My uncle, Loyd B. Barron, went to England on the Queen Mary on 1-17-44. He arrived on 1-25-44. He was transported from there to the area off the Normandy coast on the U.S.S. Charles Carroll APA28. His memory of the event has faded, but he said once they realized it was a sure thing and not a practice drill, those around him were quiet. He recalls the trip from the transport carrier to the beach & said he stepped out into chest deep water. He released his gear, weapon, & unbloused his pants from his combat boots. His concern was to make it to the beach & get out of the line of fire as fast as possible. He said the weight of the items slowed him down & from what he saw on the beach, he knew he'd be able to pick up another weapon. He doesn't recall any landmarks on the beach, only bodies. He recalls some with their limbs still moving. He becomes visibly upset when recalling this. I showed him a photo of 'The Fortified House' /'Bingham House'. He doesn't remember it. He said there was alot of confusion. He remembers crossing a road. On D-day + 1, they learned they landed in the wrong location & were pulled back to the beach. He didn't recognize it because a harbor was there. He remembers encountering enemy fire on the way back to the beach. He said this happened frequently, but 'our troops' put firepower on them and that ended it. He remembers St. Laurent, but few details. He and and a few others were separated from I Company when they got lost. They spent the night in a cemetery. The next morning, they had no food and had to find out their location. There was a house nearby. One of the guys spoke very little french, but enough that a french woman boiled several dozen eggs & gave them along with milk and french bread. He recalls going to St. Lo at night to get information and having to be quiet, while walking on broken glass. He was delivering a message to Headquarters on the afternoon of 6-25-44. He made it into the yard of the house where Headquarters was. He heard an 88 mm artillery shell coming thru the air. He'd learned how to tell how close it would likely hit, by it's sound. This sounded close. A foxhole was near, but he avoided them because some were booby-trapped. He chose to squat behind a tree. The shell hit on the other side. Shrapnel from the blast blew the toe out of one combat boot & the heel & along with the upper portion out of the other. The tree shielded his upper body from injury. He doesn't recall how, but he jumped thru the window of the Headquarters house. His injury was pointed out to him. His foot was hanging down & he couldn't walk. He recalls artillery shells hitting the house and beams falling. He said by night he was in a hospital tent. When he woke up, the mattress was soaked in blood. He was going to be flown to England, but the weather was too bad. When he went, it was by ship and was a rough ride. He was in a hospital for 6 1/2 months and his injury kept him out the remainder of the war.
Hi Patricia, If your uncle spent the night of D-Day to the morning of June 7th, in a cemetery while lost in St. Laurent I have a very interesting story to share with you. There is only one cemetery and it is just to the south and part of the grounds of the St Laurent church. The story comes from the book "Normandiefront" by Vince Milano and Bruce Conner. [/color]The book gives the account of D-Day to St Lo through german eyes and on page 133-134 it shares an story about the german night attack to regain the lost ground... I will quote the book from here. In this attack, Pionier-Babaillon 352 was pressing forward, regaining ground. Under cover of the pre dawn darkness, a patrol was sent out to assess the situation around St Laurent. Obergefreiter Josef Brass and his squad were assigned: "I took my squad, Gruppe 5, 2 Zug of Nr 1 Kp., which consisted of twelve eighteen-year-olds and a twenty-two-year-old officer, Leutnant Leischner wanted me to go back with a message that the town was in our hands. But I persuaded him to let us make sure this was St Laurent. He asked me how. My thoughts went quickly to the First World War memorial that was in the centre of most French towns. This would have the name of the town on it. The night was peaceful and under the cover of the MG we went forward. There was no defence, the village was clear. They found the memorial and a message was sent back, "St Laurent is in our hands"... I did a brief Google maps search of the cemetery and for the World War I memorial. The two are only 100 yards away from each other. Other than viewing Google maps, you can also see some war era photos here: http://vierville.free.fr/indexstlaurent.htm John
Thanks, John! That's very interesting and amazing. I'll ask him more questions about his night in the cemetery!
