WEBVTT 1 00:00:11.679 --> 00:00:16.760 Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this edition is 2 00:00:16.839 --> 00:00:21.719 retired US Army Major General John Ron, Junior. He is a veteran of 3 00:00:21.760 --> 00:00:26.399 World War Two, including the D Day landings at Omaha Beach, for which 4 00:00:26.399 --> 00:00:30.920 he received a Silver Star. He is also a veteran of the Vietnam War. 5 00:00:31.440 --> 00:00:36.439 In all forty years of service in the United States Army and General Ron, 6 00:00:36.479 --> 00:00:38.799 thank you very much for being with us, sir, Well, thank 7 00:00:38.799 --> 00:00:42.119 you for being here. When and where were you born, sir? I 8 00:00:42.159 --> 00:00:47.200 was born at Fort Benning, Columbus, April twenty second, nineteen twenty two, 9 00:00:47.479 --> 00:00:51.640 and your father was in the service current. My father was a graduate 10 00:00:51.719 --> 00:00:56.560 of what they now call the class of nine June nineteen nineteen. Well, 11 00:00:56.679 --> 00:01:03.200 actually it was November first of nineteen eighteen, and the war was over on 12 00:01:03.320 --> 00:01:08.439 eleventh, November eleventh, so they suddenly had themselves a couple of hundred second 13 00:01:08.439 --> 00:01:15.200 lieutenants available and nowhere to send them. There wasn't any war anymore. Now. 14 00:01:15.239 --> 00:01:19.560 You grew up in a military family, of course, and your family 15 00:01:19.599 --> 00:01:25.319 had regular interaction when you were a kid with figures who had become extraordinarily famous 16 00:01:25.400 --> 00:01:29.359 later on right, well, yes, yep, very very true. As 17 00:01:29.480 --> 00:01:34.359 for me personally, I knew Eisenhower, I knew Bradley. I even double 18 00:01:34.480 --> 00:01:42.519 dated with Bradley's daughter. Johnny Eisenhower was a friend of mine from junior high 19 00:01:42.560 --> 00:01:48.319 school. We also he was in my company at West Point, as was 20 00:01:48.400 --> 00:01:53.599 Georgie Patton, as was Mark Clark. Arnold was in b company. I 21 00:01:53.680 --> 00:01:59.760 was in a so I knew all of these people. I knew their father 22 00:02:00.400 --> 00:02:05.480 I knew their fathers when they were lieutenants that type thing, played tennis with 23 00:02:05.560 --> 00:02:09.960 them, played golf with them, and later their four stars, things like 24 00:02:10.080 --> 00:02:15.719 that. It was a very very useful growing up period living on army posts, 25 00:02:15.719 --> 00:02:20.599 because you did meet all these people when they were lieutenants, when they 26 00:02:20.639 --> 00:02:24.360 were captains and soul and your father also taught you how to shoot correct he 27 00:02:24.400 --> 00:02:30.520 did. I was in fourth grade when he bought me a twenty two short 28 00:02:30.639 --> 00:02:34.479 rifle weighing eight and a half pounds, which was the standard weight for a 29 00:02:34.599 --> 00:02:40.599 springfield, and got some armor plate from the salvage yard and set up some 30 00:02:40.680 --> 00:02:45.120 targets and taught me how to shoot. He also taught me how to shoot 31 00:02:45.120 --> 00:02:50.960 a caliber forty five automatic pistol, but I didn't get to shoot any live 32 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:55.360 ammunition with that. That would come later. That came later. So, 33 00:02:55.960 --> 00:03:01.800 like your father, you went to West Point. You began there in early 34 00:03:01.879 --> 00:03:07.800 July of nineteen thirty nine. Two months later Hitler invades Poland. World War 35 00:03:07.840 --> 00:03:10.800 two in Europe begins a couple of years into your time at West Point Pearl 36 00:03:10.840 --> 00:03:15.919 Harbor, we're in the war. What's it like to be at West Point 37 00:03:15.960 --> 00:03:20.319 when all these major events are happening and you probably know you're going to be 38 00:03:20.319 --> 00:03:24.319 in the middle of it since Well, the point is that we contracted not 39 00:03:24.639 --> 00:03:30.560 expecting war, but when the war came, that's what we were preparing for. 40 00:03:30.719 --> 00:03:36.919 So it went very well. It made you quite a bit more attentive 41 00:03:37.000 --> 00:03:43.360 to your studies, particularly your military studies, things like that, but it 42 00:03:43.400 --> 00:03:47.639 really didn't change anything. Were the same happy Golokie people we would have been 43 00:03:47.680 --> 00:03:54.120 without a war. And you were commissioned in nineteen forty three with an engineering 44 00:03:54.199 --> 00:03:59.560 degree that actually helped you get in with the Rangers. Explain that a little 45 00:03:59.599 --> 00:04:03.560 bit, well, in a sense, I'm afraid there was a little exaggeration 46 00:04:03.719 --> 00:04:08.400 there. It didn't help me, but it didn't prevent me. I was 47 00:04:08.439 --> 00:04:15.520 an engineer officer and the Rangers were infantry. But when they sought volunteers for 48 00:04:15.680 --> 00:04:19.680 the Ranger Battalion, I went ahead and volunteered, and lo and behold, 49 00:04:19.720 --> 00:04:28.120 I passed the personal interview and found myself in the Rangers. And the excuse 50 00:04:28.360 --> 00:04:33.399 was that being an engineer officer, I knew about field fortifications, I knew 51 00:04:33.399 --> 00:04:39.519 about mine fields, I knew about barbed wire, I knew about all kinds 52 00:04:39.639 --> 00:04:45.720 of things. Engineering demolitions was another one, things like that, and they 53 00:04:45.759 --> 00:04:50.480 said, we need somebody who specialized in those things in the Rangers. So 54 00:04:50.519 --> 00:04:55.959 I expected to be in headquarters and so on. The first thing they do 55 00:04:56.240 --> 00:05:00.560 is throw me out an a Ranger platoon and I'm in the arranger tune for 56 00:05:00.639 --> 00:05:05.079 about two to three months, and they moved me up to staff, where 57 00:05:05.120 --> 00:05:11.160 I really belonged. And how much training did you do before heading to England? 