The wearing of life jackets and belts undoubtedly saved many lives during the landing, as
in some places the men, heavily laden with supplies and ammunition, had to go off the boats into
water five and six feet deep. The most consoling thought at this time was the fact that the men
working on the beach were Americans instead of Germans. The beach was still under fire and
occasionally a barrage of 88’s would come in. No time was lost here, however, for the men were
assembled rapidly and the march inland began. The Regiment closed in its assembly area at
1900.
On the 9th, orders were received to pass through elements of the 82nd Airborne Division
near Amfreville by daylight of the 10th and seize and secure crossings of the Douve River west
of St. Columbe. As this movement was being executed, the Regiment received its first casualties
in land action against the enemy from 88mm fire. The saying that first impressions are the
greatest held true in this case, as this wicked weapon, employed so effectively by the enemy
throughout the Normandy campaign, soon was familiar to everyone, and its name became almost
a byword.
When daylight came, the 2nd and 3rd Battalions, from left to right, jumped off and met
surprisingly little resistance. Signs of recent vicious combat between the Airborne men and the
enemy were everywhere, and everyone felt in his bones it was just a matter of time until the
show would start for the 357th. As the advance began, an officer in “L” Company was credited
as being the first man in the Regiment to kill a German. They met face to face coming around
the corner of a building.
At noon the enemy defense line was reached. Darkness found the Regiment still
attacking in the face of withering enemy mortar and machine gun fire. It seemed that every
German had an automatic weapon, and mortar shells seemed to follow the men right into their
holes and ditches. Casualties were heavy and gains could be measured in yards.
World war II had begun in earnest for the new 357th Infantry. The day had been the
longest the men had ever spent. The initial shock of seeing old friends struck down had been
great and it was evident that much fierce fighting lay ahead. The hedgerow country of
Normandy was nature’s gift to the defenders. The countryside was divided into tiny fields, each
bounded by a drainage ditch covered over with a high dense hedge. This offered an almost
perfect defense system for the camouflage-wise Germans. It was all but impossible to see them
and their cleverly constructed and camouflaged hedgerow positions. Snipers, dressed in
camouflage suits, were most troublesome in the wooded areas and were responsible for many
casualties behind the lines. It was days before many of the front line rifleman even saw a live
German to shoot at.
The task was clear. The beachhead had to be expanded before any sizable forces could
be landed and the battle of maneuver began. There was essentially one way that this could be
done and that was by frontal assault by the infantry against prepared enemy positions. The
enemy knew it and so did the men of the Regiment. Consequently, the days that followed
brought one of the worst baptisms of fire ever undergone by an American infantry unit. To
attack as long as there was daylight was the only order. To advance from one hedgerow to
another, the distance of perhaps 100 to 200 yards, was a day’s job and a costly one. The
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