Nice find John, I would wonder just how close the two groups were from each other. Patricia, the next time you are talking to your uncle Loyd, can you ask him if he recalls any more details regarding the farmhouse CP where he was wounded on the 25th June? Does he recall if the farmhouse was a standalone dwelling or were there other associated buildings attached as in a farmyard or courtyard layout. If it was a courtyard type layout, was the tree under which he took shelter inside the the courtyard or on the outside. Any small detail could help us track down the location. Thanks, Pat
I'm also interested in the sort of details Pat is asking about. If possible a hand drawn map could give us something to look for. It's a 'tool' that has problems because such maps rarely match up 100%, but close is often good enough if you know approximately where to look. In my opinion the potential of such maps is something that is not used enough in this kind of research. Many stories become much, much clearer if a map is drawn. On a more personal note, I'm always interested in the cooperation between the infantry and armored (tank) support. In later faces of Normandy you can truly call it the 'tank-infantry team' but in June fighting in the bocage was largely a learning process. i'd be interested in hearing if your uncle has any recollection of supporting, or being supported by armor and I'll do my best to find additional details in the records.
Hi, everyone! I've made notes of these things to discuss with my uncle. I may see him this afternoon. When I find out more, I'll give an update. Thanks for everything! Patricia
Hi All, With a view to putting a starting point down in our quest to locate the farmhouse CP where Loyd was wounded on the 25th June, I am going to take the 29th ID attack which commenced on the 16th June as the backstop. Below is an extract from the link to 'Cross Channel Attack' which Niels provided and the relevant passage is highlighted in yellow: The plateau referred to between Bois du Bretel and La Blotrie is in the centre of the red rectangle below - note Saint Lo at bottom left for reference: The red rectangle is zoomed to below: It's impossible to see elevations on GE but note the locations of the two power pylons for reference. The line runs over the plateau if I have the correct contour arrowed in blue on the IGN map extract below: Note in the zoomed red rectangle above, I took the screen capture at the same time as I dropped the little 'street view' guy on the blue D59 road. The screenshot below is the view he sees looking west up the field towards power pylon #1: If I am reading things correctly, this slope up to the summit of the plateau would have been the German right flank for the force holding this high ground. So, is everyone OK with this as a starting point for the search south westwards towards Saint Lo for the the farmhouse CP? Anyone think we should be looking further to the American rear? Thanks, Pat
Hi Pat, My only thought is that the location could be as far north as Couvains. I am not sure if we are looking for a headquarters as Patricia stated in her post, or something closer to the front such as a CP. Maybe Patricia can find out if it was a regimental CP, or Battalion HQ. John
Thanks John, Could be; what do we know of Loyd's duties? Would he have been that far behind the lines? Below are two of the photos you asked me to mark up showing the aerial postcard view of Saint Laurent sur Mer with the church and graveyard marked thereon, together with the location of the First World War Memorial: ...and a present day GE 'street view' of the Memorial: Hope these will jog Loyd's memories of his first days in France. Let me know what other images you need uploaded. Regards, Pat
To continue my attempt of adding relevant sources to this thread, I've attached three less well known monologues to this post. Two are directly related to 3rd Bn, the other is about 1st Bn. Contrary to the well known books these have been written directly by people who were there, which means they were able to include their own experiences. Niels
Thanks Niels, I have printed the files for reading at lunchtime tomorrow. John has also found a very useful map which should be a useful paired match for the documents. Extracting screenshots from both pdfs and map as we speak for posting over the weekend. Regards, Pat
Hi Patricia, Is it possible to have your uncle look at some footage on YouTube? I have been searching online archives and, from time to time, I will add links to 29th ID sequences here. The sequence at this first link begins at the time mark 05:15. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7l1vuAUjCRk The date on the clapper board appears to refer to mid July but I would still be very interested to know if Loyd can ID the 29th ID unit or, better still any individuals therein. Thanks, Pat
Hello to all! I will definately show the info to Loyd. I've been to see him three times recently, to ask specifics about the headquarters house (or whatever it was); the cemetery where he spent the night; and tank support. My timing was poor, because he was either on his tractor or had just gone inside and was napping . I will do my very best to see him in the next day or so. This is very important to me and I do appreciate the help everyone is providing. (I will find out if the house was a Bn. Headquarters or Regimental CP. He just said he was delivering a message to headquarters when I asked him about it initially.)
