THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 5, 1994 TAG: 9406040074
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK ROBERTS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940605 LENGTH: COURTLAND
{REST} JOE MAGETTE REMEMBERS that day, 50 years ago tomorrow, when he and thousands of other Allied troops stormed the German stronghold on the Normandy coast of France.
Magette, a corporal and heavy equipment operator in the 531st Amphibious Brigade, was in the third wave to land on Utah Beach - one of five landing sites - on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
``Before we got to the beach the Germans were lobbing 88s - long-barreled cannons,'' said Magette, 72, of Courtland.
``I saw people killed,'' he said. ``Legs and arms were lying all around. It was like that five or six days. It was terrible . . . awful.
``I was wounded twice,'' he said, speaking softly. ``The first time was shrapnel from an 88, before I got off the boat. I went right on.
``I got on the beach pulling a big gun with a bulldozer. They sent me in a minefield - knocked all my skin off.''
Magette spoke about the invasion at a recent gathering of veterans of the assault.
The occasion was opening week of an exhibit on World War II at the Southampton Agriculture and Forestry Museum in Courtland.
The historic invasion initiated the defeat of the Nazis, but at a cost: the lives of thousands of American, British and Canadian servicemen.
A naval task force carried the men across a stormy English Channel that day, then landing craft ferried them from the ships to the beaches known as Sword, Juno, Gold, Utah and Omaha - the latter the site of the most bitter battles.
The day was a turning point in a war that began on Sept. 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland - Hitler's first big step in making his dreams of conquest come true. The huge Nazi war machine marched through Europe, finally leaving Great Britain to stand alone.
For a time, America helped by supplying materials to the British through a lend-lease program.
Many Americans felt that was as far as the country should go. But the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, made direct American involvement inevitable.
The United States declared war on Japan that day - and on Germany and Italy four days later.
By June 1944, Allied commanders had settled on a massive invasion of Nazi-occupied France.
``We knew the invasion was coming, but we didn't know when or where,'' said Robert Turnbull ``Tabb'' Gillette of Courtland, who helped land soldiers on Omaha Beach on D-Day.
``We didn't know when we'd depart until the day before D-Day,'' said Gillette, 73.
The naval reservist said he volunteered for the Amphibious Corps ``because I had a better chance of being boss.''
He trained landing crews in the Dartmouth River in England until he got in on the action.
``I was in on the fifth wave - started at 5:30 (a.m.), got to the beach an hour later,'' he said. ``We dumped men on the beach, went back, dropped anchor, waited for orders.''
Gillette and his crew were delivering soldiers from transport to bloody beach. An average trip meant carrying seven tanks, each with a crew of three or four.
``June to October - altogether, about 10,000 troops,'' he said. ``We only had to duck bullets on the first trip.''
Almost everyone in uniform in the spring and summer of 1944 has a similar story.
``We knew things were shaping up, but we didn't know when,'' said William H. Howell Jr. of Franklin, 74, then a technical sergeant in the Army Engineer Corps working with heavy equipment.
``Our job was unloading ships from the states, assembling the equipment, delivering it,'' he said. ``We had depots all over England.
``A lot of the stuff went to the south of England. That's where the invasion was going to start. My outfit moved about 65,000 tons of heavy equipment in and around the starting point for D-Day - Southampton.''
Raymond J. Cobb of Franklin had an inkling about the start of D-Day.
``We knew it was about to take place,'' said Cobb, 73. ``Planes began warming up about 1 o'clock and took off about 3 - cover for the invasion.''
Cobb, an aircraft sheet metal worker, was at a base in England repairing battle damaged B-17 bombers.
``I joined the Army in 1943,'' said Milton Futrell, 73, a retired pharmacist who lives in Southampton County. ``I landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day plus five.
``Anyone who says they weren't scared is telling lies,'' he said. ``The hostilities on the beach had ended by this time, but we didn't know. We hit the beach at night and were told to crawl into a ditch and stay until daylight.
``The next day we set up our (hospital) tents. We were ready to operate that afternoon.''
Although a pharmacist, he got in on the medical action.
``The operating tent was full of people,'' Futrell said. ``It was that way for several days. I assisted - one operation after another.''
But Joe Magette, who was wounded in a mine field, refused medical help.
``They wanted to take me to the field hospital, but I crawled into a foxhole 'til I got myself together,'' Magette said. ``They were shelling the tent (field hospital). I felt safer in the ditch.
``My ears rang for a month, my nerves were shot,'' he said. ``But as soon as I was physically able, I was back in battle.''
For nearly a week his wounds were not treated - until he did the job himself.
``I used sulphur powder, and I pulled the shrapnel out of my leg, using my fingers,'' Magette said, describing the pain as similar ``to being stabbed with a prong on a pitchfork.
``I was calmed after two or three days,'' he said. ``Then I moved into Paris, Belgium, Luxembourg, Holland and Germany.''
Magette was also in the Battle of the Bulge, another bloodied stand against the Germans, won by the Allies in January 1945.
``I have five battle stars,'' Magette said. ``They said I was in five different battles. To me, it felt like one big battle.''
by CNB