By BILL McKINNEY
Morning News staff reporter
D-Day
began in the middle of the night for young Sgt. Spencer Wurst of Erie, as bursts of automatic weapons fire marked by tracer rounds flashed past his face and pierced his parachute.
Wurst wouldn't actually see the
Normandy beaches until 37 long days after the landing, when his unit was sent back to England after taking the highest hill on the Cherbourg peninsula in a bloody frontal assault.
Even though Wurst was a veteran of
other combat jumps, he was as scared that night as any of the other troopers leaping from the sturdy, twin-engine C-47 that was flying too high and too fast.
The drop was supposed to be made from about 600 feet.
Instead, it was about double that height. It was supposed to be made at 90 to 100 miles per hour. Instead, the speed was much faster.
""When we came in over the coast we hit a low cloud bank and
our flight leader chose to fly over it rather than through it,'' Wurst remembers.
""I could tell we were too high when we jumped because there were fires burning in St. Mere Eglise. I could judge our
height pretty good by those.
""I could tell we were too high because, when your chute opens, you get a strong opening shock. This time the shock was so intense I lost a lot of my webbing equipment.''
Fortunately he didn't lose his M-1 rifle which was broken down into three pieces and carried in a zippered case slid beneath his parachute pack.
While he was scared, he said, it never entered his mind that the
mission in which he was taking part would fail. He was young, confident and believed firmly in his training and experience.
Still, the tracers worried him.
""Sometimes I thought they were going to
take my head off but they went on past and up through my chute.''
His regiment, the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division, was the only veteran American combat regiment to drop into France on
D-Day.
It had already participated in the invasions of Sicily and Salerno.
Dropping with the 505th that night were the 507th and 508th regiments of the 82nd, two newly formed regiments, and the 101st Airborne
Division for which D-Day marked its first commitment to combat.
Each regiment had its own mission and each battalion of each regiment had its objectives.
The mission of the 505th was to secure Ste.-Mere Eglise and
control the roads around it to prevent Nazi reinforcement of its coastal defenses on the Normandy beaches.
The ultimate short-term goal was for American forces to link up along a line extending across the peninsula,
cutting it off from German troops, and to seize the large, ocean-going port of Cherbourg for use by Allied supply ships.
Wurst jumped at 1:51 a.m. on June 6.
He remembers looking at his watch just before leaping
from the door with the rest of the ""stick.'' Each planeload was called a stick. As the troops touched down their first assignment was to assemble, to ""roll up the stick.''
""Our battalion, the second, couldn't complain. We hit the drop zone O.K. and we had over 50 percent assembled before daylight, which was quite remarkable under the circumstances,'' he said.
Traversing
the French fields proved more difficult than expected because the land was farmed for centuries and fields were marked off by hedgerows, piles of rocks and brambles and trees that soldiers had to get across, often under
fire.
""The weakness of an airborne operation in those days was the lack of anti-tank protection. Our main anti-tank weapon was the bazooka. It was imperative to get heavier guns in so gliders
were used to bring in 57mms that could be towed by jeeps or trucks.
""The early morning flight brought in 12. Of those 12, we only got two. The other gliders and the guns were broken up in crash
landings.''
Members of his battalion looked for green flares and a green lantern that would signal the assembly point. The flares were shot up whenever troops who reached the assembly point felt safe enough to
launch them.
Wurst was one of the lucky ones that morning. He reached the point without being forced to fight his way there. Others weren't as fortunate. He gathered 12 to 15 men along the way but
knew there had been problems when he started picking up soldiers from the 101st.
""I couldn't persuade them to stay with me. They headed out to find their own units,'' he said.
While airborne
units are at their weakest right after a drop and before assembly, their enemies are also in the greatest state of confusion. The Germans, for all of their drills, Wurst said, didn't do as good as they should have
done in handling the paratroopers. ""Thank God,'' he added.
