted more thanjustice, we wanted revenge. Youngmen wrapped in blankets slept onthe sidewalks in front of the draftboards the night of the bombing tobe among the first to volunteerwhen that office opened in themorning.

When my brother, Elmer, joinedthe paratroopers in the fall of1942, I felt that I had to do thesame. I had to be a paratrooper.But my parents would not sign arelease so that I could join themilitary early. I went to my draftboard and signed a “voluntaryinduction paper” when I was 17; Iwould be called up on my eighteenth birthdaywithout my parents knowing that I had in factvolunteered. I was sworn in on April 5, 1943-my18th birthday-and entered active service May 11,1943.

During World War II, I served with the 506th

“Currahee” Parachute Regiment of the 101st Air-borne Division. Brutal training from basic throughjump school in Fort Benning, Georgia was pro-grammed to encourage those that just did not havethe right stuff to quit. Get rid of the chaff in thebeginning so there would be no time lost in trainingthose who would drop out later. When landingbehind enemy lines, every man had to be one whocould be counted on.

Originally I was part of the 541st Parachute InfantryRegiment when it was activated at Camp Mackall,North Carolina, October 1943. We took advancedtraining there, including practice jumps and experi-mented with jumping with equipment. But plans forthe Normandy invasion were underway and the

101st and 82nd Airborne Divisionswould have to be brought up inmanpower to handle their assignedmissions. The 541st Rgt. was sent toEurope as replacements to thosedivisions.

The group of replacements I waswith joined the 506th “Currahee”Regiment and placed in CompanyA, which was billeted in horsestables in the small town ofAldbourne, England. Phillips,Benson and I were assigned toStable 13 with one of the originalparatroopers, Donald B. Liddle.Here, night jumps and advanced

training intensified. After reading my book“Currahee,” long after the war was over, NielStevens of Marlborough, England formed a groupto research and preserve these stables in memory ofthe Americans.

In one practice tactical night jump in preparation forthe Normandy drop, Company A 506 ran into aGerman bomber formation over London. TheGermans were dropping bombs and we could seefires on the ground. The British put up a goodbarrage and hit a couple of our planes; fortunatelynone of our men were killed. Still, we managed tocontinue our flight and jump on our assigned dropzones that night due to the skills and training of thetroop carrier pilots.

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In further training for Normandy, we moved formaneuvers to Torquay in southern England wherethe countryside resembled the hedgerow country ofNormandy. The day after our arrival in Torquay,while marching to the mess hall for breakfast, wewitnessed two German torpedo boats roaring intothe bay and releasing torpedoes at vessels anchoredthere, sinking two Allied ships. Many infantrytroops aboard those ships werelost, most to drowning. TheGerman torpedo boats immedi-ately made a sweeping turn,escaping back out to sea.After these maneuvers wereturned to Aldbourne. Laterour 506th Rgt. moved to south-ern England again where weentered the marshalling area onUpottery Airfield. This iswhere we would take off forNormandy.

During the several days that wewere in the marshalling area atUpottery Airfield we werebriefed extensively on our missions. Sand tables andmaps were on hand and aerial photographs broughtin several times a day were hung in display over thesand table. Here we were briefed not only on ourmissions but on those of the 82nd as well, in case bysome accident we found ourselves in each other’sareas. We were even informed of the GermanCommandant of St. Com-du-Mont, a man who rodea white horse and went with a French schoolteacher.She lived on a side street in the town just twobuildings away from a German gun emplacement.

My group’s assignment was to capture and hold thefour exits that ran from the beachhead to the inland,allowing our men landing on the beaches a road offthose beaches to attack inland. Exit 1 ran throughPouppeville, exit 2 through Herbert, exit 3 throughAudoville-la-Hubert, and exit 4 though St. Martin-de-Varroville. We were also assigned to capture thehigh ground behind the beaches and to aid in thecapture of the four bridges leading to Carentan.

On the night of June 4, 1944, we were loading theplanes in a downpour of rain and high winds. A jeep

pulled alongside our aircraft carrying a message thatthe jump was postponed until the next day, June 5.We returned to our tents and slept in our wetjumpsuits without bothering to change.

The following day, June 5, 1944, we marched to theparked C-47s, found the one assigned to us by thechalked number beside the door, and ID numbers

8Y on the nose with 292717on the vertical stabilizer. Wemade ready to chute up andload. While some troopers weremaking up pararacks to fastento the underbelly of our C-47,the rest of us were gettingextra ammo and whatever elsewe needed.

We were among the first of themany planes to take off, and itwas still light enough to see.The last thing I saw on theground was a large haystackand a line of trees to our directfront. We were among those in

the lead as we gained altitude and began circlingwide over the English countryside like a giantcomet. Each time we circled, other planes weretaking off to join the ever-growing tail of ourcomet-like flight.

It had become totally dark as we continued ourcircling. When the flight was formed we made ourway across the English Channel circling aroundbehind and across the Continton Peninsula, headingtoward Normandy from the backside. Our routewould take the Troop Carrier Command flight in acounter-clockwise pattern while the ships of thesea-borne landings would be coming straight intoNormandy; then circle clockwise back towardEngland when it came their time to return.

Lt. Bill Muir, gave the order to “Stand up and hookup” before we reached the shore of the peninsula.The anti-aircraft fire was the heaviest I had everwitnessed, even compared to what was fired overLondon during enemy air raids. We received thesignal to jump; Lt. Muir yelled, “Let’s go!” and wefollowed him out into the prop blast. I began the

Donald Burgett and other “ScreamingEagles” prepare to depart on their D-

Day mission

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count. “One-thousand, Two-thousand, three – theopening shock nearly dislocated every joint in mybody. I grabbed my risers and lookedup to check my chute and sawmachine gun tracers going throughmy canopy. Finally, I hit the ground.My drop was made at 11:14 AM June6, 1944, at approximately 3000 feetabove ground level. I have a copy ofmy plane’s manifest, which verifiesthe jump time and the name of ourtake-off field.

The first trooper I met was Hundley,then Slick Hoenscheider and RedKnight. Just before first light, we metLt. Muir with several othertroopers. We made our waytowards a church steeple visibleagainst the lighter skyline. Therewe met other troopers includingsome men from the 82nd; to-gether we mounted a successfulattack on the town of Ravenoville. It has beenrecorded that Ravenovillewas the first town liberatedin Europe in World War II.St. Mere Eglise was the firstlarge city to be liberatedthat evening by the 82nd

Airborne.

During the battle forRavenoville, one of ourtroopers chased an enemysoldier into the church onlyto find a large group ofGermans hiding there.Quickly leaving, he re-turned with several moretroopers and a shootout ensued right inside thechurch itself. One of our men was killed and alieutenant was badly wounded.

On June 7, 1944, men of the 4th Infantry brokethrough to us from Utah beach, securing the townof Ravenoville. The men of the 82nd went to pursuetheir objectives, and we headed towards St. Com-du-Mont on a road running parallel with the beach.

One area we passed through just outside Raven-oville had been destroyed. A complete forest had

been obliterated either by bombs orheavy shelling from our warships.Not even a blade of grass was vis-ible. We turned right through Herbertand within a short distance we cameacross the bodies of two Germanslying in a ditch. A cameraman stoodover them with a camera on a tripod.The camera was of an old type with abillows front and a black cape overthe back. The GI took the photo andpopped up from under his black cape.“Are you taking a picture of thedead?” I asked. “No,” he replied. “I’m

taking a picture of troopscoming inland, and you’re in it.”This photo was taken on exitnumber 2 between Herbert andSte. Marie-du-Mont and hasappeared many times in publi-cations over the years. Paul

Carter and Prentice Hundley, following me, werelater killed in Zon, Holland.

Within minutes after thatphoto was taken we raninto White Russian Cos-sacks attacking into us onhorseback and the battlesbegan. We were hit in turnby the Cossacks, the Ger-man infantry, the SS andfinally the German 6th

paratroopers. Each battlewas fierce but we foughtour way to St. Com-du-mont. Parts of these battlesI still cannot recall to this

day.

The church steeple in St. Com-du-mont was blownoff by our artillery to get rid of German artilleryspotters that were sure to be there directing theirown artillery against us. Just about the first thingdone when entering any village or city would be toblow the steeple off the church to save lives of ourown men.

Burgett (front), Paul Carter andPrentice Hundley pass Germans killed

in ferocious fighting in Normandy

Not even churches could be spared whendefending against deadly sniper attacks

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The German paratroopers then made a frontalattack on us at point blank range while we werereforming on the road. They opened fire withSchmeissers through ahedgerow at a distance of notmore than six to eight feetaway, wounding and killingsome of our men. We chargedstraight into their fire, overrun-ning and killing them, andcarrying the attack through thehedges close to the main roadand toward the bridges toCarentan.

While fighting on the far sideof Le Drouries, with us thisside of the road and the Germans on the other side,a light American tank came to our aid. It wasknocked out by what I thought for years to be an88. A photo recently surfaced which confirmed thata Panzerfaust had, in fact, knocked it out. Theentire crew was killed. This corner is still knowntoday as “Dead Man’s Corner.”

After establishing static lines,American graves registrationteams arrived to identify ourdead, move them to temporaryburial sites and place them inmarked graves. Afterward,when time allowed, these sameteams gathered up enemy dead,identified them by their dogtags, and buried them withmilitary respect.

We made a night attack overthree remaining bridges intoCarentan. The Germans had destroyed the secondbridge and we crossed the Douve River at night onropes strung by the men of the 501st. Col. Cole,Commander of the 501st, led his regiment throughthe night ahead of us to attack straight intoCarentan. We, the 506th, followed the 501st underheavy fire to the enemy held side. After crossing thebridges we made our way through swamps to theright and attacked that city from the right flank.Again we lost men, some killed and some wounded.

The photo shown is that of a “Belgian” gate whichblocked our way in crossing the bridges. It was latertorn down and dragged by jeep into the outskirts of

Carentan.

On the 13th of June, the 4th

Division was to relieve us fromcombat. As it turned out, the4th bogged down againststubborn SS men and SS armor.We were soon sent in. Aftermoving forward on foot to thearea, we crawled on hands andknees along a hedgerow withthe Germans on the other side;we could hear them talking.The order was given. “Fix

bayonettes! We’re going over the top.” We crawledto the top of a ten-foot hedgerow and waited.

The command “let’s go!” came and was echoeddown the ranks, and we went over the top. Wekilled the enemy from the start and then ran acrossthe field of grazed-over grass, without cover, and

only one way to go: forward.The enemy opened up with atleast six machine guns, rifle-men, 81mm mortars, 75mmhigh trajectory shells, and highvelocity flat trajectory 88mmshells straight into us. We keptrunning forward in the attack,even though we were beingwounded and killed.

I was wounded twice in thisattack. Once by a Germanpotato masher grenade and leftfor dead by my comrades. I

came to, but could hear nothing. I was stone deaf.Recovering my rifle, I continued forward and washit again, this time by a shell fragment that nearlysevered my right arm. I was recovered by a medicand eventually ended up in the 216th GeneralHospital in Coventry, England, where I later healedand went back into combat. We came to call thatbattle “The Battle of Bloody Gulch.” So many ofour men were wounded and killed there.

A “Belgian” gate used to prevent Alliedtroops from crossing bridges in Normandy

Nearly 60 years later, Burgett stands inthe very spot he was wounded

Screaming Eagle Continued on page 23

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The planes with wounded always landed first andtaxied to a revetment (air raid shelter) where ourambulances were assembled. Medical personnelclimbed aboard to render first aid and unload the

wounded. Once they were in theambulance we took them to thestation hospital, or drove them to anearby military hospital wherespecial surgical teams awaitedthem. On other occasions, Itraveled by ambulance with twocorpsmen to tend to and returncrewmen who had ditched in theEnglish Channel and were rescuedby fishermen, or had made theirway to areas along the coast ofEngland.

