Jack R Simms

Cpl Jack Simms was killed in action on 06 June 1944, serving with Company D, 1st Battalion, 116th Infantry Regiment. On the morning of June 6, 1944, the Regimental Troops of the 116th Infantry went ashore on Dog Green Beach in six boats scheduled to land at H+40, roughly 300 yards left of their intended objective, though one boatload was carried far off course into the 2nd Battalion's sector nearly a mile away. The landing was costly: an explosion tore the ramp from one boat some 400 yards offshore, forcing the men to abandon it under fire, and further losses on the run to the beach meant only about half that group reached shore, with all its heavy weapons lost in the water. Other sections suffered comparably heavy losses, leaving the unit with just a handful of working machine guns and mortars once ashore. Scattered survivors regrouped through the day in different ways - some climbing the bluff with Rangers before attaching to C Company, others moving inland with elements of the 2nd or 3rd Battalions toward Vierville-sur-Mer, and at least one group holding a firing position on the beach itself until nightfall before making their way to rejoin the Battalion in the village. Cpl Simms was killed in action that day; the report does not specify the individual circumstances.