Army Quartermaster Museum - Fort Lee, Virginia

Quartermasters on D-Day
June 6, 1944

"No one seems ever to think a soldier in QM ever gets to smell any gunpowder, dig any foxholes, get into any fighting, go without food, mail and the like. Our QM outfit hit the beach on D-day right when the heat was on, and more outfits are hitting the beaches every day--to unload and load rations, ammunition, and all other equipment and supplies.  Opening and running dumps under combat conditions is a tough job.  We sleep in foxholes, wash and shave in helmets, dig slit trenches, eat in the open as do other Army outfits.  We also have bazooka men, machine-gun men and operate twenty-four hours a day--about fifty percent of that time in the rain and mud."

Private First Class, James P. Hatchell,
(in a letter to the Stars and Stripes Newspaper, August 10, 1944)

Quartermaster units and personnel were in the English Channel and on the beaches, Omaha and Utah, when the Allies landed on June 6. QM railhead, service, and truck companies saw continuous operation in the assault at Normandy, in the breakout at St. Lo, and the rapid pursuit across France in the summer of '44. They had some unforgettable experiences.

The 407th Airborne QM Company, for instance, went into Normandy on D-Day in two echelons, the first in gliders and the rest by ship. The glider-borne contingent landed at 2115 hours on June 6th and set up a temporary bivouac on the outskirts of Blosville, a short distance from Ste. Mere Eglise.

Tech 4 Fred Gilbert's unit, the 3891st QM Truck Company, landed on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day and immediately began hauling rations, ammo, and Infantrymen. "In other words," he wrote, they considered themselves "a part of the mobile infantry."

Colonel (later Lieutenant General) Andrew T. McNamara, Chief Quartermaster for the First Army, told a similar account of the 476th QM Group. Its four truck companies arrived on Utah Beach "when confusion still dominated the battle area, and front lines, as such, were non-existent."

"[They] . . . performed every type of truck support for the fighting troops of the 82nd and 101st airborne divisions. Supplies were taken up into front lines and unloaded directly to user units, with the bulk of the missions being completed under shellfire and strafing. The trucks were sent out with Infantrymen aboard on spearhead thrusts, and when resistance was encountered, the truck drivers found themselves taking part in the fighting. Men of these companies performed guard with the line troops, in emergencies manned machine-guns and outposts, carried barbed wire and mines into positions forward of existing front lines, and shared the same rigors and dangers as did the divisional troops."

Private John G. Bianchi of the 97th Quartermaster Railhead Company, another service unit that came in on D-Day, wrote that he "used to wonder laying back there in a foxhole what they meant about rear-echelon Quartermaster boys. There were times when I would have given anything to be an Infantryman, back with the reserves, safe from fire."

Extracted from "Fighting QMs", Quartermaster Professional Bulletin, Autumn/Winter 1994

Quartermaster Units in the Assault Force
6-7 June 1944

Note: This list is based upon War Department & Department of the Army General Orders that awarded assault landing credit for the Normandy invasion.

Quartermaster D-Day Related Articles

TIGER—The E-Boat Attack
Six Quartermaster units sustain losses due to enemy action during training for the D-Day Invasion

Invasion!
Overview of QM support to the invasion forces

Crosses at Normandy, June 1944
Graves Registration NCO rides a glider into Normandy with the 82nd Airborne Division

Fueling Up for D-Day
gasoline supply in England  in support of the invasion of France

Mettle without Medals
The 4009th QM Truck Company lands at D+5

D-Day Links

The Normandy Invasion
U.S. Army Center of Military History

National D-Day Memorial Foundation
Bedford, VA

National D-Day Museum
New Orleans, LA

Last Update:  Thursday, April 02, 2009