Heroes of the Medal of Honor
In the summer of 1944, this young officer led a squad of 12 inexperienced infantrymen through the Normandy Campaign, taking multiple enemy positions and suffering serious injuries in the process
It was still early in the morning on 6 June 1944, but Staff Sergeant Walter Ehlers sensed something had gone terribly wrong. Glancing up from his overloaded headquarters LCI (Landing Craft, Infantry), poised in the English Channel, he watched as dozens of Allied fighters, bombers and gliders buzzed overhead, bound for inland targets in France.
Fading into the distance, the armada passed over the Normandy beachline beyond, where the first wave of the 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions were already in the thick of the fight. In command of L Company, 18th Infantry, Ehlers was waiting anxiously as part of the planned second wave to take the beach from the Germans. However, it was already clear things were not going to plan, and the airwaves were filled with frantic calls for immediate reinforcement.
Answering the call, Ehlers led the men of L Company to a waiting Higgins boat before motoring towards the beach. The 12 soldiers under his command had never seen battle before that day, but now it was down to them to back up their beleaguered comrades in the first wave. Motoring towards Omaha Beach, Ehlers’ boat struck a sandbar, forcing the men to bail out into the cold surf, about 100 yards offshore. Already, the beach was strewn with the dead and wounded – many had been cut down before they could even reach land. Wading under heavy mortar fire, the squad traversed a narrow passage through a minefield, past the mangled corpses of those who had tragically failed to keep on track.
Reaching the high ground beyond the beach, Ehlers directed his men in an attack on a German pillbox, stopping only to capture four German soldiers, before they continued their advance. Once they reached the open fields of Normandy, L Company encountered the second line of German defenders. Taking cover in nearby hedgerows, they only emerged once the rest of the second wave of the 1st Infantry Division caught up. By midday the 745th Tank Battalion had arrived on the beach and moved up to join the fight. With the 745th’s armour in support, L Company moved substantially further inland, establishing a defensive perimeter from where they could wait for further reinforcements. Day One of their N
