Following on from his blog on the Longshore Soldiers finding shelter on the Normandy beaches, Andrew Brozyna gives us a fascinating report from the men's CO

'My book Longshore Soldiers focuses on my grandfather's port battalion, the 519th, so I am pleased to use this blog to share short histories of the other Normandy port battalions. A few months ago the National Archives sent me their records for the 502nd Port Battalion. While short, this ten-page report was surprisingly well-written. (Usually these Army reports are written in a plain utilitarian language.) The report gives a concise account of the unit's service during the war, highlighting some notable events taking place on Omaha Beach. The 502nd was one of the segregated battlalions. All the enlisted men were Africa-American, while the officers were white. Here is the introductory letter to the report.



502ND PORT BATTALION
COMMUNICATION ZONE ETO
APO 562 US ARMY


5 September 1944


SUBJECT: Unit History.


To: Commanding Officer, 5th Engineer Special Brigade, Communication Zone, ETC, APO 562, U. S. Army. (Attn: Brigade Historian) In accordance with letter, Hqrs., 5th Engineer Special Brigade, dated 1 September 1944, Subject: Unit History, the following is submitted for the 502nd Port Battalion.


1. CASUALTIES AND CHANGE IN COMMAND: As one of the few regularly constituted SOS [Service of Supply] units selected to accompany the Combat Engineer Battalions in the establishment or the Beach Head, tUW 502nd Port Battalion suffered some casualties. These included Lt. Colonel JAMES T. PIERCE of Erie, Pa., the Battalion Commander who had activated and trained the organization. On D plus 3 and only two weeks before he would have celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of his original Army induction Colonel PIERCE lost his leg in the explosion of a German anti-personnel mine. The same explosion wounded 1st Lt. KENNIE E. HATFIELD, the Bn. Adjutant who was evacuated and later returned to duty, and Tech. Sgt. Elbert D. Blocker of Corona, New York, the Battalion Sergeant Major. Major MARTIN S. HAYDEN of Grosse Pointe, Michigan assumed command.


Three of the five 502nd men who lost their lives on the Normandy Beach were drowned as they were being landed on the afternoon of D plus 1. These men, members of the 270th Port Company, lost their lives when a landing line stretched ashore from a grounded LST gave way as they worked their way ashore. But for the heroism of an officer and four EM of the Battalion, the casualty list would have been higher. 1st Lt. WILLIAM B. MORRIS of Wilmington, N.C.; S/Sgt. Herbert R. Brooks of Bronx, New York; Cpl. Robert D. Bond of West Somerville, Mass.; Sgt Scott Clay of Brooklyn, New York; and Pvt. William H. Beach, Jr. of Warick, New York repeatedly risked their lives by going out into the channel water after men who were unable to get ashore alone. In all they brought ashore 16 men including the three upon whom their efforts at artificial respiration were unsuccessful. The officer and the five EM have all been recommended for the Soldiers Medal. 


2. BATTALION BAND: The 502nd Port Battalion has good grounds for the belief that their organization was the first to furnish organized entertainment to American troops in Normandy. The story goes back to the United Kingdom and the determination of Col. PIERCE that his Battalion would have a band. Instruments were procured and a band formed at Camp Crookston in Scotland. The instruments were brought along when the Battalion sailed for France. On approximately D plus 12 the first concert was given. It was an unplanned and informal affair which partially disrupted Beach operations as soldiers gathered from the fox holes or adjacent fields and trucks pulled up on the road to listen to a little jive. On orders of the Brigade Commander the band was removed from other duties and put "on the road" as the first organized show in Normandy. Nightly they performed under the direction of Cpl. Eugene D. Cosby of Alquippa, Pa., the band leader. Band officer is 1st Lt. FREDERICK A. STONE of South Sudbury, Mass. who started his formalized musical career with Barnum and Bailey's Circus Band and continued it as the trainer of many a Massachusetts National Guard and American Legion Band. Master or Ceremonies for the road show was Chaplain EDWARD G. CARROLL of Washington, D. C.

3. OPERATIONS: In the workings or the Plan Neptune, the 502nd, like other Beach Head Port Battalions, encountered unanticipated obstacles and devised solutions which at times violated and in other instances added new chapters to the book on stevedoring rules. Initially the operation was according to plan; all ships began to arrive from the States which not only had no gear for their discharge but which in some cases had been loaded with the assurance that they would be discharged at fixed installations and with the heavy equipment of such fixed docks. Port Battalion officers who had been taught that booms must never be over-loaded discovered that the writer or that rule had not considered the question of "calculated risk" as it may be necessitated on a Beach operation. Section leaders discovered that the books carried no description of the proper gear for some of their peculiar lifts into landing craft. They fought a battle of telephone poles during a period when that unappreciated commodity arrived in a succession of ships. They devised their own sling for handling bundles of pierced steel planking which proved to be one or the primary bugaboes or a ship-Dukw operation. They encountered and conquered the problem of sorting in the holds all cargo regardless of how badly it had been mixed in loading.

4. PAST HISTORY OF BATTALION:
Significant dates in the history of this Battalion are
as follows:
Activated, Camp Myles Standish, Mass.------------25 March 1943.
Sailed for ETO from Port of New York-------------13 October 1943.
Arrived, Camp Crookston, Glasgow, Scotland-------19 October 1943.
Arrived at marshalling area, Llanover, Wales-----15 May 1944.
Sailed for France.....----------------------------2 June 1944.
Arrived of French coast--------------------------7 June 1944.

From the Commanding Officer:
Kennie E. Hatfield
1st Lt., TC, Adjutant

 

Longshore Soldiers is the fifth in our series of Osprey Digital books, and is available to download on the 20th