Xstream_1
Well-Known Member
I pulled this story from the Gazette Virginian, the local paper for South Boston, Virgina. It is about a gentleman named Pete Myers. I know Mr Myers through my late grandfather who also served with Mr Myers in F Company. As a child I would listen to their stories when they told them, although they didn't speak of the War often, with great interest but just recently realized that these 93 men helped changed the direction of the World. To the men of Fox Company and all Veterans of the Armed Services, I salute you and give you a heart felt Thank You!
I failed to mention, as you will read later on in the write up that of the 93 men that came from Halifax County, Mr. Myers is the last surviving member.
Thanks
X
Vanguard Of The Great Crusade
By Jordan Bagbey
G-V Intern
Sunday was Veterans Day, a time to celebrate and remember those who have fought and fallen for the United States. It is on the very day (Nov. 11) when Allied and Central Powers in the First World War observed the cease fire at 11 a.m. It was supposed to be the last time anyone ever went to war, but sadly, there have been many wars since 1918.
The biggest and most destructive war was the Second World War. In June 1944, the greatest invasion in human history occurred on the Normandy coastline in France. Many people think of the movie Saving Private Ryan when the D-Day invasion is mentioned. The opening 20 minutes of the movie are probably the most remembered and discussed movie scene from any war movie.
The movie opens with the Rangers and the 116th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division storming Omaha Beach, Dog Green Sector. What many people dont know is that some of the citizen-soldiers were sons of Halifax County. (H.L.) Pete� Myers of Halifax just happened to be one of the 16 million people who was directly involved in the U.S. Armed Forces.
Myers even lied about his age in order to join the National Guard.
I went into service at 17, but I told them I was 18. We had no idea of birth certificates then so, it wasnt any problem,� Myers said.
The Second World War began in Europe as Adolf Hitler invaded Poland on Sept. 1, 1939.
It would escalate, and each country would come in eventually,� recalled Myers. We knew the U.S. would be called in. So the Guard was called in Feb. 3, 1941, and was supposed to be in for 12 months. Then we would come on back home after we got our training over with and go back to our jobs.�
Myers and his family operated a grocery store in Liberty.
In their 10 months of training, Myers unit, Fox Company, 116th Infantry, 29th Division, traveled to Fort Meade, Maryland, Fort A.P. Hill, and went to North Carolina. Fox Company was just arriving in South Hill when they heard the news that Pearl Harbor had been attacked.
Before that half of the company was going to get a three-day furlough and the other half their 12 months would be up.� But when America decided to go to war, that was canceled.
Fox Company again went back to Forts Meade and A.P. Hill and also returned to Carolina on exercise maneuvers in 1942. The company then went to Jacksonville, Fla., for six weeks. The soldiers of Fox Company started wondering where they were going to end up in the world war. Were they going to Europe or North Africa? Possibly even the Pacific?
We knew we was going overseas somewhere then,� Myers stated, but we didnt know where or when.�
Eventually the regiment was sent to New York for three weeks, which meant they were either heading for North Africa or England. We finally went across on the Queen Mary, which had been converted to a troopship. We landed in Scotland and stayed there awhile. Then we went down to Tidworth, England which was about 50 miles from London and we stayed there for 12 months.�
In Tidworth, Fox Company drilled and drilled. They camped out in the fields and hills on maneuvers most of the time. By the end of the year, Fox Company was ready to fight Germans.
We just wanted to go somewhere and get something done,� Myers declared. We knew that in Africa they were starting to win the war there. Russia was beginning to win over there against Germany. So we pretty much knew then there was going to be an invasion of Europe, but we didnt know where or when.
They then told us that we were going to invade and that we would be in the invasion. So we did a lot of amphibious training there in the English Channel, which is the roughest little body of water to be a small place.�
We would go out on the English Channel about three miles on these large ships and get off on the side on these landing crafts which held approximately 30 men, or could carry 36. We would come back in and land on the beach.�
After a few exercises the amphibious training would intensify.
They built something out there just like a ship and put a ramp on the side, like we would have to come down on when we went to the English Channel for the invasion.