After the Normandy Landing, the pace picked up forthe 801st Air Evacuation crews. Wherever a toeholdwas established and called a battle zone; that would beour destination. The pilot & copilot, my medical tech-nician and I, would scramble aboard a C-47 crammedfull of gas, oil, rations, and medical supplies, and headout over the channel to the battlefield. Since we car-ried military supplies, we couldn’t hide behind the safetyof the Red Cross insignia. Despite that fact, and sincesleep was something we never got enough of, I learnedto doze with my head resting on my oxygen tank sittingatop an oil drum. We always carried our own C-rationswherever we went, since we never knew when we’d beback or have time to eat.

Our C-47 flew to the designated battle zone and landedin the fields and flats of the countryside, as close to theaction as possible. We brought in medical supplies forthe hastily assembled Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals(M.A.S.H.), as well as supplies needed to run the army.

Wherever we landed, smoke rising in the distance andthe dull roar of heavy artillery marked the front line.Everyone pitched in to help unload our supplies. Some

A strange stillness had settled over the Air Station atBottesford, England, that June day in 1944. We wereawakened, not by the sound of the Junker 88’s over-head on their regular bombing runs to London, nor bythe bustle of activity on the base, butby the silence. The paratrooperswere gone! “D-Day,” we whisperedsimultaneously.

The greatest amphibious landing inhistory was taking place across thechannel on a 50-mile stretch ofbeach in Normandy, and although wehad not been alerted to the exact dateand time, we knew this was “it.”Our 801st Medical Air EvacuationTransport Squadron, along with the101st and 82nd Airborne paratroopers, and the glider pi-lots, had officially become the First Allied AirborneArmy of the 9th Air Force. My personal part in thishistorical event was about to get underway.

I had recently returned from temporary ambulance lineduty at the Bassingbourne base hospital that housed theB-17s of the 8th Air Force Bombardment Group. Myduties there were to attend the wounded when the B-17s returned from bombing runs and “V-Bomb” sites inGermany. The targets were heavily fortified with anti-aircraft batteries and our bomber crews suffered woundsfrom flak and shrapnel, as well as from 101 millimetershells. Frostbite was also a constant and serious concernin the winter in unheated, high altitude aircraft.

We always knew when our bombers were due back, es-pecially when they were overdue, and strained to catchthe first glimpse of them as they limped back to thesafety of the airfield. The lineup of fire trucks andemergency vehicles were poised and ready to help. Iwatched for the red flare that signaled wounded aboard,and held my breath whenever I heard an engine sputter.I’d pray that the plane would land safely. Some did,some did not.

Flight Nurse


by Captain Lillian Kinkela KeilR.N., United States Air Force (Ret.)

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wounded soldiers were already stabilized by corpsmenin the field. Those on litters came directly from the Mo-bile Hospital with more criticalwounds that would require spe-cial attention. My heart achedfor those carefully covered andlying silently in neat rowsawaiting another plane for theirride home.

We quickly converted the insideof the plane into an efficientmedical ward. The litters werearranged into four tiers with thegrips fitting comfortably andsafely into heavy nylon loops af-fixed to long nylon straps thatdropped down from the ceilingand were attached to the floor.Other airplanes had metal postsfrom ceiling to floor with slots forthe litter’s grips. When in place, theylooked much like bunks. The C-47could hold a maximum of 24wounded soldiers. Sometimes wewould squeeze in three litters on thefloor. My tech and I instructed thecorpsmen to arrange the patients ac-cording to the seriousness and thelocation of their wounds. Thewound was always on the aisle sidefor easy access. As patients werepassed on from battlefield medic tofield hospital to us, their foreheadwas marked with a “MS” indicatingthat he had received morphinesulfate; other information re-garding his wound would bewritten on a tag attached to hisclothing.

Ambulatory patients would sitagainst the fuselage in bench-like seats. Sometimes wewould have a mix of litter patients and ambulatory pa-tients. More than once, I was grateful for the walkingwounded on board to assist us in restraining a patient.

En route to England, I moved from one man to the next,stanching the flow of blood, dressing wounds, check-

ing IVs, giving plasma or medicine, and always com-forting them by saying, “You’re doing fine; you’ll soon

be home.” When turbulence hitor the mood was down, I’d pullout my compact and apply mylipstick; every head turned towatch and spirits rose. I wouldsmile when a few of the less se-riously wounded would press anote into my hand with a nameand address that read, “Look meup when you go through Bro-ken Arrow, Oklahoma,” or somesuch place. For the most part,many of the boys joked andwere cheerful, especially whenwe headed out over the EnglishChannel, and they knew theywere really going home.

The pilots, my medical tech, and Iworked as a team charged with thesafe return of these young men tothe hospital. Often an Air Evacu-ation plane could be diverted to anairfield closest to a hospital that spe-cialized in treating the particularkinds of wounds we had on boardsuch as burns, head cases, or am-putees. Regretfully, we never sawor learned about the patients afterthey left our care.

This same routine was repeatedagain and again; only the faces

and battles were different asour evacuation flightsfollowed General George S.Patton’s 3rd Army acrossFrance to drop off gasoline,oil drums, ammunition,weapons, and supplies, as

well as to retrieve our wounded. And, if our planeswere grounded by bad weather, Patton’s Army couldnot move either. General Patton sent the flight nursesa case of champagne from Rheims to thank them forbringing the gasoline.


Flight Nurse Continued on page 22

Lillian Keil tends to a wounded soldierfollowing intense combat in Europe

Lillian Keil (left) with actors Forrest Tuckerand Joan Leslie. Tucker and Leslie starred in

Flight Nurse, a 1954 movie based on Capt.Keil’s experiences during the war

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In the days leading up to the invasion of Europe in June, 1944, amajor worry of the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expedi-tionary Force was the five giant 155MM coastal artillery gunsbelieved to be stationed by the Germans at Pointe du Hoc in France.These “big guns” had a range of 10-12 miles that could be fired atthe planned American landing points of Omaha and Utah beaches,as well as the thousands of ships of the invasion fleet anchored off theshores of Normandy on what would soon be known as D-Day. Oneof the most important objectives of the early hours ofthe invasion, believed General Dwight D. Eisenhower,was to make certain that these guns were madeinoperable…

Located on the west flank of OmahaBeach, fortress Pointe du Hoc was be-lieved to be one of the strongest forts inHitler’s Atlantic wall, possessing incred-ible firepower. Located on cliffs 100 feethigh, Pointe du Hoc held five largecoastal artillery guns. These guns, alongwith the German Army divisions locatednearby, were totally able to prevent thesuccessful invasion of France if they were not putout of action quickly and early on June 6, 1944.The risk of tremendous loss of life was immeasur-able. In all the history of wars in the world to date,the invasion of France was by far the greatest militaryoperation yet seen. The battle for Normandy wouldtake two and a half months, longer than either Iraqwar. On D-Day, thousands of military personnel andinnocent civilians would die, homes and communitieswould be destroyed, and the invasion fleet would beseverely damaged if the “guns of Pointe du Hoc”were not put out of action by American forces asearly as possible before 6:30 AM, when the troopswere scheduled to land.The U.S. Army Air Corps, as it was then known,unopposed by German aircraft because of badweather, flew 1,365 bombers, dropping 2,746 tons ofbombs on or near the American landing areas ofOmaha and Utah beaches before tens of thousandsof Allied troops landed. The American Navy fired

21,600 rounds before the landing. Unfortunately,there was very little damage, if any, to the Germantargets, including the guns at Pointe du Hoc and the30,000-plus German soldiers. According to histori-ans, the targets were missed by up to three miles.The Allied landing was not going to be the ‘piece ofcake’ some predicted it would be. Due to bombing

errors, there were no bomb craters onOmaha Beach that could be found orused for protection in the assault. Thou-sands of Americans would die on“Bloody Omaha Beach,” and manythousands more were wounded.Fortunately, the most dangerous groundmission of D-Day was assigned early onto the Rangers with orders to “find theguns of Pointe du Hoc and render theminoperable as soon as possible,” in casethe described mighty American firepowerhad not succeeded as expected, which itdid not. The biggest surprise of all to the

Rangers when they climbed the cliffs of Pointe duHoc was that there were no big guns in the encase-ments, only long wooden shafts reminiscent oftelephone poles. The United States Army and ArmyAir Corps intelligence units had unintentionally andunknowingly misguided the Rangers by use of theiraerial photography and other misinformation. TheFrench Underground Resistance Units informed theRangers right after D-Day that the “big guns” werenever installed at Pointe du Hoc. They claimed thatthe U.S. Army intelligence had been duly informedabout this several times before D-Day. Nevertheless,the guns were in an undisclosed alternate positionover a mile inland, still capable of killing tens ofthousands of allied troops and innocent civilians.These Ranger volunteers strongly pursued and ac-complished their mission by rendering the gunsinoperable by 8:30 AM. It was the answer to thesurviving Allied troops’ prayers. Now, let me tell youthe rest of the story. I was there.I was First Sergeant of Company D of the 2nd Ranger

The Guns of Pointe du HocAs Remembered By Leonard G. Lomell

Army Ranger, 2nd Ranger Battalion


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Battalion, U.S. Army, acting as leader of the 2nd

Platoon. We were short one officer when we landedat Pointe du Hoc on D-Day, June 6, 1944. He wastransferred to Battalion Headquarters for a specialduty a few days before D-Day. After the hours oftremendous aerial and navalbombardment as earlier described,the greatest invasion in historystarted landing troops at 6:30 AM,as planned. After a stormy two-hour trip in our LCA, through coldrain and high seas and running thegauntlet for three miles, 300-plusyards offshore and under fire fromthe German soldiers on cliff-tops along the way, we Rangersfinally fired our grappling hooksup over the 100-foot cliffs ofPointe du Hoc. Had we been on time, we wouldhave caught the Germans asleep in their undergroundquarters, but we were 40-minutes late due to a Britishnavigational error. They were waiting to cut ourropes, drop grenades and shoot us down. We couldnot fire back or defend ourselves very well whileclimbing. Though we were seriously outnumbered,we prevailed.Shot through my right side as I led themen ashore in a wet landing, I sud-denly disappeared in water over myhead as I stepped off the ramp into anunderwater bomb crater, which Icould not see. I came out of thewater with the help of my men, coldand wet, my right side hurting andarms still full of combat gear. Wehurriedly headed for the nearest ropesand up we went as fast as we couldclimb.There had been twenty-two of us inour British LCA, and we were all up the cliff withinfifteen minutes, rushing through the German smallarms fire as quickly as we could to the three-gunemplacements that were our original objective on thewest flank of the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc on OmahaBeach. The fortress at Pointe du Hoc had under-ground tunnels and troop quarters, and the Germanswould pop up, firing their weapons from where weleast expected. We moved on very quickly to avoid

more sniper and machine-gun fire, as well as flattrajectory anti-aircraft machine-gun fire, which wasbecoming much more of a serious problem. Weneutralized one German machine gun position on ourway across the point and temporarily quieted down

the anti-aircraft position in order toget by it quickly and not get pinneddown or delayed as we continuedour assault. We got to our firstobjective in a matter or minutesafter the assault; only the threeguns in positions number four, five,and six were not there. Remember,there were no big guns anywhere on

the Pointe’s 40-acre fortress thatwe could see; only telephonepoles or something similar stick-ing out of bombed out encase-

ments. By this time we were taking mortar andheavy-88 fire, crawling fire to our rear. We movedout of that position fast, hoping to locate the missingguns, thinking they were in an alternate positioninland and would soon be firing. It did not happenthat way.By the time we fought our way about a mile or so tothe blacktopped coastal road (about one-hour) I had

only a dozen men left, some of whomwere lightly wounded but able to fighton. Of the original 22 Rangers in myboat team, 15 had been killed or verybadly wounded. We still had notfound the guns nor had any idea wherethey were. It seemed we were sur-rounded and greatly outnumbered byGerman troops, and stuck in broaddaylight.We were now behind the Germans’second line of defense. Fortunately,the enemy had no idea we were in

their midst. I left all of my men except S/Sgt. JackKuhn behind to set up a roadblock.S/Sgt. Kuhn and I started leapfrogging down thissunken farm road heading inland, following wagontracks between the high hedgerows with trees, notknowing where it was going. It led to a little swale, ordraw, in an apple orchard. There was netting withcamouflage over the missing guns; their barrels wereover our heads. There was not a shell or bomb crater

