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Clancy's friend "Wild Bill" William J. Guarnere
THE INTERVIEW :World War II: In late May 1944, when the word came that you were being sent out, did you know that this time it was not a training exercise? Guarnere: We knew it was time to go. We went out on problems all the time, but this time when we left, we could see tears in the eyes of the people of Aldbourne, where we had been stationed. They knew D-Day was coming. I don't know how, but they knew. There was a lot of military traffic in the town, and all of it was moving to the south.
WWII: What were the marshaling areas like? Guarnere: The area was beside the airfield at Uppottery. Once we got inside, we were not allowed to talk to anyone who was not in the unit. They had GI’s dressed in German uniforms walking all around. Soon after we settled in, the men started cleaning their equipment. Everyone was paying more attention to their weapons. Nobody had to tell the men to do it, they just did. All around me were troopers who kept taking their weapons apart and putting them back together again. All the rifles really shined. I spent most of my time talking over the mission with the other sergeants in the company.
WWII: What were the officers doing while all this was going on? Guarnere: They were being briefed on the upcoming mission so that they could then brief us. The day before the men were briefed, I was shown into a tent, where I saw a sand-table mockup of where we were going. It looked like a toy; everything was perfect. We found out later that the one thing the sand table did not show were the hedgerows. They explained where we would land and what we would do. We were instructed to secure a causeway that ran through the small town of Pouppeville, so that tanks coming up from Utah Beach would be able to move inland. They said it would be a real piece of cake, but, even then, I remember thinking that it could not be that easy. As it turned out, it wasn't. Everything was fouled up. I never was able to understand how they could not have warned us about those hedgerows.
WWII: Was everybody ready to go? Guarnere: I know I was. After the men had been briefed on the evening of June 3, I was lying on my bunk trying to get some rest when I decided I needed to go to the bathroom. Johnny Martin was on the bottom hunk, and I was on the top. When I got up to go to the latrine, I picked up a jump jacket, thinking it was mine, and headed out to do my business. While I was sitting there, I realized that I had picked up Johnny's coat by mistake. I needed something to pass the time, so I reached into the pocket of the jacket and found a letter. Since Johnny and I were pretty close, I thought, "What harm could there be in reading the letter?" The letter was from Johnny's wife and said, "Don't tell Bill, but his brother was killed in Cassino, Italy." That is how I found out my brother was dead. My girlfriend, Frannie, had written to Pat Martin, and she had written to Johnny. I couldn't believe it. I used to write to my brother when I had a chance, but the mail was not regular. He was a medic in the 1st Armored Division and had been killed on January 6, 1944. When I had read the letter, all I thought was, "Give me a gun and let me go." I never thought I would make it through the first day. Put yourself in my position, I was half nuts. I didn't love the Germans, that was for sure, but the news of my brother's death put a little more spice into the killing. When they said it was time to go, I was ready. Believe me, I was ready.
WWII: You were originally supposed to go on the evening of the 4th, but at the last minute General Dwight Eisenhower postponed the mission until the 5th. What was that like? Guarnere: We just kept doing what we had been doing. That is when they pulled that limey idea on us. The first two men in each stick were given British leg bags to carry extra equipment as we jumped out the door. We had never jumped with a leg bag before and had no idea what to expect. Instead of being careful of what we packed, the men put all sorts of stuff in the bag I was carrying. Naturally, all the bags quickly became overloaded. They all got so heavy you could not even pick them up. We waited by our planes for close to eight or 10 hours. While we waited, I was getting madder and madder, thinking about my brother. I was fuming, and the rest of the boys were wild as can be.
WWII: At 2200 hours, the waiting was finally over. What was the trip to Normandy like? Guarnere: The flight across was peaceful. Most of the guys were quiet, except for [Wayne] "Skinny" Sisk, who asked if anybody wanted to buy a watch. I was number two in the stick, so I had the leg bag. I had attached the bag to my right foot, and though I was not aware of it, on the flight across the weight of the bag had put my foot to sleep. When we finally got close to the French coast and the bullets started flying, everybody started screaming, "Get out, get out, get the hell out!" When the order finally came to stand up and hook up, I could not stand. Every dine I stood up, I fell down again. Those bullets ripping through the plane woke my foot up fast, though, and I was eventually able to throw myself out, headfirst.