Then we would come into the beach and they got to put these booby traps out there. They set up machine guns where they would fire over your head. They got planes and would put pound bags of flour on the plane. When we would land on the beach they would come over and simulate a bomb being dropped.�
Throughout their arduous training, Fox Company was never told when and where they were going to land. Like the rest of the approximately 2.8 million people involved with Operation Overlord, they were deliberately put into the dark so the Germans would not discover where the landing beaches were.
We knew it was just a matter of time, but nobody knew where we would land or when, nobody knew. We could tell these tanks, artillery pieces, you name it, were increasing going down to the beach, so we knew it was just a matter of days.�
Once Myers regiment was transferred to the staging area, they were not allowed to see or talk to anyone.
There was a fence all around us. None of us could get in or out. We couldnt talk to nobody and nobody talked to us. Then we were told we were going in, but we didnt know where or which beach wed hit.�
Fox Company then moved to the Southampton seaport which was one of the biggest staging areas for the invasion. From there the company embarked on the USS Thomas Jefferson to the French coast for the scheduled invasion on June 5, 1944.
We got out in the channel, and orders were canceled. The climate and weather was rough, so they called it off. During this time we had chapel. Catholics, Protestants, we all went down together. The invasion was finally rescheduled for the sixth, and we left again on the afternoon of the fifth.�
This time, the invasion was not called off. The 5,300 ships involved in the landings made their way across the English Channel for a 6:30 a.m. rendezvous with destiny.
In order to get down from the ship into the landing craft designed by Andrew Higgins, the soldiers had to climb down a rope net into the Higgins boats.
The sea was rough. You get off the big boat into the landing craft on this net. We had about 90 pounds of equipment on, and you get on the net, and you had to come down and jump into the boat, and some of them boys dropped, and we never saw them again.�
At H-Hour (6:30 a.m.) we hit Omaha Beach, and it was the heaviest fortified of any beach there.�
We were told that the Air Force would knock out the pillboxes, the big guns, and have craters on the beach. Well that morning it was cloudy, and they were scared they would hit their own troops and they didnt touch it. Not the first bomb had been dropped, and we didnt know that till we hit the beach. We just thought maybe wed have an easy time going on in.�
As time and history would later tell, Omaha Beach was literally a shooting gallery for the German 352nd Regiment stationed atop the cliffs overlooking the beach.
When we started on in, the water was coming all over, the boats were bouncing up and down, and the boys were getting seasick. I thought Id be the first one to get seasick,� Myers said, but I didnt. I think I told them I was too scared. Some of the boys passed out.
I was helping to get them up. Boys were vomiting in their helmets. Theyd put it back on, and it would run all down their face and shirt collar. We were giving them apples and oranges to try to get them to survive for the beach.
I was in the first boat team, I was in the first wave, and I was the first man out on the right side when the ramp dropped that morning. Before we got in, theyd throw a few artillery rounds out there, but it wasnt too many. We wondered why they were holding their fire back.�
When that ramp dropped, they opened up with everything they had. Machine gunfire, mortar, artillery, you name it. They had every square inch of that beach covered. Them machine guns were cutting us down just like flies.� The Germans were using the feared MG-42 machine gun which fired an awesome 1,200 rounds per minute. It produced a distinct sound which led to American soldiers naming it Hitlers Buzzsaw.
They also had German 88s (artillery howitzers) firing right down on us, and the beach was just as flat as a floor. We had no cover whatsoever.
We tried to get across the beach and all of that firing, there was just killing and hollering. Shells would hit and blow them up into the air and come back down. Some of the bodies were cut in half. They would be hollering for their mother and daddy and for the Lord. Then I got wounded by an artillery shell.�
Myers said he was trying to unjam his M1 Garand rifle which was filled with mud and water when he got hit.
The 88 hit me and blew me about three feet in the air, and I came down on my back. I looked down at my leg, and it was a mangled mess. I pulled off all of my equipment so all I had was my helmet.�
Myers said he tried to get to his morphine when another shell came down near him.
