Objective Saint-Lô: 7 June 1944–18 July 1944

Introduction

The 29th Infantry Division

This division has a great tradition, and the history of its infantry regiments dates back to the eighteenth century, when it was first established in Virginia and Maryland. In 1758 the 1st Virginia Regiment was created from the militia units of the English colonies in America and was to be commanded by Colonel George Washington, who appeared to have a promising future ahead of him. Virginia is the oldest American settlement, being founded as early as 1606. In 1760 the 2nd Virginia Regiment was created and the two regiments would both participate in the French and Indian War. The 1st Virginia Regiment was reorganised in 1775 and placed under the command of Colonel Patrick Henry. During the War of Independence, the two regiments played a major role in the Battle of Great Bridge, which helped to drive the British Army out of Virginia. A little less than a century later, the Civil War was to alter the history of the United States dramatically. The two Virginia regiments allied themselves with the Confederate camp and the 1st Virginia Regiment was to be the first regiment in ‘Kemper’s Brigade’, serving under General James L. Kemper for the majority of the war, and only fighting under General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Appomattox Court House (8 April 1865). The 2nd Virginia Regiment was integrated with the ‘Stonewall Brigade’ and was one of the three regiments under Brigadier General Thomas J. ‘Stonewall’ Jackson to fight in the First Battle of Bull Run for the Confederate Army.

The cloth badge worn by men from the 29th Infantry Division at the top of their left shoulder.

The men of the National Guard from Maryland become soldiers in the 29th Division. Seen here are those from ‘E’ Company, 115th Infantry (1st Maryland Infantry), leaving Elkton Armory shortly after their enlistment. (US Army)

The men of the 29th Division debarking at Greenock, Scotland, in October 1942.

After the Civil War the 1st Virginia Regiment became the 176th Infantry Regiment, while the 2nd Virginia Regiment became the 116th Infantry Regiment and only the latter was engaged with the 29th Infantry Division during the First World War. However, up until 1941 when this division was reorganised, one of the two brigades belonging to the 29th Infantry Division consisted of two regiments from Virginia, known as the two ‘Southern’ regiments.

However, in 1941 a secondary infantry brigade, the 58th Infantry Brigade, would form a new component of the 29th Infantry Division. The other two regiments in the division, the 175th and the 115th, were from Maryland and have their own interesting history, being formed from militia units from the borders of Western Maryland and who participated in some of the early battles against the British troops in the War of Independence. In August 1775, the two companies left Frederick, Maryland, and marched for twenty-one days to Boston. These companies were the foundations of what was to become the 115th Infantry Regiment. In the early days of the American Revolution, under the command of Mordecai Gist, a 58-year-old gentleman from Baltimore, fifty-eight men from the city gathered together on 3 December 1774 to form what would be the ‘first uniformed military company in Maryland’. The company would be a composite of the Maryland troops that would be provided by the state for General Washington’s army, following a decision made by the Maryland Assembly on 1 January 1776. The regiment took the name of its leader, Colonel William Smallwood, and participated in several battles before being absorbed into the 5th Maryland Infantry Regiment following a reorganisation of the army in December 1776. It would participate in many battles during the war and later played a role in the War of 1812. In 1861, at the beginning of the Civil War, the two regiments became ‘enemies’ when the 1st Maryland remained loyal to the Union and joined the Army of the Potomac, while the majority of men in the 5th Maryland chose to join the Confederates.

The 1st Maryland formed the foundations for the 115th Infantry Regiment, and the 5th Maryland the 175th Infantry Regiment, with the former fighting in the First World War as part of the 29th Infantry Division. Both regiments were later gathered together to form a Maryland infantry brigade (until 1941); the 58th Infantry Brigade.

It is this duality of its origins, North versus South, blue uniforms versus grey, that led to the creation of the 29th Division’s emblem: the Korean Ying-Yang in blue and grey, hence the nickname, the ‘Blue and Gray Division’ (US spelling). Only the 115th and the 116th Infantry Regiments took part in the First World War, fighting as part of the 29th Infantry Division that had been established in August 1917 at Camp McClellan. The division spent three weeks in the trenches from 8 October and lost 4,781 men.

Tidworth, 12 March 1913. These men from 29th Signal Company are taking part in manoeuvres in a jeep belonging to the 116th Infantry Regiment.