One of the “Big Guns of Pointe du Hoc”

Allied bombers soften up theGerman defenses at the Pointe


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anywhere that we could see. Looking over thehedgerow, I saw the five big 155MM coastal artilleryguns with their ammunition and powder bags neatlyin place, aimed at Utah Beach. The German guncrew could easily turn the “Big Guns” around to fireon Omaha Beach when they so desired. The fiveguns were located a little over a mile from where wehad landed. About one hundred yards away, a Ger-man officer was talking to about 75 of his men,which we believed to be his gun crews, at a farm roadintersection. A few minutes earlier, S/Sgt. Kuhn andI had discovered another 50 Germans, a combatpatrol about two hundred yards in theother direction. They eventually passedwithin 20 feet of us on their way to jointhe German gun crews.Our Rangers had totally surprised theGermans. They never expected anattack from the sea, up those 100-footcliffs of Pointe du Hoc. The E Com-pany Rangers were continuing to attackthe German observation post a mileaway at the cliffs, so there were nofiring orders coming back to the Ger-man crews where Kuhn and I were.We thought the Germans could have aroving observation post patrol outtrying to relocate in another advanta-geous spot to send firing orders back tothem as soon as possible. Still, therewere no “sitting targets” guarding the guns them-selves that I could see, so I told Jack to cover me.Between us, we had two incendiary grenades, latercalled thermite grenades. When the pin was pulledand the incendiary compound was exposed to air, itpoured out like solder, flowing over the gears andcrevices setting and hardening up like a weld. I usedthem to weld and fuse fast the traversing mechanismsof two of the guns. I also silently smashed the sightsoff all five guns with my gun butt. I had wrapped myfield jacket around my submachine gun stock tosilence any sound that could possibly be heard. ThenJack and I ran back down the sunken road about 200yards out of sight of the Germans to the blockingposition, got more thermite grenades from our guys,and hurried back to finish the job of rendering theremaining three guns inoperable. Since thermitegrenades make no noise, we managed to do our jobquickly and escape without being discovered.

All of our especially chosen 225 Rangers had thesame mission, but not our good luck. Our Rangerfront moving inland searching for the guns was wellover a mile wide. S/Sgt. Kuhn and I just stumbledonto the guns in our efforts to find them. We were atthe right place at the right time. Luckily, we were acouple of well-trained Rangers on patrol doing ourjob. The guns were rendered totally and completelyinoperable by 8:30 AM D-Day morning, as ordered.From the time we landed at 7:10 AM until the timewe crested the Pointe, no more than 15 minutes had

passed. Because we moved veryquickly, kept our objective in focus,and worked as a disciplined team, wehad completed the operation in littlemore than one hour. Sergeants HarryFate and Gordon Lunning of D Com-pany, using different routes back to ourcommand post on the Pointe, notifiedCol. Rudder, our CO, “mission accom-plished” before 9:00 AM.Our work at the alternate gun positionscompleted, we rejoined the other DCompany men at the roadblock andbegan to consolidate our defensiveposition for the rest of D-Day and toprotect our D Company roadblock. Inthe meantime, Sgt. Koenig of ourplatoon destroyed all the German

communications along the coast road. About thistime, the remnants of our 1st platoon of D Companyjoined us (only about 11 men); they had been helpingto defend the Pointe where half their platoon becamecasualties. We needed them now to strengthen theroadblock. Our third LCA, with the rest of D Com-pany, had earlier sunk offshore. Ranger companiesconsisted of 68 men. At this point we only had 20men left.The original battle plan indicated we would berelieved by noontime on D-Day by the Americantroops on Omaha Beach. It didn’t happen; they wereover two days late. We had gathered about 85 otherRangers during the afternoon to defend our roadblockon D-Day night. Our orders were to hold our block-ing position on the coastal road until relieved, whichwe did until D+2. Despite on and off shelling andthree counterattacks, as well as being massivelyoutnumbered by 10-1, we never lost control of our

U.S. Army Rangers trainedintensively to take thecliffs of Pointe du Hoc


11

D-Day roadblock. No German troops ever gotthrough to help their comrades at Omaha Beach.Of the 225 Rangers who attacked Pointe du Hoc,only 90 were left standing when we were relieved onD+2 (June 8, 1944). Eighty-onehad been killed in action, and therest of the casualties were unableto fight. Many of the 90 leftstanding were lightly wounded;nevertheless, they fought on. DCompany had the highest numberof casualties at Pointe du Hoc.Like everyone else that day, wedid what we were trained to do.With a lot of luck and a lot ofcasualties, I like to think we did itwell. The Ranger Force consistedof the 2nd and 5th Ranger Bns of the U.S. Army, underthe command of Lt. Col. James Earl Rudder, 2nd Bn.CO D, E, F, and part of Headquarters Co. of the 2nd

Bn. We were assigned to assault Pointe du Hoc. Allof these Rangers had the same three part mission:First, destroy the guns of Pointe du Hoc as quickly aspossible. Second, destroy all German communica-tion along the blacktop coast road. Third, create aroadblock to prevent any Germansfrom coming through from thewest coast road to help the Ger-mans on Omaha Beach.Our D Company of the 2nd RangerBattalion accomplished thisimportant and dangerous mission.C Company of the 2nd Ranger Bntook Pointe de la Percee andaccomplished their mission. A andB Companies landed at theVierville Draw and successfullydid their part, and the 5th RangerBn, led by Lt. Col. Max Schneider,landed east of them, later leadingthe troops off Omaha Beach tothe high ground above at the command of GeneralCoda of the 29th Infantry Division, when the Gen-eral, at the top of his voice, shouted his command,“Ranger, lead the way!” It has become our mottoever since. All Rangers eventually gathered at Pointedu Hoc and prepared for their next objective onD+3.

The angry tidal drifts, underwater obstacles, and theterrible pounding from the enemy caused the earlylandings at Omaha Beach to experience extremelyhigh casualties, and scattered units up and down the

beach. The unplanned landingand fighting of Rangers onOmaha Beach added an elementof stability just at the right time toovercome the enemy and establishthe beachhead. Captain James W.Eikner, our 2nd Bn. Communica-tion Officer, explained that theabove information distractsnothing from the heroic efforts ofthe combat engineers, the troopsof the 1st and the 29th Div., andother forces including the Navy,Air Corps, Marines, and allied

troops. Fighting together, we got the job done.For their bravery and combat excellence, the 2nd

Ranger Bn. was awarded the U.S. Presidential UnitCitation. There were no Medals of Honor awardedby Congress to a Ranger in World War II. The highestmedal for valor the Army can award is the Distin-guished Service Cross, which Col. Rudder presented

to me. S/Sgt. Kuhn received theSilver Star. General Omar Brad-ley, Commanding Officer of allAmerican ground forces, whoassigned this mission to the Rang-ers, said it was the most dangerousand one of the most importantmissions of D-Day.The Rangers of World War IIfought in nine campaigns, 13invasions, 11 major battles, and sixRanger raids. They conductedinnumerable combat patrols andjust as many recon patrols. Manyof our missions were classified orsecret. The Rangers also cleared

up and resolved many pockets of resistance andsuccessfully completed the many missions assigned tothem by various divisions they were attached to. InWorld War II, there were only 3,000 Ranger volun-teers chosen after testing and qualifying, plus manychosen volunteer replacements. Their casualties were

The Ranger Monument overlookingthe English Channel at Pointe duHoc was built by the French tohonor the 2nd Ranger Battalion.

Rangers rest on the cliffs followingthe first day of intense fighting.


Pointe du Hoc Continued on Page 23

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The first real feeling I had about D-Day was on theevening of June 5, 1944, when weleft Portland Naval Base in England,bound for the beaches ofNormandy. Looking at the rest ofthe men on board the USS Carroll, Icould not help but think that by thenext night, half of these guys wouldbe dead. I hadn’t thought to con-sider myself among them, but Iguess one never does.

At about 0530 on June 6, the Navalbombardment of the Germandefenses began. Battleships, cruis-ers, and destroyers opened up witheverything they had. There wasn’tanything the Germans could doabout it. They just had to sit thereand take it.

While the Carroll sat fivemiles out to sea with therest of the transport shipsduring the bombardment,the GIs began to board theLCVPs (Landing Craft,Vehicles and Personnel)that would take the menashore. Once we receivedthe word to go in, theLCVPs broke for the beachin a ragged line. That iswhen our hearts stopped,and we just stood therewatching them speedtoward the shore.

The LCVPs caught fire as they got in close enoughfor the German guns to be in range. First we werehit with 88s (three-inch anti-aircraft guns fired likefield guns, point blank) about a mile out. Then

came the automatic weapons, machine guns andsuch, at about six hundred yards. Itwas like a summer thunderstorm; afew drops at first, then everything allat once. Only this was lead.

Confusion quickly set in as we werepounded by 88s about two hundredyards from shore. The captain ofour LCVP was killed and the crewpanicked. We got hung up on a sandbar about one hundred yards out andwe were catching the full force ofthe German guns. Though weshould have backed up, the rampwas lowered. We had gone as far asthat boat was going to take us. Wewere now on our own.

Someone yelled, “This is it!” and we wentscrambling into the water.The water was deep, deeperthan we had expected. Menwho had been cramped andseasick inside the landingcraft were now splashingabout in the water, the zipand snap of sniper firecracking in the air aroundthem. We were overloadedand top-heavy with equip-ment, and some of the menwho had instinctivelyinflated their life preserversbegan to capsize and drown.

By this point, I was terrified. It was tough to moveand I was having trouble breathing with the wateralmost up to my mouth. To get ashore, we had tohop along with the waves. The water was becomingred with blood as I neared the shore, rifle overhead,gasping for air. Fortunately, I had decided against

D-Day: I Was ThereThe D-Day Account of Maj. Gen. J. Milnor Roberts

Aide de Camp to General Gerow of the 29th Infantry Division

The D-Day Generals: Bradley, Gerow,Eisenhower, and Collins. J. Milnor Roberts

served as Gerow’s Aide de Camp


13

inflating my life vest, and I eventually made it to themangled shore, which was litteredwith the bodies of my fellowsoldiers.

The 29th Infantry was sufferingabout a thirty percent casualtyrate for the day, a little over tenhours into the invasion that beganat dawn. Some estimate thatabout 2,700 men were dead bythe time my feet hit the water thatafternoon. When we landed,much of the 352nd GermanDivision had been pushed backfrom the beach, but there were stillmany lingering German snipersremaining in the hills surroundingthe beach. Dug in along the littlepathways in the tall grassy hillsbeside the bluff, they were firing at the soldiersapproaching the shore. As the bullets whizzed by, Iquickly scrambled for some cover, trying to get offthe beach as quickly as possible.

Running for cover across thebeach I passed an Allied amphibi-ous tank that had caught fire. Icould hear the men screamingfrom deep inside the tank, butthere wasn’t a thing I could doabout it. With feet wet andfacing intense fire, I charged up aravine only to find myself face toface with a sniper. I drew mycarbine and pulled the trigger, butnothing happened. The saltwater and sand had fouled theweapon to such an extent as tomake it unusable. Diving into anearby abandoned foxhole, Iattempted to fix my gun. Luckilythe sniper soon disappeared, andI was able to continue toward thetop of the bluff.

