There Were Others

National Guard, Jun 2004 by Listman, John

At about 2:30 a.m., June 6, 1944, Minnesota National Guard Sgt. James Mildenberger, climbed onto his DUKW (DUCK)-a 2.5-ton truck with a boat's body-for the last push toward the French coast while aboard a Landing Ship Tank (LST).

"They opened up the doors of the LST [and] ... a big swell caught us and we drifted immediately right out in the sea," he said in an oral history interview kept in the National Guard Educational Foundation archives. "We were out there by ourselves and started heading for France."

Mildenberger, the DUCK pilot, spent hours trying to reach the shore. But he didn't hit the beach until after H-hour (6 a.m.).

"We went on in and we did land, but immediately drew fire from the Germans-rifle fire and machine guns with tracer bullets," he said. "So, we no more than hit the beach with the front nose of the DUCK than we backed off again."

They patrolled the beach lrom about 300 yards, even cruising near Pointe du Hoc as the Army Rangers tackled the deadly cliffs.

After heading back toward Omaha Beach where the activity was heavy, Mildenberger said they decided to land and set up radio stations.

"We'd already transmitted some messages earlier. ... We got off our DUCK, went onto the beach and were immediately under fire," he said. "I know we were laying down on the sand of the beach area and I got hit [in the chest] with shrapnel."

Mildenberger's commander found a medic, who bandaged the wound as Mildenberger slipped in and out of consciousness. Medics took him to an aid station as more troops came ashore.

"I saw landing craft drop their ramp and the [Navy] guys told to them to get off, and the guys went out into about five or six feet of water," he said. "I hate to say it, but I watched troops drown but was helpless to help them."

Unconscious, Mildenberger was moved off the beach and back to England for treatment. He later took glider training in an airborne unit but never saw another day of combat.

Mildenberger wasn't serving in a mobilized Guard unit. he originally enlisted in the 135th Infantry, 34th division in 1939; however, he encountered legal trouble and was separated from his division while mobilized at Fort Dix, NJ.

The 34th sailed before he resolved his legal trouble and was in North Alrica before he could catch up. Orders then assigned Mildenberger to the 56th Signal Battalion-a V Corps element in England in 1943-which made him part of the D-Day landings.

During this 60th anniversary of D-Day, much will be written of the grit and sacrifice of the Guard's 29th Infantry Division as it clawed its way over Omaha Beach. Certainly the exploits of its soldiers are well worth remembering, especially the cost of more than 800 men from the 116th Infantry alone on June 6.

As Mildenberger illustrates, however, other Guardsmen and units also were involved, though with little recognition for their participation in the opening act of the liberation of Western Europe.

The Army recognizes these units with an "arrowhead" for their Normandy campaign streamer-a special award cited on their Lineage and Honors certificate. It was awarded only to those participating in the first 48 hours of the operation.

Aside from the 29th Division and its subordinate elements-all ol which earned the arrowhead-14 non-divisional Guard units also earned this distinction. all but one were assigned to the V Corps and landed on Omaha Beach.

The exception was California's Battery B, 980th Field Artillery Battalion that was attached to the 4th lniantry Division, part ol the VIl Corps landing on Utah Beach.

Kansas' 635th Tank Destroyer Battalion sailed to England in February 1944. Organized from three mobilized lie Id artillery regiments from the 35th Division in 1941, it was armed with trucktowed 3-inch antitank guns.

The 635th's 800 officers, men and equipment were loaded into three LSTs and arrived without loss on Omaha Beach early june 8.

Attached to the 1st Division through the liberation of France, it provided fire support for the breakout of the Norman hedgerows as well as supported missions to capture St. Lo, about 30 miles inland from Omaha Beach.

The 635th continued to engage the Germans until it crossed the Rhine on March 30, 1945.

The battalion lost 39 men with another 202 wounded. It destroyed 22 enemy combat vehicles and captured 4,639 prisoners. Today the record o( the 635th is carried by four dillerent elements of the Kansas Army Guard.

The next three non-divisional units, all engineer units, have an interesting relationship prior to the landings.

Ohio's 112th Engineer Regiment, part of the 37th Division, and elements of Michigan's 107th Engineer Regiment, part of the 32nd Division, both deployed to Britain in early 1942 ahead of their respective divisions.

But their parent divisions-expected in Britain-ended up in the Pacific.

So the two units became corps assets. Some elements of the 107th joined U.S. forces landing in North Airica in late 1942 while the balance was redesignated as the 2nd Battalion, 112th Engineer Regiment.

Engineer regiments were replaced by group headquarters, which were more tactically flexible, allowing lor several battalions to come and go under their control. Thus, the 112th was restructured into die 1121st Engineer Combat Group in August 1943.