58 00:05:11.199 --> 00:05:15.000 And when did you head to England? Well, on September first of 59 00:05:15.279 --> 00:05:23.439 nineteen forty three, I joined the Ranger Battalion at Camp Forest, Tennessee. 60 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:32.480 This was an army post very near Tullahoma, Tennessee. And the first night 61 00:05:32.519 --> 00:05:38.199 they made me B Company commander, just because the B Company commander hadn't showed 62 00:05:38.279 --> 00:05:42.319 up yet. We came in over a period of about five days, and 63 00:05:42.560 --> 00:05:46.759 I was in the first wave, so I had to hold down B Company 64 00:05:46.879 --> 00:05:53.959 and they were exuberant young soldiers. There were a few problems that occurred, 65 00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:58.279 but we got over that period and I ended up, as I say, 66 00:05:58.360 --> 00:06:02.920 in C Company as a leader. When did you head to England? We 67 00:06:03.040 --> 00:06:13.279 headed to England in early January of nineteen forty four, I say early January. 68 00:06:13.439 --> 00:06:19.240 We docked in Liverpool on January nineteenth, which was exactly one year after 69 00:06:19.279 --> 00:06:25.879 I graduated from West Point. So January nineteenth is the big day for me 70 00:06:26.120 --> 00:06:32.399 because of the other association, definitely, And so what did you do to 71 00:06:32.480 --> 00:06:39.160 prepare then for the invasion that Union was coming. We went initially to Leominster, 72 00:06:39.399 --> 00:06:44.920 England, which is over on the Welsh border, and we trained. 73 00:06:45.959 --> 00:06:50.319 Much of it was physical training. I mean, we knew our mission involved 74 00:06:50.480 --> 00:06:57.480 a long march, a fast march, so there was a tremendous amount of 75 00:06:57.639 --> 00:07:02.240 marching, night marching, distis marching, double time marching and things like that 76 00:07:02.319 --> 00:07:09.000 to get us in physical condition. They had rifle ranges and we had to 77 00:07:09.439 --> 00:07:15.399 all qualify with our own weapon. We had to qualify expert. We did 78 00:07:15.519 --> 00:07:20.759 a lot of scouting and patrolling. But the nastiest thing that we had to 79 00:07:20.800 --> 00:07:26.920 do was somebody coming up flashing a map in front of us and saying, 80 00:07:27.519 --> 00:07:35.120 you are there, get there within nine hours period. Goodbye. No bus 81 00:07:35.160 --> 00:07:40.720 tickets, know nothing. You could hitchhike, you could jump the railroad and 82 00:07:41.040 --> 00:07:46.439 do all sorts of things to get there, but everybody succeeded. Oh you 83 00:07:46.480 --> 00:07:51.079 could use the thumb expressed too. But it was a lot of fun. 84 00:07:51.160 --> 00:07:57.759 The training was interesting. The training was challenging, but that was what we 85 00:07:57.839 --> 00:08:05.160 did there. From Lemster we went to Scotland and there we had battlefield training. 86 00:08:05.279 --> 00:08:11.439 We even had a mash unit mobile Army surgical hospital with us because they 87 00:08:11.480 --> 00:08:15.759 expected us to take so many casualties and we lost. We lost quite a 88 00:08:15.759 --> 00:08:18.639 few men. I don't remember, but I think it was something like eight 89 00:08:18.680 --> 00:08:26.240 men either very serious wounds or killed in training. We also did a great 90 00:08:26.319 --> 00:08:33.279 deal of training with landing craft. They brought the ships in that we would 91 00:08:33.399 --> 00:08:37.039 use in the invasion, and they brought the landing craft in that we would 92 00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:43.240 use in the invasion. And as a result, when we actually loaded out 93 00:08:43.320 --> 00:08:46.600 for the invasion, we knew half the people we were dealing with in the 94 00:08:46.679 --> 00:08:52.559 Royal Navy, because the rangers all used Royal Navy transport to get to the 95 00:08:52.600 --> 00:09:00.240 beaches and we used Royal Navy boats. Things like that. We were very 96 00:09:00.320 --> 00:09:03.279 lucky because they had done it before, they'd done it in Africa, they'd 97 00:09:03.320 --> 00:09:07.000 done it in Sicily, they'd done it twice in Italy and so on, 98 00:09:07.799 --> 00:09:15.600 and knowing them, we got along very well. Very few hitches. None 99 00:09:15.679 --> 00:09:20.240 with the English crews, none. Absolutely. What kind of resistance were you 100 00:09:20.360 --> 00:09:24.120 told to expect, well, we were told to expect that the bombing of 101 00:09:24.159 --> 00:09:30.919 the beaches would leave us a plenty of good cover. The cover if it 102 00:09:31.039 --> 00:09:35.480 were on the beaches, a bomb crater would be filled with water, but 103 00:09:35.559 --> 00:09:39.120 it was better than being up on the sand. So that was the type 104 00:09:39.159 --> 00:09:48.320 thing we expected for ourselves. We expected a sea wall, We expected enemy 105 00:09:48.399 --> 00:09:56.000 wire. We expected mines, mostly anti personnel minds, but minds, things 106 00:09:56.039 --> 00:10:03.799 like that, but that's we trained for. We also accepted expected very hostile 107 00:10:03.879 --> 00:10:09.639 positions of the enemies on the crests, that they would have trenches, they 108 00:10:09.639 --> 00:10:13.000 would have mine fields, they would have wire in front of the mine fields 109 00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:18.080 and things like that. We did not expect an easy show. But we 110 00:10:18.200 --> 00:10:22.759 got an easy show. When did you actually find out what your assignment was, 111 00:10:22.840 --> 00:10:26.879 what he'd have been training for all this time. Not until we got 112 00:10:26.919 --> 00:10:33.080 on board the ships. We got maps of the entire area. When we 113 00:10:33.080 --> 00:10:43.600 were still ashore in the Dorchester camps. We had these wonderful