WWII: What was the jump like? Guarnere: After I jumped out and my chute deployed, I looked around. It looked like the Fourth of July out there. No, it looked like 10,000 Fourth of Julys. I started dropping toward Ste. MèreEglise. The first thing I noticed as I looked down was that the place was on fire. The French were trying to put out the fires. I came down fast and landed quick and goddamned hard. I landed near the church in the center of the town. I had lost my leg bag on the jump and landed without a weapon. With all those troopers falling from the sky, however, I was soon able to find one. Joe Toye landed nearby, and we soon found Carwood Lipton.
WWII: Then what did you do? Guarnere: We started off toward our objective at Pouppeville. More of the men joined us as we went along, and soon there were about eight or 10 of us. At some point, we heard the sounds of a German supply train. In the distance, we could hear the clop, clop, clop of horses' hooves and the creaking of cart wheels. I remember thinking, "Jesus Christ, it sounds like they are ringing bells." Well, we set ourselves up and got ready for them. They walked right into us. We annihilated the sons of bitches right there. We let 'em get past us, and then we opened fire. That was my first taste of combat. We just shot down all the bastards. We did not take any prisoners. They never knew what hit them.
WWII: What did that first experience of combat feel like? Guarnere: It felt good. I was paying back my brother. I killed a lot that first day. You put yourself in my position. I never thought I would make it through that first day. I shot everything I saw. At one point, I even told Don Malarkey to get out of my way or I would shoot him, too.
WWII: After you destroyed the German supply column, what did you do? Guarnere: We then headed toward Pouppeville. That's when we came across the German guns at Brécourt Manor. We had no idea that they were even there, but when we reached La Grand Chemin, some of the headquarters staff filled us in. That is when we launched our attack. Nobody really had any idea what was there, but we knew we had to take the guns, or the guys coming up from the beach would be in big trouble. There were only 10 or 12 of us, but we attacked fast. We were able to capture three of the guns before Lieutenant Ronald Speirs from Company D came up and captured a fourth gun.
WWII: Was the fighting over then? Guarnere: No, we still had to disable the guns, and German machine guns from across the field were still firing at us. I tried to disable them by dropping grenades down the barrels, but it wasn't really working. That's when Lewis Nixon and Clarence Hester came up with TNT, and we were able to blow up the guns' breeches. As soon as we had destroyed the guns, the adrenaline I had been running on just left me. I was so tired that I remember looking over the top of a hedge with a pair of field glasses to see if there were any more Germans around, and I fell sound asleep. Joe Toye came up behind me and tapped me on the shoulder, and I think I jumped 10 feet. The 10 seconds I slept were like 10 hours. Not long after that, some of our tanks came up.
WWII: What did you think when you saw your first American tank? Guarnere: I remember thinking, "Thank Christ." Then I started looking back on what we had just done, and I started thinking, "Jesus, we are all going to get killed. If we keep this up, we are all going to be dead."
WWII: So had you become nervous about what your future might hold? Guarnere: No, I wasn't thinking about my parents or my brother or anything like that. After that first fight, I was sort of resigned. I never thought I would make it out alive, and I just got madder. All I was thinking about was killing more Germans. I wanted to kill Germans for revenge, that's all.
WWII: Did you feel that way for the whole war? Guarnere: Not really. My anger wore off in a day or two. After each fight with the enemy, you learn a little more, and in Normandy you had plenty of opportunity to get educated real fast. It was not like I thought it was supposed to be. Even though we had been well trained, none of us had any idea of what it was really like until the shooting started. All the training in the world couldn't prepare you for what happened. It's funny, though, once the firing started, your head just clicked, and you did what you had to. It is hard to realize what is happening until the enemy starts shooting at you. Then you think: "Hey, they are shooting at me. Why is everyone in the German army trying to kill me?" You think you are alone, but you're not. Everyone else has the same feeling and is looking out for one another. We made it through because of training. All because of that goddamn Captain Herbert Sobel in basic training at Toccoa.
WWII: You are getting a lot of attention. What is so special about Easy Company? Guarnere: We don't think we are special. All of the troopers in the 506th were good. If there is anything for us to feel special about, it is that we are survivors. When I read that letter about my brother getting killed, I didn't know whether to cry or shit. I was just dumbfounded. Then I thought, "Well, you're going over there pretty soon, kid, and you'll get your shot." Then I got over there and was a wild man. Even my buddies stayed away from me those first couple of days. Now, I wouldn't step on a bug. I don't want to kill nothing. I am an entirely different person today. C.J.A.
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