Woolacombe, Devon, 28 October 1943. A team from 116th RCT fire live ammunition at the advancing infantry under conditions aimed at preparing them for D-Day. Their Browning machine gun, used by the majority of infantry, had a range of 3,800m and was capable of firing between 400-600 rounds a minute. (DAVA/Coll. Heimdal)

After the First World War the division was absorbed by the National Guard. It was at this time that the 57th Infantry Brigade (formed of regiments from New Jersey) left the division, which now became more homogeneous with its 58th Infantry Brigade, made up of two regiments of from Maryland and the 88th Infantry, formed with two regiments from Virginia, which had replaced the 87th Brigade. The ‘Blue and Gray’ Division had found its ‘soul’ and was now a National Guard unit made up of reservists who trained once a week.

In September 1939 Europe was once more at war. The National Guard were attached to ‘armouries’, which they joined in order to carry out their training, but this routine ended on 3 February 1941, when an Act of Congress established military service for all those serving in the National Guard. The 29th Infantry Division was now reactivated as a fighting unit and the National Guards of Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia (Washington D.C.) were to join their garrisons. On 13 February 1941, Major General Milton A. Reckord took command of the 29th Division and joined its headquarters at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland. Under his command were 7,583 men, including 656 officers.

The 29th was still a ‘square’ division, with four infantry regiments divided into two brigades: the 58th Brigade from Maryland (115th and 175th Regiments) and the 88th from Virginia (116th and 176th Regiments). The artillery was grouped into a third brigade, the 54th Field Artillery, comprising of regiments from Maryland (110th), Virginia (111th) and Pennsylvania (176th). The Engineer Battalion (121st) were recruited from Washington D.C. On 15 April 1941, 10,000 recruits arrived at Fort Meade to complete their 13-week training course.

Unfortunately, their equipment was either outdated or missing. So while the Baltimore newspapers spoke of the ‘new 37mm anti-tank gun’ as ‘the ultimate weapon for mechanized combat’, at the same time the Germans regarded it as being obsolete and ineffective, which was proved a short time later when the first moves of Operation Barbarossa took place on 13 September 1941. The division next moved to the training camp at Fort A.P. Hill in North Carolina, then Fort Bragg on 27 September; a miserable area that was infested with mosquitoes and snakes. More divisions were assembled on 20 October and the 29th now found that it was to be ‘triangularised’, meaning that it would be made up of three, not four, infantry regiments, which was a reflection of the general developments taking place in the US Army at the time. In early December 1941, the 29th went back to its barracks in the mud of Fort Meade and on 7 December, Japan attacked the US Naval Base at Pearl Harbour. It was war!

Another photograph taken on 28 October 1943. A Bangalore torpedo containing 20lbs of TNT explodes beside a second wall of barbed wire protecting a bunker. The first wall has already been breached and the engineers have already marked a passageway using white strips. On 6 June 1944, the 121st Engineer Battalion would lose 71 per cent of its equipment! However, training such as this would prove particularly useful; the Bangalore torpedoes would play a decisive role in opening up the exits from the beaches. (DAVA/ Coll. Heimdal)

A member of the 121st Engineers Battalion; Ed Lewis, from Steubenville, Ohio. He is carrying a BC-745 radio and holding a 511 model antenna. This photograph was taken on 9 April 1943, near Tidworth. (DAVA/Coll. Heimdal)

The 29th Division was now charged with defending the East Coast and guarding against an invasion at Chesapeake Bay, North Carolina. They took part in anti-invasion exercises, defending a mock-invasion by 1st Division during an amphibious exercise at Cape Henry, near Virginia Beach. This was almost a prelude to Omaha Beach, although this time the 29th were defending, rather than attacking.

In early January 1942, General Reckord took command of the III Corps Area and was replaced by Major General Leonard T. Gerow. At this time, the division was reorganised to become ‘triangular’ and lost the 176th Regiment, which was assigned to protect the federal capital. New recruits arrived to fill the gaps left behind and the division left Fort Meade in mid-April for Fort A.P. Hill. Various manoeuvres were carried out in North Carolina (from 6 July) and at Camp Blanding, Florida (from 17 August), before Major General Gerow reported on 6 September 1942 that the division was ready to be sent overseas. When the men arrived at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, (as the first to use this transit point), their destination remained a secret. On 26 September 1942 they headed into Jersey City by train, where a third of the division (the 116th ‘Stonewall Brigade’) boarded the Queen Mary. At dawn the following day, the ships passed the skyscrapers of Manhattan and headed for Europe, with the rest of the division following on 5 October, aboard the Queen Elizabeth.

