D-DAY - Fact & Fiction

Omaha Beach, 6 June 1944



Remember the opening scene in "Saving Private Ryan" where the officer takes over the beach breakout?



That really happened, and the guy's name was Brigadier General Norm Cota.




In World War II, (then Colonel) Cota was involved in the successful North African invasion Operation Torch. Next, he was instrumental in the conceptual planning for Operation Husky, the allied invasion of Sicily. Promoted to Brigadier General, he served as the United States adviser to the Combined Operations Division in the UK to observe and supervise the preparations for the seaborne invasion of France, Operation Overlord.

During the planning phases, BG Cota adamantly opposed daylight landings, believing pre-dawn landings would stand a better chance of success. Made Assistant Division commander of the 29th Infantry Division, slated to land on Omaha Beach, Cota pleaded for a night time assault; he did not get his way. Despite his protests, with time running out and a run of bad weather, the Allied high command had little choice.

Most D-Day commanders assured their men that the Germans would be annihilated by the Allies' pre-assault bombardments, and that the defenders were outnumbered, inexperienced and demoralized. All of these assessments were revoltingly inaccurate. On the afternoon of June 5 Cota gave one of the few accurate estimates to the soldiers of the 29th Infantry Division:

". . . The little discrepancies that we tried to correct (in amphibious training) are going to be magnified and are going to give way to incidents that you might at first view as chaotic. The air and naval bombardment and the artillery support are reassuring. But you're going to find confusion. The landing craft aren't going in on schedule and people are going to be landed in the wrong place. Some won't be landed at all. The enemy will to some degree prevent our gaining 'lodgement.' But we must improvise, carry on, not lose our heads."

Despite his unique foresight, even Cota underestimated the utter carnage that awaited V Corps (the 29th and 1st Infantry Divisions) on Omaha beach on the morning of 6 June, 1944.


BLOODY OMAHA

Cota landed with a part of the 116th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Division, in the second wave, approximately one hour after H-Hour, on the Omaha sector known as Dog White. His boat came under heavy machinegun and mortar fire; when the ramp went down three soldiers were killed immediately.


Dead U.S. soldiers at the waterline, Omaha Beach, 6 June 1944


Cota was one of the highest ranking officers on the beach that day. He is famous for personally directing the attack, motivating the shell-shocked, pinned-down survivors into action, and opening one of the first vehicle exits off the beach. Two famous quotes are attributed to him during this time:

Encountering Max Schneider, commander of the 5th Ranger Battalion, Cota asked “What outfit is this?” Someone yelled "5th Rangers!" Cota replied “Well, goddamn it then, Rangers, lead the way!”.

"Rangers lead the way" became the motto of the 75th Ranger Regiment.


Robert Mitchum portrayed BG Cota in The Longest Day

Cota is also quoted as saying to his troops, "Gentlemen, we are being killed on the beaches. Let us go inland and be killed." In the 1962 film The Longest Day, Cota renders the similar encouragement. However, historical evidence suggests these words were actually said by Colonel George A. Taylor: "There are only two kinds of people who are staying on this beach: those who are already dead and those that are gonna'die. Now get off your butts, you're the fight'in 29th!"

Killed in Action, Omaha Beach, 6 June 1944

Cota received the Distinguished Service Cross for his heroism on Omaha Beach. In 2004 a movement arose to have the Army reconsider upgrading Cota's decoration to the Medal of Honor.

Both Gen. Cota and his high commanding officer, Dwight D. Eisenhower knew one another from early West Point Days while playing football. They remained good friends.


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Matt Damon as the fictitious Private James Francis Ryan

Although the story for the search for Private Ryan is fictional, there was a real paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division whose family apparently suffered the loss of three out of four sons in combat in a short period of time.


Sergeant "Fritz" Niland, 3rd Bn, 501st Parachute Infantry Regt, 101st Airborne Division

Sergeant Frederick "Fritz" Niland was a member of the 101st Airborne's 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, and was one of those that made the drop into Normandy on June 6, 1944. He landed southwest of Carentan in Raffoville, and he was eventually able to make it back to his unit on his own.

Niland's three brothers served in other units; Technical Sergeant Robert Niland was a paratrooper in the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, Lieutenant Preston Niland served in the 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, and Technical Sergeant Edward Niland was a pilot in the Army Air Force.


B-25 Mitchell in flight


Edward had been reported missing over Burma in the Pacific Theater on May 16, 1944. His B-25 had been shot down and he was reported as MIA and presumed killed. Robert was killed on D-Day at Neuville-au-Plain. Preston was killed on June 7th in the vicinity of Utah Beach.


Neuville-au-Plain, approx 3 miles north of Ste Mere Eglise (first town liberated in France, 6 June 1944)

Unlike the fictional Ryan, however, there was no need to send out a rescue mission to find Sergeant Niland. When Father Francis L. Sampson, chaplain of the 501st, learned that two of Niland's brothers were dead, and that a third was presumed dead, he began the paperwork necessary to send Niland home.