Allies were also fortunate the German high command ignored Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's recommendation to keep reserves close to the coast.
Rommel, Wurst said, thought it wise because the Allies held air superiority.
As a result, two German armored divisions were almost back as far as Paris when the invasion occurred.
Dawn brought the true horrors of
war home to Wurst and the paratroopers who survived jump.
Dead comrades hung in stillness, their parachute lines entangled in trees or power lines or buildings. It was impossible to tell whether they'd died in
the air or were shot after landing, while struggling to get free.
Paratroopers cut down as many as possible, Wurst said. ""Just seeing them like that was real bad for morale,'' he said.
A little
later, the living came upon more of the dead, many of them floating, drowned in areas the Germans had purposely flooded by opening dams.
Weighted down by weapons and packs, they hadn't been able to reach dry land.
The memories are bitter ones. Wurst walked from the room at this point in the interview, to get a drink of water.
Wurst said the 505th's third battalion was assigned to take and hold Ste.-Mere Eglise.
Wurst's second battalion was supposed to form an arc across the main road outside of town and stop Nazi reinforcements. The first battalion was to take a causeway on the other side of town.
It didn't work that way.
""The third battalion didn't get as good an assembly and was having problems in town. One stick dropped right into the middle of town and the only guy that made it out alive
was John Steele, the one whose chute got caught in a church steeple. (Steele was played by Red Buttons in the movie, The Longest Day.)
""As we moved toward our objective we got a message to help the
third. We changed directions and got there by about 9:30 a.m.''
Wurst said the commanding officer made a crucial decision at that time, to send one platoon off to outpost the road an entire battalion was
supposed to hold. As it turned out, even though the platoon was forced to withdraw later by attacking Germans, they delayed the advance and gave Americans in town early warning.
""That platoon leader
should've gotten the Congressional Medal of Honore,'' Wurst said.
Wurst and his men moved toward the center of town, as far as the cemetery. They dug in there and held a defensive position, sending out small
groups occasionally to kick in clear as many buildings as possible. The were looking for German forward observers, spotters in high perches who were calling in withering artillery fire on top of U.S. troops.
""We were strictly on the defensive the first day or two,'' Wurst said. ""We were like a magnet for their artillery. We were the only unit they knew about that was big enough to draw
fire. It was the heaviest artillery fire the 82nd witnessed during World War II.''
French villagers, after the initial shock passed, began helping the Americans.""We dug in deep, by a cemetery
wall. I went back for the 45th anniversary and got a picture of the exact spot.
""You lived or died depending on what side of a hedgerow or what side of a wall you were on.''
At the close of D-Day,
about midnight, Wurst was wounded for the first time, hit in the left shoulder by an exploding shell. He was patched up on the spot and not evacuated, partly because the aide station was under heavier fire than
his area.
""It was my own fault. I could hear the shell and knew I should've gone to the other side of the wall. And I was arrogant enough to not go all the way into the hill (with his foxhole).
""There was a joke about foxholes. Another foot down - digging too deep - and it's considered desertion.''
He and his unit, Fox Company of the 2nd Bn., fought off a couple of weak attacks on the
position but they held and Wurst said he saw much heavier fighting in the days to come.
On the third night, he said, as Germans began launching a heavy attack, American tanks came ""roaring up from the
beaches'' at Normandy and Easy Company launched an effective counterattack that caught Germans flatfooted.
""E Company had quite a pigeon shoot. The Germans coming up this sunken trail found themselves
faced by tanks. Yet, if they got off the trail and tried to make it across the fields, E Company had them.
""F Company was on the left flank of E Company. E hit them main group.''
The last
invasion mission for Wurst was the taking of Hill 131, one of the highest on the Cherbourgh Peninsula. German troops were dug in all the way up the slope and at the summit.
Americans mounted a frontal assault,
the costliest kind of military tactic. Their salvation, as far as Wurst was concerned, was the rain and heavy fog that settled across the hill. He said it almost seemed to lull the Germans, making them less
alert.