The Queen Mary arrived in Greenock, on the Firth of Clyde, Scotland, on 3 October 1942 and were greeted by a British band. There was a thick fog hanging above the water and the air defence balloons floated above them. The men knew that they were now entering the war: during the crossing they had already witnessed the sinking of a ship and the death of 332 British sailors. The Queen Elizabeth docked on 11 October, but the division’s stay in Scotland was brief as they headed for the south of England, with the landscapes the young Americans saw from the train windows on their journey conforming to their ideas about England. They arrived on the big, chalky and desolate plains of Salisbury and headed for the Tidworth Camp, which was still partially occupied by equipment from 1st Division, bound for North Africa. The training was hard: two 40km (25mi) marches and one 64km march every week were required to test the soldiers’ physical fitness and those who could not do it were transferred.

The 29th Division was the second American unit in the UK, although after the departure of 1st Division for North Africa, it remained alone, with various British and Canadian units charged with defending England. This was also to be its first Christmas overseas. On 20 December 1942, the 29th Provisional Ranger Battalion was established, under the command of Major Randolph Millholland, the 1st Rangers having left England with 1st Division. This new battalion of the 29th Division was formed from the nucleus of three officers and fifteen men of the 1st Ranger Battalion and were joined by volunteers who could match the physical requirements. All the men were then transferred to the British Commando base at Achnacarry House, Scotland, where the 29th Rangers were attached to 4 Commando, under Lord Lovat. They would take part in three raids in Norway with the commandos, before rejoining their compatriots at Tidworth. During this time the 29th Division suffered its first casualties of the war, when six men of the 175th were killed during an air-raid on Bournemouth, on 23 May 1943.

One month before D-Day, the soldiers were confined to their camps to await the invasion. Here we see S/Sergeant William M. Wheeler, originally from Baltimore, Maryland, sharpening his knife on 18 May 944, two weeks before the invasion. He was a member of Lt. Allsup’s ‘A’ Company, 175th Regiment, and would land in France on 7 June. (DAVA/ Coll. Heimdal)

In this photograph taken on 6 May 1944, assault troop equipment from the 29th Infantry Division practices boarding the landing barges, under the watchful eyes of US Navy officers. On the following day, 7 May, the equipment will start being taken to the assembly zones. (DAVA/Coll. Heimdal)

As part of Operation Bolero, the codename given to the US military’s troop build-up in the UK, the 29th Division left Tidworth at the end of May 1943 and took up residence in Cornwall and Devon. Here it relieved the British 55th Division and took charge of defending the south-west coast. The ‘Blue and Gray’ Division now began training on the bleak moorlands of Dartmoor and Bodmin Moor. It was a tough test: the men faced strong winds that carried an icy rain, often horizontally, and had to cross a desolate landscape covered with a thick, spongy grass that engulfed their feet, which were already worn out by stress. The eyes of the ‘Blue and Gray’ soldiers would often look on with envy at the protective walls of the famous Dartmoor prison, which was visible from all across the moor.

In July 1943, General Gerow left the 29th Division to take command of V Corps. He was replaced by Major General Charles H. Gerhardt, who had previously commanded the 91st Division. Gerhardt was immediately flown to England and took up his new command on 22 July. It was he who would lead the division into combat.

Charles H. Gerhardt was born in 1895. His father was a career officer and so naturally, he followed in his footsteps and studied at the US Military Academy from 1913-1917, graduating 50th out of 139. He joined the 3rd Cavalry Regiment in Texas, following them to France, where he was then assigned to the 89th Division, fighting with them in the offensives at Saint-Mihiel, Meuse and Argonne. At the outbreak of the Second World War he was in command of the 51st Cavalry Regiment in Texas, before being given command of the 91st Infantry Division in Oregon, followed by his new post with the 29th Infantry Division. He wanted to transform the National Guard members of the 29th into real soldiers, and so imposed a strict code of discipline and instilled in them a far more aggressive attitude. He established the division’s battle cry ‘Twenty-ninth, let’s go!’ as well as the famous regulation regarding the helmet chinstraps, which now had to be buckled on the chin itself. He insisted that the war would be won ‘at battalion level’, and during a meeting with key men from the battalion, declared that ‘in a year, a third of you will be killed, and the price could be even higher if senior officers do not know their jobs and never get out of their chairs!’ In spite of the strict regulations, he was respected by his men, who nicknamed him ‘Uncle Charlie’, and would remain at the head of the 29th Division until the end of the war.

