James Smith

Pfc James Smith was killed in action on 06 June 1944, serving with Company A, 37th Engineer Combat Battalion. On the morning of June 6, 1944, Company A of the 37th Engineer Combat Battalion went ashore at Omaha Beach with the mission of clearing Exit E-3 for the troops and vehicles massing behind them. The company's reconnaissance party landed first, at 0700, but was stopped cold by small-arms and mortar fire; the main body came in two and a half hours later near Exit E-1, losing its jeeps in the surf while a bulldozer and tractor made it ashore intact. For the rest of the day the men worked to clear the exit under direct fire from German positions on the high ground, driving disabled vehicles into a minefield to open the road and watching truck after truck and tank after tank get knocked out by a well-hidden 88mm gun that patrols could not locate. By nightfall the company was still pinned down and dug in where it stood, its objective unmet but its position held. Pfc Smith was killed in action that day; the report does not specify the individual circumstances.