Every Man a Hero

by Ray Lambert

  A series of landings were conducted in North Carolina at New River from June through August 1941.

  In January 1942, the division practiced landing at Virginia Beach.

  In February 1942, the division moved to Camp Blanding in Florida for extensive training, then moved up to Fort Benning. In June, it was relocated to Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania, preparing to go to England.

  In addition to the 16th, 18th, and 26th Infantry Regiments, four field artillery battalions, the 5th, 7th, 32nd, and 33rd, along with the 1st Engineers, were part of the 1st Division during the war.

  Force numbers for the prewar and war years come from The Organization of Ground Combat Troops by Kent Roberts Greenfield, Robert R. Palmer, and Bell I. Wiley, part of the U.S. Army in World War II collection (CMH Pub 2-1, 1947, 2004).

  Among other things, Maxwell hosted the Army Air Corps Tactical School at the time Ray joined the service, and played a leading role training pilots in developing the tactics they would take to war. Information on the field’s prominence rests in part on “Historical Picture of Maxwell AFB” by Major Larry Edward Kangas, a student at the Air Command Staff College, prepared in April 1986. The unclassified report is available online at https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a168255.pdf.

  Some of the 1st Division’s history comes from the First Division Museum and its website: https://www.fdmuseum.org/.

  Besides the three regiments cited and a headquarters company, the 1st Division in World War II included the 1st Reconnaissance Troop (Mechanized), 1st Engineer Combat Battalion, 1st Medical Battalion, 1st Division Artillery, 7th Field Artillery Battalion (105mm Howitzer), 32nd Field Artillery Battalion (105mm Howitzer), 33rd Field Artillery Battalion (105mm Howitzer), 5th Field Artillery Battalion (155mm Howitzer), 701st Ordnance Light Maintenance Company, 1st Quartermaster Company, 1st Signal Company, a Military Police Platoon—and a band. A wide variety of units, mostly artillery, armor, and anti-air, were “attached” during the course of the war, most for very short periods of time.

  The details on Bill Lambert’s initial assignment with the cavalry and why he was at Fort Benning are not entirely clear. At the time, the United States was transitioning to armor and mechanized units, and it’s possible that had he not become a medic and joined the 16th Regiment, he would have ended up in an armor outfit.

  Battalion aid stations, where Ray spent much of his time supervising the unit, were generally located within a mile of the front; they were often much closer. The next stop for a wounded man was a collecting station, generally located with or near the regimental headquarters. Patients there would go directly to a hospital or a clearing station located a few miles farther back. At that point, they would be transported to a field hospital or directly to a permanent general hospital for further treatment.

  The overall flow was meant to consolidate transportation while quickly caring for the most seriously wounded. The system moved advanced treatment far closer to the front lines than in World War I; that and advances in medicine helped save many men who would have died in the earlier war.

  At any point in this chain, the wounded might receive further treatment or be cleared to return to combat. There were different contingencies depending on time, place, and circumstance, but the general outline was followed throughout the war in all theaters.

  Ernie Pyle’s description is from a column dated December 30, 1940. Entitled “A Dreadful Masterpiece,” it talked about the horrible and extremely ironic beauty of the war seen from a distance—an apt description of what people were experiencing, though that was not Pyle’s intent. The column is collected in numerous places on the internet, including here: http://mediaschool.indiana.edu/erniepyle/1940/12/30/a-dreadful-masterpiece/ (In print: Ernie’s War: The Best of Ernie Pyle’s World War II Dispatches, edited by David Nichols, pp. 42–44.)

  Fort Jay and Governors Island in New York Harbor played an important role in the U.S. Army from the time of the revolution. At the time of Ray’s assignment there, army and air corps headquarters were located there; it housed First Army command during the beginning stages of the U.S. involvement in World War I. The 16th Infantry had first been posted to Jay in 1922. It is now part of the Governors Island National Monument, with a park and historical buildings open to the public.

  Ray was stationed there from roughly the beginning of June 1940 to the end of February 1941, with at least one substantial period of maneuvers in upstate New York in August 1940.

