Michael Connelly: The Mortarmen
Chapter 1
Page 1
Author Michael Connelly was nice enough to give VAJoe members an exclusive look at his book, The Mortarmen:
Chapter 1: D-Day
It was Code named Operation Overlord, the largest amphibious assault ever carried out in the history of the world. Almost 5,000 ships of every type would be involved and the goal was to land a quarter of a million men on the beaches of Normandy, France and began the liberation of Europe. On paper, it looked good, but in reality it seemed to be an almost impossible task. The Germans had had years to fortify every inch of the French coast and done a masterful job of it. The beaches were heavily mined and littered with barbed wire and obstacles designed to tear the bottoms out of landing craft and slow down any vehicles which made it to the beach. These obstacles would have to be cleared by army engineers and navy frogmen who would face a daunting task. The Germans would look down on the beaches from concrete bunkers, pillboxes, and fortified entrenchments. Artillery positions were everywhere and could rain down death and destruction on landing craft approaching the shore and on the beaches themselves. There would be no place for the invaders to hide and no avenue of retreat once they had landed. The Germans were confident that any invasion would fail. The Allies were just as determined that the invasion of Europe must succeed. It was the only way that Hitler could be beaten. What is truly amazing is the fact that the Allies successfully kept the location secret from the Germans until it actually took place. This was despite the fact that the Germans had flooded Britain with agents determined to find out the invasion site. Until the day of the invasion, the Germans were convinced that it would occur at the narrowest part of the English Channel and the target would be the Pas de Calais. This was exactly what the Allied Commanders wanted them to think. The German Generals were further frustrated by Hitler’s statements to some of his commanders that he believed the whole invasion was a ruse, and that it would never take place at all.
Utah Beach is the forgotten beach of D-Day. In fact, Utah, Juno, Sword, and Gold beaches together have probably received less attention from historians than Omaha. It is certainly true that Omaha was the key beach of them all and was by far the worst of the battles that day. There were thousands of casualties suffered on Omaha and it took a truly valiant effort to break out of the beach and move inland. Yet all of the beaches needed to be taken and young men died on Utah to do just that. The attack on Utah Beach was the responsibility of Task Force U consisting of 865 naval vessels in 12 separate convoys.
The companies of the 87th were supposed to load onto the LCVPs at 2:00 a.m. but on some of the ships the loading was delayed until between 4:30 and 5:00. Once on board the craft the effects of the rough seas could be fully felt as the small boats bounced like corks on a fishing line being teased by a catfish. The boats had to circle for several hours before actually advancing on the beach and during that time, when their heads weren’t buried in barf bags, the mortar men were made well aware of the sights and sounds of war. Hundreds of fighters and bombers roared overhead and then bombed or strafed the beach. The heavy ships firing on Utah included one battleship and five cruisers. Eight sleek destroyers danced toward the shore, getting as close as the heaving seas would allow before firing their five inch guns at suspected enemy positions, while rocket boats added to the crescendo by sending hundreds of rockets onto the beach and beyond. These ships with their valiant sailors had to contend not only with fire coming from heavy German guns behind the beaches, but thousands of mines which had been placed off shore. The minesweepers had found and destroyed many of them, but they couldn’t get them all. The men in the landing craft watched in horror as one destroyer firing on Utah struck a mine and sank in a matter of minutes. A nearby minesweeper rushed to aid the surviving crew members, but it too hit a mine and was completely destroyed. The bodies of dead American sailors, many burned beyond recognition floated in the choppy waters of the English Channel. They would soon be joined by the bodies of their comrades in the Army.
The waiting men of the 87th had been told not to expect any miracles from this pre-landing bombardment. They knew about the defenses being set up in depth with various forms of beach obstacles planted to hinder the landing craft. They also knew that behind the obstacles were pillboxes, tank turrets mounted on concrete structures, artillery positions, and interlocking trenches containing infantry. What they did not know was that the need to keep the invasion site secret had been considered so important that comparatively little bombing of the Normandy defenses had taken place until just a few days before D-Day, and even then had still not been as intense as that in the area of Pas de Calais. The Germans would still be there in force when the first waves began hitting the beach and this was confirmed as the assault troops began to land. The sounds became different as the men still in the landing craft neared the shore. They could now hear the rattle of German machine guns raking the beach and the crack of mortar shells falling among the landing Americans. It appeared to the men in the landing craft that they were sailing directly into hell. In fact they were heading into hell, the hell of all out warfare. By today’s standards of precision munitions, surgical strikes and lightning victories seen on television, this type of warfare can barely be understood. This was a war of man against man, and gun against gun. There would often be more casualties in a single day in this war than would be suffered in entire wars fought in the later part of the 20th century and the early 21st century. Each of the mortarmen was painfully aware that among those fighting their way ashore in the first wave were forward observer (FO) teams from their own companies. Their job was to accompany the infantry and then call in fire support once the mortars were landed and set up. They would be among the most vulnerable targets, and one of them, Cpl. William T. Trant of A Company, was to be the first casualty suffered by the battalion. He was wading ashore and struggling under the weight of his pack and the all-important radio when the nearby water began churning as machine gun bullets hit all around him. He didn’t even feel the round that hit him in the right leg, he just knew the leg wouldn’t hold him up any longer. He did feel the bullet that tore open his left arm as he slid down into the waves. The pain was intense, but the cold water kept him from passing out and he was able to struggle for shore. Once there he was spotted by two of his fellow soldiers and pulled to safety so the medics could treat his wounds. He was then taken back to the U.S.S. Dickman.
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