Sixth Naval Beach Battalion

Sixth Naval Beach Battalion. . , Commissioned on 9 October 1943 at Camp Bradford, Virginia, under Commander Eugene C. Carusi, USNR, the 6th Naval Beach Battalion (NBB) moved to Fort Pierce, Florida, for amphibious-warfare training. On D-Day, the 6th NBB would number about 400 officers and men, the majority spread over three letter companies (A, B, and C), each comprising three platoons. The personnel strength and vehicular configuration of the different NBBs varied according to a given battalion's mission and area of operations. Variances aside, the operational capabilities of the NBBs were generally the same. , , On 7 January 1944, the 6th NBB embarked HMS Mauritania for the United Kingdom and more training in England's West Country. The battalion was attached to the Army's 5th Engineer Special Brigade on 12 April. For D-Day, the 6th NBB was to operate in the eastern half of Omaha Beach, supporting the 16th Infantry Regimental Combat Team (RCT) as it debarked in the Easy Red, Fox Green, and Fox Red sectors. Coming in a few minutes before H- Hour, the demolitions teams drew heavy fire, and the enemy's resistance intensified as first-wave landing craft arrived. An hour into the assault, the 6th NBB had received nearly 200 casualties. , , The battalion's doctors and medics did what they could for the burgeoning population of wounded and dying, while the few able demolitions men disabled explosive devices and destroyed obstacles. Individual sailors such as Clyde Whirty, did the jobs they had been trained to do. Twice he had bulldozers he was using to clear debris and obstacles from the landing area shot out from under him before, at the suggestion of an officer, he refrained from displaying his little American flag on the third one he mounted. Other sailors who got beyond the tidal flat joined the RCT's inland push. , , The accounts collected from the battalion's veterans evince a common thread of exceptional determination, creativity, and indomitably running through them, This extract from a narrative by Robert A. Giguere, who spent his first eight hours ashore fighting inland with 16th Infantry Regiment troopers, is typical: , ,

Late that afternoon, American infantry patrols were starting to come in great numbers, I knew I had to get back to the beach to help out, [so] I told the officer that I was a navy man and had to get back to the beach to do my job, so myself, …five French underground people, and some of the walking army wounded went back to the beach. I was still looking for my outfit going up the beach, when I was blown up by a mortar or artillery. I must have been knocked unconscious because when I came to, I was in the 40th Army Hospital in Cirencester, England. It was June 10th - My 18th Birthday.

, For its service on D-Day, the 6th NBB received the Presidential Unit Citation and the French Croix de Guerre with Palm. , , In tribute to the officers and men of the USS Coral Sea, CVA-43, with whom Edward Kiras served. Given by Edward and Barbara Kiras. Dedicated on Memorial Day, 29 May 2006.