Edison Little's D-Day Experience

Edison Little is a lucky man. I spotted him one day wearing a WWII veterans hat, so I asked him a little bit about it. He gladly started talking and told me a shorter version of the story below. Weeks later, he spoke at a library and I taped his story and transcribed it here.

I transcribed his story word for word, I didn't want to change the emotion in the way he spoke.

"I was in the D-Day invasion in France. While we was in England, we went through a series of excercises...of all kinds of training. We studied maps before we made the invasion...course we knew we was gonna be in an invasion four months before it happened. And very few...I know you never heard too many guys talk about it except in orientations and meetings that we would have with the higher up officers that would be talking to us 'bout what to expect. And course none of us guys had ever been into combat, but 90% of us was always glad when they made the time for us to go, 'cause after you spend three or four years in the army, you get tired of going through some of the stuff that you have to go through, but you've gotta do it... and, and we was really glad you know, when...when it was starting to get time... 'course it took so long for General "Ike" and General Bradley to make up their minds, you know...just really when they wanted it. But actually, the invasion itself was actually set for the 5th of June, but the weather was so bad, the weather was...they said it was the the worst it had been in 40 years there in England...the old-timers, and actually the weather reports and all of that. So we was moved into a marshalling area, what they called a marshalling area somewhere there in England. I don't know where we was at but there was no one out and no one in. And we was there for a week before that we moved in to get on our ships to cross the channel. And, while we was there, all we done was sit around maps, the big rubber maps that was about fifteen, sixteen feet square. And everything that was on those maps was what was gonna be in front of us when we hit the beaches in France. Every little symbol on that map indicated something that was gonna be there in front of us. We got a report every night from the French underground in France back to England, and then during the day they would give us the report if anything had changed over the beach area that we was gonna be going in on. 'Course I went in on Utah...but that was the base that we, that my division went in on. I was with 4th division, 22nd infantry regiment and, when we went in.... when we got on the ships to go over, we got on those ships the 4th of June. And they was...they was real small ships they wasn't a whole lot of room on those. And they couldn't keep the troops on those ships too long at a time because it was just too crowded.

But we got on the 4th, and actually the 5th was supposed to be the day but the weather was so bad that they cancelled it. So then we was on the 5th, well, then the afternoon about 4:15 of the 5th of June is when they made their decision. General "Ike", General Montgomery, General Bradley and all the higher up command that he had in his command. They was the ones, and they couldn't make up their minds, you know whether they wanted to go or whether they couldn't, because the weather was so terribly bad that they was afraid that we'd never make it. Well, but they knew if they put it off very much longer, that the Germans was gonna figure it out.

And the way it was, we had 'em...'course I didn't know it...I don't know if any of the other guys knew it...but they had decoys set up farther up the way from where we was gonna land. And, they had...actually what it was, was a bunch of dummy tanks. General Patton, we've all heard of him, it was supposed to been his army...3rd army, that was supposed to be set up there. And that's where the Germans kept thinking that we was gonna come in. But all...all they was looking at, was a bunch of dummy tanks, and they didn't know it. But then, on the evening of June the 5th...General "Ike"...they left it up to him to make the decision...'cause they really couldn't...they couldn't figure out...they was just scared...afraid we wouldn't make it...because that channel, well of course all oceans are rough, especially when you're in just a little boat..and we crossed that channel...well actually it was about 4:15 that afternoon when they finally made the decision. And i've never heard such a noise in all my life...when they made the decision about 4:15 that afternoon...of course he announced it over the P.A. system of all the armed forces that was making that invasion...and you could hear it all up and down that coast.

(To hear the actual speech that the soldiers heard as the invasion was being announced, click on this picture of the speech.)

Just as far as you could see...was ships, and you could jump from one ship to the other we was that tight...we was that close together...and when they made the decision...when they started bringing those wenches up...you never heard such a noise...and everybody was really tickled because he told us then...General "Ike" told us...he said "As of in the morning of June the 6th, you will be landing on the beaches".

Well, everybody was really, you know, really tickled over that. I know most of the people was...even though we knew what we was going into. Anyway, we crossed that channel that night and I have...I have often wondered...I don't have the least idea what I done that night...it's just blank to me, I mean it's absolutely blank...but everything else I can remember it just like it was yesterday. But I've told people that...I've said I don't have the least idea what I done that night, I know I didn't sleep...but you know...but I just don't know. Well I don't know if everybody else was that way or not but...they had give us seasick pills the day before...and that was for the next morning in case we got sick crossing the channel that night. But anyway, I didn't have to take mine, I wasn't sick...I was afraid, I was scared to death, but anyway...next morning when we came in...well we was...we anchored about 500 yards out in the channel on this little ship that we crossed the channel on...and then the landing craft...you see, alot of people thought we crossed that channel on them landing crafts, well, you didn't do that because you wouldn't have got there in those...so the next morning then...before daylight...that's when we started unloading off of this ship onto the landing craft and heading for the beaches...and uh, but there would be, I'd say probably 35 or maybe 40 in one of those landing craft, it's called a "higgins" boat.

