Liberation Tour 2024: Day 5 - celebrating St. Lo

Today we celebrated the 80th anniversary of the liberation of St. Lo in St. Lo. Why focus on this particular liberation as opposed to, say, the liberation of Paris? It’s because Nebraska played an important role here.

The 134th Regiment was part of the 35th Division and started out made up of Nebraskans. A regiment includes approximately 1,000 soldiers (something I didn’t know until today). The 134th was refilled three times during the war, so by the end, it was an all-American unit. That means about 3,000 men were assigned to the 134th, the later soldiers replacing those who had been killed or sent home because of injuries.

When the 134th landed at Omaha Beach on D-Day, its objective was St. Lo, a small town just over three miles away. It took 42 days to accomplish that short distance, a distance that takes about 15 minutes for a really good distance runner to cover. And thousands of soldiers, not just members of the 134th, lost their lives in that short distance. It’s sobering to think about.

The 35th Division joined the fight for Hill 122 above St. Lo on July 11, teaming with other National Guard divisions and discovering the joys of hedgerows. These hedgerows are rows of trees, earth and rock that were used by the French farmers to divide their fields. These fields are not big - in fact, today’s farm equipment probably wouldn’t fit in most of them. That meant there were hundreds of these hedgerows to hack their way through. Some included laneways underneath the tangled branches, and those were good places for ambush.

The 134th received orders on July 14 to secure Hill 122. It started its attack early July 15 and secured the hill by the end of the day. The Germans launched a counterattack after Nebraska reached the top of the hill, but the Nebraskans repulsed the charge and attacked back. According to coulthart.com (from which I pulled a lot of these details): “The 134th Infantry had lived up to its Spanish-American War battle cry, ‘All hell can’t stop us.’”

Despite its sacrifices and determination, the 134th was told to hold back and let the 29th enter St. Lo first. The 29th Division was allowed to go first, which Jerry said has caused controversy, arguments and even fights ever since.

We started with a wreath-laying ceremony at the base of the city wall. Sen. Pete Ricketts and Major Gen. Craig Strong and family joined us today, and both assisted with the ceremony. The next remembrance was at a roundabout to honor Major Thomas Howie who was killed before entering the city. Howie was the commander of the 116th’s 3rd Battalion. His last words to his officers, according to warfarehistorynetwork.com, were “See you in St. Lo.” His men wanted him to be first into the town, even though he was dead. His body had been put in an ambulance for transport, but the vehicle was needed for the wounded. So he was placed on the hood of a Jeep and carried into town. His flag-draped body was placed on the rubble of the Eglise Sainte-Croix de Saint-Lo. A photo taken of the moment went viral, as we say today, and Howie became known as “The Major of St. Lo.”

The third ceremony was a the church in front of the marker commemorating Howie. Members of his family were among the program’s speakers, as were representatives of the Nebraska National Guard.

Philippe (right) was only 5 when the war came to St. Lo. He remembered a few details, including the planes flying over and bombing the town. His family joined dozens of others hiding in the country for the next weeks. He remembered the Americans arriving, too, bringing candy and other goodies.

After the ceremonies concluded, we met the St. Lo Rotary Club for lunch. St. Lo and Seward are sister cities through Rotary, so members exchanged banners both large and small.

Then it was off to see actual hedgerows. On the way, we stopped at a memorial to Lt. Col. Alfred Thomsen. He was a member of the 134th, commander of the 3rd Battalion. He was wounded July 30, 1944, near St. Lo and died August. 16.

Hedgerows are unique features of the French countryside. Even today these natural barriers are hard to get through. Jeoffrey, our local guide, said the trees are harvested every decade or so, and firewood is collected as often as needed. Most of the hedgerows have been destroyed to make larger fields, but there are a few left. We walked through one. When you think about its uses in 1944 and 1945, with the numbers of soldiers fighting through it, using it for transportation and protection as much as possible, it’s almost eerie. Jeoffrey’s wife (whose name escapes me) pointed out a couple trees that survived the war. I can’t imagine the scenes they witnessed.

Jeoffrey left us with a verse from a poem called "The Ode," written by Robert Laurence Binyon. It's actually part of a longer poem called "For the Fallen," which Binyon wrote in 1914. The stanza says:

    They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: 
    Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn 
    At the going down of the sun and in the morning 
    We will remember them.

We finished our day with a stop at Caramels d’Isigny. Birgitta swears by these sweets, and I think all of us bought something.

Tomorrow is mostly a travel day, but we get to stop at Amiens and Reims en route to Verdun.