Hi! I'm new to the forum and searching for information on Company I of the 29th Infantry Division / 116th Regiment / 3rd Battalion. They were in the 2nd wave and it appears they were to land on the Dog Red Sector of Omaha Beach. My understanding is that very few landed where they were intended. My 90 year old uncle, Loyd B. Barron, was a member of it. If anyone has information or leads to share with me, I will appreciate it. ( I have a photo of my uncle, but am having problems posting it at this time.) Thanks! Patricia
RE: Company I / 29th Infantry Division / 116th Regiment / 3rd Battalion Well I only have 1 guy from Company I identified as in the Rennes Military Hospital. He was liberated on 4 August 1944. PVT 37577713 Blair, Robert J. US GSW right leg 116th Infantry Regiment Co. I 29th ID MIA 11 July Pelle's Room Arrived 15-Jul-44
RE: Company I / 29th Infantry Division / 116th Regiment / 3rd Battalion Thanks for responding! According to my Uncle's discharge papers, he is listed as LOYD B. BARRON - Army Serial No. 34 823 759 - Grade: PFC - Infantry/Assault - Co. I 116th INF REGT 29TH DIV - Date of Separation: 1-28-46- Place of Separation: Blanding, Florida. Date of Induction - 6-26-43. In section 34: Wounds Received In Action, it has: WIA FRANCE JUNE 44. (He has a purple heart and I think he was wounded 6-25-44 near St. Lo. ) Is there a way to find out the platoon numbers in I Company? I'd also like to find out the name of the ship that transported my uncle back to England after he was wounded. I know a D-Day veteran who was a medic on: The Lady Chennault and he's always wondered if he may have been on it. My uncle doesn't remember. If you have any suggestions for me as to places I might find this information, I'll appreciate your help. Thanks!
RE: Company I / 29th Infantry Division / 116th Regiment / 3rd Battalion Hi Patricia, I am posting a link to a website that has Group Critique Notes on I company, 3rd Battalion, 116th Regiment. It is very interesting reading of your uncle LOYD BARRON's expierence of I Company landing on Omaha Beach. Here is the link. http://29infantrydivision.org/WWII-Documents/29th_Division-116th_Regiment-3rd_Bn-I_Company-Group_Critique_Notes.html Also on the Website is a link to Morning Reports that were compiled by Ralph Windler, a veteran who devoted 5 years to researching the morning reports of the 29th infantry division from June 6, 1944 to May 1945. The actual document he created is a xlsx spreadsheet and not the actual Reports, so they are a much less exciting to see. Your uncle does appear in them twice as follows: Barron, Loyd B. 34823759 Pvt 6-24-44 Promoted to PFC Barron, Loyd B. 34823759 Pfc 6-25-44 From Duty to Hospital LWA (Lightly Wounded in Action) here is the link: http://www.29idmorningrpt.com/ Your uncle would have been wounded around the time that I company was in the area likely between the Bois de Brethel and the town of Saint Andre de L'Epine. This area is northeast of St Lo. Regarding the numbers of Platoon numbers in I Company, Platoons were always numbered 1st, 2nd, 3rd, with 3 to a Company. I am sure many of the others will be able to add to this thread with even more details in the days to follow. Respectfully, John Szweda
RE: Company I / 29th Infantry Division / 116th Regiment / 3rd Battalion Thanks for the information! I just looked at the links and found them to be very interesting. Thanks also for answering my question about platoons for Company I. In my post, I mentioned the medic who was on a hospital ship. I thought he said it was LADY CHENAULT, but I can't find anything sbout it online. I do find info on LADY CONNAUGHT. It says it transported wounded troops from Utah Beach. I'm thinking this is the hospital ship he (the D Day medic) was on. If that's the case, my uncle wouldn't have been on it, since he was on Omaha Beach.