  The 1941 version of “Green Eyes” is available on YouTube at https://youtu.be/V8hMyVQaCUo.

  Fort Devens has been part of the U.S. Army since World War I; it can trace its military roots even farther back. Over the years, it has alternatively been known as Camp Devens, with Devens occasionally styled as Deven.

  The installation was named for Massachusetts general Charles Devens, who served with distinction during the Civil War, rising from the rank of major, and later became a judge. The base was closed in the 1990s, but part of the property is currently used as the Devens Reserve Forces Training Area.

  Three

  The full recording of the news flash on Pearl Harbor is available at the National Archives, and online at https://catalog.archives.gov/OpaAPI/media/2192572/content/arcmedia/mopix/audio/ww2/200-54.mp3.

  The reporter’s tone is remarkably calm and businesslike; not all were.

  As is often the case with World War II battles, the exact casualty rate at the Battle of Gazala is in question. Historians have used a wide range of numbers when estimating those killed, wounded, and captured; 35,000 is at the high end of those estimates. The defeat led to a change in command on the British side, where eventually its superior numbers would overmatch Rommel’s superior generalship.

  Tobruk had been successfully defended by the British the year before in an epic battle and siege.

  The army technician ranks went from 5 to 3; the lower the number, the higher the rank. While T-3 is often compared to a staff sergeant’s rank, it did not carry the full authority of a staff sergeant.

  The information on convoy AT-16 comes from the Arnold Hague Convoy Database.

  The Bedford served throughout the war; refitted, she sailed until 1960. “Drunken Duchess” comes from a description in John Buchan: A Memoir, by William Buchan, published by Buchan & Enright, 1982.

  The incident with the Bedford and its U-boat has been of interest to many World War II and naval buffs for some time. Definitive proof of a U-boat being sunk, either by a convoy escort or later by the troopship herself, is lacking.

  Given the limited technology of the time, it was easy to mistakenly believe a submarine was sunk in action when it had merely been run off; convoy reports and eyewitness accounts are filled with such examples.

  Some of the description of the Bedford relies on period postcards and an account by J. E. Robson, an RAF member whose story was published by the BBC in June 2005.

  Four

  Aside from the official and general sources previously cited, background and information on Torch comes from First Division after-action reports; Gray, Tavares, et al., CST Battlebook 3-A Operation Torch, Combat Studies Institute, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. (Available as pdf here: https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a151625.pdf); Norman Gelb, Desperate Venture: The Story of Operation Torch (New York: William Morrow, 1992); Vincent O’Hara, Torch: North Africa and the Allied Path to Victory (Annapolis: U.S. Naval Institute Press, 2015); and Charles Moran, ed., The Landings in North Africa: November 1942 (Washington, DC: Publications Branch, Office of Naval Intelligence, United States Navy, 1944). Additional sources included Algeria-French Morocco by Charles R. Anderson, published by U.S. Army Center of Military History and available at https://history.army.mil/html/books/072/72-11/CMH_Pub_72-11.pdf; Operation Torch: The American Amphibious Assault on French Morocco, Naval History and Heritage Command, available in pdf format at https://www.history.navy.mil/content/dam/nhhc/research/publications/Operation-Torch-booklet-508.pdf.

  Ray remembers boarding the Bedford on O
ctober 15, a date backed up by the ship’s records. The starting date of the convoys south from England usually given in general and official histories is October 22.

  Dr. Morchan passed away in 1972 at the age of fifty-nine. He was a consulting radiologist at an Indiana hospital at the time and was highly regarded by his colleagues for his skills and his friendly demeanor.

  During the war, regiments often operated as the core and command unit for groups of smaller units temporarily attached to them. As such, they were officially referred to as “Regimental Combat Teams” (RCT) or sometimes just “Combat Teams,” with the command regiment’s number—16th RCT, for example. For simplicity’s sake, we generally refer to the regiment rather than RCTs in the book.

  The typical RCT during the Africa landing included one regiment, one medical detachment, one company of field engineers, a battalion of field artillery, a signal (communications) detachment, an engineer battalion specializing in landing and shore operations, and an anti-air battalion. Other units, armor especially, were often attached depending on specific missions.