maps without a 114 00:10:43.639 --> 00:10:48.000 word on them. You didn't know the name of that town. You didn't 115 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:50.639 know the name of that locality, you didn't know the name of the woods 116 00:10:50.720 --> 00:10:54.200 that were on the map. All unit saw was the maps, and we 117 00:10:54.279 --> 00:10:58.799 memorized those maps. And the sand tables were the same way. They had 118 00:11:00.120 --> 00:11:05.720 no names. All you were doing was you were memorizing the terrain, which 119 00:11:05.759 --> 00:11:09.600 is what we all did. And I mean the enlisted men they learned it 120 00:11:09.600 --> 00:11:15.720 as much as we officers because they were sitting right beside us as we got 121 00:11:15.759 --> 00:11:20.639 the information from the maps. We had wonderful aerial photos, and the aerial 122 00:11:20.679 --> 00:11:26.559 photos were of such a scale that, I mean you could practically put a 123 00:11:26.639 --> 00:11:31.720 dot and locate yourself within two or three yards on the aerial photos. I 124 00:11:31.840 --> 00:11:37.399 mean, we were really prepared that way. When we moved aboard the ships, 125 00:11:37.879 --> 00:11:41.039 they took away all those nameless maps and gave us the real maps with 126 00:11:41.240 --> 00:11:46.440 all the names and the coordinates and things like that. And so we got 127 00:11:46.480 --> 00:11:52.679 to about three or four days. Still had the sand tables, but now 128 00:11:52.720 --> 00:11:56.480 they had maps, still had the aerial photos, but now they had names 129 00:11:56.600 --> 00:12:01.799 and that type thing. The preparation was very good. The preparation was so 130 00:12:01.840 --> 00:12:09.200 good that when we landed one mile from where we were supposed to, one 131 00:12:09.200 --> 00:12:13.879 of my sergeants said, you know where we are, Captain, and I 132 00:12:13.879 --> 00:12:18.120 said, sure, the only place there's a wooden sea wall is at lemou 133 00:12:18.240 --> 00:12:22.919 Land. So we're at leymou Land And turned out that's where we were, 134 00:12:22.559 --> 00:12:28.320 one mile exactly from the fier View exit. Tell me about being on board 135 00:12:28.360 --> 00:12:31.639 the ship and getting ready to get into the Higgins Bouts. Well, the 136 00:12:31.240 --> 00:12:39.000 ship was a wonderful ship. The British officers were became personal friends, and 137 00:12:39.080 --> 00:12:46.320 they were the ones that would run the flotillas and things like that of landing 138 00:12:46.399 --> 00:12:52.240 craft. The British Navy has a bar that opens at about five o'clock in 139 00:12:52.279 --> 00:12:56.919 the afternoon, which meant that we had all the liquor we wanted, because 140 00:12:56.960 --> 00:13:03.480 the British officers had all liquor they wanted. I don't know about the enlisted 141 00:13:03.519 --> 00:13:07.000 men getting grog still, but I think they still get grog, and so 142 00:13:07.080 --> 00:13:16.159 our Rangers did fairly well in all respects. We continued very heavy physical training, 143 00:13:16.799 --> 00:13:26.039 and we continued very heavy map reading, terrain recognition and memorization and things 144 00:13:26.120 --> 00:13:31.120 like that while we were aboard the ships. The physical training had to be 145 00:13:31.240 --> 00:13:41.720 that stupid set up stuff of exercises. The decks were not arranged so that 146 00:13:41.759 --> 00:13:46.480 we could do any walking or running. Our physical exercise was with rifles us 147 00:13:46.559 --> 00:13:52.000 them like dumbbells and things like that. And it was thorough and it was 148 00:13:52.080 --> 00:13:56.120 hard, and we did have a chaplain with us. He had a lot 149 00:13:56.159 --> 00:14:00.120 of business. There were one, two, three, four, five I 150 00:14:00.159 --> 00:14:05.960 think five Ranger vessels, could be six. He visited all of them, 151 00:14:07.399 --> 00:14:11.200 said mass, took confessions, and did all the things that chaplain should. 152 00:14:11.519 --> 00:14:16.000 In fact, they gave him a private motor boat so he could get from 153 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:20.679 one place to another things like that. He was a pretty good little guy 154 00:14:20.720 --> 00:14:24.840 in just a moment. John Ron arrives at Omaha Beach on June sixth, 155 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:30.759 nineteen forty four, as the Allies invaded Normandy as part of the D Day 156 00:14:30.879 --> 00:14:37.080 landings. I'm Greg Corumbus, and this is Veterans Chronicles. This is Veterans 157 00:14:37.159 --> 00:14:41.840 Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this edition has retired US Major 158 00:14:41.879 --> 00:14:46.120 General John Ron. He served as a US Army Ranger captain on June sixth, 159 00:14:46.240 --> 00:14:50.840 nineteen forty four, as the Allies stormed the beaches of Normandy as part 160 00:14:50.840 --> 00:14:56.000 of the D Day operation. And that's exactly where we are with our conversation 161 00:14:56.080 --> 00:15:00.840 with General Ron as he explains what it was like to arrive at Omaha Beach. 