by Mehlo, Noel
One question to be asked is why did the unit get so much down time as compared to other infantry units in northern France at the time. The 29th Infantry Division essentially never stopped fighting after it landed on D-Day through the summer and with horrific losses. It is my opinion that the training required to make men effective as Rangers in the face of between 30 and 60 percent casualties suffered amongst the various Ranger companies of the 2nd and 5th Ranger Infantry Battalions required their rest and refit to maintain their abilities as special operations units. They would have been combat-ineffective at the battalion level if pressed into action in the summer of 1944. The duties they did perform enabled them to rebuild their ranks. At the same time, they used their expertise in patrolling, night fighting and street fighting on the flanks of the larger units to which they were attached to protect the actions of the larger units in the theater.
Each company member who is listed in the morning reports has been added to this text to help sort out just who were replacements to the unit, and who was wounded and left or got killed. This is the type of work needed to help a family understand context and placement of a unit and its members.
Table 1 that follows shows their attachments to other higher echelons in the summer of 1944. The list that follows Table 1 shows the places B Company went that appear on their Company Morning Reports. These dates are all based either on orders in my possession, or by the US Army Order of Battle, ETO.
Table 1: Attachments of 5th Ranger Infantry Battalion May 17, 1944 to September 18, 1944
5th RN INF BN DATES ATTACHED TO DIVISION CORPS ARMY ARMY ARMY GROUP ASSIGNED ATTACHED
Provisional Ranger Group 17 May 44 – 7 116th 1st ID Jun 44 Regimental
Combat Team
(29th ID)
V First - ETOUSA
5th RN INF BN 7 Jun 44 -10 Provisional 29th ID V First - ETOUSA Jun 44 Ranger Group
5th RN INF BN 10 Jun 44 – 15 Provisional - V First ETOUSA Jun 44 Ranger Group
5th RN INF BN 15 Jun 44 – 1 Provisional Direct control of First ETOUSA Jul 44 Ranger Group V Corps
5th RN INF BN 1 Jul 44 – 11 Provisional - - Direct control of ETOUSA Aug 44 Ranger Group First Army
5th RN INF BN 11 Aug 44 – 13 Provisional 4th ID Aug 44 Ranger Group
VII First ETOUSA
5th RN INF BN 13 Aug 44 – 14 Provisional 9th ID Aug 44 Ranger Group
Attached to VII for admin, supply &
communication First 12th
5th RN INF BN 14 Aug 44 Provisional - VII First Army 12th Ranger Group
5th RN INF BN 31 AUG 44 – 18 29th ID VIII First/Ninth Third 12th SEP 44
June 8, 1944 Pointe du Hoc, Grandcamp Les Bains June 9, 1944 Osmansville
June 11, 1944 Bois du Molay
June 16, 1944 Colombières
June 20, 1944 Foucarville (POW Camp)
July 3, 1944 Greville
July 8, 1944 Dielette
July 19, 1944 Flammanville
August 6, 1944 Les Moitiers
August 7, 1944 St. Martin de Bonfosse August 10, 1944 Villedieu des Poeles August 11, 1944 Buais
August 13, 1944 St. Germain d’Anxure August 14, 1944 Martigne
August 16, 1944 Mayenne
August 18, 1944 Dinan
August 19, 1944 Trégarantec
September 1, 1944 Kervos
The places and events surrounding the summer of 1944 are displayed using maps from the French Government. They have been modified to show the likely route taken by the Rangers as they moved and fought across northern France.
June 8 June 6
June 9
June 16
June 11 Bois du Molay June 20 en route
to Foucarville
Figure 278: 5th Ranger movements from June 6 to June 20, 1944 (mapping adapted from Géoportail)
On June 14, B Company reported that S/Sgt Joseph J. Surowitz went to the hospital and was put on light duty for 24 hours. Eleven enlisted men were promoted. Of these, Corporal Herman W. Stuyvesant, Tec 5 Leroy A. Anderson and Sgt Edward W. Dickman were promoted to S/Sgt from 2nd Platoon.
