“I Need Two Volunteers.” Col. Sink, Maj. Hannah, and the D-Day Jeep Ride Through German Lines

“I had a flock of grenades which I didn’t think to toss out along the ditch and neither did anybody else. We laughed about it afterwards. The action was just too fast,” Hank W. Hannah, S-3 of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment.

Hank Hannah was a commissioned reserve officer, and married lawyer with two children, when World War II broke out. This is compiled this from the books A Military Interlude self-published by Hank Hannah in 1999, two years before his death at age 90 and D-Day With The Screaming Eagles, by George Koskimaki, published by Presidio Press a division of Random House. These are his recollections of D-Day, supplemented with Koskimaki's book.

Normandy.

In the two or three days before the grand takeoff for the coast of France we studied maps did diagrams on sand tables and designed the spots where every unit was to assemble and where command posts would be located.

The objective was for every man to have a picture of the terrain in his head so matter so no matter where he landed -- providing it wasn't miles away or in the ocean as some did --  he could find his way to his unit and help it achieve its objective.

The big night finally came: the night for climbing into the plains and hearing the messages of encouragement from high command read by the jumpmaster, and settling down for the trip across the channel. It was the night of June 5th about that night I wrote:

“This is the eve of the greatest adventure I have ever experienced. We are poised near the coast of England ready to climb into our plains at 22:00 and drop on the hills of France at an early hour in the morning. We are confident, happy and able to eat. The wind is strong and it is cloudy, not the kind of weather for parachutists but we are going. Perhaps we will surprise the enemy. At any rate we expect to have a ringside seat for the beach landing in the morning.

 I have checked and rechecked my equipment pistols, knife, grenades, ammunition, maps medical appliances, and numerous gadgets and I am ready for anything. We are well rested, well fed, and anxious to see what it will be like.

The fates permitting, I shall complete this saga one day and tell what it was like.”

The flight across the channel was unforgettable. I was a senior officer in my plane and for that reason would be the first out. This permitted me to stand in the door listen to the roar of 1,000 planes and see the dim wing lights bobbing up and down, observe the channel below, and await the green light.

It didn't seem long before we crossed and very soon the light for stand up and hook up came. Then the green light for jump.

 I floated down, not very far because we jumped as low as we could. I landed in a peaceful pasture, wriggled out of my harness and spied someone struggling with his. It was Major Buchner. After he was extricated we started off for the command post.

There were some flack and machine gun fire but not in our immediate area. Presently we overtook Colonel Sink and Lieutenant Wilson. Within a few minutes more men joined us.

Our first contact with the French was when Colonel Sink stopped us at a farmhouse to rouse the Frenchman -- if he was not already up and wondering what was going on  -- and asked him to verify our position. He did and we pushed on to the spot designated for our command post, a farm near Couloville. We sent our guides to help bring personnel into the command post.

I noted in my jump pants pocket notebook that the night was clear and cool the air fragrant the grass long and green, the fields, small. There were many dairy cattle and horses moving like shadows. Nearly all the fence rows and roadsides had high banks and trees. 

There was an increase in machine gun and small arms fire as more of our paratroopers made contact with the Germans. We were fortunate in not having any direct attacks on our headquarters.

It should be said that everyone participating in this foray against the enemy has his story. No one will ever know how many separate small fights took place in all directions from the 506th's command post. Like every paratrooper story this will be my own and will not involve any hand-to-hand combat or rushing at the enemy with fixed bayonets, but all the same it was pretty exciting for me.

On arriving at the command post at Couloville, Lieutenant Matheson and I went with a patrol to the buildings and found no Germans only frightened French family members.

We made contact with the First Battalion and by 0500. Colonel Turner had moved with about 60 men to seize Exit One to Utah beach. By 0600 second battalion had been contacted and Colonel Bob Strayer moved out on Exit Two with about one third of his battalion.

All through the early morning hours paratroopers from other units dropped near our area came into our command post. We collected them in a small pasture near headquarters calling them the composite force. When a patrol was needed we could have one formed from this force. One such patrol was help sent to help captains Patch and Raudstein of the First Battalion who were held up on Exit One by enemy machine gunfire. A little while later not hearing from the patrol, I went with five men to check on the situation.

The patrol had routed the Germans from a house. Some documents were left behind which we collected to take back to headquarters. We decided that a mortar might be useful in relief to hold up of the first battalion. It worked.

By 0700 prisoners were being brought in and had to be accommodated. They looked tired many of them were very young and some were men past their prime, not the kind of German soldiers we were going to meet in the next few days.

Shortly after 0700 we heard enemy fire in the direction of the glider landing zone. Later we learned that there had been high casualties and General Pratt, assistant division commander, was killed when his glider crashed. The glider however had brought some jeeps and around 0900 General Maxwell Taylor showed up at our headquarters.

By this hour in the morning there were many wounded men laying in the barnyard at Couleville. Around 1000, with a jeep now available, Colonel Sink decided we should go looking for Third Battalion.

“There’s a jeep and driver over there doing nothing lets go out and see if we can find Bob Wolverton,” Sink told Hannah, according to D-Day With The Screaming Eagles, by George Koskimaki. “We’ve got to find out if those bridges had been taken. If they haven’t we’ll have to get some people to do the job.”

The book states that Hannah unfolded a map he was carrying and spread it on the jeep hood. The logical route was along the main road between St. Marie-du-Mont and St. Come-du-Mont. They could pick up the highway in Vierville.

“Get a couple more men,” said Sink.

Hannah went over to a small group which had recently collected.

“I need two volunteers,” he said. He eyed the group and pointed to a pair: Private Amory S. Roper, and Salvator Ceniceros, who were both armed with submachine guns. Hannah, the book said, picked those two because the trip may require extra firepower.

The two submachine gunners climbed onto the hood. Hannah was in the backseat with a revolver and a good supply of grenades. The driver had a carbine across his lap.

“OK driver, let’s roll,” Sink said.

The paratroopers on the hood held on to the folded-down windshield as the patrol turned onto the road.

While driving along the fields and admiring the large number of horses near the blacktop outside Vierville, Hannah spotted a German sentry raising his rifle. Hannah shouted a warning and fired his .38 revolver. The others in the Jeep also opened fire and the sentry crumpled to the ground.

Suddenly, I the ditch along either side of the road, dozens of German soldiers – part of a battalion that was headed towards Utah Beach --  stood and looked up at the ruckus.

The driver hit the gas. The paratroopers on the hood blazed away with their tommy guns and the officers fired their side arms. Seeing the jeep bearing down on them, Germans dove back into the ditches.

The patrol made it about 500 yards into enemy territory before Colonel Sink saw twenty or so German officers in the road using it as a makeshift headquarters to plan their advance. The officers scattered like quail, as the jeep bore down on them, Koskimaki writes, but several German artillery pieces were blocking the road ahead.

Sink, not willing to push his luck further, ordered the driver to turn the five of them around. The paratroopers on the hood, and the officers opened fire again on the return to Culolville. By then a German machine gunner let off a burst, but just missed the jeep as it turned on the road back to the command post.

“I had a flock of grenades which I didn’t think to toss out along the ditch and neither did anybody else. We laughed about it afterwards. The action was just too fast,” Hannah said.