by Mehlo, Noel
Now, shortly after we had halted there, a hell of a barrage of artillery hit that orchard, and we received one dead man, my good friend Elmo Banning was killed, and the first section leader, Sergeant McIlwain was hit in the right arm pretty bad, and when the smoke cleared and we got ourselves together again, we checked Elmo, determined he was dead. The medic we had, Johnson (Private First Class Jessie W. Johnson) -- hell of a good man – Johnson fixed up Mac's arm as well as he could. By the way, that's another thing we carried. We carried 4 in our first aid kit, we carried 4 morphine syringes, we carried a large package of sulfa powder, sulphanilimide. That was a real wonder drug of World War II rather than penicillin, which came along later. The sulfanilimide was a sulfaguanadine drug line was what really saved lives in the early part of the war. And of course, we had 2 large bandages in there besides. But Johnson gave Mac a shot of morphine, and fixed his arm up as well as he-' could, and about this time on this gravel road approximately 20 yards to our left where another hedgerow took off on the other side of this gravel road, here comes out some U.S.. officers. I think it was a captain and a couple of lieutenants, and they asked us who we were and what our unit was. And we told them we were a platoon from the 5th Rangers. Well, he says, "Who's your leader?" We sent our lieutenant, the nameless one, and here is Colonel Cannon (Canham), CP. Colonel Canham was the commander of the 116th Regimental Combat team. Him and his headquarters staff apparently had managed quite nicely to get up to their CP, their planned CP which was a chateau, except just on the other side of that orchard, along that gravel road. And the only trouble was, the CP was 4 Germans, so Colonel Canham and his staff sort of took protection back in this apex of this hedgerow, and of course, Colonel Canham, since what he had there I was himself and maybe 3 or 4 commissioned officers and a couple of enlisted men, and he was isolated out there, he was just sitting there with his handful of men and nobody around but Germans, so he, as the official history says, we were impressed as his CP guard. Now that's a big damn laugh. But anyway, we were impressed, I'll guarantee you that. So what we did, we more or less stayed in that area. It had fairly good cover, although within spitting distance, practically, was a chateau full of Germans, and he was trying to make up his mind what he wanted to do…”2
After careful study and consideration of unit records, various texts and in conjunction with consulting with my sources, I believe the former account to be more accurate as to the death of T/5 Banning. I was compelled to present both accounts here.
While the men were busy on top of the crest, Copeland found himself tagged by medics for evacuation on three separate occasions. He had taken a good look at his legs once he returned to the seawall and found the bullet entered through his shin and exited through the calf. He saw the damage done to his left heel. He did not know until sometime later when x-rayed that this wound left the bullet lodged in the toes of the foot. He was extremely upset that he was unable to carry on the fight. As a result, he resolved to make himself useful on the beach in any way he could until he was good and ready to evacuate. He cleaned rifles, weapons and other equipment for soldiers who needed that sort of help. He was evacuated on the evening of June 7. Once evacuated to England, the doctors wanted to amputate based on the tissue damage, but JR held his ground on keeping his left foot. His story would continue and is fully and beautifully told in his biography.7
Figure 266: U.S. map showing Allied advances and German defenses by midday on D-Day. The 352nd Infantry Division was engaged in the fight for its life, a fight they would lose. The 726th Grenedier Regiment all of a sudden had its hands full as members of the 29th Infantry Division and the 5th Ranger Infantry Battalion began to move through the fields overlooking the beaches in and around Vierville. The first to feel the pressure was the Command Post of the 11/726th GR. They were located at a chateau named Le Manoir de Than, located in the heart of Vierville near the church visible from the coast and often referred to in D-Day accounts of Vierville. Figure 267 shows this structure. The mansion was burned on June 7, 1944. The Americans razed the mansion to draw materials for their roads in September 1944 in the absence of the owners who were in Paris.8 The mansion was never rebuilt. Several of these men were captured or retreated in the face of the 116th Infantry Regiment, B Company under the command of Lt. Taylor as he made his way through town to his rally point southwest of Vierville, followed shortly thereafter and joined briefly by the 5th Rangers Lt. Parker and his platoon from A Company at 1200 hours.