  This general arrangement continued through the war.

  The unit history indicates the company arrived on the beaches east of Oran earlier than Ray remembers, around 10 A.M.

  Besides the earlier sources, some of the description of the battles around Oran benefit from the account and photos in “The Landing at Oran” by Ben Hilton, posted on the 16th Infantry historical site, available at https://www.16thinfantry.com/unit-history/the-landing-at-oran/.

  For vital statistics on the 88 as well as its fame, see Ian V. Hogg, German Artillery of World War Two, 1997. Hogg makes clear that the gun’s fame among Allied soldiers was as much due to its ubiquitousness and propaganda as its actual abilities, which were considerable.

  Information on landing conditions and lessons learned in Africa comes from a declassified after-action report for Allied Force Headquarters. Interestingly, those reports lambaste the Higgins boats, labeling them inadequate in many respects, from size to armor. While the army introduced a large number of other landing craft with different missions and significant improvements, the Higgins boats were used on the subsequent Sicily and Normandy invasions, with great success.

  Medical Detachment Jeeps were used for a variety of purposes, serving not only as scout and basic transport vehicles, but also as makeshift ambulances. Depending on what was available, units would sling pipes and other items across to accommodate up to five stretchers; the wounded could be carried across the hood as well as the backseat area. The only limits to the adaptations were imagination and available materials.

  Patton secretly left Africa around the end of March, which meant Bradley mapped out the last offensive and was actually in charge for the final victory.

  The sequence of events following the American defeat at Kasserine Pass has been reconstructed based on unit medical and Purple Heart records.

  Five

  McNair received a Purple Heart for the injury treated at Ray’s aid station; the date was April 22, 1943.

  Lieutenant Colonel Denholm later won the Distinguished Service Cross for bravery during a battle in Sicily in July when he and two other officers and two enlisted men held off a number of tanks so the rest of his men could safely retreat. He was wounded in that battle.

  Hill 609 was eventually taken in a tank and infantry attack ordered by Bradley on April 30. The plan was both highly unorthodox and extremely risky, but it worked. When the scorched terrain—the 34th had fired phosphorous shells during the battle to smoke the Germans out—was cleared, the hill belonged to the Americans.

  Historian Rick Atkinson described the summit as “hell’s half-acre.”

  Different versions of what happened aboard the Italian ship circulated after the incident, and some credited the prisoners with sailing the ship back to shore. That appears not to be true.

  Six

  Besides the general sources cited above, the overall description of the battles relies heavily on the First Division after-action reports. The following sources were useful for background and understanding of the overall battle:

  Rick Atkinson’s The Day of Battle; Albert N. Garland and Howard McGaw Smyth, Sicily and the Surrender of Italy; Carlo D’Este, Bitter Victory, The Battle for Sicily, 1943; S. W. C. Pack, Operation HUSKY: The Allied Invasion of Sicily; Samuel Eliot Morison, Sicily-Salerno-Anzio.

  The History of the Sicilian Invasion by Andrew J. Birtle, U.S. Army Center of Military History (available at https://history.army.mil/brochures/72-16/72-16.htm), provides a succinct summary of the battle’s progress.

  One often-overlooked aspect of the landings at Sicily—and Normandy, for that matter—is that the U.S. Coast Guard also supplied boats, material, and personnel for the landings.

  The 1st Fallschirm-Panzer Division Hermann Göring, the official name of the Hermann Goering Division, was probably overrated by Allied intelligence at least partly because of its name and relationship with the important German figure. Nonetheless, its ranks included well-trained and battle-tested paratroopers and experienced tank crews imported from other units. The division also was among the most notorious for war crimes.

  The Terry Allen quote is taken from Rick Atkinson’s book.

  The casualty figures come from U.S. Army in World War II, Sicily and the Surrender of Italy, by Garland and Smyth.

  At the time of the 1st Division attack on Troina, the 9th Infantry Division had come onto the island and was due to replace the Big Red One.