I was trying to get that when a shell hit and blew me in the air again. The needle I dont know where it went, but I never did give myself any morphine.�
When the tide started coming in, Myers pushed himself up the beach. Two soldiers pulled him up to the seawall closer in towards the cliffs. From there he watched some of the dozers come inland.
I was laying there on that seawall, and they had opened up a place where they could come through with vehicles. I was laying about five feet from it, and tanks and bulldozers were coming right by me.�
Later that evening Myers received his first medical treatment. He asked the medic for water, and the medic handed him his canteen.
I was cutting down on it, and then he said Boy thats my brandy and you just dranked a pint!�
Myers stayed right there on the beach through the night. In the morning he saw that there had been an aid station set up. Myers was carried there by an American soldier and also four German prisoners he had in tow. Myers was taken off of Omaha Beach on the night of June 7.
He was taken to a field hospital in England on that Saturday morning.
For about 14 days there I didnt know if I was going to live or die. My leg had turned a blue stripe along with my shoulder and arm. They didnt know if I was going to make it or not.�
Myers was in traction until October when he was shipped back to New York. He was then moved to the Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center in Fisherville, where he underwent eight operations. Myers was at Fort Pickett when on Oct. 16, 1945, he was honorably discharged.
A lot of them boys never did have a chance,� said the veteran. I dont see how anybody in the world got through with it. There was hollering, screaming, calling on their mother and daddy, calling on the lord, and I wish I would die, and others, I hope I can live. I stayed there all day. I went through all of it. Some of them got off in 30 minutes, and I stayed there two days and a night, so I saw all of it from start to finish. How anybody got through it Ill never know.
Of the 200 men in Fox Company who landed on Omaha Beach on June 6, 79 were killed, wounded or missing. Out of the 93 men who came from Halifax County, only Myers is still living.
We left South Boston with 93 men, and Im the only one whos left from the first wave. So Im the only one who went in that morning thats still living. I have a lot to be thankful for.�
But Myers is not the only one who should be thankful. The entire country should thank its veterans on Veterans Day.
Civilians have only gotten a taste of war from movies such as Saving Private Ryan, but veterans have seen the havoc of war up close and personal.
They have bled for American citizens and American institutions, so if you havent thanked a veteran yet, please do so.
I failed to mention, as you will read later on in the write up that of the 93 men that came from Halifax County, Mr. Myers is the last surviving member.
Thanks
X
Vanguard Of The Great Crusade
By Jordan Bagbey
G-V Intern
Sunday was Veterans Day, a time to celebrate and remember those who have fought and fallen for the United States. It is on the very day (Nov. 11) when Allied and Central Powers in the First World War observed the cease fire at 11 a.m. It was supposed to be the last time anyone ever went to war, but sadly, there have been many wars since 1918.
The biggest and most destructive war was the Second World War. In June 1944, the greatest invasion in human history occurred on the Normandy coastline in France. Many people think of the movie Saving Private Ryan when the D-Day invasion is mentioned. The opening 20 minutes of the movie are probably the most remembered and discussed movie scene from any war movie.
The movie opens with the Rangers and the 116th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division storming Omaha Beach, Dog Green Sector. What many people dont know is that some of the citizen-soldiers were sons of Halifax County. (H.L.) Pete� Myers of Halifax just happened to be one of the 16 million people who was directly involved in the U.S. Armed Forces.
Myers even lied about his age in order to join the National Guard.
I went into service at 17, but I told them I was 18. We had no idea of birth certificates then so, it wasnt any problem,� Myers said.
The Second World War began in Europe as Adolf Hitler invaded Poland on Sept. 1, 1939.
It would escalate, and each country would come in eventually,� recalled Myers. We knew the U.S. would be called in. So the Guard was called in Feb. 3, 1941, and was supposed to be in for 12 months. Then we would come on back home after we got our training over with and go back to our jobs.�
Myers and his family operated a grocery store in Liberty.