RE: Company I / 29th Infantry Division / 116th Regiment / 3rd Battalion Hi Patricia, From John's location of I Company on the 26th June, it seems reasonable to assume your uncle was evacuated via Omaha Beach. There is footage of the British Hospital Carrier "Prague" (#61) underway off Omaha Beach at this Critical Past link. Another link here puts this vessel off Utah Beach, so these hospital ships may well have worked off more than one beach. Regards, Pat
RE: Company I / 29th Infantry Division / 116th Regiment / 3rd Battalion Hi All, I have been asked by Patricia to prep and post six images of her uncle Loyd Barron from the family archives: Great photos Patricia; thanks for allowing us the privilege of posting them here. Regards, Pat
RE: Company I / 29th Infantry Division / 116th Regiment / 3rd Battalion Thanks for clarifying that. I have a question about the Landing Diagram -Western Section Omaha Beach - Normandy found at www.dday-overlord.com I hope someone can help. My uncle's unit is listed under Dog Red at H+50. Company I was transported on the USS Carroll (APA 28) and I see that listed. I can't see what the figures are that appear under the icon for each LCVP. Also, I can't see what is above each, except I know the last 2 are DR (for Dog Red). Is there another location with a better image of the landing diagram that also has the figures above and below each LCVP? I still have questions for my uncle about things that are important to me. I want to know if he remembers his position in the LCVP, if he saw anything as the LCVP approached the beach (before the ramp was lowered), and if he remembers how long it took for him to make it to an area out of the line of fire. I also need to see what he may have kept from that time period. [hr] Thanks, Pat Curran, for posting the photos for me. The two recent photos were taken around February 11th, which was his 90th birthday. The one of him looking at his Purple Heart was taken in the office of our local historian, who interviewed him to add to the historical archive maintained in our county. I took the other one in February, as I passed his house and saw him working in his yard. As you can see in the photo, he has work gloves in one hand. He's still going strong!
Hi Patricia, Dog Red is shaded yellow on the 'Later Assault Wave' Map below. I believe I Co., 3/116IR is the label circled red, so they were in the 3rd assault wave: I am currently digging for higher resolution maps... Regards, Pat
OK, I found some good maps in my 1952 edition of 'The Struggle for Europe' by Chester Wilmot (not the edition at the Amazon link): Note this map shows 3/116 IR hitting the beach somewhat more east of the intended section in Dog Red. They are now in the Easy Sector and right in front of four massive 'Widerstandsnests' - WN 64, WN 65, WN 66 and WN 68. Below is a zoomed extract from this map: I am not an expert on Omaha, so if anyone spots any errors or omissions, please let me have your corrections. Regards, Pat
Hi All, There is a detailed description of I Company's actions on D-Day on this page of the dday-overlord.com site. I am currently working to produce a stitched panorama of the section D3 - E1 from available reconnaissance cover flown later in the day of June 6th; should have it done tonight. Regards, Pat
Hi All, Finally got to complete the panorama from sortie NCAP_ACIU_US7GR_1744 flown on D-Day showing the section of Omaha which interests us here. The resulting file is far too big to post here, so I have uploaded it to my ADrive account where readers can download it from this (49.5MB) link. The downsized version below has our AoI shaded yellow to correspond with the landing area of 3/116th IR as shown on the map in Chester Wilmot's 'The Struggle for Europe': Image Credit: RCAHMS/www.aerial.rcahms.gov.uk Whether this yellow shading is accurate to a high degree is debatable and I emphasis it is my take on the landing site for the 3rd Battalion as per 'The Struggle for Europe' map. Even less certain is my take on transferring that yellow shading onto a GE screenshot below: Regards, Pat
Pat and all, From "Omaha Beachhead": [Edit: Click here to view full size map as posted by Sean] And the relevant text: The 3d BLT of the 116th was scheduled to land at 0720-0730 behind the 2d BLT, on Dog White, Dog Red, and Easy Green. Five to ten minutes late, the entire battalion came in to the east of les Moulins, with some elements on the edge of Easy Red. [12] Only a handful of assault troops from the first wave had come in between D-3 and E-1 draws: two or three scattered sections of G and the headquarters boat of Company E, which touched down at 0700 right on the target to find no trace of the E assault sections. Now, in contrast, this thousand-yard stretch was comparatively crowded, although there were gaps enough to give many boat teams the impression of being isolated. The craft of Companies K and I came in well bunched on the right wing. Enemy small-arms fire was light; K had no losses crossing the tidal flat to the shingle, and I took only a few casualties. Nevertheless, the men tended to become immobilized after reaching shelter, and reorganization of the boat teams was delayed by the fact that sections of different units had landed on top of each other. Company L came in midway between the