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On July 14, 2019, 33 Nebraska National Guard Soldiers traveled with Maj. Gen. Daryl Bohac, Nebraska adjutant general, from the cornrows of Nebraska back across the Atlantic Ocean to England before making their way into Normandy, France.
The mission path was reminiscent of another voyage hundreds of Nebraskans took 75 years earlier when Soldiers with the 134th Infantry Regiment moved to the European Theater of Operations, stepping ashore first in England, before crossing the English Channel to Normandy, nearly a month after D-Day, and then pushing south toward Saint Lo.
As part of a 5-day staff ride, the Nebraska National Guard Soldiers of this century embarked on a journey to learn more about the legacy their forefathers created World War II. Many of the Soldiers selected for this commemorative 75th Anniversary staff ride were direct descendants of Soldiers who participated in the liberation of France, including many from the 134th Infantry.
On July 19, 1944, after 134th Infantry had entered the outskirts of Saint Lo, the 29th Infantry Division would enter and formally liberate the town.
While the main body of the 75th Commemoration staff ride explored the beaches and hedgerows of Normandy together guided by Nebraska’s own leadership – including the 105th Military History Team – a smaller contingent of the Soldiers and Bohac served as an honor guard, visiting the same locations while attending multiple ceremonies on the “Road to Saint Lo,” sponsored by the 35th Santa Fe Division Association in Normandy. The following is a summary of the events the honor guard attended while guests of the association.
Day One:
On the first day of the commemorative visit, the honor guard joined with members of the 35th Santa Fe Division Association to lay flowers and honor the fallen at multiple 35th Infantry monuments in Conde sur Vire, Domjean and Pont-Farcy. The ceremonies began outside the church in Conde sur Vire where a 35th Infantry Division Memorial was placed in 2004 with the inscription, “THEY GAVE THEIR LIFE FOR FREEDOM,” where Bohac helped lay a wreath and rendered honors to the fallen.
The honor guard was later treated to lunch across the way where a small exhibit showcased photographs of the church after it was nearly destroyed during World War II. At the lunch, one of the association members shared a story about how he was only a child but remembered the American Soldiers giving him candy as they walked the streets of rubble during the liberation.
After lunch, the honor guard visited a second 35th Santa Fe memorial at the entrance of the church in Domjean. The plate on the porch of the church lists the names of nine Soldiers of the 134th and 320th Infantry Regiments who lost their lives in Domjean on Aug. 1-2, 1944. Again, Bohac assisted with a wreath laying and the other Nebraskans presented rendered honors to the fallen in a brief ceremony with members of the community.
The next stop for the honor guard was to visit a recused Bailey Bridge memorial located at Pont-Farcy. Made in England in the 1940s, this bridge served an important role during the Battle of Normandy in 1944. After learning the bridge was to be unceremoniously scrapped, a non-profit-making association in France called Les Amis du Pont Bailey set out preserve and conserve the bridge for posterity. While their endeavor took years of work, the bridge was completely restored has been completely restored before being put on public exhibition, and was inaugurated on April 9, 2016.
While visiting the memorial, the association’s former president Christopher A. Long, a British journalist who helped save the WWll Bailey Bridge, shared the past of the bridge and its historical importance. After visiting the Bailey Bridge memorial, the honor guard moved to the parking lot of Pont-Farcy’s city hall where another 35th Santa Fe memorial stood on the edge of the road. At this memorial, Col. Chad Stevens, 67th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade commander and a former bridge engineer, helped lay memorial flowers before also giving the brigade commander’s coin to Long for his dedication to preserving the physical – and oral – history of the Bailey Bridge. The coin, engraved with the brigade’s motto “All Hell Can’t Stop Us,” was the same motto of the 134th Infantry Regiment in WWII, from which the unit today received its lineage. Long was visibly moved by the gesture.
Moving on from Pont-Farcy, the honor guard stopped next to visit the William Notley memorial orchard in Guilberville. The orchard, named after a 35th Santa Fe American Soldier who fought for the town’s liberation, was planted in 2008 and is an important space for educating children. The final event for the honor guard included another flower presentation – this time presented by Command Sgt. Maj. Marty Baker, state command sergeant major, at the freedom marker and museum in Giéville. The stone marker – one of many placed at each of the 1,146 kilometers stretching “Liberty Road” – was the commemorative way to mark the route of the Allied forced from D-Day in June 1944, from Sainte-Mère-Église to Bastogne. The design of the milestones is symbolic, with the flaming torch of Liberty being carried eastward, on a dome that bares 48 stars representing the (then) 48 United States which took part in the Liberation of France.
Day Two:
On the second full day of the 75th Commemoration of the Liberation of Saint Lo staff ride, the small contingent of Nebraska Army National Guard Soldiers serving as an honor guard attended more ceremonies with the 35th Santa Fe Association. However, unlike the events of the preceding day, the ceremonies and memorials this day were more closely tied to the history and lineage of the Nebraska National Guard’s 134th Infantry Regiment, and the decades of emotions were present amongst all parties involved.
