Matthew E Morse

Pfc Matthew Morse was killed in action on 07 June 1944, serving with Company E, 5th Ranger Battalion. On 7 June 1944, the day after landing at Omaha Beach, the 5th Ranger Battalion worked to widen the fragile beachhead around Vierville-sur-Mer while organizing help for the isolated 2nd Ranger Battalion at Pointe du Hoc. A mixed force built around 2nd Battalion Rangers, infantry from the 116th, and supporting tanks pushed toward the Pointe early that morning but was pinned down by heavy artillery fire near St. Pierre-du-Mont and forced to fall back, holding the town overnight while a two-man patrol slipped through enemy lines after dark to make contact with the Rangers at the Pointe and lay communication wire. Meanwhile, other companies of the battalion renewed the fight south and southwest of Vierville-sur-Mer, clearing machine-gun nests, snipers, and enemy patrols throughout the day, and had to sweep the town a second time that night after infiltrators returned. By the close of the second day the battalion had taken roughly 150 prisoners and killed about 80 of the enemy, at a cost of some 40 Ranger casualties. Pfc Morse was killed in action that day; the report does not specify the individual circumstances.