We could see the action from the landing craft as we came in. There was a tremendous amount of firepower coming from both flanks. Machine gun fire and artillery fire was pouring in. Before we landed on the beach I could see a group of people behind the seawall. These men were mostly from the 29th Division. They were leveled out and not moving.

The beach was at low tide. We had to run across about a 100 yards of beach with my platoon leader, Lt. Dawson, who received the DSC, and Woody Doorman who was a Bangalore Torpedo man. Our job was to place the torpedo under the wire and detonate it, ripping a hole in the wire for the rest of troops to move through.

Woody and I had three Bangalore torpedoes; they were about five feet long and were strapped to our M1s. We carried two bandoleers of M1 ammunition, a pistol on our side, and demolitions strapped to our back. On the top of our helmet we had a fuse lighter. This was about a 5-second fuse that would set off the torpedo.

When we exited the landing craft many people had flotation belts and if the water was over your neck you would turn upside down. When we got off the boat and into the wet sand we had to run for the seawall. Men were dying around us, lying in different positions, and tanks were burning.

Finally we got behind the seawall on the beach. At this time, General [Norman D.] Cota, who was the Assistant Division Commander of the 29th made a statement at that time, "Rangers Lead of Way" or "Rangers let's get moving" - to us it meant let's get moving.

Woody and I had to assemble each piece of the torpedo, get up from behind the seawall, push the bangaldor torpedo across the road on top of the bluff and put it under the concertina wire. Once we had the torpedo in place we took the fuse wire out, pulled the fuse and jumped back over the wall. The result, if it worked, was a hole in the concertina wire.

They [the Germans] didn't stop firing while we were doing this, if you know what I mean (laugh). They were firing down the line and there was a lot of machine gun and mortar fire. I don't know if I was so scared or what, but I moved as fast as I could to get everything set. Once the explosion went off Woody and I were supposed to have a spool of white tape on our back. So we could lead the people through the minefield. Since the landing was so rough that spool of white tape was gone. I made sure the fuse lighter went off since we were told in our training that if it didn't go off we were to sacrifice our bodies and lay on the concertina wire as the men stepped on us. So I made damn sure that the torpedo detonated (laugh). Meanwhile, men started moving through the holes Woody and I created and Lt. Dawson took command of my immediate group. Our platoon lead Headquarters and one Company of the 29th through my hole.

We were the first on the top, in that area. As the men moved through our holes in the wire, one of our scouts got cut in half by a machine gun. I was told to fire a grenade at a machine gun nest but like everything else in the US Army it was a big dud. So at that point Lt. Dawson got up and charged it with his submachine gun and kept blasting. When we got up close they put their hands up. I remember that one German had his arm dangling by only a piece of flesh. That was our first face-to-face contact with the enemy.

Editors note: A painting by Dietz hangs in the White House commemorating this action and it's signed by Reed, Doorman, and Dawson.

Source: Interview by Pat O'Donnell with Bill Reed