'Sailors Dressed Like Soldiers'©

By: Kenneth C. Davey
(Reported in Naval History Magazine - September/October 1999 Issue) 

Photos Courtesy of Corbis - The Place for Pictures on The Internet

Largely unappreciated for their heroics at Normandy
were the naval beach battalions (NBBs) - 
identified by red helmet markings...©

A book about Navy medicine in World War II understandably 
might overlook the secretly trained U.S. Navy medical teams on 
Omaha Beach, 6 June 1944.  Military historians rarely mention 
the amphibious sailors of the Normandy invasion, including 18 
Navy doctors and 144 corpsman, who landed in the early hours 
of D-Day.  Yet war correspondent A.J. Lieblings Cross - Channel 
Trip describes a U.S. Coast Guard-manned infantry landing craft 
(large)-LCI(L)-88-putting ashore a young Navy doctor with a beach 
battalion platoon at H+65 minutes.  The vessel's action report 
confirms that Army combat engineers and a hydrographic, 
communications, and medical section of the Naval Sixth 
Beach Battalion made a landing 
on "Easy Red," Omaha Beach, at 
0735.  A follow-up Army-Navy 
amphibious team in the LCI(L)-
85 sustained heavy casualties 
when the landing craft was hit 25 
times and was later sunk.  Dr. John 
F. Kincaid, a naval beach battalion 
(NBB) passenger in that craft, had 
the added task of rendering medical 
assistance for the many wounded servicemen and dying fellow 
officers before going ashore on Easy Red.
Amphibious sailors disembarking from an LCI(L) appear in a Coast 
Guard film, carrying explosives, M-1 carbines, Springfields, 1917 
Enfield rifles, Thompson submachine guns, communications 
equipment, and medical supplies.  Liebling described the beach 
battalion medical section as "sailors dressed like soldiers, except 
that they wore black jerseys under their field jackets" and the 
standard Red Cross armband.  These naval elements of the 
Engineer Special Brigades (ESBs) have been identified in D-Day 
photos wearing paratrooper boots and helmets with a blue/gray 
band around the base, and a red rainbow painted on the front.  
Liebling portrayed the LCI(L)s as carrying specially packaged 
Army-Navy units for early delivery on the continent doorstep.
Working together, the ESBs and the naval beach battalions formed 
a link between land and sea forces.  The NBBs operated aid stations 
on the beach and directed the 
Normandy landings and the 
shore-to-ship phase of the seaward 
evacuation of casualties.  Operation 
Overlord's evacuation problem was 
to shield the demoralizing sight of 
heavy casualties from the battle 
troops scheduled to go ashore later 
in the morning on D-Day.  
The U.S. naval beach battalions 
and their British counterparts, 
elements of the Royal Marine Commandos, were distributed among 
many LCI(L)s to ensure that a direct hit would not wipe out an entire 
unit.  
Amphibious warfare instructions for medical personnel warned that 
"It is essential on landing to seek immediate cover.  Only two people 
are seen on a modern battlefield - one who is a casualty and one 
who is about to become a casualty."
The 45 NBB sailors who made the D-Day landing at H+65 that 
morning went ashore to an apparent military disaster.  Among a 
number of unfortunate events, most of the H-hour assault tanks 
scheduled to lead the charge onto Omaha were at the bottom of 
the English Channel or burning on the beach.  The resulting 
casualty rate of the H+1 minute invasion troops and the Army-Navy 
gap assault teams was appalling.  The Overlord nightmare of 
wounded U.S. servicemen piling up on the beach already had 
become a reality.  While beach battalion personnel joined the 
assault, the medical teams, including injured doctors and 
corpsmen, set up aid stations and immediately began performing 
their humanitarian duties.  So many soldiers and sailors were 
wounded in the tidal flat that it was difficult for the corpsmen to 
distinguish the living from the dead.
Medical conditions were catastrophic, as the rising tide was 
drowning dying men and washing bodies ashore in the pink, murky 
water.  The amphibious sailors, forced to drag casualties from the 
surf toward the enemy's murderous guns, became casualties 
themselves.  Out in the channel, pilot less landing craft filled with 
dead GIs were circling aimlessly while 1,300 yards down the beach, 
the LCI(L)-91 and LCI(L)-92 were on fire.  The unanticipated degree 
of carnage and destruction of equipment necessitated the 
scavenging of medical supplies from the dead.  To avoid further 
chaos, the Navy Beachmaster, a beach battalion commander, 
radioed a temporary halt to the landings at 0830.  While sailors 
assumed combat roles in support of infantry, officers and men of 
the battalions worked with the gap assault teams in clearing beach 
obstacles and mines.  Navy doctors and corpsmen, working 
beside their Army counterparts, remained extremely busy while the 
surgical teams on the hospital tank landing ships (LSTs) prepared 
to receive heavy casualties.  Not until 1130 on D-Day did battle 
conditions improve so that the beach battalions were able to begin 
evacuating the wounded and dying.

