Company E, 116th Infantry Regiment

Company E, 116th Infantry Regiment. . Federalized at Chase City, Virginia, on 3 February 1941, Company E, 116th Infantry, moved to Ft. Meade, Maryland, for training then sailed for Great Britain on HMS Queen Mary in October 1942 to continue training and begin preparing for its eventual role in the assault on occupied France. Commanded by Capt. Lawrence Madill, Company E belonged to the 116th Infantry's 2nd Battalion, which Maj. Sidney Bingham commanded. The 2nd Battalion's D-Day mission was to clear the D-3 Draw and penetrate inland through the coastal villages of Les Moulins and St. Laurent-sur Mer by dusk. Conveyed from troop transport USAT Thomas Jefferson by six U.S. Navy landing craft, vehicle and personnel (LCVP), Company E was one of four 116th Infantry rifle companies to land at H-Hour, 0630, in the initial wave of the Omaha Beach assault. , , Swept by a powerful offshore cross-current more than a mile east of Easy Green, its target sector, Company E landed on a part of Omaha Beach that no one could recognize because it was some distance from the other 116th Infantry units, Four of the LCVPs, including the one occupied by Capt. Madill, grounded east of the B-3 Draw alongside elements of the Ist Infantry Division. Led by Madill, debarking soldiers strove to move off the beach, but intense enemy fire pinned them at the rocky shingle embankment just beyond the high-water mark. Himself hit by machine gun fire, Madill yelled his last command as he died: "Senior non-com, take the men off the beach!" , , The other two boat sections from Company E landed about a half-mile further west, between the E-1 and E-3 Draws. Greeted by devastating enemy fire, the waterlogged and disoriented soldiers attempted to move through the surf and across the open tidal flat toward the shingle. Out of sector, separated from the rest of their company, and no longer functioning as an effective fighting force, they pressed ahead by ones and twos as best they could. A number of them managed to join with soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division's 16th Infantry Regiment to make an audacious advance up the steep coastal bluff between the two draws and beyond into Colleville-sur-Mer. Though depleted and scattered, the soldiers of Company E of the 116th Infantry joined the battle wherever they found it. Not until D+2 did Company E return to Major Bingham's 2nd Battalion as a functioning fighting unit. , , The U.S. Army recognized Company E's valor, fidelity, and sacrifice on D-Day, with the award of the Presidential Unit Citation, an honor France seconded by awarding the unit the Crois de Guerre with Palm. , , In memory of General William B. Ross on, National D-Day Memorial Foundation Board of Directors, 1994-2001, who participated in four amphibious landings during World War II, including the assault at Anzio, Italy, where he earned the Distinguished Service Cross. Given in love and respect by his family and friends.