You've probably heard about 'em and read alot about 'em...I know I have...because they was quite a machine...they would come along the side of this ship...and every man that went in there that morning was carrying about 80lbs. of equipment...you can imagine about the size what I was...and I'm a little bit heavier then, than I am now, but not a whole lot...but I wasn't very tall...but anyway, with 80 lbs. of equipment and with all your ammunition that you're trying to keep dry, and you've got to try to keep most of that dry until you get in...and uh...I won't tell you what we, what we used to keep that ammunition as dry as we could...I think I've told Bob back there...some of you might know...I'll tell you what it is, it's condoms!...you talk about some things that's always funny that happens...but you don't laugh about 'em then, it's not funny, but now it's funny and you know, and after that it was funny...but anyway that's what it was...and you can imagine what some of the jokes was...but anyway that's what we used. You'd be surprised how many clips of ammunition you can put in one of them things.

Anyway...we all got set, and these little landing craft would come in down by the side of us and just like the General was telling awhile ago, that ship..it might be here in one place and the next minute and it might be 3 or 4 feet out here at the other side...that's what you had to be careful...of going over that rope ladder and hanging onto that when you had your rifle on your shoulder and all of your ammunition....and your hand grenades...I looked like a porcupine when I went over that thing. I had hand grenades hanging everywhere...you could hang one of them things anywhere (the general sitting beside him says "bandoliers")...Bandoliers, that's right, them things was...they're just liable to be anywhere...they wrap around your neck and everywhere else...anyway, when you go over the side of that ship...down that rope ladder...and you have to go down at least 15-20 feet...and then you had to watch were that landing craft was sitting down there...lots of times you'd turn loose to go into that landing craft...that thing might be 4 feet out here and you go right down between them...well, that was the end of that.

But...I was, I was lucky I guess, or I wouldn't be here today...but we, we'd get on those landing crafts...there's two guys that used to be...that was from Poplar Bluff here. I didn't know 'em then...of course I didn't know nobody...Lloyd Marler, he went in there the same morning I did. He was in the engineers...Frank Swank, he was in the navy...he was the one that was a running that landing craft, now believe it or not...and I said you don't know nobody...but later in the years, I acquainted with them and he told me...you know, he went in on Utah Beach, and I said, "Which wave did you go in on?" and he said "I took the first load in" and I asked him, I said "Did you give them a dry landing"?...you know that's what they usually do.He laughed real big and he said "No, I dumped them guys about a hundred yards out in that channel." And I said "Darn you, I'm one of those guys you dumped!". He said "You're kidding!" and I said "No I'm not kidding Frank!".He said "Sure enough it was you in that?"...so I asked him a few questions.I said "Do you remember what you said?"...and he said "Yeah.". He said "I wished I was going in there with you guys!"...but he had...see he had to turn around and go back out...well anyway, we all had a big laugh out of that.

But uh, Lloyd Marler he was an engineer. And he was a...he went in on that wave and I always told him, I said "You must be the guy that I fell down over!" and he said "I often wondered who that was."...but anyway, you know we get a big laugh out of that...but anyway when we was going in there that morning we finally got in, but like, you know like I said, he dumped us.... course there was so much stuff in that channel...that we couldn't get any closer, you know? They just absolutely couldn't get any closer...and that was part of our job...of going there first...of getting rid of all that barbed-wire and those heavy angle irons and concrete and stuff that they had poured in that channel and it was all under water...and you couldn't see it...

We was going in with three boats...and we was in the middle...and the one on the right, he rammed one of those things and it sunk, I don't know how many of the guys got out of it...but anyway, that's when Frank throwed on his reverse...and he told us, he said "Boys, I'm gonna have to dump you."...well by that time he was a lowering that gate in front you see...and about the time he lowered that gate is when he rammed something...and you took about 35-40 men piled out in water about 4 foot deep on top of one another, you can imagine about what happened. Well anyway, we managed to get through that then we got through the barbed-wire...course, I cut my right leg, pretty bad...course I never said nothing, I didn't have time...tore my pants leg off...and we finally got into the beach. Well there was a big German pillbox setting right direct in front of us when we was going in...course we knew it. We was catching machine gun fire and an .88 from direct...from that pillbox.

When we went in, every third man that went in there that morning had 20lbs. of TNT, high explosives. And anyway, we made a run for that pillbox. I don't know which one I went into but I rammed that 20lbs. of TNT in one of those gun slots. Two other guys hit the others. That put their guns out of commission...so that, that cleared that up.

