Remembering D-day: Personal Histories of Everyday Heroes

Major Edward C. “Cannonball” Krause, CO, Third Battalion, 505th Regiment, 82nd Airborne Divison. By the end of the first day Krause had been wounded three times but his humour never deserted him. One morning while his men were in their foxholes he took the roll call in German, “scaring his men to hell.”

L–R Lt General Matthew B. Ridgway, 82nd Airborne Commander; Brigadier General James Gavin, Captain Neal Lane McRoberts, and 101st Airborne Division Commander, Maj General Maxwell D. Taylor, on the occasion of the presentation of the first of two Silver Star awards to Captain McRoberts, commander of the 82nd Airborne pathfinders. General Taylor could only assemble little over 100 men, most of them officers, before he set out to secure one of the causeways leading to Utah Beach. Referring to his brass-heavy group, General Taylor said, ‘Never were so few led by so many’.

Paras’ Equipment

Paratroopers carried an average of 70 lb of equipment, officers 90 lb. With the parachute, men weighed between 90–120 lb over their body weight. The items carried were:

Standard Parachutist Pack:

M-1 Garand Rifle with 8-round clip

Cartridge belt with canteen

Hand grenades

Parachute and pack

Anti-flash headgear and gloves

Pocket compass

Machete

.45-calibre Colt automatic rifle Flares

Message book

Officer Pack (British, but similar to American officer pack):

Sten gun

Spare magazines with 9mm ammunition

2 lb plastic high explosives (HE)

2–36 primed hand grenades

Two full belts of Vickers .303 ammunition

Wire cutters

Radio batteries

Small-pack

Basic equipment webbing

48 hours’ worth of rations

Water

Cooking and washing kit

Spread throughout pockets:

Loaded .45 automatic pistol

Medical kit

2 additional lb HE

Knife

Escape/survival kit

Toggle rope

Additional personal items

Emergency Rations:

4 pieces of chewing gum

2 bouillon cubes

2 Nescafe instant coffees, 2 sugar cubes and creamers

4 Hershey bars

1 pack of Charms candy

1 package pipe tobacco

1 bottle of water purification (Halazone) tablets

Captain Robert Kirkwood, smoking a cigar, and Lt Pat Ward, Battalion intelligence officer, with twenty men in the stick from 505th Infantry, 82nd Airborne wait to board their C-47 on the evening of 5 June at Cottesmore. At least three “sticks” from the Third battalion were dropped off target at Montebourg, about 6 miles north of Ste-Mere-Eglise and Kirkwood, Ward and Lt Jack Issacs of G Company managed to gather and assemble 33 men in the subsequent fighting the group were dispersed and many casualties sustained. Kirkwood said later that “it took me three days to get back to our lines and in those three days I saw more Germans than I ever wanted to see again”.

U.S Army

Pierre Huet

a farmer living with his young wife in Pretot near Ste-Mère-Eglise.

‘At 4 a.m. there was a knock at the door. When I opened it, two Americans walked in. They pulled a printed message in French from their helmets, which read “My comrade is wounded. Please help.” They led me to a para with a broken leg and we carried him to my house. By dawn we had found another six. For two weeks they hid in my attic, but then the Germans came to arrest me. Someone had informed on me. An Austrian captain interrogated me. He knew who I was but protected me by pretending I was someone else. He told me, “If we find the owner of this farmhouse he will be shot.” He saved my life by letting me escape. That night my wife and I crossed the German lines, got through an American minefield and were taken directly to American HQ. I warned them my farm was a German base and asked them to shell it. Half an hour later there was nothing left of my house . . . and nothing left of the Germans.’

Frenchman Raymond Paris, 20

who lived in Ste-Mère-Eglise.