At 2330, the company was initiated. Heinie planes appeared overhead. Men plummeted into foxholes,
hugging the earth, The planes made one quick circle. The bombs dropped earthward. From across the field an
ack-ack battery opened fire and the planes disappeared in the black clouds. The enemy bombs tore great
gashes in the land, but the company suffered no casualties.
Finally, weary and exhausted, the man dropped off to sleep. But whenever you woke up - and you
wakened frequently ... clearly audible in the heavy silence was the soft, scratchy sound of someone digging,
widening a foxhole, dredging it deeper, ever deeper.
The next day was occupied in organizing and orientation. Minor repairs were made on vehicles which
had suffered some damage in the night landing. Equipment was set up for work. Then separated only by yards
were innumerable other combat units, infantry companies, ack-ack outfits, quartermaster and signal corps.
On the 10th, work began with the arrival of the first major job ... the repair of a 105 mm howitzer which
had suffered a muzzle burst. Other jobs followed quickly. In a matter of hours all sections were swamped with
work.
The Rumor of a vessel sunk and an infantry outfit without weapons was quickly verified. The 2d
Battalion of the 359th Infantry Regiment had been forced to abandon its weapons; a company of the 315th
engineers, too, had suffered a similar loss. Arrangements had to be made immediately to reequip them. This
was quickly accomplished. By morning of the a 11th, gliders drifted out of the sky and came to neat landings on
the nearby fields.
They came from supply depots in England. Within their capacious bodies, they carried sufficient
Ordnance equipment to fill to T/O & E strength a full infantry regiment. This material was promptly absorbed
by Ordnance, tested, and reissued to the 2d Battalion of the 359th Infantry Regiment, and to Company C of the
315 Engineers.
It was on this day, too, that Private William Simpson set himself on fire while experimenting with a
gasoline stove. The flames shot up, encircling him in a matter of seconds. His scream of pain brought
Technician Fifth Grade Boerger on the double. Quickly he threw the burning Man to the ground, rolled him
about, meanwhile slapping at the flames with his bare hands. His prompt, intelligent action undoubtedly saved
Simpson's life. The soldier was evacuated to the hospital with severe burns. Boerger later was to receive the
Silver Star medal for his heroism. Ste Mere Eglise [Pont-l’Abbe] was captured on the 13th. The bitter battles
had taken a heavy toll on automatic weapons and bazookas in the division. The need for them became critical.
Into the front lines moved the Recovery Section under Lt. Hazbda.. They drove up in trucks, set up an
Ordnance Collecting Point, and under heavy artillery fire performed an immense amount of vital recovery work.
When the shells began striking perilously close to the trucks, the men switched to smaller targets, jeeps. But the
work went on.
Time for recovery, repair and reissue was cut to a matter of hours. Work in the Armament Platoon was
particularly heavy. The stock of spare parts and equipment was rapidly depleted. The company's skilled
mechanics improvised ingeniously. The weapons came in and though repair parts were not in stock, Yankee
ingenuity and invention sent them out again in a space of short hours to the demanding infantry regiments ...
issued again after being tested, and operating perfectly. Salvage operations were now a major function of the
company.
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