While at Tidworth the European Theater of Operations created a
provisional unit within the 29th Division, the 29th Ranger
Battalion. The Army's lone ranger battalion recently
demonstrated its worth in North Africa and planners in London
wanted a similar elite group in England to prepare for the
invasion of Europe. The picked men learned specialized assault
tactics by training with British Commandos and detachments
accompanied their instructors on three hit-and-run raids in
Norway and in the English Channel. The 29th Rangers also
performed well in allied pre-invasion exercises in England. A
policy decision by the War Department awarded the ranger mission
to others, forcing London to disband the battalion in October
1943. Fortunately for the Blue and Gray, the men returned to
their former units and passed on their skills.
In May 1943 the division moved to the Devon-Cornwall peninsula
and started conducting simulated attacks against fortified
positions. Assault landing practice followed at the theater'
5 amphibious training center at Slapton Sands. In July 1943 while
in Devon the 29th changed commanders with Maj. Gen. Charles
Gerhardt. "Uncle Charlie" and his dog "D-Day"
would become familiar sights to all who served in the Blue and
Gray.
Five stretches of French coastline in Normandy were selected as
the sites for the landings that the allies intended as the
primary effort to defeat Hitler on the western front. One of
these, code named "Omaha," became the responsibility of
the Regular Army's 1st Infantry Division and the 29th on the
morning of 6 June 1944. The 116th Infantry received the mission
of leading the division ashore, the only National Guard regiment
to participate in the first wave on that historic day. The 16th
Infantry of the 1st Division landed to their left and the 2d
Ranger Battalion was assigned to capture the cliffs on their
right. The 29th had responsibility for a section of beach 3,000
yards long but containing only two passages inland. The unit had
the task of opening both routes so that succeeding units could
drive inland.
Planners counted on heavy naval and air bombardment to
neutralize the defenses just before the boats carrying the first
wave hit shore. Intelligence expected the Germans to use
inferior quality troops along the coast and keep their best
divisions inland to counterattack. On D-Day, however, fate had
placed a crack unit on the cliffs overlooking Omaha as part of a
training exercise. This development cost the 29th dearly. The
first assault wave of the 116th consisted of Companies A, G, F
and E. They loaded into landing craft at 4:00 in the morning.
Difficulties began as soon as the small boats started towards
shore and encountered large waves. At 6:30 the first craft
approached the beach and came under fire from German gunners.
Some boats suffered direct hits or sank when near misses flooded
them with seawater. Obstacles stopped others offshore and forced
the men to wade in while exposed to fire, often at locations far
from their assigned sectors. Company A was hit hardest. They
suffered more losses getting ashore than any other unit of the
116th. Forty-six guardsmen from Bedford were in the company, but
only twenty-three survived that day. Within ten minutes every
officer in the company was a casualty and the survivors found
themselves pinned down by Germans shooting from the tops of
nearby cliffs. The other three companies in the first assault
group fared somewhat better, in part because many of their boats
were pushed off course or because smoke from fires started by
naval gunfire hid them from the defenders. The second wave
started landing troops at seven. These companies encountered many
of the same problems and also became pinned down. Maj. Sidney
Bingham, commander of the 2d Battalion, finally organized men in
the center of the zone and captured a large stone house
dominating the beach near Les Moulins draw, but heavy fire again
blocked further movement.
The third wave came ashore twenty minutes later and benefited from the sacrifices of those who had gone before. This element, mostly from the 1st and 3d Battalions and the attached 5th Ranger Battalion, finally fought their way to the crest of the bluff between the beach's two draws and, led by Company C, became the first element of the 29th Infantry Division to penetrate the first zone of defenses. Shortly thereafter a second force punched through further east. Ten minutes after the third wave landed the last elements of the regiment started reaching shore, including Col. Charles Canham who remained in command despite a painful wound. The 1l6th's artillery support on D-Day was supposed to come from the dozen howitzers of the 111th Field Artillery Battalion. Unfortunately, all of the amphibious trucks (DUKWs) transporting the guns to the beach either swamped or suffered hits. The dazed survivors struggled ashore near Les Moulins at 8:30 and were told by Lt. Col. Thornton Mullins "To Hell with our artillery mission, we're infantrymen now!" A sniper soon killed the colonel, but his troops assisted their fellow Virginians in the drive inland. By nightfall American forces controlled the key terrain at Omaha and plus the cliffs on the right. The drive for their next objective began, the communications and traffic crossroads in the city of St. Lo. The Germans tenaciously defended and forced the Americans to fight for each hedgerow. During this combat Tech. Sgt. Frank Peregory of Charlottesville's Company K, 116th Infantry, earned his Medal of Honor by capturing an enemy strongpoint single-handed. Unfortunately, he was killed a few days later.
The 29th took five weeks to reach St. Lo. Just before
the final drive captured the city Maj. Thomas Howie, commander of
the 3d Battalion, 116th Infantry, promised his men "I'll
see you St. Lo." He was killed immediately afterwards but
General Gerhardt ordered the column to carry his body into the
town square. A New York Times correspondent's story of the
incident immortalized the "Major of St. Lo." The
division's Task Force Cota, a strike team led by the
assistant division commander, Brig. Gen. Norman Cota, finally
gained the objective and raised the division flag over the rubble
before all the fighting ceased. The Blue and Gray's attack
continued on to Vire in late July where the 1st Battalion, 116th
Infantry won a Presidential Unit Citation for its role in the
capture of Hill 219. The Allies' need for ports to
sustain the invasion led to the 29th's next assignment.
Trucks shifted the division south to Brest where a bypassed
German garrison was stubbornly fighting to protect a submarine
base. Siege operations reminiscent of the battles of Yorktown and
Petersburg started on 24 August and ran until 18 September when
the battered garrison finally surrendered. The men of the Blue
and Gray deserved a rest, but after only six days they moved by
train across France and Belgium to a part of Holland near the
German border.
During the rest of the war the 29th Division clawed its way into
western Germany. The men missed Hitler's Ardennes offensive
(the battle of the Bulge) but by keeping up pressure on their own
sector of the line freed other units to counterattack and defeat
the Germans' last threat. In the spring the Blue and Gray
finally broke through, capturing a number of cities and thousands
of prisoners. Munchen-Gladbach fell to the division on 1 March
1945 which then found itself supporting other American forces
mopping up resistance in Germany's industrial heartland, the
Ruhr "Pocket." This operation involved little combat as
everyone realized that the war was about to end. On 24
April the 116th became the first unit in the 29th Infantry
Division to reach the Elbe River where the Americans halted to
await their Russian allies advancing from the east. The first
Soviet unit (5th Guards Cavalry Division) reached the 29th's
sector on 2 May. The following day Brig. Gen. Sands, Division
Artillery commander, crossed the river to greet them. With
Germany's surrender the men of the Blue and Gray moved west
again to assume occupation duties in the region around the
ancient city of Bremen and its port, Bremerhaven, where they
remained until it was time to ship home.
Facts about the make-up of the 29th, its campaigns, awards and
units can be found here.
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General Gehrhardt decorates a 29'er for bravery |