Sadly, when darkness fell over the invasion beaches, assault craft 
no longer would pick up casualties in the dangerous surf.  Near the 
Easy Red evacuation site, suffering men were heard crying on the 
beach, as morphine supplies were exhausted.  A warming fire for 
those in shock would mean instant death from German snipers.  
Having witnessed the gruesome death of his partner, 18-year-old 
Navy Corpsman R.W.Borden begged frantically for blankets as 
more Army troops came ashore.  Not all could be saved, however, 
and the mortally wounded began pleading with the medical officers 
to end their misery.  Around midnight, dying Americans were lifted 
into rubber rafts, and the amphibious sailors, without oars, made a 
desperate attempt to "dog-paddle" them through the mined surf 
out to the LSTs.  Although the mercy mission was unsuccessful, 
and a number of men spent their final hours on the far 
shore, the U.S. Army cited the NBBs for saving countless lives, 
evacuating more than 600 casualties on D-Day alone, and 
contributing materially to the capture of Omaha Beach.
For some physicians, Navy 
medicine in World War II was the 
extent of their medical careers.  
Doctor Kincaid, the beach battalion 
doctor on the LCI(L)-85, survived 
bloody Omaha but was killed less 
than a year later.  In a letter dated 
26 May 1945, his mother states 
that John died at his battle station 
on a destroyer off Okinawa.  
She wrote that "No doubt John did 
more good during his short live than many of us in double the years.  
We just can't realize that he won't be coming back with the other boys."  
Lieutenant Kincaid's obituary details his D-Day experience and states 
that he was 28 years old when the end came.  The promising young 
doctor was buried at sea.
Why the U.S. Navy practically has ignored the contributions of the 
beach battalions in France remains unclear.  Some have suggested 
a continuation of Navy secrecy regarding amphibious warfare during 
World War II.  Others speculate that the NBBs were associated too 
closely with the 5th and 6th Engineer Special Brigades.  From H+65
minutes to D-Day+20 days, the ESB surgical battalions and the 6th 
and 7th NBBs treated and evacuated more than 8,645 casualties 
from Omaha Beach.  The U.S. Army acknowledged the 
"extraordinary gallantry" of the NBBs and, in a proposed Unit 
Citation, emphasized that the medical sections "performed their 
duties in an especially heroic manner."  The Provisional Government 
of France honored the amphibious sailors with that country's highest 
award, the Croix de Guerre with Palm.  Why the Unit Citation remains 
"proposed." and few men, or their widows, ever received medals or 
accompanying papers remains puzzling.
Over the past half-century, many books have been written about the 
Allied invasion of Normandy.  The Naval Historical Center contains 
no "official reports" of Naval Beach Battalion participation in the 
invasion.  Archival files verify that during the war, these specialized 
Navy units underwent intensive training at Little Creek, Virginia.  
Recently uncovered papers of the Navy doctor on Easy Red at 0730 
express great admiration for the U.S. Coast Guard crew of the 
LCI(L)-88 and the heavily armed U.S. Navy amphibians who led him 
ashore on D-Day.  The young medical officer pays special tribute to 
the many casualties of D-Day and writes of "their courage and 
patience immediately after receiving their wounds."  More than a 
half-century later, NBB veterans remember the horror of Omaha and 
remain haunted by the indescribable suffering of 6 June 1944.  
A survivor of the LCI(L)-85 who served in Dr. Kincaid's amphibious 
platoon, Seaman First Class Robert Giguere, described the heroes 
of D-Day as "those we couldn't save, the men we had to leave on the 
beach."  On 8 June 1944, the medical officers dispensed great 
quantities of brandy, allowing the graves registration crews to begin 
their solemn duties.  Military author Jonathan Gawne accurately 
described Dr. Kincaid and the U.S. Navy amphibians of D-Day as 
"The Forgotten Sailors of the Invasion Beaches."
Copyright 1999 Naval History Magazine

Mr. Davey wrote this account as a tribute to his father, 
Dr. J. Russell Davey, Jr., and all members of the 
6th Naval Beach Battalion at Omaha Beach.  
he lives in Hopewell Junction, New York.