In their 10 months of training, Myers unit, Fox Company, 116th Infantry, 29th Division, traveled to Fort Meade, Maryland, Fort A.P. Hill, and went to North Carolina. Fox Company was just arriving in South Hill when they heard the news that Pearl Harbor had been attacked.
Before that half of the company was going to get a three-day furlough and the other half their 12 months would be up.� But when America decided to go to war, that was canceled.
Fox Company again went back to Forts Meade and A.P. Hill and also returned to Carolina on exercise maneuvers in 1942. The company then went to Jacksonville, Fla., for six weeks. The soldiers of Fox Company started wondering where they were going to end up in the world war. Were they going to Europe or North Africa? Possibly even the Pacific?
We knew we was going overseas somewhere then,� Myers stated, but we didnt know where or when.�
Eventually the regiment was sent to New York for three weeks, which meant they were either heading for North Africa or England. We finally went across on the Queen Mary, which had been converted to a troopship. We landed in Scotland and stayed there awhile. Then we went down to Tidworth, England which was about 50 miles from London and we stayed there for 12 months.�
In Tidworth, Fox Company drilled and drilled. They camped out in the fields and hills on maneuvers most of the time. By the end of the year, Fox Company was ready to fight Germans.
We just wanted to go somewhere and get something done,� Myers declared. We knew that in Africa they were starting to win the war there. Russia was beginning to win over there against Germany. So we pretty much knew then there was going to be an invasion of Europe, but we didnt know where or when.
They then told us that we were going to invade and that we would be in the invasion. So we did a lot of amphibious training there in the English Channel, which is the roughest little body of water to be a small place.�
We would go out on the English Channel about three miles on these large ships and get off on the side on these landing crafts which held approximately 30 men, or could carry 36. We would come back in and land on the beach.�
After a few exercises the amphibious training would intensify.
They built something out there just like a ship and put a ramp on the side, like we would have to come down on when we went to the English Channel for the invasion.
Then we would come into the beach and they got to put these booby traps out there. They set up machine guns where they would fire over your head. They got planes and would put pound bags of flour on the plane. When we would land on the beach they would come over and simulate a bomb being dropped.�
Throughout their arduous training, Fox Company was never told when and where they were going to land. Like the rest of the approximately 2.8 million people involved with Operation Overlord, they were deliberately put into the dark so the Germans would not discover where the landing beaches were.
We knew it was just a matter of time, but nobody knew where we would land or when, nobody knew. We could tell these tanks, artillery pieces, you name it, were increasing going down to the beach, so we knew it was just a matter of days.�
Once Myers regiment was transferred to the staging area, they were not allowed to see or talk to anyone.
There was a fence all around us. None of us could get in or out. We couldnt talk to nobody and nobody talked to us. Then we were told we were going in, but we didnt know where or which beach wed hit.�
Fox Company then moved to the Southampton seaport which was one of the biggest staging areas for the invasion. From there the company embarked on the USS Thomas Jefferson to the French coast for the scheduled invasion on June 5, 1944.
We got out in the channel, and orders were canceled. The climate and weather was rough, so they called it off. During this time we had chapel. Catholics, Protestants, we all went down together. The invasion was finally rescheduled for the sixth, and we left again on the afternoon of the fifth.�
This time, the invasion was not called off. The 5,300 ships involved in the landings made their way across the English Channel for a 6:30 a.m. rendezvous with destiny.
In order to get down from the ship into the landing craft designed by Andrew Higgins, the soldiers had to climb down a rope net into the Higgins boats.
The sea was rough. You get off the big boat into the landing craft on this net. We had about 90 pounds of equipment on, and you get on the net, and you had to come down and jump into the boat, and some of them boys dropped, and we never saw them again.�
At H-Hour (6:30 a.m.) we hit Omaha Beach, and it was the heaviest fortified of any beach there.�
We were told that the Air Force would knock out the pillboxes, the big guns, and have craters on the beach. Well that morning it was cloudy, and they were scared they would hit their own troops and they didnt touch it. Not the first bomb had been dropped, and we didnt know that till we hit the beach. We just thought maybe wed have an easy time going on in.�
As time and history would later tell, Omaha Beach was literally a shooting gallery for the German 352nd Regiment stationed atop the cliffs overlooking the beach.
