Company M, 116th Infantry Regiment

Company M, 116th Infantry Regiment. . On 3 February 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt mobilized the 29th Infantry Division for a year's active service. Peopled by citizen soldiers from Greenville County and other Virginia locales nearby, Company M of the 116th Infantry Regiment reported to the National Guard armory at Emporia. The United States entered World War II a few weeks before the 29th Division's one-year obligation was to end, so Company M's soldiers found themselves "in for the duration." In the interim between its mobilization and embarkation for Great Britain, Company M undertook infantry training that buttressed both individual and unit skills before boarding HMS Queen Mary and shipping out in October 1942. Training and rehearsals for D-Day enlivened the otherwise bleak English moors for the twenty months that followed. Commanded by Capt. Charles Kidd, Company M was the 3rd Battalion's heavy weapons company, armed with .30-caliber machine guns and 81-millimeter mortars. , , For D-Day, Lt. Col. Lawrence Meeks, 3rd Battalion commander, had orders to land on Omaha Beach close behind the first wave, pass through the 2nd Battalion, and press inland to expand and secure the beachhead. In the event, Company M set out from transport USAT Thomas Jefferson aboard six U.S. Navy landing craft, vehicle and personnel (LCVP) joined by three more LCVPs transporting 3rd Battalion Headquarters. , , Unrelenting easterly winds and cross-currents carried Company M away from its assigned sector, Dog Red. It reached shore at H+57, 0721, more or less on time but inside the 16th Infantry Regiment's boundary near the mouth of the B-1 Draw. As the unit approached shore, a Teller mine affixed to one of Rommel's obstacles claimed one of the LCVPs and a number of soldiers. As the other LCVPs dropped their ramps, machine gun fire forced men into the surf for cover. Recalling the moment, one of them remarked, "The enemy was simply throwing lead." Upon reaching the shingle, Company M's machine gunners began directing their own suppressive fires on the strong points delaying 16th Infantry's access to E-1 Draw. After reorganizing, the company began moving west. , , Operating within the 116th Infantry Regiment's boundary by early afternoon, Company M supported the 3d Battalion's efforts to work around the northwestern edge of San Laurent-sur-Mer, but stout German resistance stalled the battalion's progress at the head of the D-3 Draw. At dusk, Company M entrenched in the fields outside St Laurent and prepared to achieve its D-Day objective early the next morning. , , Out of a full-strength complement of 166 men, 25 Company M soldiers became casualties on 6 June. The unit's commendable actions on D-Day prompted the award of the U.S. Army's Presidential Unit Citation and the French Croix de Guerre with Palm. , , Emplaced in grateful remembrance of the valor, fidelity, and sacrifice of Emporia’s citizen-soldiers on D-Day and beyond. Given by Herman Sadler Jr..