CAMPAIGN OF NORMANDY
y the 4th of June, final preparations had been made. Most of the men had over two years of
hard training under their belts, and were in the best physical condition that they had ever
been in their lives. Everything that was humanly possible in the way of preparations had been
done. It was all over but the fighting.
On this day, the battalions entrained, traveled 30 miles to Cardiff, Wales, and embarked
on two ships, the “S. S. Explorer” and the “S. S. Bienville”. At 0730 of the 5th, the ships sailed
down the River Severn and dropped anchor in the Bristol Channel near Swansea, where the
convoy assembled. By 0200 of the 6th, the convoy was underway toward France, following a
route close to the coast of England. At this very moment, other men, many thousands of them,
were “sweating out”, the few remaining hours before they were to make the greatest assault
landing in history.
During this short voyage across the English Channel the actions and conversations of the
soldiers who were about to tackle the biggest job of their lives is deemed worthy of mention.
The apparent necessity for absolute secrecy for security reasons prevented the disclosure to these
men of what their first job was to be. They knew, however, that the future held no picnic and
that in a very short time they would be engaged in this bloody business called combat. Most
were not worried too much. Things like seeing that equipment was ready and testing life jackets
for leaks were the important ones now. Some who were satisfied that everything was in
readiness were reading, others just taking it easy. Here and there a few final hands of cards were
being dealt out with the brand new French invasion money for stakes. Some of the men were
already talking about what they were going to do when they got back home. These were good
soldiers, as they should be, for they were some of the best Uncle Sam had.
The submarine alerts which were sounded several times during the day did not bring
much of a stir from anyone except possibly the ship’s Captain. As dawn of the 8th came and the
world became real again, the sight which presented itself was indescribable. Many more vivid
descriptions of D-Day and the days following have been written in other texts, but in a word it
may be described as a show which is not presented very often. The price of a show of this type
is too high. Ships and planes were everywhere. The big battle wagons were firing round after
round into the coast, and the world’s finest air force was operating at full capacity. So were
some of the Luftwaffe. Burning ships could be seen in the distance and a flaming plane hitting
the water was not an uncommon sight.
At 0930 of the 8th, the convoy dropped anchor off Utah beach on the Cotentin Peninsula.
Debarkation into big LCI’s began at 1200 and by 1245 the first elements of the Regiment, led by
Colonel Ginder, were wading ashore. At this time, the Regimental Commander was notified that
the prearranged transit area had not yet been secured by the 4th Division – which had made the
initial D-Day assault landing – and that the Regiment would move instead into an area in the
vicinity of Loutres.
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