Once I reached the top of the bluff, I turned to lookout over the English Channel. It was just somethingelse. The largest armada of battleships, cruisers,

destroyers, and merchant vessels ever assembledanywhere on Earth could be seenstretching all the way to thehorizon. The awesome sight ofthat power and force, assembledto save the world, was simplyunforgettable. For the Germans,this sight would prove to be thesign of their ultimate defeat. Thelandings on D-Day would come tobe regarded as the beginning ofthe end of World War II.

After making it through that firstnight, hiding in a ditch and underfire from snipers, artillery, mortars,and bombings, the worst seemed tobe over. I was assigned to makecontact with an element of thereserve unit back at the beach when

I came upon a soldier I had recognized. He was onhis knees, dead, behind a sea wall, shot right in theforehead. The bullet had penetrated right throughhis helmet. I had just met the soldier the night

before the landing. We were thesame rank, the same age. We hadsimilar training and similar back-grounds. For all intents andpurposes, we were interchange-able. We were like two peas in apod; we just had different assign-ments. Not until then did I feelthe real power of all that hadhappened.

Looking down on my fallencomrade, I could not help butthink that it could have been me.It has really stuck with me all ofthese years.

Major General J. Milnor Roberts wouldparticipate in five campaigns in Europeduring World War II. Following the war

he served as Chief of Army Reserves, Legislative Director of theSpace Transportation Association, and Chairman of theEisenhower Society. He is currently President of High Frontier,an organization that supports the Strategic Defense Initiative, andhosts The Greatest Generation radio show on the RadioAmerica network. WWII

Milnor Roberts (left) assistsGeneral Gerow in awardingbattle stars to soldiers fortheir heroics on D-Day

Roberts (front row, far left) poseswith General Gerow’s staff at

Eupen, Belgium, November, 1944


14

Omaha Beach: Easy Red Sectorby Lt. Commander Joseph P. Vaghi

Beachmaster, United States Navy, Omaha Beach

At the outset, permit me to define what aBEACHMASTER was and what his duties were. ABeachmaster is much like a traffic cop at a very busyintersection. All sorts of activities were taking placeall around you and it was your responsibility toestablish and maintain order. TheBeachmaster controlled all trafficcoming onto the beach – men andmaterial – and arranging for allmovement from the shore to ships atsea. It was the Beachmaster’sresponsibility to establish radiocommunication between the beachand the ships at sea. We wereresponsible for rendering medical aidto injured personnel until they couldbe evacuated to the ships offshore.In addition, we providedhydrographic assistance to incominglanding crafts – instructing themwhere to land, placing markers, andsuch. We had a boat repair section which providedtemporary repair to disabled landing craft.

The Beachmaster for each sector of the variousbeaches, of which Easy Red was one sector, wasresponsible for all activities between the low tidemark and the high tide mark. The rise and fall of thetide amounted to some 18-20 feet twice a day in theEnglish Channel. Our 6th Beach Battalion was re-sponsible for most of Omaha Beach.

I was the Beachmaster of Easy Red Sector onOmaha Beach, Normandy. I was a Platoon Com-mander of Platoon C-8 which was one of ninePlatoons in the 6th Naval Beach Battalion. TheBattalion was composed of three Companies: A, B &C, with each Company having three platoons – myPlatoon was one of the three in C Company. Thelanding craft that my Platoon was assigned to for thecrossing of the English Channel was a Landing CraftInfantry (large) or LCI.

A secret report by Lt. H.K Rigg, the Skipper of LCI(L) 88 (our LCI) to the Commander in Chief, UnitedStates Fleet of 12 July 1944 contains this statement:“This vessel beached on schedule at 0735B, 6 June,the first LCI(L) on Easy Red Beach.” Platoon C-8 of

the 6th Battalion arrived in France at7:35 AM, British Double Time onJune 6, 1944, one hour and fiveminutes after H-Hour.

My platoon, along with the Com-mander of the 6th Beach Battalion,Commander Eugene Carusi, USN,some Army personnel, and A.J.Leibling, a writer for the New Yorkermagazine, were aboard the LCI 88when it beached on Easy Red, some1000/1500 yards from the dune lineof the beach. Our ship kissed thesands of Normandy when the tidewas at its lowest. As noted above,

the tide would rise and fall some 18-20 feet twice aday, thus the greatest distance to the dune line was atlow tide.

I was the first person to leave the LCI after beaching.The craft had ramps on each side of the bow forpurposes of discharging the passengers. Shortly afterleaving the craft, the right ramp was blown away byan enemy shell, causing several casualties both onthe craft and in the water.

D-Day, needless to say, was a day of memorableevents. I shall attempt to recount a few that wereextraordinary. These events occurred along thatsector of the beach known as Easy Red Beach whichwas assigned to our platoon.

The beach was cluttered with thousands of beachobstacles placed there by the Germans to thwart aninvasion attempt by the Allies. A Navy UnderwaterDemolition Team (UDT) had landed prior to our


15

arrival and was successful in clearing away some ofthe obstructions, so as to permit movement into thebeach by various landing crafts assigned to this andother beaches.

My first awareness that whatwe were doing was for realwas when an 88mm shell hitour LCI(L) and machine gunfire surrounded us. TheGermans were in theirpillboxes and bunkers highabove the beach on the bluffand had an unobstructedview of what we were doing.

The atmosphere was depress-ing. The top of the bluffbehind the beach was barelyvisible; the sound of screech-ing 12 and 14-inch shells fromthe warships, the USS Texasand the USS Arkansas, offshore were new soundsnever heard by us before; the stench of expendedgunpowder filled the air and rocket launchersmounted on landing craft moved in close to the shoreand were spewing forth hun-dreds of rounds at a time ontothe German defenses. The seawas rough. Purple smoke ema-nated from the base of thebeach obstacles as the UDTprepared to detonate anotherexplosive in the effort to clear apath through the obstacles to thedune line – this was the state ofaffairs as the Platoon made itsway to the dune line oh, so manyyards away.

Using the obstacles as shelter,we moved forward over thetidal flat under full exposure tomachine-gun fire as we finallyreached the dune line. All C-8smade the long trek including Commander Carusi.God was with us!

Having reached the high water mark, we set about

organizing ourselves and planning the next move aswe had done so many times during our trainingperiod. The principal difference was that we were

pinned down with realmachine gun fire with verylittle movement to the rightor the left of our positionand absolutely NO move-ment forward.

Because the UDT hadopened gaps through theunderwater obstacles intoEasy Red, most of thepersonnel and vehicles cameashore on my beach with theresult that we were very

crowded and became “sittingducks” for the enemy fire.

I believe the most dramaticevent I experienced that

morning on Easy Red was when an Army officercame to me and asked that I, as the Beachmaster,pass the word over my powered microphone that thesoldiers were to “move forward.” As a consequence

of this request by the Officer, Igave the order after which anArmy Sergeant pushed a “banga-lore” torpedo through thebarbed wire at the top of thedune, exploded it, which thenopened a gap in the mass ofbarbed wire. He then turned tohis men and said “follow me.”The men rushed through the gaponto the flat plateau behind thedune line to the base of the

bluff, a distance of some 50yards or so through heavilymined areas where many losttheir lives or were seriouslywounded. The Sergeant said,“Follow me.” He did not orderhis men forward, but actually

went in front himself, which is the sign of a leader.

Once this heroic act of the sergeant was accom-plished, the Army began its offense against the

50 years after D-Day, Joe Vaghi meets withthe young boy and girl from the photograph

above

Joseph Vaghi explains the worth of invasionmoney on June 19, 1944 to Villagers of St.

Laurent Sur Mer, France


16

Germans as the GI’s began to attack the Germans’strong points and began to fan out for their move-ment into the countryside of Normandy – the Battleof Normandy was underway.

As a component part of our C-8 Platoon, our Com-munication section established contact with ourcontrol vessel offshore and reported all the condi-tions on the beach as furnished by our CompanyCommander Lt. GeorgeClyburn, our Battalion Com-mander, Commander Carusiand elements of the 5th Engi-neer Special Brigade to whichwe were attached.

Because we were sending somany messages via radio, itwas later reported to us thatthe Germans “zeroed” in onour radio frequency andproceeded to pinpoint ourexact location.

As best as I can recall, it wasmid-morning when an Armyfirst-aid man came to the areaon the beach where I wasstanding and attempted to rolla soldier who was dead off astretcher. I told him not to dothat but to take hold of the other end of thestretcher and together we would place the body awayfrom the area where trucks and jeeps were passingfor travel to the openings in the German defenses.

As I bent down to pick up the stretcher, a very largeexplosion occurred. I was momentarily stunned;when I regained my senses, I discovered my clotheswere on fire. After regaining my bearings and extin-guishing the fire off my coveralls, I noticed that ajeep close by was burning. I turned to one of my menand told him to come with me. We went to the jeepand removed two 5-gallon cans of gasoline and anumber of boxes of hand grenades. I was concernedthat if these two elements were to explode, moredeaths would occur in addition to those that werealready dead due to the explosion. Amin Isbir,Seaman First Class, who was the oldest man in my

Platoon, born in 1909, suffered an instant death dueto the explosion. Prior to leaving England for D-Day,Isbir confided in me that he would not come backalive – how prophetic!

As Beachmaster, I had the awesome responsibility ofbeing very much entwined with the overall aims ofthe landing operations and the safety of those whoselives would be affected by carrying out my duties.

At one point, I ordered Sea-man First Class Jim Gately togo out some distance in theturbulent waters to assist asoldier who was flounderingwhile pulling a large Armyweapon. Gately followed myorders only to come back andreport that he had been hit bymachine gun fire in the shoul-der while giving assistance.His expression was, “I didwhat you told me to do.” Hewas evacuated later in the day.

Another incident that I re-member because of its humorwas when an Army bulldozerreached a point some 20 to 30yards from the high watermark even though there was

no operator on it. I ran out to the “dozer” and after afew moments got it running and started towards thebeach.

I had not traveled more than 10 to 15 feet when oneof my men ran up to me and reported that Com-mander Carusi wanted me off the bulldozer – “I wasmore valuable as a Beachmaster than a bulldozeroperator,” was the message. A short time later we didget the “dozer” off the beach area. I say it washumorous only because I had always wanted tooperate a bulldozer but on this day I was denied theopportunity.

Perhaps the most touching moment that day waswhen a young soldier lay dying on the beach. I bentover him and told him to hang in there and that I

Joseph Vaghi explains the Top-Secret“BIGOT” map he used in directing thelandings on Easy Red Sector of OmahaBeach to a young Marine just returned

from Iraq in the summer of 2003


Omaha Beach Continued on Page 22

17

Tour Normandy With the Heroes Who Were There!

D-Day

Sixtieth Anniversary

Tour

September 19 - October 2,

2004

Join Gen. J. Milnor Roberts, D-Day veteran and heroof Omaha Beach; Lord George Jellicoe, one ofBritain’s most distinguished World War II Veterans;and The Hon. Celia Sandys, granddaughter of SirWinston Churchill; for a once-in-a-lifetime tourcommemorating the 60th Anniversary of the D-Daylandings in Normandy. In addition to visitingOmaha, Utah, Gold, and Sword Beaches and meet-ing the men who stormed them, enjoying afternoontea at Churchill’s Chartwell estate, and seeing thegrandeur of Mont Saint Michel, you will experienceall that London and Paris have to offer...and that isjust for starters!

