Cornelius Ryan WWII papers, box 010, folder 52: Herman E. Stein

D-Day 2nd Ranger Bn STEIN, Herman E. Release NH 72

Release D-PG Box 10, #52

F Co. 2nd Rangers Herman Stein Pointe du Hoe

Ascent up cliffs 1. Lt. Wintz firing up the rockets

2. "Big Stoop" (Capt. Manney) gave us a friendly tap on the can like a football coach"

3. "Sgt. Otto was wounded coming up the cliff. He refused to be operated on when he was taken out to one of the destroyers until the more serious were taken care of. He died on the ship."

4. "Coming up the rope ladder 3 sections of my Mae West blew up. The darn thing was choking me half to death & pushing me out from the cliff, but all I could think about was that I had to get to the top. Being 3rd man, I had to keep hustling so I didn't hold anybody up & then I struggled for an eternity. it seemed, with this thing throttling me to exhaustion. I finally stopped, took stock of the situation, opened tge release valves, & flew up the rest of the way."

Noon The death of Sgt. Jack Richards in Hermie's arms

Around 2 p.m. Sees Germans going through maneuvers, machineguns them all.

Excellent Quote "You can count the company heroes on the fingers of one hand, but take them away & youll never win a war. As far as functioning as a coordinated attack group, we stunk but the Germans were no match for us as individual fighters.

For Cornelius Ryan Book about D-Day Ardsley, N.Y.

THOUSANDS OF MEN, ON LAND AND SEA AND IN THE AIR, PARTICIPATED IN THE INVASION OF NORMANDY BETWEEN MIDNIGHT JUNE 5, 1944 AND MIDNIGHT JUNE 6, 1944. IF YOU WERE ONE OF THEM, PLEASE ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS.

What is your full name? Herman E. Stein

What was your unit and division? Co F, 2nd Ranger Inf. Bn.

Where did you arrive in Normandy, and at what time? Pt Du Hoe 7:10 AM Scheduled for 6:30 but the L.C.A.'s goofed on the land marks

What was your rank on June 6, 1944? T 5

What was your age on June 6, 1944? 23

Were you married at that time ? Yes

What is your wife's name ? Lena

Did you have any children at that time? No

What do you do now? sheet metal worker

When did you know that you were going to be part of the invasion? It wasn't hard to figger out as [insert] soon as [end insert] we commenced training in England, but more precisely when we started our cliff climbing training 3 mo. later.

What was the trip like during the crossing of the Channel? Do you remember, for example, any conversations you had or how you passed the time As you know the start was delayed 24 hrs so our short reprieve was taken rather indifferently by most & when we did start out the next evening, the general keyed up feeling came upon us again. The departure was an awesome sight, for in the bright sunlight, all you could see were boats heading out in a tremendous convoy. A good part of the evening Preacher Davis & I engaged in a hot match of chess. The preacher was so named because he was studying for the ministry. That is he claimed he was & he acted like it. The preacher was wounded in Brest & paralized from the waist down.

What were the rumors on board the boat, ship or plane in which you made the crossing? (Some people remember scuttlebut to the effect that the Germans had poured gasoline on the water and olanned to set it afire when the troops came in ).

I also remember Sgt. Richards getting all our signatures on a dollar bill & maybe his next of kin have some very precious signatures. About the rumors, there were always a goodly supply, but I don't remember them specifically.

(contd fr. p. 2) as boat after boat shot the majority of their rockets short. (The rockets had rope attached to them.) Lt Wentz held off, much to the displeasure of His Majesty's Navy, to the last minute & when he fired them it was a beautiful sight to behold. 5 out of six were way over the top. Most of us would have been still at the bottom of those rocks if he hadn't been the cool one at that crucial moment. He could relax after that heoric move & he did. Big Stoop (Capt Massey) was great on the beach (all 10 ft of it), giving us a friendly tap on the can like a coach in the football game I dare say we had 3 good officers out of four. Lt Hill would have been great also if he had lived beyond D Day. For that story of how he died, you can get from John Bacht, but take it with a grain of salt for John has a way of exaggerating.

(Cont'd from p. 2) a moment later Jack slumped over the edge of the embankment I pulled him back down by the feet. The blood was gushing out of his throat. I held my hand over the hole on his throat trying to stop the flow of blood, but that high blood pressure of his was pumping like mad. A couple of minutes later Jacks eyes opened in a glassy far away look & I knew he was gone. I carried Jacks blood on my heavy undershirt for many weeks. Jack was the kind of a guy who would have never done that in training. He was the model soldier to go by the book. Jack was a serene fellow, college bred, and arbitrated the problems of the different ones.

