Company A, 116th Infantry Regiment

Company A of the 116th Infantry Regiment, one of twelve letter companies in the 29th Infantry Division's 116 Infantry Regiment, landed at gray dawn at H-Hour, 0630, on the Dog Green sector of Omaha Beach under Captain Taylor N. Fellers. One of the six assault landing craft transporting the company ashore floundered a kilometer off the beach, leaving about thirty combat-loaded soldiers and four British sailors struggling in heavy seas, while the other five grounded as planned in four to six feet of water on either side of the Vierville-sur-Mer draw. Under mortar and light anti-tank fire, the company disembarked as rehearsed, moved out of the surf, formed a skirmish line, and advanced inland toward the seawall. About a hundred meters into the tidal plain, several well-fortified machine guns subjected the company to devastating crossfire, and in less than ten minutes most of Company A had been neutralized, leaving the first wave of the invasion in disarray. As the tide rose, many of the company's dead and wounded were carried out to sea, and by day's end fewer than fifteen soldiers could continue the fight. The troops left in the water when their landing craft floundered were rescued by elements of the same flotilla as it sailed toward its mother ship, HMS "Javelin." Between the unit's mobilization and its commitment on D-Day, soldiers drafted from around the nation were assigned to Company A, but its National Guard origins meant it included many Virginians, contributing to Bedford's highest per capita D-Day losses in the country. Well-trained, well-equipped, and well-led, Company A fought courageously, faithfully, and selflessly, and its unit decorations include the Presidential Unit Citation and the French Croix de Guerre with Palm.

Bedford, Virginia · United States