For a complete itiner-ary and registrationform call 202-777-7272 ext. 220

$3,800 Per Person/Double Occupancysingle supplement Additional $450airadd-ons from most U.S. Cities Availableprice based on a minimum of 40 paying par-ticipantsland only price approximately $3,120A $500 Non-Refundable Deposit is Requiredto Register

Package Includes:

-Airfare from Washington-Dulles to London and fromParis to Washington-Three nights in London at the Four Star RoyalLancaster Hotel-Three nights in Portsmouth, England-Four nights in historic Bayeux, France, along theNormandy coast-Three nights in Paris at the Aviatic Saint GermainHotel-City tours of London and Paris-Visits to Duxford, Dover, Canterbury, and Mont SaintMichel-Tour of Winston Churchill’s estate of Chartwell withafternoon tea hosted by Churchill’s granddaughter,Celia Sandys-Visit to the Imperial War Museum-Dinner aboard the HMS Belfast with Special Guest ofHonor, The Rt. Hon. The Lord Jellicoe-Tour of Creully, Montgomery’s HQ during theNormandy campaign-Visit to the Normandy Cemetery above Omaha Beach-Registrations to the 2004 Churchill Center Conference-Visits to Gold, Sword, Utah, and Omaha Beaches;sites of the Allied landings in France-Tour of the Louvre, Notre Dame, and Versailles-Breakfast every day, five lunches, and seven dinners,including a Farewell Dinner atop the Eiffel TowerSPACE STILL REMAINING! REGISTER NOW!

18


We’re here to mark that day in history when theAllied armies joined in battle to reclaim this conti-nent to liberty. For four long years, much of Europehad been under a terrible shadow. Free nations hadfallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions criedout for liberation. Europe was enslaved, and theworld prayed for its rescue. Here in Normandy therescue began. Here the Allies stood and foughtagainst tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleledin human history.

We stand on a lonely, windswept point on thenorthern shore of France. The air is soft, but 40years ago at this moment, the air was dense withsmoke and the cries of men, and the air was filled

with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon.At dawn, on the morning of the 6th of June, 1944,

225 Rangers jumped off theBritish landing craft and ran to thebottom of these cliffs. Theirmission was one of the mostdifficult and daring of the inva-sion: to climb these sheer anddesolate cliffs and take out theenemy guns. The Allies had beentold that some of the mightiest ofthese guns were here and theywould be trained on the beachesto stop the Allied advance.

The Rangers looked up and sawthe enemy soldiers—the edge ofthe cliffs shooting down at themwith machine guns and throwinggrenades. And the American

Rangers began to climb. They shot rope ladders overthe face of these cliffs and began to pull themselvesup. When one Ranger fell, another would take hisplace. When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grabanother and begin his climb again. They climbed,shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one,the Rangers pulled themselves over the top, and inseizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, theybegan to seize back the continent of Europe. Twohundred and twenty-five came here. After two daysof fighting, only 90 could still bear arms.

Behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the Rangerdaggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs.And before me are the men who put them there.

These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are themen who took the cliffs. These are the championswho helped free a continent. These are the heroeswho helped end a war.

In the days before this issue of World War II Chronicles wasdue to be sent to press, we learned of the passing of one of our mostbeloved American Presidents, RonaldReagan. President Reagan, often called “TheGreat Communicator,” was known forgiving some of the most powerful and movingspeeches ever delivered in our nation’s history.From consoling the country following the lossof the space shuttle Challenger, to hisinspiring call for General SecreteryGorbechev to “Tear down this wall!”, hiseloquence touched all of us. Among the mostmemorable speeches of this former Army AirCorps Captain were the two addresses hegave on June 6, 1984 in Normandy, tocommemorate the 40th Anniversary of D-Day. Delivered from the Ranger Monumentat Pointe du Hoc and at Omaha Beach,these two speeches remain the best rememberedfrom any of the D-Day anniversaryceremonies yet held. World War IIChronicles is proud to reprint the famed speech at Pointe du Hocdelivered by President Reagan on that day 20 years ago as a tributeto his memory. He is, and will continue to be, greatly missed.

“The Boys of Pointe du Hoc”Twenty Years Passed

The D-Day Address by President Ronald W. Reagan: June 6, 1984

19

WORLD WAR II VETERANS COMMITTEE


Gentlemen, I look at you and I think of the wordsof Stephen Spender’s poem. You are men who inyour “lives fought for life . . . andleft the vivid air signed with yourhonor.’’

I think I know what you may bethinking right now—thinking, “Wewere just part of a bigger effort;everyone was brave that day.’’Well, everyone was. Do youremember the story of Bill Millinof the 51st Highlanders? Fortyyears ago today, British troopswere pinned down near abridge, waiting desperately forhelp. Suddenly, they heard thesound of bagpipes, and somethought they were dreaming.Well, they weren’t. They looked up and saw BillMillin with his bagpipes, leading the reinforcementsand ignoring the smack of the bullets into theground around him.

Lord Lovat was with him—LordLovat of Scotland, who calmlyannounced when he got to thebridge, “Sorry I’m a few minuteslate,’’ as if he’d been delayed by atraffic jam, when in truth he’djust come from the bloody fight-ing on Sword Beach, which heand his men had just taken.

There was the impossiblevalor of the Poles who threwthemselves between theenemy and the rest of Europeas the invasion took hold, andthe unsurpassed courage ofthe Canadians who hadalready seen the horrors ofwar on this coast. They knew what awaited themthere, but they would not be deterred. And oncethey hit Juno Beach, they never looked back.

All of these men were part of a rollcall of honorwith names that spoke of a pride as bright as thecolors they bore: the Royal Winnipeg Rifles,Poland’s 24th Lancers, the Royal Scots Fusiliers, the

Screaming Eagles, the Yeomen of England’s ar-mored divisions, the forces of Free France, the

Coast Guard’s “Matchbox Fleet’’and you, the American Rangers.

Forty summers have passed sincethe battle that you fought here.You were young the day you tookthese cliffs; some of you werehardly more than boys, with thedeepest joys of life before you.Yet, you risked everything here.

Why? Why did you do it? Whatimpelled you to put aside theinstinct for self-preservationand risk your lives to takethese cliffs? What inspired allthe men of the armies thatmet here? We look at you, and

somehow we know the answer. It was faith andbelief; it was loyalty and love.

The men of Normandy had faith that what theywere doing was right, faith that they fought for all

humanity, faith that a just Godwould grant them mercy on thisbeachhead or on the next. It wasthe deep knowledge—and prayGod we have not lost it—thatthere is a profound, moral differ-ence between the use of force forliberation and the use of force forconquest. You were here toliberate, not to conquer, and so

you and those others did notdoubt your cause. And youwere right not to doubt.

You all knew that some thingsare worth dying for. One’scountry is worth dying for, anddemocracy is worth dying for,

because it’s the most deeply honorable form ofgovernment ever devised by man. All of you lovedliberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, andyou knew the people of your countries were behindyou.

The Americans who fought here that morning knewword of the invasion was spreading through the

President Ronald Reagan delivers hisfamed D-Day address at the Ranger

Monument at Pointe du Hoc

President Reagan meets with veterans ofthe United States Army Rangers on the

40th Anniversary of D-Day; June 6,1984

20


darkness back home. They thought—or felt in theirhearts, though they couldn’t know in fact, that inGeorgia they were filling the churches at 4 a.m., inKansas they were kneeling on their porches andpraying, and in Philadelphia they were ringing theLiberty Bell.

Something else helped the men of D-Day: their rock-hard belief thatProvidence would have a great handin the events that would unfold here;that God was an ally in this greatcause. And so, the night before theinvasion, when Colonel Wolvertonasked his parachute troops to kneelwith him in prayer he told them: Donot bow your heads, but look up soyou can see God and ask His blessingin what we’re about to do. Alsothat night, General MatthewRidgway on his cot, listening inthe darkness for the promiseGod made to Joshua: “I will notfail thee nor forsake thee.’’

These are the things that impelled them; these arethe things that shaped the unity of the Allies.

When the war was over, there were lives to berebuilt and governments to be returned to thepeople. There were nations to be reborn. Above all,there was a new peace to be assured. These werehuge and daunting tasks. But the Allies summonedstrength from the faith, belief, loyalty, and love ofthose who fell here. They rebuilt a new Europetogether.

There was first a great reconciliation among thosewho had been enemies, all of whom had suffered sogreatly. The United States did its part, creating theMarshall Plan to help rebuild our allies and ourformer enemies. The Marshall Plan led to the Atlan-tic alliance—a great alliance that serves to this dayas our shield for freedom, for prosperity, and forpeace.

In spite of our great efforts and successes, not allthat followed the end of the war was happy orplanned. Some liberated countries were lost. Thegreat sadness of this loss echoes down to our own

time in the streets of Warsaw, Prague, and EastBerlin. Soviet troops that came to the center of thiscontinent did not leave when peace came. They’restill there, uninvited, unwanted, unyielding, almost40 years after the war. Because of this, Allied forcesstill stand on this continent. Today, as 40 years ago,

our armies are here for only onepurpose—to protect and defenddemocracy. The only territories wehold are memorials like this one andgraveyards where our heroes rest.

We in America have learned bitterlessons from two World Wars: It isbetter to be here ready to protect thepeace than to take blind shelteracross the sea, rushing to respondonly after freedom is lost. We’ve

learned that isolationism neverwas and never will be an accept-able response to tyrannicalgovernments with an expansion-ist intent.

But we try always to be preparedfor peace; prepared to deter aggression; prepared tonegotiate the reduction of arms; and, yes, preparedto reach out again in the spirit of reconciliation. Intruth, there is no reconciliation we would welcomemore than a reconciliation with the Soviet Union,so, together, we can lessen the risks of war, now andforever.

It’s fitting to remember here the great losses alsosuffered by the Russian people during World War II:20 million perished, a terrible price that testifies toall the world the necessity of ending war. I tell youfrom my heart that we in the United States do notwant war. We want to wipe from the face of theEarth the terrible weapons that man now has in hishands. And I tell you, we are ready to seize thatbeachhead. We look for some sign from the SovietUnion that they are willing to move forward, thatthey share our desire and love for peace, and thatthey will give up the ways of conquest. There mustbe a changing there that will allow us to turn ourhope into action.

A young Captain Ronald Reagan ofthe United States Army Air Corps in

1940

President Reagan Continued on Page 32

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World War II Chronicles

A Quarterly Newsletter of theWorld War II Veterans Committee

Issue XXIV Spring, 2004

David Eisenhower, Honorary ChairmanJames C. Roberts, PresidentMichael Paradiso, Publisher

Tim G.W. Holbert, Program Director/Editor

World War II Chronicles ispublished quarterly by theAmerican Studies Center

1030 15th St., NW, Suite 856Washington, D.C. 20005

202-777-7272

The World War II Veterans Committeeis a project of

The American Studies Center,a 501 (c) (3) non-profit

public education foundation.

Speak OutNATIONAL YOUTH REPRESENTATIVE, WORLD WAR II VETERANS COMMITTEE

By Hunter Scott

The “D” in D-Day

Perhaps one of the greatest unsolved mysteriessurrounding the Normandy Invasion is the meaning ofthe D in D-Day. As I was polling a few of my friendsat the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill, Ifound that they, too, were a bit perplexedby the question. Nonetheless, came upwith some very unique answers. “Dooms-day? Death-Day? Dismay-Day? Disaster-Day? Dispatch-Day?” Or just plain“Dang-good-time-to-invade-Day.” The listof responses could really go on for, well, asmany pertinent “D” words as there are inthe dictionary, but let me offer a few morerealistic suggestions. Hopefully thiscolumn will finally answer the number oneasked question at the National D-Day Museum inNew Orleans.

The D question is by no means a new question. Infact, even in 1944 many people were wondering aboutthe meaning behind the D. According to the D-DayMuseum, the D in D-Day stands for—are you readyfor this? “Day.” Seems a little redundant, eh? Day-Day. It is hard to believe that after all the creativeguessing by my fellow Tar Heels, the meaning of theletter D was right in front of us all along. The Armyhas said that the D in D-Day is more alliteration ofthe D sound and stands for the “Day” of engagementor the opening day of an event. For instance, H-Hourof D-Day would mean that a plan is to be executed ata certain hour, H, on a particular day, D. In the caseof the Normandy Invasion, D-Day was June 6, 1944.For any day after D-Day, one would simply say D plusthe number of days had passed since the invasion.The day after D-Day would be D+1; the week afterwould be D+7, and so on.

