Beyond the Beachhead by Joseph Balkoski

Author:Joseph Balkoski
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780811768443
Publisher: Stackpole Books
Published: 2019-02-10T16:00:00+00:00

After landing, the 175th was immediately ordered to move to the Vier-ville draw. “The 175th marched in a loose formation down the beach and was subject to sniper fire,” recalled J. Milnor Roberts, Gerow’s aide. “But, even worse, they were stepping over the bodies of the guys who had been killed the day before and these guys were wearing that 29th Division patch; the other fellows, brand-new, were walking over the dead bodies. By the time they got down where they were to go inland, they were really spooked.”

Captain Miller led Company F, minus a mysteriously missing platoon, westward along the foot of the bluffs. Capt. Jimmy Hays, the regimental S -l, spotted Miller and warned, “Things are all screwed up. Colonel Goode was right. You can forget that invasion plan from here on. We’re supposed to assemble by dusk in Gruchy. Here it is on the map,” said Hays, pointing. “Tomorrow we move against Isigny, over to the west.” Miller had never even heard of Isigny. According to the original scheme, Company F was to move straight south after clearing Omaha.

Company C never received word of the new plan and set out southward for its original objective only to discover later that the rest of the regiment had moved west. The company fought with the 115th Infantry for three days before returning to the 175th.

The 175th made it to the western end of the beach where it joined the throng of troops and vehicles struggling up the Vierville draw. “There was a traffic jam such as you would see at the corner of 42nd and Broadway,” recalled Slingluff. “Vehicles bumper-to-bumper, tanks, men just jammed up in there, occasional 88’s dropping in among them.”

Trudging up the draw, the men of the 175th passed Gerhardt and his staff in the spartan 29th Division command post. “The area had been roped off so that no one could get in too close to see the operations map,” recalled Lt. Sam Allsup, a platoon leader in Company A. “It seemed as if it [the command post) was just one mass of organized confusion, but the entire operations of the Division were being controlled from behind the pile of rubble.”

At the top of the draw, the men of the 175th turned west at the main thoroughfare leading out of Vierville. It was sunset; as the sky darkened, the regiment marched another mile and turned south at the tiny crossroads hamlet of Gruchy. Here they took a breather before resuming the advance toward Isigny.

Just outside of Vierville, Captain Miller was approached by a French-woman and her little daughter. “Les Boches! Les Boches!“sputtered the woman, gesticulating for Miller to follow her. Miller took a few members of his company and cautiously trailed the woman past a large chateau up to a small ravine. The Yanks could hear moans and German oaths coming from a well-concealed tunnel at the bottom of the ravine. Miller and two men jumped down with their weapons ready “Achtung! Raus! Raus!“they shouted into the tunnel entrance.

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