162 00:15:01.399 --> 00:15:07.679 I had served watch for three straight two hour watches, and the reason 163 00:15:07.720 --> 00:15:13.120 why was the people that were to relieve me would really be busy on D 164 00:15:13.240 --> 00:15:20.279 Day. One the battalion deputy commander and one was a company commander, and 165 00:15:20.360 --> 00:15:26.320 me, I was headquarters company commander. All my people were farmed out. 166 00:15:26.399 --> 00:15:31.240 I really didn't have a job because I'd already farmed him out. They'd been 167 00:15:31.279 --> 00:15:33.600 trained in the proper place, and as soon as they hit the shore, 168 00:15:33.720 --> 00:15:39.399 they went over and reported to the S one or the S four or whoever 169 00:15:39.440 --> 00:15:46.440 they worked for. So I was sort of a loose cannon without any real 170 00:15:46.919 --> 00:15:52.320 assigned duties. So I got all the odd jobs, and the odd jobs 171 00:15:52.360 --> 00:15:58.480 were very interesting going on one man patrols and things like that. That was 172 00:15:58.559 --> 00:16:03.320 not very much fun. It had to be done, but it was flat 173 00:16:03.480 --> 00:16:11.559 plane interesting. Most people ask what about fear, and I would say that, 174 00:16:11.720 --> 00:16:15.440 with very few exceptions, we did have one officer that turned to jelly, 175 00:16:17.480 --> 00:16:21.799 but the non coms took care of that. They hauled him by his 176 00:16:22.000 --> 00:16:26.679 armpits until he got his battle legs under him, and he became a very 177 00:16:26.799 --> 00:16:33.919 good commander after that. But the initial shock of all that, all those 178 00:16:33.519 --> 00:16:38.679 machine gun bullets and rifle bullets and artillery and mortar coming in on us, 179 00:16:41.240 --> 00:16:45.919 he sort of had problems. But as I say, trust the non coms 180 00:16:45.960 --> 00:16:52.120 to straighten the junior officers out. All right, So tell me how you 181 00:16:52.159 --> 00:16:56.519 came ashore. I know you had an original location that got changed, but 182 00:16:56.639 --> 00:17:03.080 maybe I better go back to an earlier question. I got a little diverted 183 00:17:03.120 --> 00:17:08.799 by telling you I had these three watches and I went below. There wasn't 184 00:17:08.880 --> 00:17:15.000 enough time to sleep, and so I just went over my equipment, made 185 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:19.240 sure I had everything, made sure everything was working, and suddenly we heard 186 00:17:21.160 --> 00:17:27.960 attention US rangers. Attention US rangers. I'm trying to get the exact words, 187 00:17:29.599 --> 00:17:33.400 but it meant manned the boats, and so we went up on the 188 00:17:33.440 --> 00:17:38.279 deck and all of our assault boats, being British, were hoisted by davits 189 00:17:38.440 --> 00:17:44.079 up to the loading decks. So we just climbed into the boat while it 190 00:17:44.160 --> 00:17:49.759 was there on the deck and they lowered us with the davits into the waters. 191 00:17:49.799 --> 00:17:53.920 Now, we did crash into the side of the boat and things like 192 00:17:55.039 --> 00:17:59.720 that, and the tackle got jammed, and fortunately the British hadn't necessary to 193 00:18:00.079 --> 00:18:06.000 us and acts and they cut enough of the lowering ropes that we were lowered 194 00:18:06.039 --> 00:18:11.960 into the water really without incident. We then proceeded on our mission, which 195 00:18:12.039 --> 00:18:21.720 was to go to the Laplantec and land there after the second Ranger Battalion they 196 00:18:21.720 --> 00:18:27.440 had three companies assaulting those cliffs and after they had successfully reached the top, 197 00:18:27.480 --> 00:18:32.559 they were to send a message to us and then we would go in with 198 00:18:32.680 --> 00:18:41.880 six actually eight companies of Rangers and we would exploit the point to hawk capture 199 00:18:41.480 --> 00:18:48.599 and then go out and set up blocking positions so the Germans could not get 200 00:18:48.640 --> 00:18:56.079 any infantry in to support the German defenses of the beaches. The second battalion 201 00:18:56.119 --> 00:19:03.319 never showed up. They were sent to the wrong point by their guideboat and 202 00:19:03.799 --> 00:19:07.920 as a result they were a half hour late, but we had to leave 203 00:19:08.079 --> 00:19:11.960 at the end of half an hour. We weren't allowed to wait over in 204 00:19:12.039 --> 00:19:18.200 case they were late, so we had left. They did land first man 205 00:19:18.279 --> 00:19:25.000 up the cliffs was up in something like fifty one seconds. He cheated. 206 00:19:25.400 --> 00:19:29.720 There was a bomb crater and the edge of the cliffs and sort of a 207 00:19:29.880 --> 00:19:34.359 hemisphere of bomb crater. There. There was debris that fell out on the 208 00:19:34.400 --> 00:19:38.960 bottom, maybe thirty feet of it. So he ran up the thirty feet 209 00:19:38.960 --> 00:19:45.559 of debris. He was a marvelous athlete. He climbed up some thirty feet 210 00:19:45.160 --> 00:19:49.839 and was in the bottom of a bomb crater, had a rope with him, 211 00:19:49.920 --> 00:19:53.680 threw the rope out, and all of a sudden he was building up 212 00:19:53.799 --> 00:20:00.279 members of his squad. That type thing. Other people had more difficult times 213 00:20:00.920 --> 00:20:07.119 using rope ladders, using metal ladders, using toggle rope climbs, and all 214 00:20:07.200 --> 00:20:12.720 sorts of things like that. But the second battagion got up on top of 215 00:20:12.759 --> 00:20:21.480 the cliffs and radioed their message were there, but we were already practically at 216 00:20:21.559 --> 00:20:30.039 Vierville. We passed landing control, which are boats about a thousand yards off 217 00:20:30.160 --> 00:20:33.920 shore. But tell you any events you need to know about, and they 218 00:20:33.920 --> 00:20:38.960 said, do not attempt to land at vier Ville. The casualties are ninety 219 00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:45.960 five percent. Half of them killed land on dog White Beach. So we 220 00:20:47.079 --> 00:20:52.119 shifted over to dog White Beach and we landed our first wave. There two 221 00:20:52.160 --> 00:20:57.160 companies of the second battagion plus the headquarters boat, and they were cut like 222 00:20:57.279 --> 00:21:02.519 everybody else on Omaha Bee, they were cut down to about fifty percent, 223 00:21:03.039 --> 00:21:10.640 all the officers killed or wounded. And my battalion commander was watching a thousand 224 00:21:10.720 --> 00:21:15.680 yards out, but the waves were about a thousand yards and he said, 225 00:21:15.920 --> 00:21:21.839 they quote, I'm not gonna lose my battalion on that