The letter D stood for the opening “Day” of a sched-uled mission, and was often referred to as D-Day if adate had not yet been set, or, for security matters, ifthose in “the know” wanted to keep the date a topsecret piece of information. The term D-Day is most

commonly associated with perhaps the most wellknown battle of World War II, the battle ofNormandy; however, the actual term is more generic.D-Day is a general term which refers to the beginningday of any engagement.

Historians and etymologists have beendebating the meaning of the D for morethan fifty years. Hopefully this column hasshed some light on the more widely-accepted meaning of the letter. Nowthose doomsday or dispatch-day traditions canfinally be silenced. For now you know.(Hunter Scott is National Youth Representative for the WorldWar II Veterans Committee. He was instrumental inpersuading Congress to pass legislation to overturn the courtmartial of Captain Charles McVay of the USS Indianapolis.

Hunter is currently a freshman at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill,and is a member of his school’s Naval ROTC program.) WWII


22

On December 16, 1944, the German army launchedits last great counter-offensive of the war. The Battleof the Bulge brought together more than a million menin what was meant to be Hitler’s “last stand” in attempt-ing to break apart and defeat the Allied forces.

I remember the bitter cold at Ardennes that December.Our planes landed and took off in light snow, or onslippery metal runways. Frostbitten toes and fingerswere black and to the bone. Often it was so foggy thatwe couldn’t land. I cried more than once for thewounded anxiously awaiting evacuation whenever ourplanes could not land. Once we were grounded by astorm, so we stayed aboard our aircraft with thewounded trying to keep everyone warm. During thatlong and sleepless night, I wondered what the sisters atSt. Mary’s Hospital, who taught me to be a nurse, wouldthink if they could see me now. I also wondered if myjob as a stewardess with United Airlines would be wait-ing for me when I got home, especially that warm tropi-cal Hawaiian route they planned to add.

The Battle of the Bulge ended in late January when theoriginal lines in Ardennes and Bastogne were restored,but at a terrible cost on all sides. Germany’s final de-feat was only months away.

During those final days, our Air Evacuation crew con-tinued to retrieve and transport a diminishing numberof wounded to hospitals throughout Britain, until oneday I realized that I had accrued 250 Medical Air Evacu-ation missions—24 of them transatlantic. It would be-come 25 when I finally brought our wounded, alongwith myself, all the way home.

After the war, I got my old job back with United Air-lines and later flew the Honolulu to San Francisco In-augural flight in May of 1947.

Captain Lillian Kinkela Keil returned to service in Korea, where sheflew 175 additional missions. She would finally retire from the militaryin 1954 as the most decorated woman in United States military history,having been awarded 19 medals, including a European Theater medalwith four battle stars, a Korean service medal with seven battle stars,and four air medals. The 1953 movie Flight Nurse, for which sheserved as a consultant, was based on her experiences.

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would send help. Dr. Jim Davey, Lt(jg) M.C. of myplatoon administered morphine which relieved tomeof the pain, and shortly after, he was dead. I shallalways regret that I did not get his name. He was soyoung and so dependent on us to help him.

The word D-Day indicates the day of the landing, butto the men of the 6th Beach Battalion, it meant atleast three twenty-four hour days which became onelong day. Each night at dusk, German planes wouldstrafe our beach with gunfire causing much anxietyand some casualties. John Hanley, Seamen First Classof Boston, who had jumped into a foxhole was hit inthe leg by a strafing plane and was evacuated.

The evening of the first day, our communicationsection sent repeated messages to the control vesselat sea that the Army was in desperate need of “ba-zooka” ammunition in order to repulse an expectedcounter attack by German tanks. As it turned out, wedid not get the ammunition nor did the Germanscounter attack.

We also experienced the fear and anxiety of a gasattack. An alarm was sounded indicating gas. All ofus, without exception, ran to retrieve the gas masksthat we believed would never be used. As luck wouldhave it, the warning was a false alarm.

On D-Day, a college classmate of mine, Ed Galloglyfrom Providence College, Rhode Island, came ashore.He saw me and said, “Hi Joe, what the hell are youdoing here?” Ed later became Lt. Governor of RhodeIsland.

The greatest satisfaction that the men of the 6th

Naval Beach Battalion experienced was that we werethe welcoming committee for the thousands andthousands of men who came ashore over our EasyRed Beach and fought their way to ultimate victoryover the German war machine.

Joseph Vaghi went on to serve as a Division Officer of the landingteam that invaded Okinawa. For his services beyond the call of duty,he was awarded the Bronze Star. After serving in the Navy for fiveyears, LCDR Vaghi returned home, where he later founded hisarchitecture firm, Joseph P. Vaghi AIA & Associates. He currentlyresides in Kensington, MD.

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Flight Nurse Continued from Page 7Omaha Beach Continued from Page 16

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very high, with almost 500 Rangers killed in action ordying of their injuries, and countless more wounded.Few escaped without a Purple Heart.Our 2nd Ranger Bn., while in Europe in 1943-45,trained in Scotland and England, later fightingthrough France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and Ger-many, finally meeting the Russians on the River Elbein Czechoslovakia. The war in Europe ended in May,1945. I was wounded three times, and honorablydischarged on December 30, 1945.The two Rangers who found and rendered the “BigGuns of Pointe du Hoc” inoperable, Len Lomell andJack E. Kuhn, each returned to a successful civilianlife. Jack E. Kuhn had been promoted in servicefrom platoon sergeant to First Sergeant of D. Co. 2nd

Ranger Bn, and retired as the Chief of Police in hishometown of Altoona, PA. While still in service, Iwas promoted from 1st Sergeant of D. Company inJune 1944 to Sgt. Major of 2nd Ranger Bn. In Octo-ber 1944, I was given a battlefield commission to 2nd

Lt. And was assigned to D. Company 1st Platoon. Incivilian life, with the help of the G.I. Bill to completemy legal education, I became a lawyer. I am nowretired and live in Toms River, NJ.Incidentally, the French people of Normandy haveerected another monument to the Rangers on Pointedu Hoc, part of which is a large 155MM coastal gunlike the D-Day artillery previously described. Over amillion tourists visit Pointe du Hoc every year.The Ranger volunteers of World War II wereAmerica’s brightest and most proficient counterpartto the commandos of other nations; Special Forcesfor dangerous missions. The Ranger motto was “Bethe best of the best” and “Rangers lead the way,” andstill is today. Many generals and other members ofthe “high brass” as well as some historians thoughtthe Rangers were the best soldiers in any army.Please excuse my modesty, or the lackthereof…whatever, “C’est la guerre.”

Leonard Lomell would be awarded the Distinguished Service Crossfor his heroics on D-Day. Historian Stephen Ambrose creditedLomell as the single individual, other than Eisenhower, most respon-sible for the success of D-Day. After the war, Lomell studied law,and would go on to start his own law practice. He now resides inToms River, New Jersey.

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I was wounded near a white wooden gate in ahedgerow. I have been told many times since thatthere were no painted gates in the hedgerows ofNormandy. A few years ago I went back with threeothers, two of whom were historians, and foundthat gate. The gate itself was gone, removed by thefarmer when he widened the opening in the hedge.The white wooden gatepost with hinges is stillstanding where it was when I was wounded.

I jumped into Holland before my wounds were fullyhealed and fought there for 72 continuous days.Though I was not wounded at that time, we lost themajority of Company A under Montgomery’s com-mand. My company of approximately 197 mencame back with less than one third of that compli-ment.

We were out of Holland for only three weeks whenthe Battle of the Bulge began. We were shipped toBastogne with orders to hold that city. There wouldbe no withdrawal, no surrender. We held againstnine heavily armored German divisions to our one. Iwas wounded for a third time by rifle fire.

We then fought the rest of the war making our waythrough Alsace, the Ruhr Valley, the Rhineland,Bavaria, and finally into Berchesgaden, Hitler’shome. We were scheduled to spearhead the invasionof the Japanese mainland but the bombing ofHiroshima and Nagasaki ended that war and saveduntold lives on both sides.

I returned home after serving 2 years 9 months andsurviving four major campaigns and three separatewounds-but could not vote or buy a beer. I wasn’told enough. I was 20 years old. I would not turn 21until April 5, 1946.

For his bravery and sacrifice, Donald Burgett would receive theCombat Infantry Badge, Bronze Star, two Purple Hearts, fourCampaign Stars, two Bronze Arrowheads, two Presidential UnitCitations, in addition to a number of commendations from Franceand Holland. He would go on to write four books on his experi-ences in World War II, including the renowned book Currahee,which was the only book on the war endorsed by General DwightD. Eisenhower.

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Screaming Eagle Continued from Page 5Pointe du Hoc Continued from Page 11

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The nature of warfare has changed again, as it haswith every conflict our nation has faced. No longerare we faced with a uni-formed enemy with a frontline. Our homeland hasbecome a battlefield ofsorts and everywhere in theaffected region is considereda combat zone. Much ofwhat we remember fromVietnam can be comparedto Iraq and Afghanistan;even the women and chil-dren can be consideredpotential threats.

Prior to heading to Iraq inJanuary, I lived my life as atypical American collegestudent. I would get up forclass, go about my day andsocialize with friends in theevening and often late into the night. I am also anAmerican soldier that answered the call to duty. Iwent to my National Guard unit for my weekend drilland was met by the news that we were, in fact, beingdeployed. Things were about to change for my fellowguardsmen and me.

My MOS (military occupational specialty) is 88M, amotor transport operator, and I am essential to thisWar on Terrorism. All troops that have been de-ployed in the combat branches depend on me tosupply them when brought in, and also to bring theirequipment back when sent home. The difference isthat there are no front lines anymore. I have becomean infantryman on wheels. Today, the enemy recog-nizes that they stand no chance against a tank or afully equipped infantry soldier, so they will engage aconvoy that supports combat units. We are the

soldiers that have been thrown into the business ofwar fighting.

There are a lot of comforts we enjoy at the basecamps such as excellent chow halls and showers. As asign of the times, we also have internet access thatcan allow instant contact with our loved ones at

home. It’s amazing thatnow we can keep in touchinstantly rather than waitingweeks for letters to go backand forth. The deployedsoldiers work hard, and forthe most part, there aresome amenities to relax withat the end of the day.

Most of us are careful notto let complacency set in,however. We can see on thenews the names of unitsand soldiers scrolling at thebottom of our televisionscreens that are beinginjured and losing their livesevery day. Because of thenature of this conflict, it’shard to know when the next

attack will come, whether in the middle of the day bya rocket-propelled grenade hastily aimed at an Armycamp, or by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED)laying in wait for the next military convoy to pass onthe road. This is why all coalition soldiers are con-stantly on guard.

The climate of Iraq is complex. Some parallels can bemade to Vietnam, when we can’t tell who the enemyis. It could easily be the person dressed in civilianclothing waiting by a broken-down car by the road,signaling ahead that a convoy is coming or one ofmany people looking out their windows or off theirrooftops. There is an easy majority that are just goingabout their lives as farmers or shepherds and arehappy that the dictatorial regime of Saddam is at anend. It’s the restless minority that are causing the

A Letter HomeFrom SPC Ryan Swensen, 1487th Transportation Company

SPC Ryan Swensen of Germantown, Ohio, is a member of the 1487thTransportation Company and currently serving in Iraq. Prior to going toIraq, SPC Swensen was a student at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Inan attempt to give all of us at home a better view of the events unfolding inIraq, he has written the following letter home.