Figure 267: Postcard showing the Manoir of Than This structure was used by the Kommandatur Vierville PC and the 11th Grenadier Co. Germans defending the coast Vierville. (public domain)8 To the west were the men of the 9/726th GR at Castle Gruchy. These men, including elements of 11/726th GR and elements of the 30th Mobile Brigade moved east toward Vierville and took up defensive positions on the western edge of Vierville on a north to south front, and integrating the minefields already in place as part of their positions. At least three trucks carrying elements of the 6/916th GR and possibly 7/916th GR reinforced the German positions against the expanding American beachhead from the south in a line east to west roughly from WN 69 south of St Laurent to the fields just south of what is labeled on most period maps as Chateaux de Vaumicel (correctly known as the Ormel Farm). These German units effectively set up fields of fire utilizing the hedgerows as part of their strategy. They were in place by 1100 hours and engaged Lt. Taylor’s men at that time south of the Ormel farm.9
Also while S/Sgt McIlwain’s patrol was attempting to make contact with Colonel Canham, the remainder of B Company set out as the lead element of the battalion from the cliff area in their advance. Their new objective was to avoid Vierville if possible assaulting to the south and then to the west bypassing the village. This movement occurred between 0900 and 0930 hours. They followed the north-south hedgerows just east of the WN 70 area and where the Rangers made their ascent. The Platoon moved in column formation with flank protection and by using scouts. Upon reaching an unimproved roadway the Platoon began to move generally west to Vierville until naval fire hindered their movements. Lt. Pepper and his 1st Platoon had intersected a point along the coastal highway and moved south from a point approximately one mile east of Vierville at 0930. This was the same time T/5 Banning perished just north of them. Lt. Pepper and his men found themselves under machine gun fire from the 916th GR located in wheat fields to their south. Patrols were sent south in an attempt to locate the firing position. Captain Whittington ordered 1st Platoon to eliminate this threat. Whittington joined with Pepper and his men in a move south to engage this target. They witnessed 20 Germans on the move and incorrectly assumed the men were moving or repositioning the MG-42. The gun opened fire resulting in a tactical withdrawal from the field until a squad of two Rangers was able to outflank and kill the seven Germans in the position. The other 5th Ranger Companies met the same German machine gun resistance in fields and hedgerows to the east of B Company. Moments after this engagement, B Company was struck by mortar fire, and they retreated north to the coastal highway. The War Department Notes records that the Rangers made it to the highway just steps ahead of the incoming mortar rounds. Soon after the Company reached the highway, another MG-42 opened up on them killing the BAR team of 1st Platoon.10
It would have been about this time that McIlwain’s patrol met up again with the Company and made their report. Captain Whittington abandoned the efforts to envelope Vierville and instead took B Company straight down the coastal highway into and through Vierville. The rest of the battalion had not followed B Company through Vierville. They surprisingly faced no enemy fire and saw neither friendly unit nor foe as they moved through town. The lead elements of the Company reached Vierville at 1100 hours. PFC Weast recounted his memory of this movement along the coastal highway into Vierville. “One of them had been hit by -- it looked to me like he must have taken a direct hit by a mortar shell or an artillery shell, because it blew this guy all to hell. All he was was a pile of ventrals and shredded GI clot
hing. I mean, this guy was a mess. I mean, you couldn't even recognize where in the hell his head was. And we had a few others that were hit by rifle fire along that road, although we took out the positions from which the fire originated, and we continued on this coastal road into Vierville sur Mer.”2 The Company was able to move through the village. They noted the church steeple in town as being an ideal location for artillery observers or snipers. They noted the Navy targeted the position.