  We had difficulty determining when the tank incident took place. Ray has placed it here after consulting with Steven Clay, historian and president of the 16th Infantry Regiment Association.

  For a different take on Terry Allen’s firing, see “Investigation into the Reliefs of Generals Orlando Ward and Terry Allen,” by Major Richard H. Johnson, published as a monograph by the School of Advanced Military Studies, United States Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 2009. (Available as a non-classified pdf: https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a505159.pdf.)

  Johnson argues that Eisenhower planned to move, not fire, Allen all along.

  There are admittedly much harsher versions of the slapping incident from different eyewitnesses, who said Patton inappropriately lost his temper. See, for example, Atkinson’s version on pages 147–49 in The Day of Battle. Patton’s own journal entry backs up the harsher views.

  As was common when the medals were awarded in the field, Ray did not receive a citation at that time for what would have been his second Silver Star (technically, an oak cluster). The paperwork was apparently lost after the war. Because he does not have the documentation, Ray does not list it among his official awards.

  Seven

  The men who died in Exercise Tiger at Slapton Sands were part of what would have been a follow-on force after the 4th Infantry Division landed on Utah Beach. The disaster eliminated the LSTs that would have been part of the reserve for D-Day. The impact of the accident is difficult to assess, but surely significant.

  Over the years there have been charges of a “cover-up” relating to Slapton Sands. Those appear to be misguided. See, for example, “Slapton Sands: The Cover-up That Never Was” by Charles B. MacDonald, Army 38, No. 6 (June 1988): 64–67.

  Dawson’s notes about the court-martial are included in From Omaha Beach to Dawson’s Ridge by Cole C. Kingseed, Naval Institute Press, 2003.

  Information on the order of battle, commanders, etc., is from Omaha Beachhead (6 June–13 June 1944), American Forces in Action Series, Historical Division War Department (Facsimile Reprint, 1984, 1989, 1994, CMH Pub 100-11, Center of Military History), Washington, D.C.: United States Army. (Available on the web at https://history.army.mil/books/wwii/100-11/100-11.HTM.)

  The medical department’s plans for evacuation and treatment of the wounded were summarized in a newsreel prepared by the army during the war and can be seen at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXj-DCZMb7o.

  Eight


  The machine gun nest on the left that Ray remembers would have been on the hill, roughly in line with the Engineers’ monument and what is now “Ray’s Rock”—the monument to him and the other medics who served on the beach. The right machine gun would have been on the hill below what is now the American Cemetery.

  There are many versions of E Company’s heroics as they pushed inland. For a concise, well-written account, see John C. McManus’s “A Knife in the Vitals: Omaha Beach,” published in World War II Magazine, February 15, 2017, and available online at: https://www.historynet.com/knife-vitals-omaha-beach.htm.

  Ray Lepore’s obituary appeared in the July 10, 1944, edition of the Boston Globe.

  Ten

  Some Sherman flail tanks had their mine-killing mechanism at the rear of the tank rather than the front.

  The medal citations are collected at https://ameddregiment.amedd.army.mil/dsc/wwii/wwii_ad.html.

  Ray didn’t know it, but there were at least two other Lamberts in the division: Tech 5 Ross E. Lambert, who was in the 1st Medical Battalion, and Clyde C. Lambert, who was in Company I. Clyde received the Bronze Star for action at Normandy. Ross died during the war; it’s not clear from division records when or where he died.

  Even now, casualty figures for D-Day vary slightly from source to source. First Army, the parent of 1st Division, counted a total of 1,465 men killed, with another 1,928 and 6,603 wounded in the first twenty-four hours of the operation. Looking at the overall Battle of Normandy, usually dated from June 6 to the completion of the German retreat over the Seine on August 30, there were over 209,000 Allied casualties, with 37,000 dead, not counting nearly 17,000 airmen who died in the same period. German casualties were far greater, numbering well over 200,000, a significant portion dying or taken prisoner during the Falaise Pocket battles in August.

  The U.S. Army had nearly 600,000 casualties in battle during the war; over 26,000 were killed. More than half of the wounded returned to duty, though not always to their own units or the front lines.