Letter Home Continued on Page 32

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Duane Heisinger, the oldest of three sons of Grace andLawrence Heisinger, was born in 1930 and raised inFresno, California. After several years in college and a yearin the Air Force, he entered the U.S. Naval Academy,graduating in 1956. He served thirty years in the Navy,retiring a Navy Captain withassignments primarily at seaincluding two ship commands,three combat tours in Viet-nam, and over eleven years inoverseas intelligence assign-ments including three years asthe Defense Attaché, London.In recent years he has con-ducted extensive research onthe life and death of hisfather as a POW of theJapanese in WWII. Duaneand his wife, Judith have threemarried daughters and tengrandchildren._________________________________________________________

“I remember the day Fatherleft. I remember the picturestaken of us together withhim in his Army uniform, Iremember that long line we were in at the pier,waiting to say goodbye. Good family friends werenearby . . . What was happening? How could I helpas mother’s tears were flowing? What did all thismean? None of us really knew . . .”

On April 21, 1941, Samuel Lawrence Heisinger saidgoodbye to his wife and family on the docks of SanFrancisco, and boarded a ship for Manila. Chartinga successful career path with the Fresno DistrictAttorney’s Office, the young Army reserve officerand lawyer accepted a new posting to Manila,

working on MacArthur’s JAG staff. It would only bea year’s assignment and he would return to take uphis duties once again in Fresno. Maybe it was a callto do something different, adventurous even an-swering a need to his country. Perhaps the motive

was to advance hisfamily’s financial security,especially after some veryunsettling years during thedepression. There hadbeen a small build-upgoing on in the Philip-pines, but nothing muchto worry about. After all,many felt that Americaneeded to more closelyscrutinize Japanese expan-sionism, even thoughthere were debates goingon in Washington as towhether the threat wasreal or imagined. By July,events in the Pacific took

on ominous tones. Moremen came flooding in byship, but necessary militarysupporting equipment was

slow to arrive, and often from old stocks. The warcame in December.

What happened next has continued to haunt Ameri-cans for 60 years. Captain Samuel Heisinger nevercame home, and it continued to influence me andmy mother and two brothers and the families ofthousands of others who were caught up in theterrible tragedies of Bataan and Corregidor duringthose first crucial months of late 1941 and early1942. In the end, 20,000 Americans with evenmore Filipino troops marched off to POW camps

Father FoundTHE STORY OF A SON’S QUEST TO RECONNECT WITH A FATHER

LOST SIXTY YEARS AGO

BBBBBY DUY DUY DUY DUY DUANE HEISINANE HEISINANE HEISINANE HEISINANE HEISINGERGERGERGERGER

Lawrence Heisinger stands with his family forthe last time before leaving for Manila (son

Duane is on the far right)


26

from which 62 percent survived by war’s end. ThesePOW survivors lived to tell the full story ofAmerica’s second biggest humiliation after PearlHarbor.

Ten years ago, I set out on along, involved, personalquest to find out more aboutmy father’s final days know-ing that some of the answersmight be found with thepersonal accounts of the fewsurvivors - and the fewletters left behind by myfather. Exhaustive researchuncovered much more:

“Father did not return fromthe Philippines. He said only afew words before death camea few days after the second prison ship bombing. Hesmiled in responding to the last person who spokewith him before he slipped into a coma and died.Death had been his companion for over two-and-a-half years and certainly within theholds on the two-ship final jour-ney. Numbers of his close friendshad died, but he held on and wasnot taken until that cold day in theupper hold of the Enouru Maru inthe port of Takao, Formosa(Kaochiung, Taiwan).”

The story really began with myearly involvement in an organiza-tion, the American Defenders ofBataan and Corregidor. These werethe survivors of the POW time.The key was to search out thosewho knew my father, or knewof him during those terrible,final days. After 50 years fewwere left, but I sought themwhere they were.

“Yes, I knew him.” Thesesimple words spoke volumes tome as I continued the search. I was led throughmany stories heard and other clues to the National

Archives, libraries and repositories of personaldiaries. I found scraps of paper, and lists of prisonernames. I was given diaries of some men who re-

turned. From the sons anddaughters of these men, Iwas given diaries which hadbeen buried, recovered orfound and returned to thegrieving families. Thesesmall bits helped me con-struct the missing parts ofmy father’s story. I wasstarting to understand. I wasstarting to find my father.

Those who had suffered themost in the darkest times hadthe heroic fortitude to makesure that at least some recordwas kept of the brutality—

even if the only method at hand was the use of thesmallest scrap of paper, an old discarded label froma can, bits of paper with names and dates taken offthe dead, buried in the prison camps, or passed from

one to another. These men wantedtheir families to know. Maybe newswould get back home of what hadhappened since those difficult daysfighting on Bataan and onCorregidor and then the POWcamps—and these men could leavea final message.

This is not an easy book to read.Last year’s best-seller Ghost Soldiers,by Hampton Sides, was a greatstory with a happy ending. Sides’smission was to concentrate on theArmy Rangers’ raid on Cabanatuan

and the rescue of over 500POWs. Father Found tells therest of the story. It tells ofthose who could not tell theirstory, for they did not return.Though many tried to hold onand return to their country andfamily, and they had the

needed will to survive, years of starvation and littleor no treatment to the endemic diseases of the

Site of the initial POW holding area onCorregidor Island where Lawrence

Heisinger was held

The Enora Maru in Takao Harbor,Formosa, on January 9, 1945. MajorLawrence Heisinger died aboard this

ship three to four days later


27

Philippines compounded by human cruelty beyondbelief, broken leadership, slow and sometimesquickly administered death, and the final degrada-tion of the experience of the Hell Ships made returnfor many, impossible. You know how this book isgoing to end, but the ending is probably the biggestshock to the system.

I used diaries, recollections,letters, and my ten-years ofresearch collected from a wealthof material left over from theliving and the dead. I weave thehistory of those terrible days inthe Philippines as WWII wasabout to explode into Asia andthe Pacific. The story is told as itunfolds through the eyes of thosewho suffered the consequencesof Japanese captivity. My fatherremains at the center of the book,and it’s as if he in some strangesense is telling the story. There isno condemnation here. No rehashingof the right or wrong reasons behindthe actions of the commanders. Men caught up in ahorrific situation tell their individual stories in thesimplest and most straight-forward terms.

The book works on many different levels: for thehistorian, for the student of leadership principles,for the psychologist or psychiatrist who deals withcombatants under great stress, and finally for myself,as I tried to sense my father’s thoughts as he lookedfrom afar to his children. He wanted to return butsaw that possibility slipping away within the eventstaking place around him.

Indeed, some of the stories found in these diariesand introduced within Father Found point to theextreme effort made by these men to reach acrossthe miles perhaps in a final message. They wanted toprovide fatherly comfort, understanding, evenguidance, from seven thousand miles away to family,all while imprisoned within a seemingly hopelesssituation—father to son, father to daughter. As sonsand daughters, we looked upon these messages asdirected to us by our fathers, a final message formany of us:

“A few tears appeared in your mothers eyes, the first timeI ever saw that happen in all the years of many goodbye. . . I have many times wanted to write to you, and foryou, my intimate thoughts and feelings . . . both duringthe five months I was actively engaged in the hostilities. . . and thru the years in which I have been held acaptive . . . You were born after your Dad had given up

hope of ever having a son . . .(Navy) Duty has not permitted thatyou and I share as many of yourformative years together as I wouldlike. There still lives in me a hopethat I may be permitted to give (you)my hand and ask you to face lifewith me . . . my prayer being that. . . I can add something that youmay find . . . a treasure worthy ofperpetuation in your own children. . . But you do not know me, Son.You only ‘know of me.’ These pagesshould help that, and, supposing Idon’t ‘make the grade’. . . thesepages may survive, and I would then

be glad, for somehow, it could be a littleless regrettable to me to take the mud in

my teeth if I knew that you would come to know mebetter. This (un)fulfilled desire to share life with you . . .has become the ever present goal of my life . . . I havetaken you with me thru this war . . . I have wanted tomake you proud of me, not for any great outstandingdeed as appraised by man as ‘beyond the call of duty’for to me there is no act beyond the call of duty. We oweour all . . . but what you would think about it all indays to come has always crossed my mind. It is butnatural . . . I should have the urge to write these pages. . . (that) you might read of and know more of the manwho is your father . . . Why have I not written thisbefore now? First and foremost, I haven’t had the guts todo so. Denied all contact with your world, painfullyobsessed with wonderings of how you may be faring, allof my paternal love pent up within me and deniedexpression, in constant fear of having my future with youfrustrated thru one of the common occurrences in thisprecarious life of a prisoner of war . . . fear of havingto die without you and (I) having known each other . . . Ievaded things which tended to keep paramount in mymind that I had a young son, from whose life I amdenied being a part and enjoying—indefinitely so—

Lawrence Heisinger in thefield before being captured

Father Found Continued on Page 30


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With the recent death of Admiral Thomas Moorerat 91, America has lost a military leader, strategistand hero-the likes of which we shall not soon seeagain.

His military career was one of the most remarkableand distinguished of our time. Hismeteoric rise though the ranks waspresaged by his being named vale-dictorian of his high school class inMount Willing, Alabama at age 15.At 17 he received an appointmentto the Naval Academy from whichhe was graduated in 1933, a staracademically and on the footballfield.

A highly decorated pilot in WorldWar II Admiral Moorer was rapidlypromoted, serving as assistant chiefof naval operations to the legendaryAdmiral Arleigh Burke in the 1950s.In 1958, he was promoted to RearAdmiral at age 45, then the young-est man selected for that rank.

Admiral Moorer later served as commander of boththe Atlantic and Pacific fleets (the only officer to doso), and was named Chief of Naval Operations in1967 and was appointed by President Nixon to thechairmanship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1970.

Despite the prestige and responsibility attached tothe CNO and Chairmen’s positions, Admiral Moorerfound these jobs frustrating in many respects.

As Chief of Naval Operations and later Chairmanof the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Johnson andNixon administrations, Moorer pressed hard tomodernize the U.S. Navy which was then composedmainly of aging, World War II – era ships.

His entreaties went largely unheeded by Secretaryof Defense Robert McNamara and his whiz kids,however.

The same was true of his advocacy of massive anddecisive application of force in the Vietnam War – atactic he felt certain would win the war. When thisapproach was finally implemented by PresidentNixon in 1972 – including the mining of HaiphongHarbor which Admiral Moorer had long pressed for

– it decimated the North Vietnam-ese forces and brought Hanoi to thebargaining table.

As Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs ofStaff in the Nixon administrationAdmiral Moorer also clashed repeat-edly with Henry Kissinger over hispolicy of détente with the SovietUnion, especially the Secretery ofState’s advocacy of the ill-advisedStrategic Arms Limitation talks.Instead, he advocated a muscularpolicy of economic pressure andmilitary superiority as the only wayto check Soviet expansion andultimately reverse it. This strategywas vindicated 20 years later in the

policies of the Reagan administration which broughtabout the collapse of the Soviet empire.

Admiral Moorer retired from the military in 1974but the next 30 years were hardly inactive. Insteadhe maintained an active interest and involvement inpolicy issues and politics, opposed the ratificationof the Panama Canal treaty, campaigned for causessuch as military preparedness and the developmentof a missile defense system, and campaigned forcandidates that he supported such as RonaldReagan. Military, conservative, patriotic and civicorganizations found in him a selfless and tirelessfriend and champion.

As President of Radio America and the World WarII Veterans Committee, I got to know him well overthe past 10 years and came to esteem his manyadmirable qualities.

Farewell to a True American HeroAdmiral Thomas Moorer (1913-2004)

by James C. Roberts


29

He was intensely interested in the youth of Americaand concerned that they develop an informedpatriotism and a knowledge of history. I remembercalling him in late October of last year, to confirmhis participation inthe World War IIVeterans Committeeconference due toconvene 10 dayslater.

“Are the youngpeople going to betheyah?” he asked inhis distinctiveAlabama drawl.

Informed that therewould be twohundred high schooland college studentspresent, the Admi-ral noted, “That’svery important,”adding that he mostcertainly would be there.

The Admiral explained thathe was now using a wheel-chair but that his son wouldmake sure he got there.

He was a superb raconteurand young and old alikewere captivated by his “seastories.”