draws, its craft rather scattered, and enemy fire was so light and ineffective that some of the troops had been several minutes on the open sand before they became aware of machine-gun fire. Company M's boat sections were still further east, on Easy Red, one craft arriving in sinking condition from a mine explosion which wounded three men. The troops were tired and cramped by the trip in, and found their loads of weapons and ammunition heavy to get across the sand. As one of them put it: "The burdens we ordinarily carried, we had to drag." Enemy fire was more intense on this stretch of beach, near the E-1 strong-points, and the sections hesitated near the water's edge, taking shelter behind obstacles. Machine-gun bullets were kicking up the sand ahead; some of the men, after studying the beaten ones, decided that the enemy guns were delivering fixed fire and figured out routes for avoiding the ones. When the tide began to push them forward, the company made the move to the embankment as a body. Only a few were hit; said one survivor, "The company learned with surprise how much smallarms fire a man can run through without getting hit." I don't have Wilmot's book to hand so can't recall whether this tallies or not?? Cheers, Sean [Edit: Reduced size of embedded map above to 800 pixels wide - click link above to view the original 1500 pixel wide map as posted by Sean. Pat @ 18:59, 14/04/14]
I get confused about the composition or structure of waves. For research, in addition to this forum, I am currently using: D-DAY by Anthony Beevor; Beyond The Beachhead by Joseph Balkoski; Omaha Beach by the same author; D-DAY JUNE 6, 1944: The Climatic Battle of World War II by Stephen Ambrose; Destination Normandy: Three American Regiments on D-DAY by G.H. Bennett; Voices From D-Day by Jonathan Bastable; D-Day: The Greatest Invasion - A People's History by Dan Van Der Vat and The D-Day Companion, Jane Penrose, editor. In these, I've seen : Landing Diagrams of First and Second Waves (none of a 3rd wave); references to First Assault Wave and Second Assault Wave, but no Third Assault Wave; References to units tbat came in on the First Tide and units that came in on the Second Tide, but no mention of a Third Tide. Then in some books, there are references to the First, Second, and Third waves (I still haven't seen the Third Wave Landing Diagram, but I'm sure I've just not run across it). I'm confused, primarily about the third wave, and maybe it has to do witb each author's definition of ''wave', 'assault wave', and ''tide'. I need clarification because I'm not getting the same information from each book. I appreciate all the help I'm receiving on the forum. Please don't lose patience with me because I know some questions I ask may be petty to some. I need the answers in order to understand this as much as possible.
Hi Patricia, I am not an expert and I hope someone will correct me if I am wrong but I believe the term "Tide" means cycles in the tides from low tide through high tide and back to low tide again. Like each midnight is 24 hours apart, each tide is about 17 hours apart. This link may help http://www.americandday.org/Landing_Table/Omaha_Beach_H+00.html In terms of the waves or Assault Waves, I believe they mean the same thing and it is just how each book decided to label them. I have seen a landing diagram of Utah Beach that lists 5 waves. If you can follow along with the landing table in Omaha Beachhead on page 31. I think the best way to think about it is a "wave" consists of the assault troops or companies of infantry coming ashore with other units in support of them. Such as the Tank battalion that came ashore along with engineers and demolitions teams. This would make a Wave or Assault Wave. Your uncle was part of the second wave, and that wave was also supported by engineers and other groups. Now additional waves did follow, but I haven't been able to locate a table right now that lists them beyond the one seen on page 31, but the link above does help show what is coming ashore. The reason the additional waves may not be talked about too much may be that the waves become less of the story once the first and second wave begin overwelming the German defences and moving inland. I hope this helps, John
It most definately helps. I am very detail oriented and may pay too much attention to the terms used, but that's how I process things. It can be a good thing, but at the same time, I can get bogged down in something that may be perfectly clear to others. Thanks!
Morning All, Thanks Sean for posting the Omaha map. Does anyone know if the 116th IR used regimental helmet markings? I have been deep in the bowels of cyberland over the weekend seeking 29th ID footage from Normandy but am not sure which regiment of the 29th I am looking at when I find stuff captioned as 29th ID. Thanks, Pat
Hi All, Patricia has kindly photographed her uncle Lloyd's dog tags for us. The photo is reproduced below with her permission: Does anyone know what the alpha numerals 'T43-44' mean? Amazing to think that Lloyd was wearing these tags as he came ashore on Omaha Beach all those years ago. Thanks for sharing Patricia. Regards, Pat
Hi Pat, The T represents Tetanus followed by the year of his most recent shots. T-43-44 means he had Tetanus shots in 1943 and 1944. John