Still, American losses were high. Fox Company was comprised now of only two platoons, one of which was down to 11 people out of 43. Fox led the attack. As it got pinned down, other companies
would maneuver forward.
""It seemed like such a long way to go but we made it,'' he said.
""Our supply situation was critical. There were units that were rationing mortar shells.''
Once
on top, the Americans dug in and found themselves facing German tanks that started lobbing shells their way. Finally, they were replaced by soldiers from the 8th Infantry Division.
Paratrooper survivors were
sent back to England and given eight or 10 day furloughs. Wurst, age 19 or 20, was made acting First Sergeant, an administrative position he didn't particularly want.
Replacements began filling out the badly
tattered ranks of the 82nd Airborne Division. It was re-equipped and began training for its next mission, one in which Wurst would win the Silver Star for outstanding heroism.
By BILL McKINNEY
Morning News staff reporter
Four of his officers died within 10 minutes, felled by heavy gunfire from elite Nazi SS troopers defending a park and one end of a bridge that had to be taken.
It was Sept. 20, 1944 and
Sgt. Spencer Wurst of Erie, all of about 20 years old, found himself leading his squad through the fiercest fighting he'd ever seen.
That's saying something special about a man who took part in two campaigns in Italy,
who jumped into Normandy on D-Day and was wounded twice in that struggle, and who'd find himself later in the Battle of the Bulge.
This day Wurst would win the Silver Star for gallantry in action.
It was a day of honor and horror, of courage and outrage and pain.
It was a day of war.
His citation shows that, on that particular day, Wurst was a sergeant with the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment during its
attack on Nijmegen, Holland.
Wars are filled with irony. For Wurst it came well before this attack, as his unit was being readied in England for a combat jump into Belgium.
""I don't know why but I
sweated that out more than anything else I can remember. I just had a feeling I wouldn't make it. I didn't sleep for 24 hours before,'' he remembers.
Fate stepped in and Allied ground forces overran the
objective that he and other members of the 82nd Airborne Division were to take. The mission was scrubbed and he relaxed, but not for long.
On very short notice, too short to begin worrying about it, Wurst and
his unit found themselves aboard planes flying for Holland.
Unlike the jump at Normandy, this time the transports were surrounded by fighter cover and the assault came in broad daylight.
""We flew in low. They could shoot at us with pistols or .22s,'' he said.
""The number four man in our stick (planeload) was hit as we stood up. He jumped even though he was wounded
rather than foul up the mission. It always amazed me that he jumped.''
Wurst said the drop went well and his unit didn't take many casualties.
As it turned out, he said, the 82nd Airborne was part of a
three-division airborne assault that included the U.S. 101st Airborne and the British 1st Airborne, which he said ""took a beating.''
Their mission was to break a stalemate that had held through much of
August and September at the Waal River. Conventional Allied forces had ground to a halt because of logistics problems. They outran their supply lines.
It was British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery who
came up with the plan for an airborne assault designed to create a ""corridor'' for Allied forces to swing behind the Germans by Christmas Day.
The 82nd's task was to take the inland shipping center at
Nijmegen, including the road and rail bridges spanning the Waal.
For two days, Wurst and his outfit battled Germans house to house, racing across rooftops and through yards to get into position to make a final assault
on the heavily defended park.
Some 400 black-clad German SS infantrymen were dug in, supported by anti-tank guns, mortars and ""twin-40s and quad-20s mounted on trailers.''
Americans supported by British
tanks almost made it into the park on the night of Sept. 19.
""It was against tactics to attack at night with tanks,'' Wurst said.
""The order came and we got almost to the park. There was
an 88mm in the traffic circle and the Germans had dropped trees. We were supposed to protect the tanks. As one started around the trees the 88 opened up at short range, only about 50 yards.
""The
tanks backed up and it was a good thing we'd already started around them or they would have run over us.''