Newly assigned to PearlHarbor when the Japaneseattacked, he was one of thefew pilots to get his planeoff the ground, whichallowed him to fly all nightand all day in search of theJapanese fleet.

Later sent to the south pacific to aid in the defenseof Australia, his PBY aircraft was attacked by nineJapanese fighters and sent plunging towards theocean. Then - Lieutenant Moorer, though wounded,managed to land the plane in the sea and the crewwas rescued by a Philippine freighter.

He anticipated another attack, which shortly en-sued, as the ship was hit by Japanese dive bombers.Lieutenant Moorer and his men escaped the sinkingship in two lifeboats equipped with sails and set out

for Australia. Atnight they cameupon a desertedisland and the nextday wrote SOS –WATER, MEDI-CINE in hugeletters in the sand.

An Australian Armypilot flew over anddipped his wings,acknowledging theplea for help. Hereturned later anddropped severalglass jugs of waterwhich shattered onimpact.

“I was mad as hell,”Admiral Moorer recalled,“until I remembered that theAustralians don’t drinkwater. They drink beer. Thepilot just didn’t know anybetter.”

The next day an Australiandestroyer rescued Moorerand his crew and droppedthem off in Darwin, Austra-lia.

“We went ashore,” theAdmiral says, “and the townwas completely deserted.Every man, woman andchild had fled into thebush,” thinking a Japaneseinvasion was imminent.

“I had been to Darwin,” Moorer noted, “and I knewwhere the hotel was and so we all walked over. Wewere barefoot, ragged clothes, unshaven, but therewere steaks in the ice box and whisky on the barand so we had a fine old time.”

Admiral Moorer speaks at the 2003 Commit-tee Conference last November

Then-Commander Thomas Moorer (far right) stands with hisfellow United States Navy men before leaving Tokyo for home


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As this remark indicates, the Admiral had a greatsense of humor.

Having served under Macarthur at war’s end, hereflected on the General’s penchant for large staffs.

“If you asked MacArthur what time was sunset onthat day, he would press a button and the Colonel incharge of tracking sunsets would enter the roomand give you the precise time,” Moorer said.

During the period Moorer also got to know many ofthe senor Japanese military leaders against whom hehad fought.

He recalled an occasion years later when Com-mander Mitsuo Fuchida, the leader of the aircraftstrike force that attacked Pearl Harbor, visited himin Washington.

Moorer asked Fuchida what he was doing. Fuchidaexplained that he was now a Methodist missionaryand was traveling around to the schools in Japanteaching the students about Christianity.

To which Moorer replied, “You’d better not let theSupreme Court catch you doing that in this country.They’ll lock you up.”

Speaking at our 2002 conference, Admiral Moorerreflected on the effects of advancing age, noting,“I’m 90 years old. I can’t walk, I can’t see, and Ican’t hear. But other than that, I have a hell of agood time.”

Clearly a major reason for his positive outlook onlife was his family. He and his wife Carrie weremarried for 69 years and he rarely spoke withoutmaking an affectionate comment about her.

On one occasion he said, “They say that a goodwife can make a man happy or successful. Well mywife has made me both happy and successful.”

On February 24th Mrs. Moorer received the tri-cornered American flag at the formal funeral serviceheld at Arlington National Cemetery. There, withfull military honors, the nation paid tribute to agreat American, wishing him, in the words of theold Navy farewell, “fair winds and a following sea.”

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maybe for me forever . . . I have always prayed for youand your happiness and well being, earnestly andreverently asking God to keep you and join us that wemight know a happy life together . . . At times I evenavoided prayer, because there could not be prayer withoutyou in it, and after praying, you would linger with me—and it would hurt—and it wasn’t best for me nor for thejob I had to do. All this may be very difficult for you tounderstand . . . I crave a normal father and son exist-ence which has been denied me and I am afraid—horribly and painfully afraid—that such an experiencewill never be mine. . . . what might have been . . . Wehave been too busy living life to record it.”

Thomas Hayes left his notes, his diary and memo-ries in Bilibid Prison. He died later en route Japanon the Japanese ship Brazil Maru, having earliersurvived the bombings on the Orokyu Maru and thenthe Enoura Maru. The date was approximatelyJanuary 23, 1945, one week before the survivorsreached Japan. Hayes was buried at sea. And so itwas with my father. He died in Takao, Formosaaboard the same Enoura Maru after the effects ofthe two bombings, malnutrition, and a reoccurrenceof the cerebral malaria that had struck him down inthe Davao Penal Colony. A place where he andanother two thousand had slaved for almost twentyone months from late 1942 to June 1944.

The history of these horrific Philippine days is wellknown. Father Found is a son’s effort to relate thereader to the issues of day-to-day survival and thedesire to understand the need to connect to a father-lost, but now found-after sixty years.

To purchase a copy of FatherFound, send a check for$19.50 to Duane Heisinger,7401 Bull Run Drive,Centreville, VA 20121. E-mail [email protected] ororder it from the publisher,XulonPress.com,Amazon.com, Borders.com orBarnes & Noble.com.

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Father Found Continued from Page 27

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Omaha Beach witnessed the greatest drama andloss of life on D-Day. Across a four-and-a-halfmile front consisting of sand, stones, and cliffs,largely untested American troops assaultedGermany’s Atlantic Wall head-on, encounteringfierce resistance but eventually securing thebeachhead. Their actions paved the way for Alliedvictory in World War II, yet until now, a truly

comprehensive history of the momentous battle for OmahaBeach has not been written.

In Omaha Beach: D-Day, June 6, 1944, Joseph Balkoski picks upwhere other historians left off and weaves personal recollectionsand historical analysis into a gripping, unforgettable narrative ofone of the U.S. Army’s most costly days of World War II.

The World War II Book ClubFeaturing Books About World War II: Special D-Day Edition

It was the most massive, complex, and spectacularamphibious assault ever attempted, the long-awaited turning point in the bloodiest and mostsavage war in history. But when 7,000 ships,11,000 aircraft, and 150,000 troops converged onthe coast of Normandy on 6 June 1944, theoutcome of the attack, code-named “OperationOverlord,” was far from certain.

In D-Day, one of the foremost historians of the twentieth centuryprovides an incisive and dramatic account of the strategic planning,in-fighting, invention, deception, and hard labor that led up to thatmomentous day. Through vivid, firsthand accounts of the battle,Martin Gilbert also captures the horror and heroism of D-Day,from daring paratroop attacks behind enemy lines to grim determi-nation under withering fire on the beachheads.

Tracing the genesis of D-Day to the early days after Dunkirk,Gilbert recounts how the results of numerous commando raids–some successful, others disastrous–shaped the Allies planning for afull-scale assault. He reveals Churchill’s hands-on involvement inboth strategic and tactical planning, and explains why the invasionwas delayed for more than two years after America’s entry into thewar.

Complete with twenty-seven maps prepared especially for thisbook, D-Day offers a fascinating, moving, and inspiring accountthat sheds new light on one of the greatest achievements in militaryhistory.

“A fascinating tale of personal combat...portraysthe courage, endurance, initiative, and fightingqualities of an American soldier on a Europeanbattlefield of World War II.”—Dwight D. Eisenhower

Though it was originally published over 40 yearsago, Donald Burgett’s Currahee! continues to be amust read for any student of World War II.Burgett’s masterwork, which was the only bookfrom World War II personally endorsed by

General Eisenhower, was recently republished in both hardcoverand mass-market paperback. Currahee! is Donald Burgett’s first-hand account of serving as a “Screaming Eagle” in the legendary101st Airborne Division. As described by Life magazine at the timeCurrahee! was first published, “Without false heroics, everything ishere, man’s cruelty and kindness under stress, fear and courage,hope and despair. Because he writes of acts rather than thoughts orsensations, Burgett is cool as only a 19-year old can be cool,committed to immediate action, to his comrades and to survival.”

CURRAHEE!:CURRAHEE!:CURRAHEE!:CURRAHEE!:CURRAHEE!:A SCREAMING EAGLE AT NORMANDY

by Donald R. BurgettPresidio Press; 256 pages $26.95 (Hardcover)Dell; 224 pages $6.99 (Mass-Market Paperback)

THE FIGHTING FIRSTTHE FIGHTING FIRSTTHE FIGHTING FIRSTTHE FIGHTING FIRSTTHE FIGHTING FIRSTby Flint WhitlockWestview Press; 378 pages $27.50 (Hardcover)

The Fighting First tells the untold story of the1st Infantry Division’s part in the D-Dayinvasion of France at Normandy. Using avariety of primary sources, official records,interviews, and unpublished memoirs by theveterans themselves, author Flint Whitlock hascrafted a riveting, gut-wrenching, personal storyof courage under fire. Operation Overlord - theAllied invasion of Normandy on 6 June1944—was arguably the most important battle

of World War II, and Omaha Beach was the hottest spot in theentire operation. Leading the amphibious assault on the “EasyRed” and “Fox Green” sectors of Omaha Beach was the U.S.Army’s 1st Infantry Division—”The Big Red One”—a tough,swaggering outfit with a fine battle record. The saga of the Big RedOne, however, did not end with the storming of the beachhead.The author concludes with an account of the 1st in their fightacross France, Belgium, and into Germany itself, playing pivotalroles in the bloody battles for Aachen, the Huertgen Forest, and theBattle of the Bulge. The Fighting First is an inspiring, graphic, andoften heartbreaking story of young American soldiers performingtheir D-Day missions with spirit, humor, and determination.

OMAHA BEAOMAHA BEAOMAHA BEAOMAHA BEAOMAHA BEACCCCCH:H:H:H:H:

D-DAY, JUNE 6, 1944

by Joseph BalkoskiStackpole Books; 410 pages $26.95 (Hardcover)

D-DAD-DAD-DAD-DAD-DAYYYYYby Martin GilbertWiley, John & Sons, Inc.; 240 pages $19.95 (Hardcover)


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World War II Veterans CommitteeA Project of The American Studies Center1030 15th St., NW, Suite 856Washington, D.C. 20005

NONPROFIT ORG.U.S. POSTAGE

PAIDWALDORF, MDPERMIT NO. 30


We will pray forever that some day that changingwill come. But for now, particularly today, it is goodand fitting to renew our commitment to each other,to our freedom, and to the alliance that protects it.

We are bound today by what bound us 40 years ago,the same loyalties, traditions, and beliefs. We’rebound by reality. The strength of America’s allies isvital to the United States, and the American securityguarantee is essential to the continued freedom ofEurope’s democracies. We were with you then; weare with you now. Your hopes are our hopes, andyour destiny is our destiny.

Here, in this place where the West held together, letus make a vow to our dead. Let us show them byour actions that we understand what they died for.Let our actions say to them the words for whichMatthew Ridgway listened: “I will not fail thee norforsake thee.’’

Strengthened by their courage, heartened by theirvalor, and borne by their memory, let us continue tostand for the ideals for which they lived and died.

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speed bumps towards a better, more peaceful Iraq.It will take time for the people of Iraq to succeed atcreating a peaceful democratic Iraq. They need thehelp of the coalition nations, both financially andmilitarily to accomplish this. It has been and willcontinue to be a rough road.

I am not here putting my life on the line every dayso Americans can pay a couple pennies less pergallon of gas. I am not here to fulfill a vendetta. Iam here because I volunteered to be a part ofsomething bigger than myself and to serve thecountry I love. I am here because I want others toenjoy the freedoms I have always known. The Iraqipeople have the potential to achieve this, they needtime and help to continue to overthrow generationsof fear and oppression. If the least I can do is takea year of my life to further this change, it is asacrifice that I am willing to make, not only for thepeople of Iraq, but also for myself, family, and allthose that enjoy the freedoms the American Found-ing Fathers created, and the “Greatest Generation”preserved.

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Letter Home Continued from Page 24President Reagan Continued from Page 20

Documents

World War II Chronicles - American Veterans Center