Tonight We Die As Men
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TONIGHT WE DIE AS MEN IAN GARDNER & ROGER DAY FOREWORD BY ED SHAMES © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com TONIGHT WE DIE AS MEN THE UNTOLD STORY OF THIRD BATTALION 506 PARACHUTE INFANTRY REGIMENT FROM TOCCOA TO D-DAY OSPREY PUBLISHING © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com Contents Foreword by Ed Shames 7 Introduction by Mark Bando 9 Preface and Acknowledgements by Ian Gardner 12 1 “Hitit–13weeksofpain” Creation of the 506th PIR 16 2 “Time, gentlemen, please” The 506th at Ramsbury, UK 32 3 “Here’s to your dog tags” Preparations for D-Day 71 4 “Jump into the fight” Operation Overlord begins 103 5 “God, let me live ’til morning” D-Night part 1 123 6 “For Christ’s sake, let’s go” D-Night part 2 156 7 “A real feeling of victory” D-Day - June 6, 1944 180 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com 8 “No word from 3rd Battalion, 506th PIR” D-Day +1 206 9 “A pitiful sight” D-Day +2 230 10 “Don’t shoot, we’re Americans” Regrouping and consolidation 244 11 “Still an American paratrooper” POWs and counterattacks 256 12 “I ain’t dead yet” The battle of Bloody Gully, June 13, 1944 281 13 “Things are pretty calm right now” Operations on the Main Line of Resistance 300 14 “Go on,Yank, have a drink” Return to Ramsbury 323 Epilogue 333 Bibliography 334 Index 336 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com Foreword Please allow me to introduce you to the most detailed history ever written about the battles that began the drive to free the European continent of the German armies. If you are a student of history,especially WorldWar II history, and the battle for Normandy is of interest to you, then prepare yourself for an experience very few readers have yet known. Many books and accounts have been written about the invasion of Normandy, but never have you read one that has been more accurate about the facts and events of this period of warfare. What makes me qualified to know what happened during the battle and the involvement of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division? I was there from the birth of the 506th at Toccoa, Georgia, in early September 1942, and participated in every battle from the jump into Normandy to the capture of Berchtesgaden in May 1945. As the operations sergeant of the 3rd Battalion 506th, it was my responsibility to construct “sand tables” for the purposes of briefing the entire battalion as to where they would land and assemble. I also had to point out each company’s battle objectives once they had regrouped on the ground into fighting units. Many times since the war years, I have walked over the grounds and hedgerows of Normandy,and have been privileged on several such occasions to do so with the authors of this book. My dear friends Ian Gardner and Roger Day have meticulously researched Ramsbury and the battle for Normandy to such a fine degree that no other historical record can be anywhere near the accuracy of truth and events. As part of this historical masterpiece, there are remarkably detailed maps and charts that allow the reader to retrace the steps and movements of the paratroopers as they fought to secure 7 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com TONIGHT WE DIE AS MEN Normandy and its place in history.When I read their manuscript I felt that I was again in my parachute and beginning my odyssey of World War II that started with my touchdown in Carentan, Normandy,France. This book is truly a work of historical art. Edward D. Shames – June 2008 Virginia Beach,Virginia, USA 8 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com Introduction Six years ago, an English history fan named Ian Gardner read my first book, The 101st Airborne at Normandy. Ian himself is a former paratrooper in the post-WorldWar II British Army and for some reason he became fixated on the subject matter of Chapter 22 of my book, which deals with 3rd Battalion 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, and their D-Day objective, the wooden bridges near Brévands, France. This launched Ian on a lengthy research project, driven by an obsession to learn as much detail as possible about this event, by contacting every available survivor of 3rd Bn and hearing their testimony. Ian also searched out obscure, detailed maps, studied vintage aerial photos, walked the ground many times, and did a good deal of detective work. What you will read between these covers is the result of Ian’s research, the fulfillment of an original and valuable research project. Ian’s colleague Roger Day, a consummate historian of the wartime history of Ramsbury,England (and the author of a book and website on that subject), has been on board with Ian since the start of his 3rd Bn 506th research. For five years, they walked the ground together, puzzled over new evidence, and collected facts and