Neptune: The Allied Invasion of Europe and the D-Day Landings (66 page)

25.
Action Report, LCT Group 35, July 14, 1944, USNA; Staff Sergeant Paul Ragan, quoted in Balkoski,
Omaha Beach
, 103; Joseph Esclavon Oral History, NWWIIMEC, 11; McKee to Rockwell, July 20, 1944, and Rockwell to Steven Ambrose, November 23, 1944, in Rockwell file, NWWIIM-EC.

26.
Morison,
The Invasion of France and Germany
, 100.

27.
Philip Vian,
Action This Day
, 141; Rockwell Oral History, NWWIIM-EC, 13. Rockwell later claimed that his was the first landing craft to touch Omaha Beach, which is possible, but several others claimed the same distinction and in the confusion of the morning, it is impossible to know for certain.

28.
Wallace Bishop Oral History, NWWIIM-EC, 13–16.

29.
DDE to WSC, May 2, 1944, PDDE, 3:1842; Balkoski,
Omaha Beach
, 78.

30.
Balkoski,
Omaha Beach
, 85–89; and Joseph Balkoski,
Utah Beach, June 6, 1944
(Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2005), 87–89.

31.
Morton Deyo, “Naval Guns at Normandy,” in Personal Papers of Samuel Eliot Morison, box 87 (p. 18), NHHC. See also Adrian Lewis in
Omaha Beach: Flawed Victory
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001).

32.
NCWTF (Kirk) to COM O (Hall) and COM U (Moon), April 21, 1944, ComUSNavEu, Message File, RG 313, box 13, NA; Boatswain’s Mate Joel Garner, in Edward F. Prados, ed.,
Neptunus Rex: Naval Stories of the Normandy Invasion, June 6, 1944
(Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1998), 20–21, 24.

33.
Deyo, “Naval Guns at Normandy,” 37.

34.
Ibid., 36.

35.
Executive Officer’s Report, U.S.
Nevada
, June 23, 1944, Action Reports, USNA; Millard Cloutman, in Prados, ed.,
Neptunus Rex
, 32; August Leo Thomas Oral History, NWWIIM-EC, 3; Kepchar,
Keppy’s War
, 70.

36.
Donald Irwin Oral History, NWWIIM-EC, 5; Balkoski quoting Ensign Victor Hicken and Associated Press reporter Don Whitehead in
Omaha Beach
, 83.

37.
Rick Atkinson,
Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944–1945
(New York: Henry Holt, 2013), 57.

38.
Vian,
Action This Day
, 138; Yves Buffetout,
D-Day Ships: The Allied Invasion Fleet, June, 1944
(London: Conway, 1994), 114–16; John McClelland Oral History, NMWWI-EC, 5.

39.
Winston S. Churchill,
Closing the Ring
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1951), 618–22.

40.
Deyo, “Naval Guns at Normandy,” NHHC, 24; Dorr Hampton Oral History, NWWIIM-EC; Buffetaut,
D-Day Ships
, 82–84.

41.
Supplement to Action Report, USS
Tuscaloosa
, July 18, 1944, USNA.

42.
Executive Officer’s Report, USS
Nevada
, June 23, 1944, Action Reports, USNA; Action Report, USS
Doyle
, June 8, 1944, USNA.

43.
Kirkland,
Destroyers at Normandy
, 34.

44.
Balkoski,
Omaha Beach
, 86; Action Report, USS
Carmick
, June 23, 1944, USNA.

45.
Balkoski,
Utah Beach
, 89–91.

46.
Action Reports of USS
Carmick
(DD-493), June 23, 1944; USS
Emmons
(DD-457), June 22, 1944; and USS
Doyle
(DD494), June 8, 1944, all USNA.

47.
W. N. Solkin Oral History, NWWIIM-EC, 3.

Chapter 12: D-Day: The Beaches

1.
Neptune Operation Order No. BB-44, May 20, 1944, John Lesslie Hall Jr. Papers, box 14, folder 1, Swem Library, W&M; Samuel Eliot Morison,
The Invasion of France and Germany
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1957), 131.

2.
George W. Goodspeed Oral History (pp. 7–8); and Joseph H. Esclavon Oral History (p. 22), both in NWWIIM-EC.

3.
Joseph H. Esclavon Oral History (p. 14), and Edwin Gale Oral History (p. 11), both in NWWIIM-EC.

4.
Brendan A. Maher,
A Passage to Sword Beach: Minesweeping in the Royal Navy
(Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute, 1996), 113; Edwin Gale Oral History, NWWIIMEC, 11.

5.
James E. Arnold, “NOIC Utah,” in Paul Stillwell, ed.,
Assault on Normandy
:
First Person Accounts from the Sea Services
(Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1994), 90. See also Joseph Balkoski,
Utah Beach, June 6, 1944
(Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2005), 194.