Sgt Otto was wounded coming up the cliff & we were told later that he refused to be operated when he was taken out to one of the destroyers untill the more serious were taken care of He died on the ship. Leon & his wife attended my wedding in N.Y. along with Harry Jerry Terry & Bob Landin. They were both wounded in latter encounters. Hary 5 times. Leon would have been terrific in combat with that calm, cool, & collected way. At 26 he was looked up to as one of the elders

Raymond Cole, a young chicken farmer & orphan from Vermont was killed in a crossfire in our first advance.

Special attention should be given to Lt Wintz (our spare Lt.) who ha charge of the 3rd L.C.A. He warned His Majexty's crew not to drop the gate until we hit the beach & in so doing saved the day for the whole left flank in making a quick assent up the cliffs. We watched disheartendly over

-for Cornelius Ryan 2 - Your name Herman Stein

There's not many happenings on that day that fade away.

Did you by any chance keep a diary of what happened to you that day? Unless one was an historian, one wouldn't keep an hourly diary. It was like the six photographers who were sent along & told to get pictures not obituarys. We got 3 obituarys, all lost cameras & no pictures

Were any of your friends killed or wounded either during the landing or during the day? Sgt Richards. -- He carried the B.A.R., which [insert] I think [end insert] is the best gun the Army ever made. I was Jacks ass'nt. He could have easily gotten out of the invasion for he had high blood pressure. Jack was one of the old men of the outfit at 29. Around noon Jack had spotted quite a bit of movement about 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile ahead & in so doing asked me to see if I could make out who they were. I gazed innocently for a moment & then realized how naked I felt. Then I was like a sitting duck on the edge of a bombed out crater hole. I said "I'll be darned if they're our guys or not & I I'll be damned if I'll sit up here any longer to figger it out" & with that slid down. Jack took the glasses, again & said "You know, Herm, they look like our guys." "Yeah! but get down down for a few minutes & we'll figger out what to do" I answered. But Jack insisted on making sure and

Do you remember any conversations you had with them before they became casualties ?

Were you wounded? No

Do you remember what it was like -- that is, do you remember whether you felt any pain or were you so surprised that you felt nothing?

Do you remember seeing or hearing anything that seems funny now, even though it did not, of course, seem amusing at the time? Coming up the rope ladder, 3 sections of my Mae West blew up. The darn thing was choking me half to death & pushing me out from the cliff but all I could think about was that I had to get to the top. Being 3rd man, I had to keep hustling so I didn't hold anybody up & then I struggled for an eternity, so it seemed, with this thing throttling me to exhaustion I finally stopped, took stock of the problem, opened the release valves & flew up the rest of the way.

Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable, which struck you more than anything else? My most vivid & memorable experience came [crossed out] in [end crossed out] around 2 o'clock. Cloise Manning, my newly made ass't gunner, by mutual agreement & myself had just been going thru a harrowing experience of playing cat & mouse with a German mortar & artillery bombardment for a solid hour when we heard quite a clatter of small arms fire. Slipping over a few more holes towards the middle of the line, I beheld a most surprising sight. I'm thinking to myself. This is a hell of a time to be going thru squad manuveurs. [Insert] The heinies going [end insert] thru a perfect training problem by the numbers, [illegible]

[arrow to left] Now that's alright if there's some opposition, but nobody's firing back. They were heading straight for the Bn. C.P., but they could have walked right in without making a sound. In a couple of minutes they were directly opposite us on the flank & we decided on the machine gun squad for they were more closely grouped together. They were 100 yds from the C.P. & 150 feet from our flank. I shot a lot more bullets during the war, but, believe me, I never came accross a more ideal target than that again. Hearing the clatter of our guns brought up Sgt Merril Stinnette, ass't motor section leader. He slid into our crater & said "What's up, Herm "We've got a batch trying to take the C.P. Got a few but the rest are holed up a little way out," pointing to our flank, I said. "Stay put" Merril said, & "I'll bring up the section in the hole behind you & I'll relay the target from the edge of the crater." I don't know if Merril thought I had any idea of going out & bayonet the rest of them but I can assure I didn't. I wouldn't doubt that Merril would do it if he had a few drinks, for he'd as soon knock you off the bar stool if you looked at him wrong. I was sitting right next to him [insert] one night [end insert] when he cold cocked a guy a couple of months previ in a pub in Southhampton. Merril had a few years in the merchant marin & was as tough as they came, but he met his fate on Hill 4 or where we had a much more colorful & tougher action than D Day.

The german squad had no contact with their motors & somebody must have busied or taken care of their observers, for a couple of rounds we had them zeroed in & had a field day from there on One german got back quite a ways & whether he made it to his bunker system as we latter found out they had, I don't know.