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D-Day remembered: Sandwell fought for the cause

Staff writer

Even though D-Day occurred nearly 60 years ago, Ed Sandwell still remembers the events as if they happened yesterday.

The Marion man was one of more than 150,000 Allied soldiers to land June 6, 1944, on the beaches of Normandy, France.

Today, the invasion of France is considered a triumph of intelligence, coordination, secrecy, and planning. Sixty years ago, however, the invasion — known as Operation Overlord — was considered a tremendous risk which could have potentially resulted in horrific numbers of deaths of young Allied soldiers.

"We knew what we were up against," Sandwell recalled. "We had been told the possible casualty percentages.

"But we had the will to succeed," Sandwell said. "We were just a bunch of young bucks — the average age was just a little over 19. My thought was 'I'm going to get in and get out of it.'

"We were fighting for a cause," he continued, "and everybody back home was behind us 100 percent."

Originally, May 1944, had been chosen for the invasion; however, difficulties in assembling landing craft forced the operation to be postponed until June.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander, set the invasion date for June 5, but bad weather resulting in dangerous landing conditions forced a 24-hour postponement.

Assured of a short break in the stormy weather and after intense debate among his staff, Eisenhower gave the OK to proceed.

Within hours of his order, an armada of 3,000 landing craft, 2,500 other ships, and 500 naval vessels — including escorts and bombardment ships — began to leave English ports.

Sgt. Sandwell, a member of 149th Engineer C Battalion, was one of those soldiers waiting for the order.

"We were on the boat one to two days beforehand," Sandwell said.

Today, Sandwell still has a letter from Eisenhower, handed to each Allied soldier. The letter is a reminder they were about to embark on a crusade which would "bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world."

A career in the Army

A 1939 Marion High School graduate, Sandwell initially tried to join the Air Corps as a pilot but was turned down because of physical problems with his eyes and ears.

Later drafted by the Army, Sandwell began his service in February 1943, at Fort Leavenworth.

"I took the Doodlebug from Florence to Leavenworth," he recalled.

After training at the Kansas base, he was sent to Camp McCain, Miss., to form a new group, the 149th Engineer C BN.

In August 1943, Sandwell went to Ft. Pierce, Fla., for naval amphibious training. In October 1943, he was sent to Camp Pickett, Va., and began ship-to-shore training exercises.

Although they did not know specifics, Sandwell said the men had a "darn good idea" what they were training for.

"They were training us in landing craft exercises," Sandwell remembered, noting that in itself was unusual. "Especially since they were taking an army unit and making it amphibious."

Sandwell was one of untold numbers of soldiers who set sail for England by convoy, spending 14 days before landing in Liverpool.

"We were shipped to southern England in the Devon area and billeted in private homes," he said.

The soldiers then worked on ship-to-shore exercises at Slapping Sands, England.

Approximately 10 days before the invasion, the men were sent to a campground surrounded with barbed wire and guards who had been ordered to "shoot to kill" anyone entering or leaving without authorization.

"That was due to the secrecy of the operation," Sandwell explained. "We didn't need some drunk soldier blabbing."

Sandwell said the men were at the campground until they received the final order for invasion and boarded the ship to go.

"We practiced on a mock replica of a beach," he said. "We were given our final orders and some French occupational franks. We had maps showing escape routes in our helmet liners."

Fate intervenes

At the last minute, Sandwell was pulled from his platoon, an order which ultimately saved his life.

"I was pulled off final briefing," he said, shaking his head. "But when they went in there, the LCI 92 hit an underwater obstacle and had a direct hit. It burned and all 20 or so perished. Four of those boys were from the Emporia and Dunlap areas."

Sandwell was assigned to a pontoon barge called a Rhino ferry. Rhino ferries transported thousands of trucks, tanks, and artillery pieces from Liberty ships to pontoon causeways.

"We carried 12 trucks, utility trailers, bulldozers. . ." he recalled.

Sandwell's unit was not part of the first wave, so as they headed into the area known as Omaha Beach, the beach was littered with debris.

"We hit a sand bar and you couldn't go over it or get out of it. We had to wait for the tide. There were Germans up in those pill boxes. They spotted us and you couldn't do anything," Sandwell said. "They sprayed water and shrapnel all around us.

"We didn't sustain an injury — not a one," he said.

After landing, Sandwell's primary job became building roads for trucks and removing obstacles like land mines.

After establishing the beachhead, work quickly proceeded to build and complete two artificial harbors when a heavy storm "tore out the harbor," Sandwell remembered.

"We were only going to be there two weeks, but they kept us there doing ship-to-shore operations moving ammo, gas, food. . . We worked by the tide to try and get everything in before the tide went out again," he said.

Sandwell's platoon remained in the area until mid-December 1944, when the men were called to "go to the Battle of the Bulge."

During his time with the Army, Sandwell supervised 13 military personnel, 125 civilians, and 100 German prisoners of war on a variety of jobs in connection with the construction of roads, grading, back filling, and excavating of roads, among other job duties. He also helped construct wooden bridges and supervised the building of "bailey bridges," steel structures designed for rapid construction.

After participating in various missions, Sandwell ended up in Germany on VE-Day (Victory in Europe). Then he was sent to Belgium to prepare for the invasion of Japan.

"August of 1945 was a low blow for us because we couldn't get back to the states," he said.

However, the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan, ended further war preparations.

"Many groups and individuals have condemned us for using the atomic bomb," Sandwell said. "But using that saved thousands and thousands of lives and one of them could have been mine."

As for his D-Day experience, Sandwell said that if the Germans had learned of the planned Allied attack at Normandy, the outcome would have been much different.

"Without question, if the Germans had launched a counterattack we would have had another Dunkirk," he said.

To divert German attention from the real area of attack, Eisenhower and his staff created an entire "phantom" army supposedly based in southeast England allegedly commanded by American General George S. Patton.

"They used some decoys. Built up troops and equipment so the Germans thought the actual force was somewhere else," Sandwell said. "They didn't think we'd attack Normandy."

For his 23 1/2 months of service in England, France, Belgium, Holland, and Germany, Sandwell received numerous honors. They include four bronze campaign stars for Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, and central Europe. He also was awarded a bronze service arrowhead for assault landing on Normandy and the distinguished unit badge.

"I want to emphasize that I'm not a hero," Sandwell said. "The ones who gave the supreme sacrifice were the heroes. I was just a small cog in the largest amphibious operation the world has ever known."

Some would disagree, including the French government, which presented him with a certificate of appreciation in May 2002, for his service during the Normandy invasion.

"I was just a GI who did my job and came home," Sandwell said.

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