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The following notes were compiled by CDR James P. Woerner, Jr., USN, Ret. from the WW II memoirs of his late father, Cpl. James Woerner (Army serial # 32076581), including his experiences during the landing at Omaha Beach aboard LCI(L)-92: "This book will cover much of the time I spent with the 149th Engineer Combat Battalion. This Unit was activated on 25 February 1943. The cadre coming from Clairborne, La. of the 360th Engineer General Service Regiment. The cadre for Company "B", my company, was composed of Lt. Thomas B. Roper as Company Commander, 1st Sgt. John F. Nichols, S Sgt. Hiram H. Collins, S Sgt. Richard McCabe, S Sgt. Patrick F. O' Brien, S Sgt. Claud M. Oats, S Sgt. Lude W. Giles, S Sgt. Harold L.Smeeton, Sgt. Lawrence L. Sullivan, Sgt. Alexander, Sgt. Joe B. Cartwright, Tec 4 William W. Justice, Tec 5 Alfonso Lacatti, and myself, Cpl. James P. Woerner. We arrived at Camp McCain, Mississippi on the 22nd of February 1943. The first of the new men came in on 27 February 1943. Basic training for the battalion and a little advance engineer training was had at Camp McCain, Mississippi, during which time the battalion became very well organized. Major James Taylor was our commanding officer. He later attained the rank of Lt. Col. and was very much responsible for the accomplishments of the Battalion. In the month of August, we moved to Fort Pierce, Florida for Amphibious Training. By this time we had a new Company Commander , Lt. Ellis Hollums, and a new First Sergeant, Hiram H. Collins. We had rough and tiresome training at Fort Pierce and had well benefited by it. (Captain Benjamin F. Lane took command of Company B while we were at Fort Pierce, Fla.). In October we moved to Camp Pickett, Virginia where about the first thing we did was to have an amphibious maneuver on the Chesapeake. This maneuver came off very well and the battalion began to be known as a crack outfit. The rest of the time at Camp Pickett was spent in regular engineer training and was in all sense of the word a review of what we had at Camp McCain. December was slated to be our month for overseas departure and so in the early part of the month we moved to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey in preparation for shipment. We were here for about two weeks, and were in what might be termed as a great rush. We were granted twelve hour passes from here and I for one was lucky enough to be able to make it home on that. And so was possible my last visit to home on Christmas Day, just four days before we left the United States for the European Theater. Altogether, I was home five times during our stay at Camp Kilmer. On 26 December all passes were discontinued and two days later (29 December 1943) we boarded ship at Hoboken. In the first few days of our trip, ships leaving Boston and Canada joined our convoy. It seemed quite large and we were right smack in the middle of it. The journey went very well and the seas were calm during the entire trip. Not once during the entire journey did we sight enemy ships, submarines or aircraft. A trip in peace time couldn 't have been more uneventful. The convoy split after we were in sight of Ireland and we went south and around to Liverpool, England. On 11 January 1944 we debarked. Our first place to stay in England was at South Brent in Devons. This was a small hut camp and we stayed there approximately three weeks. During that time I was down to Plymouth once on business and also was able to visit the old Benedictine Abbey at Buckfast-Leigh; the Buckfast Abbey. It is a very beautiful place and has quite a history about it. Rain seemed to earmark our stay at South Brent and I can remember few clear days. All I can say of Plymouth is that the results of the bombings were devastating. The beauty was gone and the ruins were colossal. Whole blocks upon blocks had been destroyed. Next we moved to Paignton, Devon, England. Here we were billeted in private homes. It was a rather pleasant change and was the best time I've seen in the Army. It seemed more like being away from home working. The office during the day and our evening free. There were four movies in town so we didn't suffer from lack of entertainment. There were also dances at two places. When we first moved into Paignton we used the Cafe de Paris as a mess hall but later set up our own tin huts. Our headquarters were located in the Groft Hotel, Later we moved the headquarters to a building opposite a park so we had no kick coming. Paignton is quite beautiful and from what I have seen of England there is no place I would rather be stationed. The nearby scenery is very good. With its parks, sands, and waterfront adding to its beauty, it is sometimes written of as the Garden spot of England. The movies at Paignton are the Palladium, the best and probably most recent of those in town, The Regent comes next and is also more or less modern. We also have the Picture House and the Palace Electric which are not so modern. Usually it is possible to find a good show at one of the four. During maneuvers in England we have seen Dorchester, Slapton Sands, Braunton, and Woolacombe. The Beach at Woolacombe is very beautiful and I greatly enjoyed the time spent there. Much of the time in England was spent in training and maneuvers for the coming invasion. 