Hello to all! I spoke with my uncle this afternoon. I found out that the farmhouse where he was delivering a message when he was hit by shrapnal, was a stand alone farmhouse. He thinks it was the Company Command Post. I asked about tank support. He said tank support was always ahead of them, never with or alongside them. This is what he recalls. I forgot to ask him about the cemetery where he hid overnight. I will ask about that and see if he'll watch the you tube links provided by Pat Curran, when I go back in a day or so. He's never watched 'The Longest Day' or anything regarding D-Day. He doesn't want to. He might watch the you tube links though. (His wife died in 2006 and since that time, he's lived alone with his dog. When I saw him today, he said his dog is near death. It was sad and I kept our conversation about his war days brief. We talked more about his dog. I will post new information as I'm able to get it.) Patricia
Hi Patricia, If the interviews are too much for your uncle, just leave things for a while. We have enough to work with in the interim knowing that the farmhouse was a standalone. I am worried now that the YouTube videos might be too much for him...but I'll leave it up to you - you know him best. Regards, Pat
I think he will be ok with the you tube videos. I can watch them and decide if I think it's something he will be interested in seeing. There are things he doesn't want to re-live and I've learned which things to avoid with him. I just want to give him a little time to deal with what's going on with his dog. (I recently had about 15 books on Normandy at his house. I was showing him specific things, but covering up things I thought might upset him. I kept seeing him looking over and straining to see everything I had. I asked if he'd like to see it. He said he would. This is why I think he'll be ok with the you tube videos.)
Hi, everyone! My local newspaper in Dublin, Georgia, ran an article in honor of my uncle, Loyd Barron, on the 70th anniversary of D-Day. I will try to post the link here, http://dublinlaurenscountygeorgia.blogspot.com/2014/06/d-day-plus-70-years-loyd-barron.html?spref=fb&m=1 which is the reporter's blog, instead of the newspaper website. Someone may be interested in reading it. My uncle also received a call from Congressman John Barrow, who thanked him for his service and offered his assistance when needed. My uncle was at a barbershop when the paper was delivered. He soon overheard a conversation about the local D-Day Veteran that was featured in the paper. He said the barber that was cutting his hair turned the chair around and said, "This is him if you'd like to meet him." He said several people came to shake his hand. My uncle is a very humble man and very few people here knew he was at Normandy until now. I'm happy he was recognized by the local community. Patricia
Thanks Patricia, There are some useful clues in the article as to location. We now know that the tree is unlikely to stand out from the crowd on aerial reconnaissance photos. However it is described as being 'old' and with a width of about 10 inches. If Loyd was able to take shelter against it, it is also unlikely to have been growing on a hedgerow. I think he was in an apple orchard when the shell hit. It is also probable that the shell was more that a mortar round. I am not an expert in such matters but as far as I know German mortar fire did very little whistling before impacting. German 88's did not whistle either, so in my view there is at least one shell crater in an orchard, probably from a 105mm field gun near a standalone house with a caved in roof. I could be wrong of course... Regards, Pat
Forgive me for my ignorance about google maps, etc. I'm the type the type person who will argue with a gps while driving and listening to directions. Are you saying there is something you ARE seeing : satellite imagery, etc., that shows an apple orchard with a crater and a house with a caved in ceiling? Is there a way for me to see it? Or maybe what you are saying is: if a location that was an apple orchard at the time, with a crater in it and a stand alone house with a caved in ceiling CAN BE LOCATED, that would likely be where he was hit? Thanks! Patricia