Cornelius Ryan WWII papers, box 008, folder 38: Charles E. Sammon

SAMMON, Charles E Calif 82 AB BOX 8, #38

505th 2nd Batt.

Used hand grenades across open terrain to assault an enemy machine gun

Charles E. Sammon 340 W. Virginia Ave. Glendora, California March 21, 1959

Mr. Cornelius Ryan 203 E. 48th St. New York, N. Y.

Dear Mr. Ryan.

Col. Vandervoort my Battalion Commander during World War II has asked that I write to you and give you my recollection of the events that took place on the day of the invasion of Europe, June 6, 1944. Of course I am only to happy to do anything which he requests as we shared some pretty trying experiences and I have nothing but admiration for the Colonel. I must begin however by apologizing for my very poor memory for names, places etc. My memory of many of the events is very clear, but after 15 years I cannot recall specific details such as times, places, names etc. With this limitation in mind I hope you will forgive me if the account seems somwhat disconnected. I hope that some of this material will be useful to you and wish you the best of luck in your efforts to document the part played by the Airborne on this very important day in our history. I was a First Lieutenant in command of the light machine gun platoon of Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, of the 82nd Airborne Division. Company Commander was Capt. Bill Schmeeze, Battalion Commander was Lt. Col. Benjamin Vandervoort, Reigimental Commander was Col. Wm. Ekman, Ass't Division Commander was Brig. Genera1 James Gavin, Division Commander was Major General Mathew Ridgeway, Some 24 hours prior to the jump we were assembled at our takeoff airdrome near Leicester, England. For several months we had been training for this mission and all of us knew every terrain characteristic of the country around our scheduled drop zone in France, near a place called St. Sauveur Le Vicomte. However just a day or two prior to the

invasion word came through that it was necessary to change our entire objective due to the fact that the Germans had apparently gotten wind of the location of the drop zone and had prepared it for the attack. Our objective was changed to a place called St. Mere Eglise and we had little or no time to become familiar with the new location. We took off about 11 PM on the night of June 5, 1944 ano headed for France. We could see lots of enemy activity in the distance but the trip across the channel was uneventful for our flight. About 1 AM of June 6th we got the word to " stand up and hook up", and about ten minutes later the green light came on and we went out the door into the darkness below. As jumpmaster and the firfet one out of my plane I had to go back down the line of men in the plane prior to the jump and check each one for proper hook up of his static line. On returning I stood in the door ready to jump when the Corporal behind me tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to my own static line which I had failed to hook up. I quickly made the necessary hook up and turned and went out the door as the green light had come on in the meantime. I landed flat on my back in a small orchard, completely exhausted and so bound up in equipment I could hardly move. About that time a figure appeared in the darkness and I couldn't decide if it was friend or foe. I got my pistol out and waited until he was about three feet from me. I had decided that I wasn't going to wait very long before I pulled the trigger, but that I would give him a split second to say the code word. I said " George" and he said " Washington" and we both sighed with relief. We picked up several more men as we walked toward the assembly point where I was finally able to get almost all of my men and their equipment together. Colenel Vandervoort instructed me to set my platoon up in a defensive postion about one mile north and east of the town of St. Mere Eglise. There was no enemy activity in our area at this time although I could hear some firing in the distance. 2

We found the area assigned to us by the Battalion Commander and I established three machine gun positions which I felt would give us good protection. I then set up a platoon command post and together with my runner took turns wrapping up in a parachute in order to get a little sleep. Dawn of June 6th wa s just breaking as I started out to check the three positions to make sure everything was in order and find out if the men needed anything in the way of equipment or food. There was at the time sporadic firing in the distance but we had not seen or heard anything of the Germans in our area up to that point, at least that was the misconception I was under at the momemt. As I approached the first position I called out to the Corporal who was in charge, the answer came back in the form of a long burst from what was umistakably a german machine gun and one or two machine pistols. The bullets hit the dirt at our feet and the two of us hit the ditch beside the road. What had happened became very clear to me at this point. The Germans had infiltrated our positions during the night and had either killed or captured the men I had placed in this position. As I lay there in the ditch with bullets whizzing over ray head I was not only scared I was thoroughly disgusted with myself for being outsmarted by the enemy. I was worried and concerned about my men, and at the moment felt helpless to do anthing about the situation. We couldn't get up without exposing ourselves to their fire, but I soon disconvered that as long as we stayed flat on our stomachs in the ditch we were protected from their fire. They were set mp at the junction of two irrigation ditches and were unable to depress the muzzels of their guns any further and couldn't see us due to the relative height of their postion. I then decided that we should turn around in the ditch and attempt to crawl back to our own positions. We had gone about half way with the bullets clipping the tall grass over our head, when my runner who was now ahead of me panicked and got up to run. I tackled him [crossed out] as [end crossed out] just as a long burst of German fire hit all round us. From then on I kept one hand on his foot as we continued to crawl up the ditch. We were making fairly good progress when an American 3

machine gun began firing at us from our own positions. Since we were approaching from the direction of the enemey and were unable to stand up to identify ourselves I could see no way out of our predicament. This time however the Germans came to our rescue. The first barrage of German Artillery fire came into the position and forced the Amercian Machine gunner to abandon his position just long enough for us to jump up and make a run for it. We arrived at the machine gun just as the gunner did who by the way turned out to be one of my own men. Just for a moment I considered the irony of being killed by a machine gunner I had spent hours trying to train

All was confusion back in our own position. The Germans had infiltrated so well and struck so suddenly that no[crossed out] n [end crossed out] one knew what was going on. I managed to round up the remnants of my platoon and set up one machine gun to keep firing at the German position so they wouldn't attempt to advance further. I then had one of my men who was armed with a carbine and rifle grenades start firing grenades into their protected position. The best discovery of all however was a mortar man from one of the rifle companies with a complete mortar and a simply of ammunition. In parachute drops this is a rare find as often some vital part will be missing as a result of the drop. With the grenades and mortar shells falling into their position the Germans had no choice but to move out. They couldn't go back up the same ditch they had used to get into the position as we had set up a machine run to cover their return and besides no doubt their orders were to go forward and wipe us out. One by one they attempted to go over the top of their protective embankment and into the ditch I had used to retreat only an hour earlier. There were about twenty men in the position and about half of them made it into the ditch, the other half were killed or wounded as they camp out. Having become so familiar with that ditch earlier I knew we couldn't reach them with our rifles and machine guns due to the difference in elevation of our po[crossed out]i[end crossed out]sitions. 4