The first assault on the park failed.
""We had a good officer, a Capt. Rosen. He was a West
Point graduate and came up to us from SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces).
""My platoon got to the end of the street and he led an assault with one platoon. We got into the park
taking casualties all the way. The captain got hit in the head. We had to withdraw. I was the last one out of the park.
""The captain was running back holding his mouth. I'd seen guys
hit like that and survive. I think he died of shock.
""We changed commanders four times in 10 minutes. I still don't know if we had any officers left when it was over.''
American forces withdrew about half a block and reorganized.
With the withdrawal came a ""deathly silence,'' Wurst would write years later as he tried to reconstruct the scene.
""From across the
street, a terrible, heart-wrenching scream lasting 30 seconds to a minute. Seemed like an hour.
""No doubt in my mind someone had been knifed or bayoneted low in the body. Long time dying.
""Enemy? British? American? Dutch? Screams have no nationality.''
As Wurst's outfit regrouped it was decided that, in the second assault, Easy Company of the 505th would concentrate
on the traffic circle and Wurst's Fox Company would take the park.
They ultimately took the park but Wurst said very few of the German soldiers would surrender.
Even after 50 years, there are some things Wurst won't
talk about openly. He won't talk about the killing that took place, only about the dying. Some things, he said, are too personal and too painful to talk about.
His written notes, however, paint a grim picture.
Just before the second assault, Wurst wrote, after having cleaned his weapon and climbed to a ledge at the corner of a building, he spotted German troops trying to
reinforce the park.
""I took these men under rapid fire,'' he wrote. ""This was when my rifle barrel got so hot the cosmoline in the front hand guards bubbled from the wood. I soon
emptied my ammo belt and ammo was passed up to me.''
Then came the order for the final charge.
""The survivors of my squad followed me and away we went, forming a skirmish line on the run. I glanced
to my right and left. What a grand and beautiful sight: two infantry companies on line charging in the assault, with almost perfect alignment.
""The enemy and our fire was deafening. We
took heavy casualties. Lt. Dodd, killed. Lt. Holcomb, seriously wounded. My friend, Fabis, wounded and died. Many others.
""We got about mid-width of park and was stopped by
overwhelming fire. I took cover behind a tree, prone position, firing fast. Many rounds of fire hit tree...''
In the midst of this terrifying spectacle, Wurst wrote, his colonel, the legendary Col.
Vandervoort, ""calmly walked from my rear to stand over me and said, "Sgt., I think you better go see if you can get that (British) tank moving.'
""What could I say? I'm pinned down? Not with him standing...
""I jumped up, ran to the tank, took off my helmet, beat on the turret until it was opened, and told him to move and shoot
- colonel's orders. I remained there and pointed out where to place fire.
""I got my squad up using hand signals and we moved forward to and through barbed wire, my machine-gunner in line firing the
gun without a mount, from the standing position.''
Wurst's platoon was the first through the park, dropping into a trench on a bank overlooking the bridge they were sent to take.
They spotted about 30 German
soldiers trying to withdraw across the bridge. Wurst said none of them made it.
The 82nd's objective was taken.
Wurst's formal citation states that he took charge after four of his officers were killed and in
spite of the fact that German snipers ""waited less than 75 yards away for any display of leadership.''
""Despite these facts, he remained standing and continued to direct his men by arm and hand
signals. At one time during the attack he stood beside the one British tank in the area and pointed out targets to its commander. The enemy threw all possible fire at it.
""As a result of his
action Sergeant Wurst's squad was the first to break completely through the enemy position and set up a line on the other side to prevent a counterattack. His personal courage and leadership kept his squad under
control all during the attack, and enabled his company to gain its objective.
""This type of action has been characteristic of Sergeant Wurst in all previous campaigns as well as the present one.
""Entered military service from Erie, Pennsylvania.''
The Silver Star citation is signed by Major General James M. Gavin.