On June 15, B Company took on its first replacements after D-Day. These men were S/Sgt Ralph W. Ragsdale, S/Sgt Harold I. Smith, Pfc William, R. Monroe, Pvt William B. Bartlett, Pvt William L. Black, Pvt Howard L. Boutilier, Pvt Roy E. Carpenter, Pvt Edward Fishman, Pvt Richard J. Gilmore, Pvt Alton L. Harward, Pvt Dewey C. Dees, Pvt Clyde F. Willis, Pvt Richard H. Norton and Pvt William B. Tice. These men joined from Headquarters, 17th Replacement Depot. It was on this day that 1st Lieutenant Matthew Gregory was relieved from assignment and transferred in grade to Company E, effective June 13. This is the change of platoon leadership discussed by the testimonies of several of the members of the company as a result of D-Day actions. The B Company Morning Report on June 15 also noted the arrival of 1st Lt Darwin D. Harbin, 1st Lt Charles C. Lemon, 2nd Lt George G. Berger and 2nd Lt Louis J. Gombosi as replacement officers from Headquarters, 17th Replacement Depot. Two soldiers joined B Company from Headquarters, 16th Replacement Depot on June 16. They were Pfc Willie Johnson and Pvt Otto F. Recher, Jr. On June 19, PFC Henry J. Cordes of B Company went from being sick to Transferred from the unit.
June 20
Figure 279: Continuation of 5th Ranger movements from June 20, 1944 (mapping adapted from Géoportail) On June 16, B Company left Bois Du Molay at 1330 hours by speed march four miles and arrived at Colombières at 1500 hours and was placed in the 1st Army Reserve. The unit was at Chateau de Colombières bivouacked under the cover of trees on the grounds. They began to train their newly arrived replacements. “For the first time the battalion was in a rear area where French food and drink were available to supplement Army rations”.9 The B Company Morning Report and those of the other companies in the battalion note that on June 20, 1944 the 5th Ranger Infantry Battalion left Colombières, France at 1000 hours and arrived at Foucarville, France at 1130. The MGRS map coordinates for this were 391002. They were assigned duty at the POW Encampment. The village of Foucarville is about two miles west of Utah Beach, slightly southwest of La Selleraie, France on the Cherbourg Peninsula. It is in the department of Manche of the French region Basse-Normandie. The village is located in the township of SainteMère-Église in the district of Cherbourg. The village lies approximately ten meters above sea level. Its coordinates are 49.443° North by 1.256° West.13 The famous church in Sainte-Mère-Église where the American paratrooper got hung up on the steeple lies north of the village. On June 6, several sticks (planeloads) of the 101st Airborne Division, 502nd Regiment, 1st Battalion, A Company landed in the fields just to the north of the village and fought savage battles against stubborn pockets of German resistance until relieved by the 4th Infantry Division. This location would become a major American Prisoner of War Camp by the time the Rangers arrived and beyond. Figure 279 shows the likely route to Foucarville. The U.S. Signal Corps captured video of German Prisoners being marched along a road counter to the 5th Rangers. In the film, the Orange diamond displaying 5 is clearly visible on many of the Ranger helmets. A screenshot of this film is in Figure 280. Figure 281 reveals the location of the POW camp.
Figure 280: Rangers marching past German POWs in summer 1944 (NARA)
Foucarville POW
Camp location
Figure 281: 5th Ranger movements to Foucarville on June 20, 1944 (mapping adapted from Géoportail) June 20 had the benefit of the arrival of Army kitchens and hot food. Awards were handed out to those deserving. On June 21, several members of the two Ranger battalions received the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) or Silver Star Medal (SS) for heroic actions on D-Day. Pictured below (Figure 282) from left to right are eight of the ten men who received the DSC. They are: LTC Max Schneider (BN CO), Captain George Whittington (B Co.), 1st Lt Charles “Ace” Parker (A Co.), Lt Francis Dawson (D Co.), Willie Moody (C Co.), Howard McKissick (C Co.), Denzil Johnson (A Co.), and Alexander Barber (HQ), Medic Detachment. Not shown are Major Richard P. Sullivan and Lt Joseph “Father” Lacy (Chaplain).
Figure 283 depicts the Rangers at Foucarville.
As the Cherbourg Peninsula began to collapse for the Germans, the Americans suddenly had a massive influx of prisoners of war (POWs) to contend with. First Army’s Provost Marshal established a 10,000 man enclosure at Foucarville. The Foucarville POW Camp was established at the end of June 1944. It was located approximately 1/4 mile north of the village of Foucarville on present day Vierge de l’Eglise Pugach Road [D14] Along the first high ground overlooking Utah Beach. They constructed three additional 1,100 man facilities as collection points on Utah Beach in VII Corps area. A 10,000 man facility was constructed at Valognes to assist in regulating the flow of prisoners to be processed through Foucarville with a high tide of 25,000 POWs processed when the German defenses in the Cherbourg Peninsula finally collapsed. The first facilities included barbed wire attached to posts around the perimeter that was later replaced with concertina wire. Eventually carbide floodlights and telephone communications
Figure 282: 5th Ranger Infantry Battalion members who received DSC on June 21 for actions on D-Day (NARA).
