Kenneth A Hendrickson

Sgt Kenneth Hendrickson was killed in action on 06 June 1944, serving with Company C, 2nd Ranger Battalion. On the morning of 6 June 1944, Company C, 2nd Ranger Battalion, was lowered from its transport at 0430 as part of Force "C" and made for Vierville-sur-Mer through a rough, sickening sea. The company touched down under fire at 0645, losing one landing craft to shellfire and crossing a beach raked by machine guns and mortars; nineteen men were killed and thirteen wounded getting off the sand, with five more wounded who stayed in the fight. Blocked from their planned route inland, the Rangers scaled the cliff above the beach and destroyed a fortified house that had survived the naval bombardment, killing fifty defenders and taking one prisoner before naval gunfire swept the same ground they now held. Cut off from radio contact, the company pushed on to link up with the 116th Infantry and rejoined the rest of Force "C" by 2130 that night. Sgt Hendrickson was killed in action that day; the report does not specify the individual circumstances.