Foster G Nickerson

T/5 Foster Nickerson was killed in action on 06 June 1944, serving with HQ Btry, 7th Field Artillery Battalion. On the morning of June 6, 1944, the 7th Field Artillery Battalion began landing at H-Hour, 0630, on the beach near St. Laurent-sur-Mer, tasked with supporting the 16th Infantry's assault as the 1st Infantry Division fought to establish its foothold on the Normandy coast. Facing withering machine-gun, rifle, and mortar fire from fortified enemy positions that had pinned down hundreds of troops on the open shingle, battalion personnel—many without their guns, which were still offshore—pulled wounded men from the beach and the sea and helped destroy the last active enemy strongpoint threatening the landing. Out in the Channel, DUKWs carrying the battalion's howitzers pressed toward shore under heavy fire, losing six guns to the sea before the remaining six were brought ashore and put into position; by 4:15 that afternoon the battalion had fired the first artillery mission of the V Corps beachhead, remaining in support of the infantry on the beach through the following two days. T/5 Nickerson was killed in action that day; the report does not specify the individual circumstances.