beach. So he 226 00:21:21.960 --> 00:21:30.839 talked the British flotilla commander into going farther east, and the commander was not 227 00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:36.880 at all averse to it. He did coordinate with the higher people up and 228 00:21:36.920 --> 00:21:42.279 they all agreed. So we moved a mile more and suddenly we found a 229 00:21:42.359 --> 00:21:48.759 beach with breakwaters. Well, the breakwaters come up to the seawall. They're 230 00:21:48.799 --> 00:21:52.599 the same height as the sea wall, about four or five feet, but 231 00:21:52.880 --> 00:21:59.480 they formed little barriers, made us like we were in forts on three sides 232 00:21:59.519 --> 00:22:03.359 and water were on the other. And as a result, when we went 233 00:22:03.440 --> 00:22:11.319 in there, we took five casualties. Other people were taking fifty percent casualties, 234 00:22:11.359 --> 00:22:15.119 so we got our whole battalion landing intact, which by the way, 235 00:22:15.240 --> 00:22:22.799 is the name of my book. But in any event, we landed and 236 00:22:22.880 --> 00:22:27.720 we took very few casualties on the beach, but only because of the breakwaters. 237 00:22:27.759 --> 00:22:33.799 Now above us, who should be shooting at us? The hills were 238 00:22:33.880 --> 00:22:38.880 a fire, and I mean active grass fires, so they Germans couldn't see 239 00:22:38.960 --> 00:22:44.400 us through the flames and smoke, and they couldn't shoot at us. There 240 00:22:44.519 --> 00:22:48.440 was a nose on the hill to our left, and nobody down there from 241 00:22:48.440 --> 00:22:52.920 the left could shoot at us because all they saw when they looked to where 242 00:22:52.000 --> 00:22:57.640 we should have been, all they could see was water. The only place 243 00:22:57.680 --> 00:23:02.039 we were getting shot at was from down the beach to our right, and 244 00:23:02.119 --> 00:23:07.799 it was thirty or forty machine guns, plus probably two three hundred infantrymen, 245 00:23:07.359 --> 00:23:15.599 plus mortars and things like that, which was enough. The artillery that everybody 246 00:23:15.680 --> 00:23:22.559 feared was located at Vier View, and the artillery was shooting at the boats 247 00:23:22.599 --> 00:23:26.079 and the ships as they came in. So once you got off the boats 248 00:23:26.079 --> 00:23:30.160 and on the beach, all you had to contend with was small arms fire. 249 00:23:30.640 --> 00:23:34.920 Well, we had these breakwaters in between us and the small arms fire. 250 00:23:36.440 --> 00:23:42.720 So we got off the beach within fifteen twenty minutes and went up the 251 00:23:42.759 --> 00:23:49.319 bluffs, and the Germans, at least half of them, because the flames 252 00:23:49.359 --> 00:23:53.960 of the grass fire, at least half of them had deserted their positions and 253 00:23:55.119 --> 00:24:00.440 left their explosives there in the foxholes. And so we got up the hills 254 00:24:00.519 --> 00:24:07.640 with relatively little resistance. When I say relatively, I mean relatively because there 255 00:24:07.680 --> 00:24:14.440 were some people killed on the way up, but nothing like people were losing 256 00:24:14.640 --> 00:24:23.920 on the beach who weren't protected by these sea walls and breakwaters. Actually, 257 00:24:25.559 --> 00:24:32.160 so we got up there into the bocage and we were very lucky there. 258 00:24:32.240 --> 00:24:38.160 Again, harvest had not taken place, so the fields were filled with mostly 259 00:24:38.240 --> 00:24:45.680 grassy crops that were three to six feet tall, and if you got caught 260 00:24:45.720 --> 00:24:48.960 by a machine gun or by ambush in there, all you had to do 261 00:24:49.079 --> 00:24:52.440 was to drop down. They couldn't see you, they had no idea where 262 00:24:52.480 --> 00:24:56.480 you were, they knew what the range was. You just rolled over a 263 00:24:56.480 --> 00:25:02.519 few times and then crawled to the nearest hedgerow. Maybe when over came in 264 00:25:02.599 --> 00:25:10.440 behind the resistance, and we had very little problems initially with hedgerows. Later 265 00:25:10.480 --> 00:25:17.880 when they got vehicles up, the tanks could not penetrate the hedgerows. Tanks 266 00:25:17.920 --> 00:25:23.000 will not venture forward without infantry, so they had a lot of problems later 267 00:25:23.079 --> 00:25:27.640 with the hedgerows. But it was mostly the tanks and the vehicles that had 268 00:25:27.680 --> 00:25:33.799 the problems. But the early on infantry, those grasses were just worth their 269 00:25:33.839 --> 00:25:40.000 weight in gold because they could not see you. An unaimed rifle fire doesn't 270 00:25:40.079 --> 00:25:44.839 hit anything, so it was good in just a moment. General Ran shares 271 00:25:44.880 --> 00:25:49.039 even more critical information about his service at Omaha Beach on D Day, June 272 00:25:49.039 --> 00:25:55.279 six nineteen forty four. I'm Greg Corumbus, and this is Veterans Chronicles. 273 00:25:56.880 --> 00:26:00.279 This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus, our guest in this edition as 274 00:26:00.319 --> 00:26:06.440 retired US Major General John Ron. He served as a US Army Ranger captain 275 00:26:06.759 --> 00:26:11.279 on June sixth, nineteen forty four, as the Allies stormed the beaches of 276 00:26:11.319 --> 00:26:15.759 Normandy as part of the D Day Operation. Now, General Ron picks up 277 00:26:15.759 --> 00:26:19.680 the story and explaining how just as his craft got close to Omaha Beach, 278 00:26:21.000 --> 00:26:25.680 he began to understand the carnage that occurred on the earlier waves that morning. 279 00:26:26.400 --> 00:26:33.920 We didn't know until we hit that first landing control that it was murder on 280 00:26:33.960 --> 00:26:37.559 the beach, and it was. And a company of the one hundred and 281 00:26:37.559 --> 00:26:45.400 sixteenth Infantry from the Blue and Gray Division the twenty ninth they did suffer ninety 282 00:26:45.440 --> 00:26:51.480 eight percent casualties, of whom half were killed and half were just wounded. 