Edward W Mills

T/5 Edward Mills was killed in action on 06 June 1944, serving with HQ&HQ Co, 3rd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment. On the morning of June 6, 1944, the men of Headquarters Company came ashore on Fox Green Beach below Colleville-sur-Mer, their landing craft grounding well short of the water line under direct machine gun, mortar, and artillery fire. Wire, intelligence, ammunition, and pioneer personnel, along with part of the medical section, fought forward to a narrow shale ledge alongside the pinned-down rifle companies, then worked laterally through sniper and machine-gun fire to help establish and relocate the battalion command post as the assault troops pushed toward the ridge. Throughout the day the company struggled to bring ammunition, weapons, and vehicles ashore amid sinking landing craft, drowned-out trucks, and constant shelling, while also laying wire lines, retrieving salvageable equipment, and helping move the wounded off the beach. By nightfall the battalion had dug in around Le Grand Hameau, and in the fighting that day the company lost its commander, listed as wounded and missing, along with one man missing, twelve wounded and evacuated, two wounded who remained on duty, and one man killed three days later. T/5 Mills was killed in action that day; the report does not specify the individual circumstances.