6.
Ken Ford and Steven J. Zaloga,
Overlord: The D-Day Landings
(Oxford: Osprey, 2009), 54–59, 334.

7.
The reluctant volunteer was Richard Coombs, quoted in D. M. Giangreco with Kathryn Moore,
Eyewitness D-Day
(New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 2004), 22.

8.
Ibid., 67; Nelson Dubroc Oral History, NWWIIM-EC, 2.

9.
Robert H. Miller Oral History (n.p.), Nelson Dubroc Oral History (pp. 2–3), and Orval Wakefield Oral History (p. 4), all in NMWWII-EC.

10.
Nelson Dubroc Oral History (pp. 2–3), and Orval Wakefield Oral History (p. 5), both in NWWIIM-EC; Ford and Zaloga,
Overlord: The D-Day Landings
, 79–18; Hall to King, July 27, 1944 (p. 8), John Lesslie Hall Jr. Papers, box 1, folder 5, Swem Library, W&M.

11.
Action Report, USS
Thurston
(AP-77), June 19, 1944, USNA. Two of the five boats abandoned after the first wave were later recovered and returned to service.

12.
Karl D. Everitt Oral History (pp. 11–12) and George T. Poe Oral History (p. 3), both in NWWIIM-EC.

13.
Hall to King, July 27, 1944, John Lesslie Hall Jr. Papers, box 1, folder 5, Swem Library, W&M; Phil Goulding, “Address to LCT Association,” April 13, 1996, LCI Association Collection, LCI(L) 506 file, both in Series B, box 11, NMPW.

14.
William T. O’Neill Oral History, NWWIIM-EC, 23–24.

15.
Ibid., 25, 27, 31.

16.
Joel G. Smith Oral History, NWWIIM-EC.

17.
Donald Irwin, “The U.S. LCT 614 Following D-Day at Omaha Beach,” in the Donald Irwin file, NWWIIM-EC, 7–8.

18.
Horace G. “Skip” Shaw Oral History (p. 5) and George Goodspeed Oral History (p. 10–11), both in NWWIIM-EC.

19.
Seth Shepherd, “The Story of the LCI(L) 92 in the Invasion of Normandy,” LCI Association Collection, LCI(L) 92 folder, Series B, box 10, NMPW.

20.
Report of LT(jg) Vyn to SECNAV, June 19, 1944, LCI Association Collection, LCI(L) 91 file, Series B, box 10, NMPW.

21.
Annex to Operation Order No. 2-44, in Action Report, USS
Thurston
, June 19, 1944, USNA; Report of LT(jg) Vyn, June 19, 1944, LCI Association Collection, LCI(L) 91 file, Series B, box 10, NMPW.

22.
Seth Shepherd, “The Story of the LCI(L) 92 in the Invasion of Normandy,” LCI Association Collection, LCI(L) 92 file, Series B, box 10, NMPW; William C. Bacon, “Omaha’s Wrath,” in Prados, ed.,
Neptunus Rex
, 189.

23.
Action Report of LCI(L) 489, June 20, 1944, LCI Association Collection, Series B, boxes 10 and 11; Hall to King, July 27, 1944, John Lesslie Hall Jr. Papers, box 1, Folder 5, Swem Library, W&M; Chief Yeoman William G. Bacon, “Omaha’s Wrath,” in Prados, ed.,
Neptunus Rex
, 190; Lorenzo S. Sabin, “Close In Support on Omaha Beach,” in Stillwell, ed.,
Assault on Normandy
, 59–60.

24.
Ken Ford and Steven J. Zaloga,
Overlord: The D-Day Landings
(Oxford: Osprey, 2009), 232–53.

25.
Ibid., 244–45.

26.
Ibid., 247–57; Paul Carrell,
Invasion! They’re Coming
(New York: E. P. Dutton, 1963), 85, 101.

27.
Harry C. Butcher,
The Personal Diary of Captain Harry C. Butcher, USNR
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1946), 566–67; DDE to GCM, June 6, 1944, PDDE, 3: 1914–15.

28.
Max Hastings,
Winston’s War: Churchill, 1940–1945
(New York: Knopf, 2010), 393–94; Winston Churchill,
Triumph and Tragedy
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1953), 5.

29.
Doris Kearns Goodwin,
No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The
Home Front in World War II
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994), 505–6.

30.
“Joint Agreement Between Commanding General First U.S. Army and Commander Task Force 122 for Amphibious Operations,” John Lesslie Hall Jr. Papers, box 12, folder 10, Swem Library, W&M.

31.
Jacob Brouwer, in Prados,
Neptunus Rex
, 102; Alan G. Kirk Oral History, Columbia University, 292, 329; Omar Bradley,
A General’s Life
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1983), 251.

