Off the beaches and into the hedgerows

A hedgerow break-through

The Normandy countryside had its beauty and its horror. The ground was hilly and rolling in the western part of the peninsula, with green trees everywhere, not unlike the rich lands of Pennsylvania, from which many of the unit had come. But unlike Pennsylvania, which is generally pleasant in June, the Normandy climate was brisk. On nice days, which were about one in four, the sky was clear, blue and sunny, in spite of a chill. But the rest of the time it was dark, drizzling and windy. Most of the men still wore their winter underwear and sweaters beneath their field jackets.

Both England and Normandy are know for their hedgerows, but there was a difference here, too—one which, according to Ambrose, had not been adequately realized and accounted for in preparations for the invasion. In England, the hedgerows and the fields they enclosed were neatly clipped and cropped. In contrast, the Normandy hedgerows, which protected crops and cattle from ocean winds, were wild and overgrown, and the grass needed cutting.

In most instances, no one could see beyond the field ahead—or about a hundred yards in any direction. In other places, the ground was flooded and swampy with a growth of high, jungle-like grass. The hedgerow itself is a fence made of half earth and half hedge, 3 to 15 feet high or higher. Growing out of the wall of dirt several feet thick were often hedges of bramble, hawthorne, vines and trees.

Winding, narrow Normandy roads were either macadam or gravel and difficult for heavy military traffic, adding to the danger from enemy snipers, who thrived on the hedgerow conditions and harassed the Allies at every bend.

“I, too, remember those hedgerows and small fields, and the many dead cows that stank so much,” Jack says. “Dead enemy soldiers made the smell worse. There were many encounters with enemy planes during the daytime. And, as their inventory of planes kept depleting, they started to fly at night, thereby keeping us from sleeping too soundly.”

American anti-aircraft gunners had an important role to play in the invasion almost immediately.

Ordinarily one would not think of anti-aircraft coming ashore with infantry, but a little bit of everything came ashore, from riflemen to press censors, from combat engineers to chaplains. The ack-ack was given a place in the very early waves because it was felt that the Germans would throw what air strength they had onto the beaches that day. American anti-aircraft was under the command of a general officer, which is a pretty fair indication of how important it was. There was more of a concentration of anti-aircraft guns on the beachhead than was ever concentrated on an equivalent space. The gun positions were plotted on a big wall map in the general’s tent, just as the battle lines were plotted by infantry units. A daily score was kept of the planes shot down; confirmed and probably ones…So far the 474^th underwent five different air raids and engaged a total of 14 enemy aircraft. It received credit for downing seven…The men were quickly learning many things not taught on maneuvers, such as the distinctive “crack” of the German 88, and differences between incoming and outgoing “mail.” They learned to recognize the rising and falling drone of the German airplane motor, and every bomb that was dropped seemed to be aimed right in the middle of the spine…When a gun moved into position, usually in the middle of a field where the view was unobstructed by trees or houses and which afforded what an artillery man would call a good field of fire, some of the crew would begin digging in the track. The gunner would sit in the turret, scanning the skies for any sign of the enemy. Others would dig individual foxholes. Some of the men became quite ingenious at building well-camouflaged holes with roofs to protect the “homeowner” from shrapnel. They would then place twigs and bushes around the hole so it would not be spotted by an infiltrating kraut.²²

On June 25, the 474^th was attached to the 207^th AAA Group to provide automatic weapons defense to the city of Cherbourg. While there were no air attacks, the battalion became involved in ground action because of the fast advance. “In our first position here we discovered a dead American soldier, a medic,” Jack recalls, “lying belly down but headless—only a fragment of the missing part was still attached. It was bad enough seeing dead soldiers for the first time, but this was the first time for this kind of a scene. That scene has stayed with me to this day, and I doubt that I’ll ever be able to forget it.”

Battalion headquarters moved from north of Carentan to five miles southwest of Cherbourg. Meanwhile A Battery made a 61-mile jump from Pont le Abbe to St. Martin Le Greard just south of the city, and a day later three miles farther to a point west of the city near Fort Querqueville. Then, about 3 a.m. on June 28:

T/5 Bolles and PFC Carl Godwin, of Cleveland, OH, both A Battery men, spotted six men walking along the railroad tracks. They slipped the safety off their M-1s and crouching in the underbrush, they waited until the men were within earshot and then shouted out the password, “Wander.” They pulled back the bolts of their Garands. They waited a few seconds and called out again, “Wander.” Bolles and Godwin were anxiously awaiting the proper reply which would be, “Farther.” This was the countersign which, when given, would indicate that the men were friendly. They didn’t want to be trigger-happy and kill Americans. Instead, the men dropped to the ground and began firing on Bolles and Godwin with rifles and burp guns. They returned fire with their M-1s until the rifles jammed and then continued firing with a machine gun until they ran out of ammunition. Then as the enemy persisted, they lobbed hand grenades at the Germans. Still the krauts persisted. Enough of this, thought Godwin and Bolles and they jumped on their M-15s, spun the carriage around and sprayed the Germans with 400 rounds of high-explosive 37mm ammunition. The Germans stopped firing and fled.²³ 

Fort Querqueville surrendered later that morning, around 9 a.m. At the fort, men from the gun crew rounded up 132 Germans, including five officers from the German Army and Air Force. A captured German who spoke broken English later revealed that Bolles and Godwin had stopped a 25-man demolition team on its way into Cherbourg to blow up installations.

July 2, the batteries were moved back closer to the beaches, where it was relatively quiet. A Battery was sent to Houdienville to protect a quartermaster depot. It was during this time—nearly a month after the landing—that the men had their first opportunity to clean up and changes clothes since they left England. Bathing was done in the helmet.

They would take all their old clothes and soak them in a big can of hot water and GI soap, although some simply dipped them in aviation gasoline. This gave them a new, clean set to keep in reserve until the next time they had a chance to take a bath. Usually, they started at the shoulders and washed down as far as possible; then, from the feet, they washed up as far as possible. Lastly, they washed the possible.²⁴

The Fourth of July arrived, but it didn’t seem much like a holiday until the “fireworks” began at twilight.

A rocket sizzled up into the darkening sky and then a machine gun threw up a number of tracers, lighting up the sky. Then one gun after another began firing all along the line. Before it was over, the invasion forces had quite a celebration, winding up with someone shooting down a barrage balloon on the beach. These balloons were known as “Churchill’s Cigars.”²⁵ 

Check out this short clip showing what the hedgerows looked like and how the Allied forces finally broke through them: