Granville Armstrong

M/Sgt Granville Armstrong was killed in action on 06 June 1944, serving with HQ Co, 16th Infantry Regiment. On the morning of June 6th, 1944, the Advance Group of Regimental Troops boarded landing craft at 0500 and pushed toward Omaha Beach through rough seas and heavy fog, many men sick from the crossing. When the ramp dropped at 0720, the I&R Platoon led the way ashore through waist-deep water into intense artillery and machine-gun fire, and roughly thirty-five officers and men were killed or wounded before reaching the sand; the beach itself became a scene of chaos, with the dead and wounded scattered among soldiers struggling to reorganize. Amid this, the Radio Section's John J. Pinder Jr. performed the actions for which he later received the Congressional Medal of Honor, and after hours of effort the section managed to establish communication using the only radio that survived the landing intact. By afternoon the unit had pushed inland to a hillside offering some shelter, vehicles and equipment began arriving to replace losses, and order was slowly restored even as enemy air attacks and artillery continued through the night, during which one man was wounded by flak. M/Sgt Armstrong was killed in action that day; the report does not specify the individual circumstances.