So then when we went on in over the beach. We couldn't stop. We had to keep going. We'd have been piled up 4 feet deep there. General Roosevelt was standing on that beach and he was a hollering "Keep going!, Keep going!" I never will forget him.

But anyway when we got in, then we had about a 75 yard mine field to go through. And those mines...they was set for tanks and stuff like that, but they also did have booby-traps...like a mans weight would set one of 'em off...but we finally got through there....and then uh....my times about up so....I could stand up here and talk for two hours,but my times up and I want to thank you all. I've always appreciated talking about this. I don't...you don't have to blow this thing up to make a good story. That's what I've told people. I've talked to high school kids out here. I went out 2 different years and talked to senior high schools, and I'd always tell...I said "What I tell you, is what I seen and what I done". I said "I don't blow nothing up." I said "It's absolute truth".

I always felt kinda' funny talking to senior high school kids out there. I always told them, I said "I feel a little bit silly standing up here." I said "I barely got through the 8th grade in school." And I said "Here I am talking to senior high school kids." You know I enjoyed it, and I still do....Thank you all."

I'd like to thank Edison for giving me permission to post his story on this site. Although he doesn't have a computer or use the internet, when I explained to him that people all over the world could come here and read his account of that day, he was thrilled and more than happy to know that his story would be posted here.

Below is a link to 4th infantry division website (Edison Little's division) that tells about the divisions role on D-Day.

4th Infantry Division

It seems Edison is still lucky after all these years. He won a new car!

UPDATE DECEMBER 11, 2009

Today I was wondering what ever happened to Mr. Little, so I did an inernet search of his name a sadly discovered he had passed away earlier in 2009.

Here is his obituary:

Edison (Ed) Arvin Little went to be with the Lord on January 27, 2009. He had been a resident at John J Pershing VA Medical Center for the past two years. Edison was born January 21, 1917 at Doniphan, Missouri.

He married Helen Marie Bruce on December 16, 1946. She preceded him in death on July 10, 1989. Their marriage was blessed with three daughters. Gloria Jean Gilmore, Linda Darlene Williams, and Brenda Kay Knapp (Husband-David), all of Poplar Bluff.

Seven grand children; Dawn Wallace (Husband-Jason), Vickie Simpson (Husband-Steve), Sherry Anderson, Michael Gilmore (Wife-Chandrea), and Matthew Gilmore (all of Poplar Bluff), Michelle Gilmore (Doniphan), and Bobbie Sullivan (Wife-Kelly) of Fenton, Missouri; Fourteen great grand children and one great great grand child.

Edison proudly served his country in the U.S. Army during WWII. He served in England, France, Germany, and Belgium as well as the United States. His unit, the 4th Division (22nd Infantry) was directly involved in the D-Day Invasion. He and the other members of C Company were in the first wave to land on Utah Beach on the Normandy coast of France on the morning of June 6, 1944. Soon after landing he captured five German officers of an artillery unit that stood in the way of advancing U.S. forces. In early July, 1944 he was seriously wounded by a German mortar round. He then spent more than four months recovering in England and in November rejoined his unit, which by that time had advanced into the Argonne forest area of Germany. Within days he was wounded again and sent to a hospital in Belgium for treatment of his wounds. He was then transferred to the Army Air Force and stationed in Paris, France and later in Weisbaden, Germany with the 8th and 9th Air Force Headquarters.

He earned two Bronze Stars, two Purple Hearts, and a Good Conduct Medal and was entitled to wear the American Theatre Campaign, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign and the Victory Ribbons with three overseas bars.

Ed worked at the John J Pershing VAMC just after the hospital opened, but was forced to retire due to medical reasons. He later began driving cars for auto dealers around the Poplar Bluff area. He traveled many thousands of miles all over the U.S. picking up and delivering cars and trucks. He was a “walking roadmap” and could quote highway numbers and directions from across the country.

During the early years of the churches history Edison, his wife and children were members of 3rd Baptist Church of Poplar Bluff where he was the song leader and a deacon.

He loved his family, vegetable and flower gardening and enjoyed talking to local civic and school groups about his experiences during the war. He had re-newed his faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and as believers we know that we will be with him again.

Visitation will begin at 12 noon Monday at Cotrell Funeral Chapel in Poplar Bluff. The funeral service will follow at 1:30 p.m. in the Chapel with the Rev. Steve Patterson officiating. Burial with full military honors will be at Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Poplar Bluff.

Memorials may be made to the World War II Veteran’s Honor Tour, c/o Cotrell Funeral Service, P.O. Box 548, Poplar Bluff, MO 63902.

Condolences may expressed to the family online at www.cotrellfuneralservice.com.