34
The 116th Regiment's PC moved to Vierville around 1 p.m.
Report on the operations of the Command Group of 116th Reg.
(2nd part, climbed on the cliff and arrived in Vierville)
The Major State of the 116th Regiment had arrived on Dog White on board LCVP 71 (at 7:30 a.m., Colonel Canham's Command Group) and then LCI 91 (at 7:40 a.m., Lt-Colonel Cassell's Advanced HQ). The Communications Group on a LCD (with Captain Sink) had drifted beyond St-Laurent, and was not reachable.
General Cota (delegated to the Commander of the 29th Division) had also arrived with Canham.
On land, after his turbulent landing and major casualties, Lt-Colonel Cassell sought his leader Colonel Canham. He learned that he was still on the beach and that he was going to go to Vierville (following Cie C/116).
{At that time, General Cota thought Colonel Canham, injured in the wrist, would not be able to secure his command. He ordered Lt-Colonel Cassell to join the Command Group towards Vierville. But in the meantime, Colonel Canham refused to be evacuated and continued to lead operations for several days}.
mortar shells began to explode on the slope for the first time, killing two men near General Cota and projecting the general and his aide-de-camp to land. As enemy fire increased in volume and accuracy, the Command Group moved quickly to shelter from the cliff. On the cliffside, there were still shots, but the smoke of the grass fires masked them.
{As they climbed the cliff, they were put in contact with elements of the CieG/116 (Lt Hendricks and Hotaling) who had landed too eastward on the 16th RI area and had moved laterally to their Dog White area. A section of heavy machine guns from Lt.Murphy, Cie H/116, was attached to him. Thus the command understood why Dog White Beach, the target of the first wave of assault with G/116 Cie, had not been occupied by 6:30 a.m.}
Colonel Canham ordered Cie C/116 to cross Vierville to join the rest of the 1st Battalion (Cies A, B, and D/116) assumed to be west of Vierville.
General Cota accompanied the C/116 and entered Vierville with her around 11:00.)
Colonel Canham and the Command Group made a road (following C/116) along the plateau to the road east of Vierville.
{Small enemy positions of riflemen and machine guns were at the top of the slope. A "C" soldier was killed sweeping a machine gun nest. He climbed up to the opening, threw a grenade into the casemate, killing the occupants. Prisoners were picked up in these locations}
At 11:30 a.m., a temporary PC was installed at the planned junction (on the road from Hamel to Priest, at the exit from Vierville) for an appointment with the Communications Group. {He who was to land in an LCM (scheduled for 0740 on Dog Green), with Captain Sink (Liaison Officer) and Ernest (Officer S1/116RI)}. Since this group was not there (in fact they had drifted and landed east of St-Laurent), it was assumed (untrue) that they were already at the PC planned for the 116th RI, 1km at the Vierville SO. It was always thought that the 1st and 2nd Battalions had crossed the beaches and were heading towards their objectives far west and at the Vierville SO.
(In fact, Cie A was destroyed on the beach in front of Vierville, the Cies B and D were dispersed and with 50% loss, the Cies E,F,G,H had landed beyond Saint-Laurent and were unable to reach Vierville, as for battalion HQs, that of the 1st Bat was isolated at the foot of the cliffs of the Percaea, and the HQs of the 2nd and 3rd Bat were beyond Saint-Laurent, all without radio).
Meanwhile, the Command Group was joined by Lt.Colonel Cassell, Captain Rice and part of the Intelligence Section, disembarked from LCI 91.
All communications were out of order, except Lt.'s radio. Jones, liaison of the 743rd Tank Bat., and the group was separated from its liaison officers of the 1st DI and 16th RI.
Colonel Canham ordered to continue to the planned PC 1km south of Vierville. They entered the village at about 12.00 p.m., after company C/116.
New efforts were made by radio operators to contact the Regiment units, without result.
As the group crossed Vierville at about 1230, the D1 beach exit was bombed by the US Navy shells (including the 356mm of the "USSTexas") in order to destroy its bunkers. The violent explosions threw several members of the group on the main street of Vierville.
General Cota
Accompanying Company C of 116th Regiment, General Cota made his entry into Vierville at around 11:00. The men of the company remember Cota walking in the narrow main street, spinning his Colt in his index, like an old Far West Pistolero.
Cota sent some Rangers (of the 2nd Rangers Battalion) who had joined, towards the point of the Hoc.
Then, accompanied by his aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Shea, a radio operator and 3 infantrymen, he prepared to descend the valley of Vierville still held by the Germans. It was 12:30. The battleship "Texas" shelled with its 356mm cannons the fortifications of the foot of the valley. Shea remembers that "the impact of these shells made the paving of the street in Vierville rise, providing an impression of pitch."
As Cota entered the downhill, Shea hoped that the shots would stop and Cota replied that he hoped not, as it would force the Germans to lower their heads.
But the shots stopped, and Germans in a cut off on the east side of the valley started shooting at the small group. The riflemen responded and 5 Germans surrendered. Cota ordered them to guide them through the mines down the road.
The group arrived at the beach and crossed the anti-tank wall at about 1:00 p.m., about when some 30 Germans were travelling to engineers troops waiting to intervene on the anti-tank wall. General made sure the wall would soon be destroyed. and the open road. He then continued on his way to St-Laurent by the coastal road.
In Vierville, Colonel Canham's command group, after launching company C/116 on the Grancamp road, continued south, early in the afternoon, in deployed formation, encountering isolated fire from snipers or machine guns, finally arriving at the planned location for the PC, (a house in the "Isles" district), south of Vierville.
The small staff group (3 or 4 officers and 2 soldiers) found themselves very quickly isolated behind a hedge.
The radio was still unable to contact the units. Sergeant Moore of the Intelligence Section, was killed in an outpost.
A section of Company B/5Rgr passing by, en route to the West, was required by Colonel Canham to ensure the safety of the Command Group, which was in a very difficult situation in the Isles.