The Retan Rifles - Fork Union Military Academy

D-Day: The Normandy Invasion
As the landing craft hit the beaches at Omaha
Beach and Utah Beach at dawn on June 6, 1944,
George Retan and his comrades had already
been in combat for several hours.
The 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment was one
of a number of airborne units that jumped into
German-held territory in the hours past midnight.
The Third Battalion of the 506th was to
secure two bridges across the Douve River east
of the town of Carentan, France. The Germans
had built these bridges in recent months so they
could quickly move reinforcements to the beach
to meet the expected invasion. It was critical
that these bridges be seized and controlled if the
beach landings were to succeed.
In the darkness, amid a hail of anti-aircraft fire,
the transport planes bucked and swerved, trying
to find their drop zones. Paratroopers jumped
into uncertainty on that black night, very few
landing anywhere close to their targets, most
landing miles away from their objective.
Retan’s buddy, James Japhet, never made it into
the fight. His plane was hit and the right engine
and wing caught on fire. The paratroopers were
unable to jump and the plane crashed, killing all
aboard.
Joe Beyerle landed on a church in Saint-Cômedu-Mont
and slid down the roof to the ground
below. Alone, Beyerle tried to make his way
toward his objective but was captured by the
Germans and spent months in POW camps
before escaping and joining up with Soviet
Army forces with whom he fought through the
remainder of the war.
Joe Madona’s plane dropped him far from his
intended drop zone and into the area of operations
for the 82nd Airborne. He landed in a field
flooded by the Germans to hinder paratroopers
and had to act quickly to save himself and
a nearby comrade from drowning on landing.
Madona would survive Normandy but was killed
in action at Bastogne in January of 1945.
Ed Shames landed on the grounds of the
Carnation Milk factory near Carentan, all alone.
He quickly set about finding other paratroopers
and leading the way, many miles, to the bridges
that were their objective.
Like his buddies, George Retan was dropped
far away from his intended target, and within
the first five minutes was wounded in the leg by
shrapnel. He met up with Colonel Sink’s headquarters
outfit and continued fighting for the
next three days despite his wounds, until units
from Utah Beach broke through and joined with
them in the days following D-Day.
Retan was awarded the Bronze Star and the
Purple Heart, though he evidently never spoke
of the deeds that earned his medal for valor
with his good friend Ed Shames. Shames recalls
that Retan didn’t talk much about his injury or
D-Day experiences, just wearing a patch on his
leg. But then, most of the paratroopers landing
behind enemy lines, including Shames, had
wounds to show for their first experience in
combat.
In the weeks following the Normandy Invasion,
Retan’s wounds were treated but not all the
shrapnel could be removed. He was offered the
oppportunity to return to the United States for
further treatment, but he elected to remain with
his unit.
In the confusion and fog of war, Retan and
Shames had each, separately, distinguished
themselves in combat and demonstrated the
special kind of leadership needed to command
fighting men. They were both selected to receive
battlefield commissions following Normandy
and were promoted from Staff Sergeant to 2nd
Lieutenant rank, two of only three men in the
regiment to receive this recognition.
Ed Shames was transferred to E Company in
the 2nd Battalion of the 506th and placed in
command of the company’s “patrol platoon.”
George Retan was moved to A Company in
the 1st Battalion of the 506th as the Assistant
Platoon Leader of the 2nd Platoon.
A Quiet and Humble Leader
Bill Chivvis was a young soldier assigned to I
Company as a replacement in the days following
Normandy. As the Normandy veterans began
returning to Ramsbury, England, Bill Chivvis
and his fellow replacements got to see Retan in
action.
“After a time we became aware of Retan visiting
the Company ‘I’ area to greet his returning
friends. On each visit he would stop and talk
to the ‘know nothing’ replacements and try to
answer our stupid questions. There is no greater
gulf than that which exists between combatants
and non-combatants but this did not affect
Retan.”
Retan’s behavior made an impact on this fresh
young recruit. “From these brief visits, I learned
a lesson which would follow me through the
Holland and Belgium campaigns: I always took
the time to talk to incoming replacements.”
These few encounters with George Retan made
a lifelong impression on Chivvis, who spoke of
Retan in a 1995 letter to researcher and author
Peter Hendrikx. “I will describe Retan as a quiet,
humble young man, but very intelligent, very
alert, and very focused. He was a natural leader
who inspired confidence without even trying. He
was a man of the highest character.”
Operation Market Garden
In just a few short weeks, the 506th was headed
back into combat, part of the largest airborne
invastion ever undertaken to that time. The plan
was for American and British forces to capture
a number of bridges in Holland, giving the
Allies an access route into Germany around the
Siegfried Line defenses.
The 506th jumped in clear skies on the afternoon
of September 17, 1944 into a large field
near the town of Son. The daylight jump, made
possible by Allied air superiority, was a big improvement
on the confusion seen at Normandy.
The regiment landed almost in formation and
met little resistance as they left the drop zone.
Company A was to capture the main bridge
across the Wilhelmina Canal at Son. Almost
half of 1st Platoon had been dropped some
distance from the rest of the company, so 2nd
Platoon was placed in the lead. Platoon Leader
1st Lieutenant Galarneau had broken his ankle
on the jump, so it was up to 2nd Lieutenant
George Retan to lead the regiment through the
Son Forest toward their target.
About 400 yards into their advance, the company
engaged a number of German riflemen,
suppressing their fire and continuing to push
toward the bridge.
When the company reached a point in the
woods about 200 yards from the bridge, all of a
sudden one of the three 88mm artillery pieces
guarding the bridge opened fire into the trees.
Sgt. Joe Powers of 2nd Platoon was hit by shrapnel
and wounded almost immediately. Soon the
other two large 88mm guns had lowered their
barrels and begun firing into the woods. The
88mm gun is designed to shoot planes from the
sky, but the Germans had found it to be a terrible
and terrifying anti-infantry gun as well. The
88s were soon joined by the thump of 81mm
mortars.
“Men were being killed,” recalls Donald R.
Burgett, a soldier in A Company. “We had to do
something.”
Company A faced only one choice. They had
to attack headlong into the massed fire of three
fearsome cannons.
The soldiers raced through the woods and then
across the grass straight into the muzzle blasts
of the massive artillery pieces. After overwhelming
the Germans at the guns and silencing the
Retan and A Company
of the 506th PIR led
the attack on the
bridge at Son, into the
face of three 88mm
artillery guns.
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