6 June 1944 THE NORMANDY INVASION [Note: H-Hour was at 0630. The 149th Engineer Combat Battalion, appears to have been in the second wave, coming ashore about 0800. It earned a Presidential Unit Citation for its service that day which reads: "On 2 June 1944, during the assault phase of the invasion of occupied Europe, the assigned mission of the Battalion was to clear, organize, develop and operate the assault landing beach sectors in order to insure the rapid movement of personnel, supplies and vehicles across the beach, and to clear and develop a beach exit to permit the egress of wheeled traffic off the beach. A stubborn enemy firmly held and defended strong points in the cliffs commanding the beach, such strong points being made up of concrete pillboxes, gun emplacements and connecting trenches. Heavy artillery, mortar, machine gun and small arms fire on troops on the beaches was maintained from these positions, and additional hazards were encountered in the form of underwater obstacles and the vehicle defense line on the beach itself. Despite the heavy enemy resistance, the 149th Engineer Combat Battalion went ashore and immediately began clearing a path through the minefield to permit the infantry to make use of an exit which had not been worked by any unit. After completion of this project, which had not previously been assigned to this unit, the 149th Engineer Combat Battalion set about opening the exit which had been assigned as its original task. Several times during this action, elements of the Battalion joined the infantry in combating the enemy, reducing his strong-points, and wiping out snipers on the face of the cliff. The outstanding heroism, courage and skill of the men of the 149th Engineer Combat Battalion in successfully completing its assigned misson materially contributed to the successful establishment of the Omaha Beachhead on D-Day" While the official history of the day mentions the efforts of Company"C" to open the exit from the beach, the men of Dad's unit, Company"B", were among the day's unsung heroes. By mid-day except for sporadic and isolated pockets of resistance the Germans had been pushed back from the immediate beach area. He wrote: "There has been no action in our locality since I've been here but there is still plenty of evidence of what it was like before that time. When one looks at the fortifications set up by the Germans and the terrain, so well earmarked by hedgerows and the like, one wonders if it wasn't through an act of God alone that made the Germans quit this beach. Surely no man made object or troops alone could have stood against these. Even after the fortifications had been knocked out the Germans had every advantage except the right and way of justice. Even with the guts shown by our men, the blood shed by them, and the lives given by them, this could not have been the successful operation it was, without the aid of God." Nineteen men of his company were killed in action when their landing craft (LCI-92) hit a mined underwater obstacle as it approached the beach and was subsequently hit and set afire by German artillery. Dad was aboard that ill-fated craft and fortunately reached shore safely.] The battalion landed at St. Laurent, France, organized the beach and worked on bringing in supplies. Our headquarters was set up here in a house that was one of the few that were still standing near the beach. Our work continued on the beach until late in October. Later we began working on roads and the company moved to the Chateau de Jugoville. This place was about two miles from La Cambe and about seven miles from Insigny. The Chateau had in it approximately fifty rooms, and was really quite nice. On 2 December we moved to Carteret, a small coastal town on the Cherbourg peninsula. Off the coast the Jersey Islands were visible on clear days. These we found to be very few however. Mostly it was cloudy and rainy. On 22 December we left Carteret and reached Pontoise France on the 24th. There Company B, was located in a Chateau near Vereal. This Chateau, reported to be owned by the largest munitions manufacturer in France, was a big improvement over the Chateau de Jugoville. It was quite modern and had much marble work. To describe it all is too much but one room which was apparently a ball room was approximately 32 feet by 64 feet with much marble and many windows. It opened out to the gardens and has a large stone pavilion. It really must have been a beautiful place in its day. Pontoise was a fair size city and the weather here was much better than what we had in Normandy. Instead of the rains it was cold and clear most of the time we were here. We left Pontoise on 7 January 1945 and went north through Belgium to Maastricht, Holland. Not much was done here and on 16 February we moved to Geleen, Holland. Here as usual the battalion worked on roads. On 3 March we moved into Germany, setting up first at Loebberick and then two days later moved to Aldekerk. During this time the battalion was acting as support for an infantry division and much of the work was building bridges and repairing roads. On the 9th we moved back to Maescyk, Belgium for training for the Rhine Crossing. From Maescyk, Belgium we moved back into Germany, first at Lintford and then to towns as follows: Dinslaken, Gladbeck, Reckinghousen, Wanne Eickel, Ahlen, and Brackel." The war in Europe ended with the German surrender on May 8, 1945.
Upon
discharge from the Army he had earned the following awards: - The preceding is from http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/w/o/e/James-P-Woerner/
On this craft, LCI(L)-92, the following U.S. Army soldiers were killed in action: 1st
Sgt Hiram H. Collins These
men are all missed and thought of highly by their comrades in arms. May
their suffering by the Grace of God have been short. They will be remembered
as they lived, for no one is seen in death. - The preceding notes and list were compiled by CDR James P. Woerner, Jr., USN, Ret. from the WW II memoirs of his late father, Cpl. James Woerner (Army serial # 32076581), including his experiences during the landing at Omaha Beach aboard LCI(L)-92 |
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