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118th Batallion, 30th Division in Normandy |
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By John E. Lynch
The clearing for publication of the activities of the 30th Infantry Division up to the 23rd of October 1944 lifts the veil of censorship that has covered many successful actions of the division since its landing on the beaches of Normandy.
The 118th Field Artillery Battalion, commanded by LT. Col. Richard H. Mayer of Savannah, GA, landed on the beaches of Normandy on D plus nine. Action began the next day in the Isigny sector where the first round was fired. Action consisted of local hedgerow fighting with the battalion pushing forward to the Vire River, supporting the 117th Infantry of the combat team. On 7 July the division made its now famous crossing of the Vire River. This battalion took part in the artillery preparation and barrage, the largest until then fired in this war by the American Army. The 118th was the first artillery battalion of the division to cross the river in support of the infantry of the combat team. During the days that followed the battalion saw plenty of action, in helping beat off counter-attacks supported with armor that were flung at the division, and in helping take small but important villages in some of the bitterest fighting to since the D-day landings. The battalion took part in the action that led to the fall of St. Lo, the anchor of the German Normandy defenses.
On 25 July the battalion witnessed the heaviest air bombardment of the war so far, the first time that heavy bombers had been used in close support of the ground troops. This was the signal for the breakthrough of the St. Lo defenses and the opening of the gap for General Pattons armor to speed through in its race across Brittany. The battalion took part in the furious artillery barrage that followed the air bombardment and supported the infantry in its drive through St. Romphaire, the Mesnil Opac, and the Tessy Sur Vire. On the capture of Tessy the division was given a three-day rest after enduring fifty-one days of some of the hardest bitterest hedgerow fighting in Normandy. Movies were shown by the Red Cross girls, and we were visited by the famous Red Cross Clubmobile with doughnuts and hot coffee.
The rest period being over, the battalion hit the road on 6 August For position area near the St. Barthelmy- Mortain sector, a 45-mile motor march, most of it being executed at the night in blackout. The battalion relieved of another division and took over its sector in support of the infantry member of the combat team. We soon found out that the Germans in front of us had orders to do or die from Hitler. The Germans had picked their four best Panzer divisions for the task of splitting the First and Third American Armies in a drive to the sea.
There were elements of two of the Panzer Divisions in front of our sector, the 1st SS Panzer Division, Adolf Hitler and the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich. There the battalion took everything the Germans had to offer, strafing by the Luftwaffe, personnel bombs, heavy artillery and nebelwurfer fire, and at times small arms and mortar fire from enemy patrols that had infiltrated through our lines. At the time the artillery men had to take up their carbines to defend their gun positions from enemy patrols that had infiltrated through our thinly spread infantry. They helped beat off heavy armor attacks with well-directed artillery. When the big push came the elements of the division held fast, with one battalion of the infantry completely surrounded and out off on a hill. With the aid of the RAF Rocket firing Typhoons we beat back everything these crack enemy division had to offer. When the smoke of this six day battle cleared and Adolphs best had taken to their heels for the Fatherland there were more than 100 knocked out tanks and many more vehicles of war in front of the division alone. The division was highly commended from higher headquarters for this action against the enemy. We again took to the road by motor, to the Domfront area where the enemy resisted strongly to keep us from closing the Falaise Gap. Here on the 18th of August, the division contacted friendly troops. We took to trucks again, without the loss of a vehicle, traveling through Alencon and Mortagne to support the infantry of our combat team in the vicinity of Brezolles, France.
From here on to the Seine River we supported our infantrys advance against the stubborn rearguard action of the Germans in their retreat to their homeland. Evreaux was liberated and we crossed the Seine River at Mantes Gassicourt and took positions near Limay, France. The rear guard action continued towards the Oise River and on the morning of 1 September, the battalion was alerted as a member of a task force to spearhead the divisions advance to Belgium. Supplies and ammunition were rapidly gotten together. At noon on the first of September the battalion left an area in the vicinity of Erucis, France as the artillery member of a task force spearheading the division...
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