stories, and Roger’s writing skills made presentation of the final manuscript possible. So this book is very much a joint product of their teamwork. This is not just another anthology of WorldWar II stories, resulting from the labors of many other historians and disguised as an original presentation. As an avid reader (as well as producer) of World War II books, I enthusiastically endorse this book as a product of original research and an important contribution to the literature. In its pages, many new stories and facts will be revealed.Also, any work encompassing 9 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com TONIGHT WE DIE AS MEN many years of investigation, fueled by obsession and produced as a labor of love, has got to be worthwhile. Two bridges, installed by the occupying German forces in Normandy, crossed the Douve river east of Carentan, France, about 1 mile apart. These became a significant objective in Allied D-Day planning. The Germans had installed these bridges in 1943–44 for tactical purposes; they allowed the German defenders (in the event of Allied landings) to rush replacements to defend the strip of east Cotentin coastline that Allied planners had designated as “Utah Beach.”The mission of LtCol Robert L. Wolverton’s battalion was simply to seize control of these bridges as soon as possible after parachuting in to Drop Zone D, and prevent German reinforcements from crossing toward the coast by any means necessary.The series of events that resulted when this plan was put into action is the subject of this work. The assigned battalion suffered grievous losses on the drop zone, and only a small percentage of it found their way to the objective.The decimation of Wolverton’s battalion (both he and his executive officer were among those killed) is described in this book in terms of personal human loss. Despite their casualties, the small percentage of 3rd Bn 506th paratroopers who survived were able to accomplish their mission of controlling the bridges and preventing the enemy from crossing them in order to reinforce the Nazi coastal defenders. After the war moved on toward Germany, the French required the removal of the bridges, because their presence prevented seaborne commerce from entering the small port in Carentan from the Channel. So after Allied planes bombed the center out of each bridge, the French continued the removal job, doing it so thoroughly that only small remnants of the original bridge footings remain. By walking the north bank of the Douve river for miles in 2003, Ian Gardner and Roger Day located those crucial pieces of evidence, which had eluded me and other researchers for half a century.The significance of the physical evidence they discovered was important, proving that previous published references to the placement of the foot and road bridge respectively were in error. In my previous books they are transposed, because I followed 10 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com INTRODUCTION the information marked on the map of the 506th regimental S3 officer, Maj H.W.Hannah, which showed the road bridge closer to the Channel, when in fact it was the one nearer to Carentan. One reason for this is that Maj Hannah himself never physically visited the 3rd Bn objective, nor did he stand in view of either bridge during the Normandy campaign. Here is an example of ostensibly reliable information proving to be inaccurate. I had learned while researching the La Barquette lock battle that the devil is indeed in the detail.The deeper one delves into any historical event, the more questions arise and the more contradictory evidence surfaces. No two participants in any battle seem to agree on all of the details that transpired.While researching this work, Ian and Roger have also discovered that certain disputed details will never be fully resolved. We should regard this work as an amazingly detailed glimpse into the tragic experiences of this heroic parachute battalion. I am pleased that reading my earlier work served as the impetus that launched Ian on his mission to discover so much more about the saga of LtCol Wolverton’s 3rd Bn 506th and the wooden bridges of D-Day. Had he not embarked on his investigation when he did, the mortality rate of our World War II veterans would have ensured that much of this information would have been lost forever.This slice of history,collected and preserved by Ian Gardner and Roger Day,can now be added to the complex mosaic that was the battle of Normandy. The chaos and complexity of those times is still being gradually sorted out, but, sadly, the time is rapidly approaching when we will be unable to consult World War II survivors for this kind of firsthand testimony.I applaud both Ian and Roger for their dedicated achievement, and I would urge all who are students of the Normandy invasion to read this important historical compendium of fact and personal experience.