283 00:26:51.799 --> 00:26:57.680 Only eight men in an entire infantry company escaped unwounded. And those eight men 284 00:26:57.839 --> 00:27:04.279 do not accompany me, believe me. So we learned the conditions there. 285 00:27:07.119 --> 00:27:12.880 When we made our landing at the boundary between Dog Green and Dog White, 286 00:27:15.799 --> 00:27:22.440 there were two companies of the second battalion. B company landed on Dog Green 287 00:27:22.119 --> 00:27:29.480 the edge of it, and the other company landed on Dog White, so 288 00:27:30.839 --> 00:27:37.079 they had different results. The company that landed on Dog Green lost their boat. 289 00:27:37.119 --> 00:27:41.119 One of the boats was sunk about two hundred yards out, so they 290 00:27:41.200 --> 00:27:48.920 straggled through the surf to get ashore, all the time exposed to machine guns 291 00:27:48.960 --> 00:27:56.400 on the ridge. The other platoon managed to escape all that came through in 292 00:27:56.480 --> 00:28:06.240 pretty good shape. The two companies and the headquarters boat landed on a Dog 293 00:28:06.319 --> 00:28:12.799 White and they were met immediately with fifty percent casualties, of whom ten percent 294 00:28:12.880 --> 00:28:17.599 at least were killed. So they had a rough time. And that's when 295 00:28:17.640 --> 00:28:22.920 we diverted one mile and it's almost to the inch one mile to find the 296 00:28:23.480 --> 00:28:29.880 breakwaters, and we came in on the breakwaters. Now you're blessed in a 297 00:28:29.920 --> 00:28:33.880 couple of ways. You got rerouted to a less oh yeah, intense spot. 298 00:28:33.920 --> 00:28:37.200 You mentioned the smoke on the bluff. Also, as as you've said, 299 00:28:38.039 --> 00:28:41.920 you came amendment about seven fifty am. I believe he's seven fifty. 300 00:28:42.519 --> 00:28:48.559 My foot hit the water at seven fifty and at that point the difference between 301 00:28:48.599 --> 00:28:51.759 the tides then and when the first wave had gone in or it's quite different. 302 00:28:51.759 --> 00:28:57.200 Correct, Absolutely, there were There was approximately fifty yards of beach when 303 00:28:57.240 --> 00:29:03.440 I landed. When the original troops had landed, there were two hundred and 304 00:29:03.480 --> 00:29:08.119 fifty yards of beach. They had to walk that beach through the obstacles with 305 00:29:08.279 --> 00:29:15.920 the artillery and small arms fire dogging them all away, and frankly, there 306 00:29:15.960 --> 00:29:22.599 weren't very very few heroes in those early units that landed. They just got 307 00:29:22.839 --> 00:29:26.799 chewed up badly. And when they got to the beach, the bomb craters 308 00:29:26.839 --> 00:29:30.559 weren't there. The Air Force didn't release their bombs until them a mile later, 309 00:29:32.319 --> 00:29:37.319 and it was a mess. The first Division and the twenty ninth Division 310 00:29:37.480 --> 00:29:42.400 both took it on the chin, terrible losses. One of the challenges for 311 00:29:42.440 --> 00:29:47.519 you is to cut through the wire. You know what weapons did you used 312 00:29:47.519 --> 00:29:52.880 to? Well, the wire was on the far side of the coastal road, 313 00:29:52.960 --> 00:29:57.000 and when I say coastal road, it was nothing but beach bungalows. 314 00:29:57.799 --> 00:30:03.039 It was mcadama, but it wasn't wide enough for vehicles to pass each other 315 00:30:03.119 --> 00:30:10.480 without running off the macadamized road. On the other side of that road there 316 00:30:10.559 --> 00:30:17.480 was the equivalent of a double apron fence barbed wire fence. It was not 317 00:30:17.559 --> 00:30:22.680 only double apron, but it was two double one double apron fence and then 318 00:30:22.720 --> 00:30:30.480 another about thirty feet of barbed wire. What we did was we inserted Bangalore 319 00:30:30.599 --> 00:30:36.720 torpedoes which were about six feet long. But you can screw them together. 320 00:30:36.880 --> 00:30:40.000 So now you've got twelve feet, you can screw them together. Now you 321 00:30:40.079 --> 00:30:44.759 got eighteen feet, and so on. So when the grenadiers went forward, 322 00:30:44.799 --> 00:30:52.160 they had already gotten themselves about twenty feet and people on the beach helped move 323 00:30:52.200 --> 00:30:59.880 the Bangalores forward, and then the Bangalore torpedo men themselves took the last Bangalore 324 00:31:00.079 --> 00:31:06.160 torpedo ranted across the road under the wire. Having got it to the wire, 325 00:31:06.240 --> 00:31:10.640 they pulled the fuse lighters which gave them three seconds, and they took 326 00:31:10.799 --> 00:31:15.359 three seconds to run back across the road, and in the process we didn't 327 00:31:15.359 --> 00:31:19.960 lose a single torpedo man. In the hole that I went through, there 328 00:31:19.960 --> 00:31:25.759 were two Bangalore torpedo man who went in ten feet apart, and they really 329 00:31:25.799 --> 00:31:30.759 blew us a big hole. It would like a twenty foot hole to go 330 00:31:30.839 --> 00:31:36.440 through. But there were little strands of rot wire still there under your feet, 331 00:31:36.480 --> 00:31:38.720 and some of them had loops and your feet caught in them. You 332 00:31:38.799 --> 00:31:45.039 had to be very careful going through the blown area, but you got through. 