Soldiers of the 90th Inf Div linking up with 82d Airborne Division "All American" paratroopers in the Cretteville-Baupte sector of Normandy; June, 1944


Niland remained with his unit for some time, but once the paperwork cleared he was forced to return to the States, where he served in New York as an MP for the rest of the war.

Fortunately for the Niland family, Edward Niland had not been killed, but had spent almost an entire year in a Japanese prisoner of war camp before being rescued by British forces.


Thanks, Veterans.



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WWII PARATROOPER MAKES FINAL MOVEMENT

Darrell “Shifty” Powers, one of the soldiers depicted in “Band of Brothers,” passed away on Wednesday, June 17, 2009.

Powers, United States Army paratrooper and sharpshooter, Easy Company, 2d/506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, died 17 June 2009 of natural causes at age 86.

Like millions of Americans, "Shifty" answered the call of World War II. A quiet, unassuming man, Shifty joined the Army and then volunteered for the Airborne. After intensive training, Powers was assigned to the famed Easy Company 2nd Battalion 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, where he jumped into Normandy on D-day. He was involved in the assault on Bracore Manor, which saved thousands of lives on Omaha Beach.

Powers fought in the battle of Carentan and the airborne invasion of Holland as part of Operation Market Garden, where millions of French and Dutch citizens were liberated.

During Hitler's final offensive, what came to be known as the Battle of the Bulge, the 506th was encircled by superior German forces in the Belgian town of Bastone. The 101st held out against incredible odds; their successful defense of bastogne was critical to turning the tide of the German offensive and ultimately the war in the Western Front. Powers and the 506th then entered Germany, liberated concentration camps and captured Hitler's "Eagles Nest" in Berchtesgarden.

Powers got the nickname "Shifty" playing basketball as a youngster. He served three years in the Army during World War II and later worked as a machinist for Clinchfield Coal Corp. He found renewed notoriety when Stephen Ambrose wrote about Easy Company in the World War II history Band of Brothers; Shifty’s experiences were depicted on the film of the same name.

"He actually hadn't talked about it, his war years, until the book came out," said his daughter-in-law, Sandy Powers.

In the second-to-last episode of "Band of Brothers," an HBO miniseries that documented Easy Company's wartime exploits, Powers spoke on camera about combat, the soldiers he served with and the German enemy he fought.

He recalled a bitterly cold day in the Ardennes when he was able to draw down on a German sniper, sighting his target by the misty cloud of the man's breath. He killed him with one shot.

"Right there," he said, touching his forehead. "Between the eyes."

He was reflective of such matters, "We might have had a lot in common. He might've liked to fish, you know, he might've liked to hunt. Of course, they were doing what they were supposed to do, and I was doing what I was supposed to do . . . under different circumstances, we might have been good friends."

"For me and my kids, it's just amazing that our regular, sweet uncle was such a hero," said his niece, Cheryl Gilliland of Roanoke. "It sure changed his life in later years. He went places and met people he never would have otherwise."

Darrell Powers met a German soldier in 2005 who had fought against him at the brutal siege of Bastogne during the winter of 1944.

According to his son, Wayne, he had been scheduled to travel to Iraq to meet with U.S. soldiers in September 2008, but health problems prevented it. "He was so disappointed. He wanted to meet with the soldiers so badly," Sandy Powers said.

One of his closest friends, Earl McClung, of Colorado, in 2001 called Darrell Powers "a heck of a good soldier and a heck of a good shot."

"And he was there every time I looked up," he added.

"Our family had four boys and one girl, and I'm the only one left," said Powers' sister, Gaynell Sykes of Roanoke, Virginia. "He was a great brother. I know he was great at a lot of other things, too -- great father, great son, great husband."

Blue Skies, and Godspeed to you Darrell "Shifty" Powers, Airborne Paratrooper - we know you're in that Great Big Drop Zone in the Sky, making linkup with the rest of your Band of Brothers.

PARATROOPERS

Much has been written about the Normandy Jump; an Airborne operation of that magnitude had never been attempted. Despite navigational difficulties and heavy anti-aircraft fire that dispersed the air Armada, the widely-dispersed paratroopers of the 101st and 82D Airborne Divisions were able to band together in LGOPs (Little Groups of Paratroopers) and seize their objectives - sometimes with as few as ten percent of their planned strength.

The Internet is a wonderful resource; I found this incredible site: US Airborne in Cotentin Peninsula.

Over the years I have had the blessed good fortune to meet with WWII veterans of the 101st and 82D Airborne, to hear firsthand their accounts. Most of them, sadly, are now in that Big Drop Zone In The Sky. What they did in Normandy was as heroic as anything ever done, before or since. They saved the World for Democracy.