On 14 March 1944, units from the 29th Division are unloaded from an LST onto a Rhino ferry that will then take them ashore, during an exercise at Slapton Sands. (DAVA/Coll. Heimdal)

At the end of the summer, the 175th headed for the western tip of Cornwall, with Captain Frank McKenna thus having the honour of occupying the most western garrison in England with his men from ‘I’ Company. At the start of July, the first amphibious exercises had begun on the beaches at Slapton Sands, on the east coast of Devon. At the same time, certain companies continued to train on the moors, learning how to attack pillboxes and other fortified areas. They then joined the new US training centre that had been established at Woolacombe Beach on Devon’s north-west coast. Here they learnt the technique of loading a landing craft using a strong, autonomous combat team of thirty men. Woolacombe Beach was chosen because of its similarity to the beaches of northern France, which were equally as flat, with similar tides. The training centre was ready to receive troops from September, with each combat team spending three weeks there. Soldiers were taught how to use flame-throwers, bazookas, demolition charges, Bangalores, mortars and machine guns, as well as take part in amphibious exercises, culminating in one big operation. All this was carried out under the control of Brigadier General Norman D. Cota, who had just succeeded Brigadier General Alexander as deputy commander of the division.

On 15 October 1943, V Corps was ordered to concentrate all of its efforts on the Normandy beaches for Operation Overlord, although few of the division’s officers were made aware of the exact nature of the mission. At this point, V Corps moved its headquarters to the Royal Navy’s underground facilities in Plymouth, which had been cut into the rock and thus provided its staff with shelter from the bombs.

At the end of December 1943, British civilians were evacuated from Slapton Sands as the whole of the beach was now to be used to train the US troops for the invasion.

Major General Charles H. Gerhardt to command of 29th Division on 22 July 1943, replacing Major General Leonard T. Gerow, who was moved to the head of V Corps. Major General Gerhardt was strict with his command, but earned the respect of his men, who nicknamed him ‘Uncle Charlie’. In this photograph, you can see the way in which he preferred the strap of the helmet to be buckled on the chin itself. (DAVA?Coll. Heimdal)

A: The arrival of the landing craft during the first wave on Omaha Beach. Most of them drifted off course to the east as a result of the strong tides, meaning that when the men disembarked they did not know where they were. (Heimdal)

B: The confusion was made even greater with the arrival of the second wave of landing craft. What’s more, they had to arrive amid the wrecks of previous boats, as well as the bodies of the injured and dead. (Heimdal)

This photograph was taken in Red Beach sector and shows a Rhino ferry (a wide, flat barge equipped with a crane). On the beach can be seen the house where Major Bingham took shelter.

Robert Schiska (who can be seen in profile, on the right), originally from Mansfield, Ohio, landed at 7.30hrs on Easy Red with H Company, 116th RCT. The landing barges arrived at WN 64 and could be see the mouth of the Ruquet valley, on the right. Schiska is shown at the Omaha Museum (1a) in the same profile. (Heimdal and Musée Omaha, D-Day, Vierville)

Vierbille, from 9am on the morning of 6 June, by General Cota, the 116th RCT, and elements of the 5th Rangers . (Heimdal)

1.

The ‘Blue and Gray’ Division

From the Hell on Omaha Beach to the Hell in the Hedgerows

On 7 June 1944 at 10am, the soldiers of 175th Infantry Regiment disembarked from their landing craft. The day before, their comrades of the 116th RCT had been through hell on Omaha Beach, at Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer.

On 6 June, 1st Battalion 116th RCT had landed under the cliffs, further west down the beach than intended, and immediately came under fire from snipers installed along the cliff-top. The losses were heavy: up to 66 per cent of the unit. Those who survived found themselves stranded on the beach for most of the day, forced to communicate by radio. Under Major Sidney V. Bingham, 2nd Battalion had landed at 7am and a dozen men had managed to make it to the top of the slope, east of D3 (the entrance to the vallée des Moulins). However, they were unable to destroy the machine gun at WN66 and so had to fall back. As for 3rd Battalion, which had landed behind 2nd Battalion between 7.20 and 7.30am, although it was to suffer fewer losses, its men were still spread out 1km along the beach, facing the vallée des Moulins.

The arrival of LCVP 71 changed this, bringing with it twenty-four men, including Brigadier General Norman Cota (deputy-commander of 29th Division), Colonel Charles D.W. Canham (commander of 116th