B Company left their engagement of the prepared defense of the 916th GR, and had moved west right into the prepared defenses of the 726th GR about 500 yards west of town. The 726th held their fire on Pepper’s lead elements until they had passed, then opened up on the main body of 1st Platoon in a hail of MG fire. 1st Platoon deployed in a field to the south of the coastal highway and to the west of the route to Exit D-1 and mounted a hasty defense. Weast wrote “Now we had just gotten out of town towards the point, I suppose maybe four, five hundred yards, and the characteristic hedgerow configuration to our left along the road, suddenly stopped, and you had open fields to our left, and as our point men started to go down the road past this bare spot, they came under machine gun fire. Fortunately, these machine gunners weren't very good. They didn't hit anybody.”2 The War Department Publication Omaha Beachhead reported “Enemy machine-gun positions were well camouflaged and hard to locate; every time a move was started across open fields, it was checked by fire from German rifles and automatic weapons at ranges of two to three hundred yards.”4
At that time, General Cota walked into the area from the road out of Vierville. Here, a moment captured in Ryan’s work occurred when he asked Pepper and Whittington what was holding them up. Pepper, Whittington and 1st Sgt Thornhill were sheltering in a ditchline. Pepper replied “Snipers!” Cota retorted “There aren’t any snipers here”. Then a sniper shot rang close to the General, to which he looked at the men and replied, “Well maybe there is one” and walked away.10 This occurred around noon.
At this point, B Company was taking fire from three sides, so Whittington retreated to the east to some houses, where 1st Platoon was able to create a proper defense. Whittington then ordered Lt. Gregory to take 2nd Platoon south along the roads and hedgerows to outflank the positions and kill the Germans. PFC Weast had heard the orders from the Captain and worked along the column to the rear to inform the Platoon Sergeant, Tech Sgt Warich. Weast was unable to find the Sergeant, so he informed Leroy Anderson, one of the Section Leaders of their orders, then Weast returned to the front of the column. At this point, Lt. Gregory was reported to have made a mistake as he proceeded well inland in the direction of Louviers. When the platoon came to the first, and then the second perpendicular hedgerows that would have provided cover and concealment and a route west, the Lt kept heading south. The NCOs recalled questioning this decision. Then the platoon reached a gravel country road adjacent to an orchard. Aerial photos show orchards and other features fitting this description just south of the Ormel Farm. The platoon passed a heavy weapons unit of the 116th Infantry, and then the War Department Notes record that naval gunfire resulted in two casualties and a short halt. It is possible that this is the conflicting shelling relayed in the Weast accounts of the death of T/5 Banning discussed earlier. The War Department Notes go on to say that 2nd Platoon continued south to the first dirt east-west road south of the Ormel Farm.
Back in the underground shelter at Castle Gruchy, the first German wounded arrived. Madame de Loÿs recalled seeing her first wounded soldier. The German soldier had a horrible head wound, having lost a portion of his skull. She recounted that she was unable to take her eyes off the young man as she watched the membrane covering his brain that was throbbing. She was both amazed and horrified. The young man was urged by the nurses not to touch the wound as that would kill him. Madame de Loÿs took action and bound the young man’s arms to the stretcher to help him. Through all of this, the hours wore on. The noise was reported as being Hell; the earth trembling, vibrating and shaking under the force of the explosions caused by the Allied naval bombardment from the USS Texas and her sister warships. The battle on the beach became apparent as it offered a new series of sounds and percussion once it began. At times the occupants of the shelter would feel the force of terrifying shockwaves as some of the salvos found their mark close to the location.
