On June 6, 65 years ago, at 0130 the situation in Nazi Occupied Europe was: the D-Day invasion was beginning in France.
From above Normandy the 82nd and 101st American Airborne Divisions dropped from their aircraft. Until the summer of 1963, I had always been under the false impression that U.S. Army Rangers were the first to land on the code named Normandy beaches of Omaha and Utah. It was that particular 1963 summer I learned one of the first men, and his crew, to set foot on Omaha Beach under intense German fire was the longtime Corsicana resident and former Navy Warrant Officer James G. Hill Jr.
Landing at H-Hour plus three minutes (0633) in the first wave was W.O. Hill and his Navy Underwater Demolitions Team who were assigned to land, plant explosives on, and demolish heavy German beach obstacles which, without their skilled work, would certainly slow or impede the approaching Allied landing craft.
Those Navy UDTs, (the forerunners of today’s Navy SEALS), and their Army engineer demolition counterparts, were “first to land on Omaha Beach” to open landing lanes (or gaps) for the approaching U.S. Army’s 29th and 1st Infantry Divisions.
That day, the Navy UDTs suffered 52 percent casualties.
The Army Rangers arrived at 0705 to achieve heroic D-Day deeds on their own.
After the war, James Hill, also known as Jay, raised a family and was employed by the local Soil Conservation Service. His Oakwood Cemetery’s simple gravestone notes only his name, date of birth and death.
As some of you know, the D-Day Omaha Beach landings were a very close call, a very bloody confused scene and almost a total disaster.
The entire Navy Combat Demolition Unit of the Omaha force received one of the three Presidential Unit Citations awarded to the Navy for the Normandy landings.
It reads as follows:
“For outstanding performance in combat during the invasion of Normandy, June 6, 1944. Determined and zealous in the fulfillment of an extremely hazardous mission, the Navy Combat Demolition Unit of Force “0” landed on “Omaha Beach” with the first wave under devastating enemy artillery, machine-gun and sniper fire. With practically all explosives lost and with their force seriously depleted by heavy casualties, the remaining officers and men carried on gallantly, salvaging explosives as they were swept ashore and in some instances commandeering bulldozers to remove obstacles. In spite of these grave handicaps, the Demolition Crews succeeded initially in blasting five gaps through enemy obstacles for the passage of assault forces to the Normandy shore and within two days had sapped over eighty-five percent of the ‘Omaha Beach’ area of German-placed traps. Valiant in the face of grave danger and persistently aggressive against fierce resistance, the Navy Combat Demolition Unit rendered daring and self-sacrificing service in the performance of a vital mission, thereby sustaining the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.”
In 1944, James Hill, age 36, was also a 1929 graduate of Texas A&M; College.
My generation and future generations certainly owe that entire WWII generation a debt of deep gratitude.
—————
Submitted by Robert Keathley
Columns
Guest Commentary - Robert Keathley
In honor of a great generation
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