When we started on in, the water was coming all over, the boats were bouncing up and down, and the boys were getting seasick. I thought Id be the first one to get seasick,� Myers said, but I didnt. I think I told them I was too scared. Some of the boys passed out.
I was helping to get them up. Boys were vomiting in their helmets. Theyd put it back on, and it would run all down their face and shirt collar. We were giving them apples and oranges to try to get them to survive for the beach.
I was in the first boat team, I was in the first wave, and I was the first man out on the right side when the ramp dropped that morning. Before we got in, theyd throw a few artillery rounds out there, but it wasnt too many. We wondered why they were holding their fire back.�
When that ramp dropped, they opened up with everything they had. Machine gunfire, mortar, artillery, you name it. They had every square inch of that beach covered. Them machine guns were cutting us down just like flies.� The Germans were using the feared MG-42 machine gun which fired an awesome 1,200 rounds per minute. It produced a distinct sound which led to American soldiers naming it Hitlers Buzzsaw.
They also had German 88s (artillery howitzers) firing right down on us, and the beach was just as flat as a floor. We had no cover whatsoever.
We tried to get across the beach and all of that firing, there was just killing and hollering. Shells would hit and blow them up into the air and come back down. Some of the bodies were cut in half. They would be hollering for their mother and daddy and for the Lord. Then I got wounded by an artillery shell.�
Myers said he was trying to unjam his M1 Garand rifle which was filled with mud and water when he got hit.
The 88 hit me and blew me about three feet in the air, and I came down on my back. I looked down at my leg, and it was a mangled mess. I pulled off all of my equipment so all I had was my helmet.�
Myers said he tried to get to his morphine when another shell came down near him.
I was trying to get that when a shell hit and blew me in the air again. The needle I dont know where it went, but I never did give myself any morphine.�
When the tide started coming in, Myers pushed himself up the beach. Two soldiers pulled him up to the seawall closer in towards the cliffs. From there he watched some of the dozers come inland.
I was laying there on that seawall, and they had opened up a place where they could come through with vehicles. I was laying about five feet from it, and tanks and bulldozers were coming right by me.�
Later that evening Myers received his first medical treatment. He asked the medic for water, and the medic handed him his canteen.
I was cutting down on it, and then he said Boy thats my brandy and you just dranked a pint!�
Myers stayed right there on the beach through the night. In the morning he saw that there had been an aid station set up. Myers was carried there by an American soldier and also four German prisoners he had in tow. Myers was taken off of Omaha Beach on the night of June 7.
He was taken to a field hospital in England on that Saturday morning.
For about 14 days there I didnt know if I was going to live or die. My leg had turned a blue stripe along with my shoulder and arm. They didnt know if I was going to make it or not.�
Myers was in traction until October when he was shipped back to New York. He was then moved to the Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center in Fisherville, where he underwent eight operations. Myers was at Fort Pickett when on Oct. 16, 1945, he was honorably discharged.
A lot of them boys never did have a chance,� said the veteran. I dont see how anybody in the world got through with it. There was hollering, screaming, calling on their mother and daddy, calling on the lord, and I wish I would die, and others, I hope I can live. I stayed there all day. I went through all of it. Some of them got off in 30 minutes, and I stayed there two days and a night, so I saw all of it from start to finish. How anybody got through it Ill never know.
Of the 200 men in Fox Company who landed on Omaha Beach on June 6, 79 were killed, wounded or missing. Out of the 93 men who came from Halifax County, only Myers is still living.
We left South Boston with 93 men, and Im the only one whos left from the first wave. So Im the only one who went in that morning thats still living. I have a lot to be thankful for.�
But Myers is not the only one who should be thankful. The entire country should thank its veterans on Veterans Day.
Civilians have only gotten a taste of war from movies such as Saving Private Ryan, but veterans have seen the havoc of war up close and personal.
They have bled for American citizens and American institutions, so if you havent thanked a veteran yet, please do so.
