116th SRI Company Deploys to France (6–9 AUG 1944)

Photo By Erin Thompson | A rhino ferry lands vehicles on Omaha Beach. Liberty ships can be seen in the background.  

UNITED STATES

08.04.2023

Courtesy Story

U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence

by Michael E. Bigelow, INSCOM Command Historian

6–9 AUGUST 1944
On 6 August 1944, Capt. Edward S. Barley’s 116th Signal Radio Intelligence (SRI) Company departed its comfortable quarters near Lymington, England. Three days later, the company’s 250 officers and men found themselves in northern France, thirty-three miles southwest of the Normandy beaches.

Formed in May 1942, Barley’s company had been in England for six months. From 22 April, it had been stationed at the Pylewell House along the English Channel. Barley, a 25-year-old New Yorker, had his men operate from their truck-mounted shelters as they would in the field. In the ensuing weeks, they began producing radio intelligence. In early August, Barley had his men waterproof their vehicles and equipment in anticipation of the move to France.

On morning of 6 August, 1st Sgt. Franklyn B. Modell, a 27-year-old Philadelphian with an artistic bent, had the men climb into the company’s trucks and head northeast to Southampton. By that afternoon, the convoy had reached the marshalling area. After chow, Sgt. George Deal, the company’s 29-year-old mess sergeant, issued the men K-rations as well as an allotment of candy, cigarettes, and gum. Hardly had the men stowed these items in their musette bags when the order came through to load up and move to the docks.

As the men piled back into their trucks, NCOs like Sgts. John Evarts, a music professor at North Carolina’s influential Black Mountain College, and Benjamin Whitten, a librarian from California’s Whittier College, trotted up and down the line calling off names and assuring the men they would be moving in a couple of minutes. In the meantime, S. Sgt. Robert M. Mohn, the company’s 23-year-old supply sergeant, issued forty-five rounds of ammunition to each man. Everyone also received a little booklet describing France.

Soon Barley’s men found themselves alongside the Robert E. Peary, a Liberty ship that had been built in the record time of 4 days and 15 hours and 29 minutes. As cranes lifted their vehicles into the Peary’s hold, the soldiers rolled out their bedrolls and tried to sleep amidst the noisy activity.

Early the morning of 7 August, Modell had his sergeants roust the bleary-eyed men. As the unit’s history notes, “at the call of ‘Rise and shine,’ everyone rose but nobody shone.” The sleepy, silent men gathered up their belongings and trudged aboard. Everyone from the company commander to the lowest private was happy to get started.

For the men, the Channel crossing turned out to be unbelievably calm and, by early afternoon, they could see the approaching French coast. Wherever they looked, they saw ships of every shape and size. The Robert S. Peary took her place and dropped anchor off Omaha Beach. The company would have to wait until the next morning to unload.

The next morning, a long, flat naval barge, known as a rhino ferry, pulled alongside the Liberty ship, and its crew began to move the company’s vehicles from the ship’s hold. By late afternoon, about half of the company scrambled down the side of the Peary to take their places with their trucks. By the evening, they were ashore. Meanwhile, the remainder of the company loaded onto another ferry. However, darkness fell before loading was completed. Those soldiers spent another night on the water.

With half of his company stranded on the barge, Captain Barley decided to proceed to the unit’s assigned assembly area near Périers, France. With that decision, the most important men in the company became the drivers, like Pvts. Burley Pennington, a 27-year-old Indiana farmer, and William F. Yaeger, a 36-year-old railroad man from Minnesota. Both men had been with the company since it had been formed. During the night of 8 August, they drove in almost total darkness over war-torn roads with minefields on both sides. Remarkably, the convoy made the forty-mile journey without any major incident.

The next morning, the remainder of the company finally landed on Omaha Beach and arrived at Périers by afternoon on 9 August. Sergeant Modell had the men pitch tents, hang lister bags, and dig latrines. The next day, Captain Barley established the operations area. Twenty-six-year-old Pfc. Oliver McEachern from Kansas established the company’s switchboard while Pfc. Harry Werneken, a 30-year-old from Connecticut, and Pfc. Howard Launer, a 23-year-old from Nebraska, began working their intercept stations. CWO Darrell J. Cagle, a 33-year-old communication specialist from Oklahoma, provided technical oversight.

For the next ten months, Captain Barley and his company provided radio intelligence support to the Twelfth Army Group.

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• Date Taken: 08.04.2023
• Date Posted: 08.04.2023 16:45
• Story ID: 450745
• Location: US