Millard W Hayden

S/Sgt Millard Hayden was killed in action on 06 June 1944, serving with Company E, 2nd Ranger Battalion. On the morning of 6 June 1944, Company E scaled the sheer cliffs at Pointe du Hoc as part of Force "A," one of the boldest assaults of the invasion. By midday, roughly half the company held a defensive perimeter while the rest worked to destroy the German command post overlooking the point, even as enemy infiltration cut them off from other Allied forces and forced them into active patrolling to hold their ground. One of these patrols pushed inland and located the German 155mm guns that had threatened the invasion beaches, finding them already destroyed. The men of Company E spent that day isolated on the point they had just taken, holding their position under fire and completing the mission that had brought them there. S/Sgt Hayden was killed in action that day; the report does not specify the individual circumstances.