Free The Bedford Boys: One American Town's Ultimate D-day Sacrifice by Alex Kershaw Page A

Sergeant
Company C:
    Dean, John W., Master Sergeant
Company F:
    Parker, Joseph E. (Earl’s brother), Sergeant
    Companies A, C, and F were part of the 116th Infantry Regiment commanded by Colonel Charles D.W. Canham. The 116th was part of the 29th Division commanded by Major General Charles H. Gerhardt. Brigadier General Norman D. Cota was Assistant Division Commander of the 29th.



11
Dog Beach
    C APTAIN FELLERS LAY WITH his boat team two hundred fifty yards from the D-1 Vierville draw. Jimmy Green had not been able to provide covering fire because his landing craft had bucked up and down too much in the heavy seas. There was only one thing to do—they would have to run for the nearest cover, making sure they did not bunch together to minimize casualties.
    All along the bluffs above Omaha, veterans of the German 352nd Division lay in wait. They had moved into the area in recent weeks, relieving the inferior 716th Division. They totaled two regiments, almost two thousand men.
    As Fellers and his men started to advance, German officers finally ordered their men to fire. Above the Vierville draw, the 352nd opened up with at least three MG-42 machine guns, firing over a thousand rounds per minute, and several mortars. Two dozen snipers lurked in nearby trenches. The slaughter was fast and merciless. Fellers and the twenty-nine men in his boat died in a matter of minutes, riddled by machine-gun bullets from several directions.
    No accurate record exists of the boat roster for Company A on D-Day. It was probably lost with many others in the chaos and carnage after H-Hour. But it is thought that the following Bedford boys may have been among those who died within yards of their captain: twenty-two- year-old Sergeant Dickie Abbott; twenty-six-year-old Clifton Lee, the shy but fiercely patriotic private whose eyebrows arched dramatically above his pale face; twenty-three-year-old Gordon Henry White Jr. who dreamed of his mother’s cooking; the well-mannered Southern “gentleman” Nick Gillaspie; and the ace dice player, Wallace “Snake Eyes” Carter.
    Less than fifty yards away, another LCA had also approached the beach. On board were George Roach, Thomas Valance, Gil Murdock, and the Bedford boys Dickie Overstreet and Master Sergeant John Wilkes. “We’re going to drop this ramp and as soon as we do, we’re going to back out,” shouted a British bowman, “so you guys better be ready.” 1
    The ramp slammed down into the surf and then the metal door swung open. Lieutenant Alfred Anderson exited, closely followed by Valance and seconds later by Roach and then Wilkes. Instantly, the Germans found their range. Men began to fall in every direction, picked off at random, while others miraculously staggered unscathed through a hail of bullets and shrapnel.
    John Wilkes was one of the few who managed to get out of the shallows and onto the sand, where he and George Roach started to fire towards the base of the D-1 Vierville draw. Neither Wilkes nor Roach had yet seen a German.
    “What are you firing at?” asked Wilkes.
    “I don’t know,” said Roach. “I don’t know what I’m firing at.”
    Wilkes and Roach spotted Lieutenant Anderson, thirty yards in front of them. He waved for them to follow him across the beach. Then Roach was knocked down. The next thing he knew, the sea was licking at his heels. There was no sign of Anderson or Wilkes. According to some eyewitnesses, Anderson was cut in two by a machine gun. It is thought that Master Sergeant John Wilkes was shot and killed as he fired his M-1 Garand rifle at the defensive installations at the base of the D-1 draw.
    Dickie Overstreet also made it to the sands. He had dumped his flamethrower and picked up a dead man’s rifle as he waded ashore. He then took cover behind one of two American tanks that had landed at the mouth of the D-1 draw. Suddenly, the tank took a direct hit, possibly from a mortar. Overstreet realized the Germans were zeroing in on any spot where