333 00:31:45.279 --> 00:31:52.519 Nobody got became casualties or anything like that, because it was almost impossible 334 00:31:52.640 --> 00:31:57.279 for anything on the bluffs down here to shoot at the foot of the bluffs 335 00:31:57.279 --> 00:32:01.480 here and the bluff were close to a hundred yards from the beach, so 336 00:32:01.680 --> 00:32:08.359 I mean it was impossible. So we got through pretty easily and started up 337 00:32:08.400 --> 00:32:13.119 the bluffs, and we took a lot of casualties in the hedgerows and things 338 00:32:13.160 --> 00:32:17.720 like that. You also dodged a couple of problems in your final approach to 339 00:32:17.799 --> 00:32:22.680 the beach. Your boat went over a teller mine, I believe, and 340 00:32:22.920 --> 00:32:28.200 a piece of artillery hitch fantail. Yeah, I was standing up. Generally 341 00:32:28.240 --> 00:32:31.960 speaking, I was down only to be a good example for the enlisted man. 342 00:32:32.519 --> 00:32:37.200 But occasionally Sullivan, who was the senior man on the boat, I 343 00:32:37.279 --> 00:32:42.079 was the number two man. Occasionally he would ask me to stand up and 344 00:32:42.160 --> 00:32:45.880 look at something and what's my opinion of it? And I happened to be 345 00:32:45.960 --> 00:32:52.200 standing up and I saw the bow of our LCA headed right down on a 346 00:32:52.279 --> 00:32:57.240 telephone post with a teller mine on the end of it. And we were 347 00:32:57.319 --> 00:33:00.559 no more than four feet away at the point that I saw it. And 348 00:33:00.599 --> 00:33:07.160 I said, well, goodbye, this is it. And the next thing 349 00:33:07.240 --> 00:33:09.359 I knew, a wave caught us, threw us over. We didn't even 350 00:33:09.440 --> 00:33:14.920 come close to that. Tell her mind, we actually were probably three or 351 00:33:14.920 --> 00:33:21.279 four feet from it when we passed it. Just lucky, Just lucky. 352 00:33:21.559 --> 00:33:24.200 And you mentioned the seawall earlier, and how you know you're really on the 353 00:33:24.240 --> 00:33:28.200 beach about fifteen or twenty minutes before you made your way up the bluff. 354 00:33:28.400 --> 00:33:31.799 But you had an interesting encounter while you were still on the beach with an 355 00:33:31.839 --> 00:33:37.519 old friend. Oh yeah, Well he wasn't my old friend, but I 356 00:33:37.640 --> 00:33:44.759 knew his kids from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He would Brigadier General Koda. 357 00:33:45.400 --> 00:33:51.079 He was a Daniel Kota two, but everybody called him Dutch and Dutch Koda. 358 00:33:51.759 --> 00:33:55.519 Well, we were sitting there in our little fort waiting for orders from 359 00:33:55.599 --> 00:34:01.880 Battagon Sullivan. The deputy said, you stay here and I'll go down and 360 00:34:01.920 --> 00:34:05.480 get the orders. So he went down and got the orders, and he 361 00:34:05.559 --> 00:34:12.719 was back in two or three minutes. But during that time, my rangers 362 00:34:12.760 --> 00:34:17.920 were very curious. Man. They couldn't look at anything without wondering what it 363 00:34:19.000 --> 00:34:22.199 is, what does it do? And they said, hey, Cap, 364 00:34:22.840 --> 00:34:24.800 and I said, what do you want? They said, who's that guy 365 00:34:24.880 --> 00:34:30.000 down there on the beach? And I looked down the beach and here was 366 00:34:30.039 --> 00:34:35.719 a little, old fat man. He was just at the very far edge 367 00:34:35.719 --> 00:34:38.440 of the beach, I mean where the dunes began. I said, I 368 00:34:38.480 --> 00:34:44.360 don't know. He's either a crazy reporter who doesn't know what he's doing, 369 00:34:44.519 --> 00:34:47.760 or he's a high ranking officer who does know what he's doing. Because he 370 00:34:47.840 --> 00:34:52.199 was just circulating to the troops and waving at him and shaking his fist. 371 00:34:52.239 --> 00:34:57.679 He had a cigar in his mouth which occasionally it was not lit, which 372 00:34:57.679 --> 00:35:01.639 occasionally he would wave and things like that. And as he moved the twenty 373 00:35:01.719 --> 00:35:06.440 ninth Division troops who were called on the beach moved up to the dunes and 374 00:35:06.639 --> 00:35:12.320 on the dunes and started up the plateau and up the bluffs. Finally, 375 00:35:13.079 --> 00:35:17.159 and it took him about two minutes and he finally got to my position. 376 00:35:17.719 --> 00:35:24.360 He went down to the end of the retard the breakwater, and I said, 377 00:35:24.360 --> 00:35:29.679 I'd better get down there and find out which do I follow Plan A, 378 00:35:30.079 --> 00:35:32.480 tackle him and turn him over to the medics, or Plan B salute 379 00:35:32.559 --> 00:35:39.199 him and report Well. He came around the end of the breakwaters and I 380 00:35:39.239 --> 00:35:45.119 looked at there was a little tiny silver star on his collar, and I 381 00:35:45.159 --> 00:35:50.679 said, whoof's Plan D. So I went up to him, and people 382 00:35:50.719 --> 00:35:55.760 criticized me for it. I did a snappy hand salute, which he returned, 383 00:35:57.679 --> 00:36:02.400 and I said, Sir Captain Ron Ranger, Infantry Battalion, we've just 384 00:36:02.599 --> 00:36:08.679 landed on this beach. Actually, I told him those where the situation. 385 00:36:08.760 --> 00:36:12.800 A little bit later, and he looked at me. He said Ron, 386 00:36:13.559 --> 00:36:19.400 and I said yes, General Ron. And he said you're not jack Ron's 387 00:36:19.400 --> 00:36:22.360 son, are you? And I said yes, I am jack ron Son. 388 00:36:22.440 --> 00:36:25.639 He said, well, welcome to Omaha Beach. But in any event, 389 00:36:27.280 --> 00:36:31.119 he then, after I gave him the situation, how we had landed, 390 00:36:31.159 --> 00:36:35.920 and what troops there were, how the enemy, what the enemy resistance 391 00:36:36.119 --> 00:36:38.840 was, he asked me to go to where's your battalion commander? And I 392 00:36:38.880 --> 00:36:44.960 could actually point him out. He was not more than seventy five yards away. 393 00:36:45.760 --> 00:36:49.559 And I said I'll take you, and he said you will not. 394 00:36:50.280 --> 00:36:53.239 You will stay with your men. They need you more than I do. 395 00:36:53.559 --> 00:36:59.880 We didn't say that, but that was what it meant, and so I 396 00:37:00.119 --> 00:37:02.800 stayed with the troops and he walked his way down. But as he was 397 00:37:02.880 --> 00:37:07.360 leaving, he turned to my troops and said, you men are rangers. 