The first event included laying flowers at the memorial at Le Mesnil Rouxelin for Nebraska National Guard Lt. Col. Alfred Thomsen of Omaha. Thomsen, the 3rd Battalion commander, led the battalion in intense and decisive combat from Viller Fossard into Saint Lo, and was later mortally wounded on “Bloody Sunday” July 30, 1944, and died shortly after.
Following the ceremony, the honor guard joined members of the community for lunch and viewing of “Following My Father’s Footsteps: The Longest Day,” a video by the daughter of a 35th Santa Fe Soldier who had traced her father’s path of war through Normandy – including to Saint Lo and the small towns nearby. The lunch allowed time for the Nebraska Soldiers to mingle with members of Association and exchange stories. Sgt. 1st Class Lillie Chambers and Sgt. Libby Henschke – who both accompanied the honor guard on the second day as representatives of the 110th Multifunctional Medical Battalion, had the opportunity to hear from locals who remember being children and helped by American Army medics during the war – possibly from the Nebraska’s 110 Medical Battalion. After one gentleman shared his story with Chambers, she presented him with the 110th unit crest, and he was overcome with emotion as he thanked her for her gesture.
After lunch, the contingent traveled to La Meauffe for the site of another 35th Infantry Memorial located in the center of the municipal cemetery, where honors were again rendered. At most of the ceremonial sites, a sound system played first the American National Anthem followed by La Marseillaise (the French National Anthem). At the cemetery, however, the speaker system was unavailable, but it allowed for a poignant exchange where all present sang both songs proudly.
The next stop was perhaps most meaningful for the Nebraska Soldiers as they ventured down modern-day hedgerows at Le Carillon for an up-close look at the types of conditions the Soldiers of World War II had to face. For many, it was as if the Soldiers had stepped into Keith Rocco’s heritage painting “From Cornrow to Hedgerow” which depicts Nebraska’s 134th Infantry regiment fighting within the hedgerows during World War II.
The Soldiers also visited with the owner of the land adjacent to Hill 122 – the scene of a tremendous battle on which hinged the capture of Saint Lo.
The second day concluded at St. George Montcocq, where on the right side of the staircase leading from the main street corner to the church hangs a bronze plaque in French and English honoring the 134th Infantry Regiment, 35th Division, who liberated the town from 13-18 July, 1944. Dedicated in 1994, the plaque bears the same unit crest worn by many Nebraska National Guard Soldiers today.
Day Three:
On the final full-day in Normandy, July 18, the small contingent of Nebraska Army National Guard Soldiers spent the majority of time commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Liberation of Saint Lo.
The first ceremony of the day was at the site of a plaque dedicated to the sacrifices made by Soldiers of the 35th Infantry Division, July 11-18, 1944, during World War II. The plaque is affixed to the old stone ramparts near Notre Dame in Saint Lo, and two towering flag poles fly both the American flag and the French flag high above a beautiful flower garden.
The second ceremony took place at the site of a monument dedicated to Maj. Thomas Howie during the town’s 75th commemoration of its liberation during World War II.
Howie was an Army infantry officer and battalion commander in the 29th Infantry Division who was killed in action during in World War II while leading his unit in an effort to take the strategic town of Saint Lo.
A photo of his flag draped body on the rubble of the St. Croix Cathedral in Saint Lo was widely circulated and became one of the most iconic images of the cost of war. The monument reads:
“He fell at the head of his troops as he was liberating our city. His last words were... ‘To Saint-Lo.’”
The final ceremony for our Nebraska Soldiers attending the commemorative events, took place in the heart of the town of Saint Lo, near a plaque dedicated to Howie, at the site where his body once rested. Also attending this ceremony were 45 individuals from the Nebraska National Guard Historical Society’s Liberation Tour, including Nebraska State Senator Mark Kolterman of Seward.
During this larger ceremony, Bohac and Kolterman presented a framed proclamation to the mayor of Saint Lo on behalf of Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts which declared July 18, 2019, Saint Lo Liberation Day in the state. The proclamation honored the 75th anniversary of the World War II battle in which Nebraska’s own 134th Infantry Regiment fought bravely and prevailed despite heavy casualties.
Bohac also accepted a medallion commemorating the 75th anniversary of D-Day and the liberation of the town of Saint Lo from the town’s mayor, Francois Briere, on behalf of the Nebraska National Guard.
While brief and fast-paced, the 75th Commemoration Staff Ride visit to Saint Lo, France was a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity for all the Nebraska Soldiers involved – regardless of if they were with the main body or the honor guard.
When interviewed about the trip after its conclusion, one consistent message emerged: the desire for every Nebraska National Guard Soldier and Airman to one day experience Normandy and the “Road to Saint Lo” for themselves.
| Date Taken: | 07.21.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 07.19.2020 12:24 |
| Story ID: | 374178 |
| Location: | SAINT LO, FR |
| Hometown: | LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, US |
| Web Views: | 244 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Staff ride commemorates Saint Lo’s 75th liberation, by Lisa Crawford, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