Figure 283: 5th Rangers at Foucarville (Source unknown) were installed.14 The 5th Ranger Infantry Battalion was in charge and operated the facility along with the 552nd Military Police Escort Guard (MPEG) from June 20 through July 3. The Rangers were assigned to the MPs as the sheer number of POWs far exceeded the available manpower of the MPs in the area at the time.
The 552nd MPEG activated at Fort Custer, Michigan on June 25, 1943, and in arrived in Normandy on June 17, 1944 and was assigned to COMZ Command with orders to establish a 10,000 prisoner enclosure at Foucarville.15 “Their major assignment was to guard, water, feed, and generally care for and evaluate the German POW as they were captured and fed back to the unit by the First Army. They were also involved in straggler control of both civilian and military personnel.”16
In its early rendition, the Enclosure was crudely constructed and extremely muddy. The HQ for the post used a captured concrete German dugout. The fences were made of barbed wire nailed to the posts, which were recycled crooked anti-glider poles harvested from Rommel’s Asparagus. The POWs lived in quad tents up to 55 men per tent. The tents had no floors, and were not heated or lighted. The stoves for cooking were made of mud with steel grates to support GI cans for cooking. Water was hauled to the site via truck and was pumped to a canvas water tank. Nonpotable water was obtained from a nearby stream some 1,500 yards upstream of the post. There were originally no sidewalks or roads on the post, resulting in extremely muddy conditions during wet weather. A lack of personnel was a hindrance to early camp administration. The original layout had a single guard posted on wooden platforms at each corner of the roughly rectangular enclosure armed with a .30-caliber machine gun as was reported by the 454th MPEG and later members of the 82nd Airborne who were assigned duty at the facility. There were reported instances where one soldier would guard up to 5,000 POWs.
Foucarville operated as an Evacuation Enclosure for Utah Beach until it was designated a Central Enclosure in December 1944. After the 552nd MPEG and Rangers, the Enclosure was commanded by Captain Virgilio, Commanding Officer of the 454th MPE Company with assistance by the 436th MPEG. The post would become Continental Central Enclosure No.19 or also known as Prisoner of War Enclosure (PWE) 19. The POW Camp was at 49.44504° North, 1.25911° West.
23 June 44, 99th Infantry Battalion (Separate) was transported by truck to Colombières and attached to the Provisional Ranger Group, First U.S. Army. (99th INF BN Unit Journal) Schneider was a hometown hero in his native Shenendoah, Iowa, and they printed several articles about him during the war, including one regarding his duties in charge of the POW camp at Foucarville. I reached out to the paper and received permission to reprint this article to help further explain this duty.
Evening Sentinel Shenandoah, Iowa JUL 3 - 1944
In Charge of Prisoners in Normandy
Lieut. Col. Max Schneider of Shenandoah is "mayor of a predominately German community" now according to the columns of Gordon Gammack, Des Moines Register and Tribune war correspondent who quoted him both Sunday and today.
Colonel Schneider, commander of an American Ranger battalion which stormed the beaches of France and won the Distinguished Service Cross on D-day is now half resting and half looking after an almost constant flow of German prisoners on their way to England.
Schneider has found the German machine-gunners and snipers pretty men, firing all their ammunition then coming out with their hands in the air, but he has not been impressed with the fighting spirit of the Nazis. The Iowa officer is loud in his praise of the paratroopers whom he says makes the "Ranger racket look like an easy way to make a living.”