At around 11:00 a.m., Guy Loÿs went up and out to the manor outbuildings stores in order to fetch some food provisions for the civilians and others in the shelter. He was stopped by Captain Grünschloss who asked what he was doing. Satisfied, the Captain told the young man to secure whatever was needed. Captain Grünschloss had formed his men in a defensive point and screen on the coastal road where they held the advance of the Rangers and the 116th Regimental Combat Team, C Company for the remainder of the day. The Captain was killed shortly thereafter a mere 800 meters east of the castle, likely from fire from the 5th Ranger Infantry Battalion that was now advancing just west of Vierville along the coastal road. Madame de Loÿs remained at the shelter helping the German nurses attend to the at least twenty wounded she recalled seeing. Some of these men likely had fallen wounded to Ranger fire based on location and the reported time. Hitler had installed more fanatical officers at the Chateau des Isles, just south of Vierville and west of the Ormel Farm.11
General Cota and the command group of the 116th passed through Vierville about noon on its way to the prearranged CP location at the Chateau de Vaumicel.10 Back at the hedgerows around the Ormel Farm (Figure 268) off of the previously described gravel road, some U.S. officers approached the Rangers as they began to move. The Ranger accounts refer to a captain and a couple of lieutenants. The officers inquired as to the identity of the Rangers. The Rangers responded, then the officers asked the men who was the leader of the group. Lt. Gregory then then met
Figure 268: Ormel Farm (Open Source) with Colonel Canham who not knowing the situation of his Regimental Combat Team, ordered the platoon to remain with him and to serve as guard to his Command Post. The Germans had not been so kind as to vacate the Chateau that was to serve as the Command Post at that time. The Rangers deployed in a defensive formation. They were within weapons range of the German held chateau, and their position had good cover. PFC Weast recounted the event to Ryan accordingly:
We turned off the road and started inland. After crossing the third line of hedgerows most of the boys felt that Gregory had gone off his rocker, one guy suggested that Gregory must have thought that the Germans were firing that gun from Paris. After going about another quarter mile inland some of the boys decided to talk to Gregory to find out what he was doing, so we paused in an orchard. It was while we were halted in the orchard that an artillery barrage hit us, mostly tree bursts, Elmo Banning was killed and Sgt. Mc Ilwain got a splintered forearm. Next to the orchard was an unimproved road which we started to explore, when we saw a GI looking out from a hedgerow extending east from the road. He asked who we were and who was in charge…3
Figure 269: German bicycle soldiers in Normandy (German Federal Archives) The Rangers next reported a German heading their way from the chateau along the aforementioned gravel road on a bicycle (Figure 269). This German was a dispatch rider or messenger with a case slung over his shoulder and was only armed with a pistol. As the rider closed on the Ranger position, he realized that every weapon was trained on him and reacted with surprise. He stopped the bike and fumbled to get rid of the dispatch case. Some of the platoon members were reported to have thought the German was reaching for his pistol and shot him with between nine and ten rounds. The German fell to the ground face first, wounded, not dead. He was lying in a pool of his own blood and was struggling to breath as he lay in it gurgling. This sound was very unnerving to the Rangers. Weast wrote in his D-Day Museum interview:
“He laid face down near the edge of the road, and he was bleeding profusely. The blood gathered under his face, and he was breathing into it, and you got this (demonstrates sound) sort of thing, you know, and it was nerve-wra
cking as hell. One of the fellows, I don't know who in the hell it was, committed an act of mercy. He went over to this guy and he put a bullet right through the back of
-- my God, he had, like I say, he must have been hit with about 9 bullets, and this was our first realization of how tenuous human life is, because as the war went on, I realized the damage and the massive injuries that could be inflicted on a human being without killing him, and this was my first taste of that.”2
Around mid-day Pfc. Harry Parley, US 29th Division, 116th Infantry Regiment located south of Vierville reported in an interview hearing the sound of tracked vehicles approaching his position. He ran the other way until he could find shelter in a ditch line. The U.S.S. Texas reported that from 1117 to 1128 hours they engaging targets south of town headed north on the road between Formigny to Vierville. The movement of these armor units had been reported to the Texas by a Spitfire spotter aircraft. The 14” naval gunfire was reported effective at the conclusion of the salvos. The battleship salvos would have been fired roughly over the heads of the Rangers. The German unit headed north to Vierville was at least a portion of the Panzerjäger Abteilung of the 352nd Infantry Division. This unit had one company of 14 Marder II 38’s, 1 company of 10 Sturmgeschütz III’s, and one company of 9 motorized 3.7 cm Flak armored half tracks. The result of the big guns firing at this armored unit reportedly resulted in their turning east to Bayeux to counter the British breakthrough there. This foiled counterattack is often overlooked. Had these armored units reached the Colonel Canham’s position protected in part by 2nd Platoon of B Company, 5th Rangers, the results could have been disastrous for the Americans protecting the south flank of Vierville as they had no heavy weapons available except the naval and air assets.
Figure 270: Aerial reconnaissance photo taken at 1215 hrs June 6 from 3000 feet. S/Sgt Hull and his unit are somewhere to the far left edge of this picture. (NARA)