398 00:37:07.599 --> 00:37:14.119 I know you won't let me down. He wasn't encouraging us to move out. 399 00:37:14.199 --> 00:37:16.960 He knew we would, so he expected things of us. And as 400 00:37:16.960 --> 00:37:22.280 he went that seventy five yards over to Colonel Schneider, he would stop with 401 00:37:22.440 --> 00:37:28.880 every group and he could see the goal, or rather the orange diamonds on 402 00:37:28.920 --> 00:37:34.480 our helmets. He could see the Arranger patches and he said the same thing, 403 00:37:35.079 --> 00:37:38.480 but it finally morphed into by the time he said it the last time, 404 00:37:38.840 --> 00:37:43.880 it was Rangers lead the Way. And that's where we got our motto, 405 00:37:44.119 --> 00:37:47.440 and it was all rangers got their motto from that, Rangers lead the 406 00:37:47.440 --> 00:37:52.119 Way, which the first time I heard it was you men are Rangers. 407 00:37:52.159 --> 00:37:55.920 I know you won't let me down. He changed the whole complex of the 408 00:37:57.000 --> 00:38:04.719 Norman invasion. The orders that we already had were to proceed by platoon infiltration 409 00:38:04.840 --> 00:38:08.519 to the assembly points up on the land, and they were two three four 410 00:38:08.519 --> 00:38:16.199 miles away. But what General Coda did was he said to Schneider, get 411 00:38:16.239 --> 00:38:22.639 your companies together and fight your way to the assembly points because you're going to 412 00:38:22.719 --> 00:38:27.679 operate as a battalion now. And that was the way it went. So 413 00:38:27.760 --> 00:38:30.840 you were right there when the Ranger model was born. I was right there 414 00:38:30.880 --> 00:38:34.920 when the Ranger model was born. True enough, not the exact same wording, 415 00:38:35.440 --> 00:38:39.559 but the exact same wording was the last time he gave it as we 416 00:38:39.559 --> 00:38:44.440 were going through the gap. So did that become the model because he told 417 00:38:44.480 --> 00:38:49.159 the story air somebody else told the story. I don't know. I don't 418 00:38:49.159 --> 00:38:54.159 know. They may have gotten from one of the very very early editions of 419 00:38:54.199 --> 00:39:00.880 my book. I went through about eight writings of the book before it published. 420 00:39:00.320 --> 00:39:02.639 We're gonna talk about that book too, And just a little bit. 421 00:39:04.039 --> 00:39:06.840 We said, you landed at seven fifty, So it's I guessing it's not 422 00:39:06.880 --> 00:39:08.760 that long after eight o'clock by the time near at the top of the bluff. 423 00:39:09.280 --> 00:39:14.679 Yeah, it's just a little after eight. I landed at seven fifty, 424 00:39:14.960 --> 00:39:20.480 but the other group landed essentially five to ten minutes ahead of me. 425 00:39:20.639 --> 00:39:25.320 I never knew exactly when they landed, but they were pretty well reorganized, 426 00:39:27.519 --> 00:39:31.920 unfortunately going up the bluffs when they went through the smoke. One platoon leader 427 00:39:32.000 --> 00:39:36.840 told me that when I went through that smoke, or entered that smoke, 428 00:39:36.920 --> 00:39:39.119 I had a full ranger platoon with me, and when I came out, 429 00:39:39.159 --> 00:39:45.199 I had one runner. They'd all gotten lost in the smoke. So we 430 00:39:45.320 --> 00:39:50.760 had to pause at the top of the bluffs and we reorganized, and by 431 00:39:50.800 --> 00:39:55.519 that time the two companies from the second battagon that were part of our force 432 00:39:57.159 --> 00:40:01.559 had worked their way down and joined us, and we made them into a 433 00:40:01.760 --> 00:40:07.239 single company. Took the remnants of both A and B Company, the second 434 00:40:07.320 --> 00:40:12.880 Rangers and made him into a provisional Ranger company, and they were a little 435 00:40:12.880 --> 00:40:17.320 bit larger than that, but we put him in what I will call reserve 436 00:40:19.400 --> 00:40:23.840 for the first day. The second day they were up there with the tanks, 437 00:40:24.199 --> 00:40:28.960 giving the tanks the protection they needed to move out. The US Army 438 00:40:29.039 --> 00:40:34.039 Major General John Ron, who served as a US Army Ranger captain on June 439 00:40:34.119 --> 00:40:37.880 sixth, nineteen forty four, at Omaha Beach. This is just part one 440 00:40:37.960 --> 00:40:43.239 of our conversation with General Ron. There will be three in total. In 441 00:40:43.280 --> 00:40:46.119 our next installment, we'll continue our conversation with General Ron about his actions on 442 00:40:46.199 --> 00:40:50.519 D Day itself as well as a couple of days that followed, and in 443 00:40:50.559 --> 00:40:53.760 our final installment will examine his service at the Battle of Brittany and the Battle 444 00:40:53.800 --> 00:40:58.360 of the Bulge, and we'll who passed World War Two to look at his 445 00:40:58.440 --> 00:41:04.440 work during Vietnam. We're a forty year military career. I'm Greg Corumbus and 446 00:41:04.639 --> 00:41:17.760 this is Veterans Chronicles. Hi, this is Greg Corumbus, and thanks for 447 00:41:17.840 --> 00:41:23.199 listening to Veterans Chronicles, a presentation of the American Veterans Center. For more 448 00:41:23.199 --> 00:41:29.760 information, please visit American Veterans Center dot org. You can also follow the 449 00:41:29.800 --> 00:41:36.280 American Veterans Center on Facebook and on Twitter We're at AVC update. Subscribe to 450 00:41:36.320 --> 00:41:40.800 the American Veterans Center YouTube channel for full oral histories and special features, and 451 00:41:40.920 --> 00:41:46.199 of course, please subscribe to the Veterans Chronicles podcast wherever you get your podcasts. 452 00:41:46.679 --> 00:41:51.920 Thanks again for listening, and please join us next time for Veterans Chronicles