The Shenandoahan who was the first American to set foot on Italy in this war, has played “host” to more than 20,000 German prisoners. The 2nd Ranger Infantry Battalion performed these duties at Foucarville alongside the 5th Ranger Infantry Battalion under the Provisional Ranger Group from 25 June through 3 July. Robert Black’s book the Battalion wrote about the 2nd Rangers duty at the POW camp. They arrived on the June 25, staying until July3. They moved to nearby Valognes, France along with the 5th Rangers where they were quartered. Volognes was bombed extensively and is pictured in Figure 284. Black noted there were 218 German generals and admirals among the POW population. The 2nd Rangers hated the duty. Those men that spoke German were used as interpreters. Part of their duties included moving prisoners between the collection points at the prisoner cages of the 4th and 47th Infantry Divisions and the POW Enclosure. They also escorted POWs to the beaches to waiting vessels to transport them to England or the States. Never afraid to horse around, the Rangers had competitions to load as many POWs onto Army trucks for transport as they could, kind of like the old clown car gag. The 2nd Rangers boasted a maximum number of soldiers loaded onto an Army “Deuce-and-a-Half” 2 ½ ton truck of 83 prisoners aboard a single truck.8 “Although they disliked POW duty, Rudder thought that it was good experience because it taught them that Germans “were far from supermen but smart enough to ask if they could be sent to a POW camp in the United States.””9
Figure 284: Valognes in summer 1944 (NARA) On 29 June, the 99th Infantry Battalion (Separate) moved to St. Joseph, on the Cherbourg Peninsula and the following day entered Cherbourg. From 30 June to 8 July, the Battalion, attached to 4th Port Headquarters, secured the city and guarded various military installations. (99th INF BN Unit Journal)
The B Company Morning Report and those of the other companies in the battalion wrote that on July 3, 1944 the 5th Ranger Infantry Battalion left Foucarville, France (MGRS 391002) at 1500 hours and arrived at Greville (GrévilleHague ), France (MGRS 015278) at 1800. They travelled northwest by truck a reported distance of 38 miles and assumed usual garrison duties. 1st Lt Darwin D. Harbin was relieved from duty as platoon leader and assigned to Hq Company. 2nd Lt William J. Mulligan joined the company from Headquarters Company and assumed duty as platoon leader. I am assuming these assignments are in reference to 2nd Platoon, as Lt Pepper never moved from his post as 1st Platoon Leader as of this point by all accounts. This reveals a pattern of changes in the leadership structure of the platoon as a result of combat. The 2nd Rangers reported this move as being through Cherbourg to Cape de la Hague on the northwestern tip of France. Cape de la Hague is very close to Gréville-Hague. The 2nd and 5th Rangers were side by side.9 This piece of information explains another clue from the original information held by my Mom that listed Cherbourg as part of S/Sgt Hull’s military experience. He must have talked about his time training and patrolling around Cherbourg after the war to friends and/or family that in turn became included in oral history.
July 3
Gréville
Hague
July 8
July 19
Provisional
August 6
Ranger Group
July Patrol Area
Figure 285: 5th Ranger movements from July 3 to August 6, 1944 (mapping adapted from Géo
portail) Gréville-Hague is a small village located in the department of Manche of the French region Basse-Normandie. It is in the township of Beaumont-Hague part of the district of Cherbourg and is approximately 8 ½ miles west from the Port of Cherbourg. The village is 140 meters above sea level and is located at a latitude/longitude of 49.675° North and 1.801° West.18
The mission of the Rangers at Gréville-Hague was to search for German stragglers missed as the larger infantry divisions moved through and tightened the grip on the port city. They cleared booby traps, patrolled the beaches and searched and cleared the massive German pillboxes and defensive structures through the area. They discovered huge storerooms of ammunition, weapons and equipment. The 2nd Rangers were housed indoors in French Army barracks for the first time in France. These barracks had most recently been home to a German flak battalion. The 5th Rangers were quartered nearby in Gréville-Hague.19 On the 4th of July, the Americans planned and carried out a surprise for their German opponents in honor if Independence Day. At exactly noon, every American artillery piece in France fired salvos at enemy targets simultaneously. It was reported the sudden widespread explosions caught everyone by surprise.9 Day and night training was conducted to train the large influx of replacement Rangers between the two battalions as a result of the action on D-Day and through the month of June. Dry fire exercises progressively gave way to live fire exercises and marches increased to thirty miles as the veteran Rangers passed on knowledge to the new recruits.20 The new recruits were folded into the units as had been the case for all Rangers before, the training regimen included hand-to-hand fighting, scouting, patrolling and the reduction of enemy pillboxes all with the benefit of the experienced men to teach.8 The Rangers also had to take care to not become injured due to carelessness or as a result of carelessness with alcohol in these months as they sought ways to relieve tension that were not always the safest courses of action, and many were injured as a result. The men also found themselves attracted to prostitutes in the Cherbourg Peninsula to the point that orders were eventually issued to avoid these houses of ill repute.9 This problem eventually led to orders issued by Eisenhower’s command to abstain from prostitutes.