32.
James E. Arnold, “NOIC Utah,” in Paul Stillwell,
Assault on Normandy
, 91.

33.
Talley is quoted by Max Hastings in
Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984), 92.

34.
John Lesslie Hall Jr. Oral History, Columbia University, 199–200.

35.
Lorenzo Sabin, “Close-In Support on Omaha Beach,” in Stillwell, ed.,
Assault on
Normandy
, 61.

36.
John Lesslie Hall Jr. Oral History, Columbia University, 200.

37.
Paul Longrigg Oral History, NWWIIM-EC, 18.

38.
Alan G. Kirk, “Admiral Ramsay and I,” in Stillwell, ed.,
Assault on Normandy
, 25–26; Kirk Oral History, Columbia University, 329–30; Ramsay Diary (June 6, 1944), 84.

39.
Bradley,
A General’s Life
, 251.

Chapter 13: D-Day: The Crisis

1.
Alan G. Kirk, “Admiral Ramsay and I,” in Paul Stillwell, ed.,
Assault on Normandy:
First Person Accounts from the Sea Services
(Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1994), 25. Bryant’s statement was overheard by Cecil Carnes, a reporter from the
Saturday Evening Post
who was on the bridge and subsequently quoted it in a postwar story. It is quoted as well by Samuel Eliot Morison in
The Invasion of France and Germany, 1944–1945
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1957), 143.

2.
Robert Miller Oral History, NWWIM-EC.

3.
Richard H. Crook Jr., “Traffic Cop,” in Stillwell, ed.,
Assault on Normandy
, 67; Gordon Gaskill, “Bloody Beach,”
American Magazine
, September 1944, 101. See also William B. Kirkland Jr.,
Destroyers at Normandy: Naval Gunfire Support at Omaha Beach
(Washington, DC: Naval History Division, 1994); Morison,
The Invasion of France and German
, 142–49; and Theodore Roscoe,
United States Destroyer Operations in World War II
(Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute, 1953), 347–51. Water depth is estimated by Alfred Stanford in
Force Mulberry: The Planning and Installation of the Artificial Harbor off U.S. Normandy Beaches in World War II
(New York: William Morrow, 1951), 66.

4.
William Steel Oral History, NWWIIM-EC, 7–8.

5.
Leonard G. Lornell, quoted in D. M. Giangreco with Kathryn Moore,
Eyewitness D-Day
(New York: Barnes & Noble, 2004), 100–104.

6.
COMDESDIV 36 Action Report, in Kirkland,
Destroyers at Normandy
, 28; Ken Ford and Steven J. Zaloga,
Overlord: The D-Day Landings
(Oxford: Osprey, 2009), 95–104; Action Reports, USS
Thompson
, June 21, 1944, and USS
Ellyson
June 26, 1944, both USNA.

7.
Joseph H. Esclavon Oral History, NWWIIM-EC, 19; Action Reports of the USS
Frankford
, June 24, 1944, USS
Carmick
, June 23, 1944, and USS
Doyle
, June 8, 1944, all in USNA.

8.
U.S. Naval Academy
Lucky Bag
(1932), USNA; Action Report, USS
Carmick
, June 23, 1944, USNA.

9.
U.S. Naval Academy
Lucky Bag
(1935), USNA; Action Report, USS
McCook
, June 27, 1944, USNA.

10.
Action Reports, USS
Doyle
, June 8, 1944, and USS
Thompson
, June 21, 1944, both USNA; U.S. Naval Academy
Lucky Bag
(1934), USNA.

11.
Kirkland,
Destroyers at Normandy
, 54; Joseph H. Esclavon Oral History, NWWIIMEC, 22.

12.
George Bauernschmidt Oral History (p. 152), and Joel G. Smith Oral History (p. B), both in NWWIIM-EC; Paul Carell,
Invasion! They’re Coming
(New York: E. P. Dutton, 1963), 86.

13.
Action Report, LCI(L) 408, June 16, 1944, LCI(L) 408 file, LCI Association Collection, Series B, box 11, NMPW; Action Reports of USS
Emmons
, June 22, 1944,
McCook
, June 27, 1944, and
Carmick
, June 23, 1944, all USNA; NCWTF (Kirk) to CTF 124, 125, etc., June 9, 1944, ANCFX Files, box 6, folder 4, NA; Felix C. Podolak Oral History, NWWIIM-EC, 8. See also Morison,
Invasion of France and Germany
, 142–49.

14.
Morton Deyo, “Naval Guns at Normandy,” Personal Papers Collection of Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison, box 87 (p. 42), NHHC; Howard Anderson in Prados, ed.,
Neptunus Rex
, 53; Action Report, USS
Baldwin
, June 22, 1944, USNA.

15.
Action Reports, USS
Ellyson
, June 26, 1944, and USS
Laffey
, June 27, 1944, both USNA.

16.
Action Report, USS
Frankford
, June 24, 1944, USNA; Curtis Hansen Oral History, NWWIIM-EC, 11; Bryant, “Battleship Commander,” in Stillwell, ed.,
Assault on Normandy
, 184; James Jones to his father, June 27, 1944, in Pardos, ed.,
Neptunus Rex
, 65.

17.
Action Report, USS
Frankford
, June 24, 1944, USNA; Morison,
Invasion of France and Germany
, 150; Bradley,
A Soldier’s Life
, 251.