German ammo case unlocks D-Day history

When Cal Colvin bought a World War II German ammunition case at a Bienville Parish antique shop, he never dreamed what was inside would lead to one of the most famous towns associated with D-Day.

“I didn’t know what I had until I got to reading some of this stuff,” Colvin, of Ruston, said about the stacks of photographs, letters, maps, and other documents he found inside the old case.

Among them: The typewritten speech given by Alexandre Renaud, the mayor of Sainte- Mère- Église in Normandy, France, two months after the town became the first French town liberated by the Allies on D-Day.

Everything inside the ammo case appears to have belonged to Robert Emmet Gregg, a Kanas City, Kansas, native who served in the U. S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps in World War II’s European Theater.

Colvin doesn’t know how Gregg got Renaud’s speech. There’s no evidence — at least from the contents of the ammo case — that Gregg participated in the D-Day invasion.

Gregg sent the crudely typewritten speech to his parents. A note dated Paris, France, May 12, 1945, that accompanied the speech reads: “ Intended to send this home for a long time, but have just been delaying doing it. It strikes me as a very dramatic, sincere address. Rob.”

Typed on thin yellow paper, Renaud’s remarks are hard to read in places. Mistakes are struck through with a series of x’s; some of the individual letters are dim and spacing inconsistent.

But 80 years after paratroopers landed in Renaud’s town, the mayor’s message is still vivid.

The speech recounts Sainte- Mère- Église’s occupation by German forces and expresses the excitement residents felt when they watched American paratroopers “jump from the top of the sky on the land of France.”

Colvin said the first time he read the speech he got goosebumps. Then he thought about the movie, “The Longest Day,” that chronicles D- Day and includes a scene where in Sainte- Mère- Église, parachutist Pvt. John Steele, played by Red Buttons, lands on the top of a church steeple, dangling from his parachute.

Sainte- Mère- Église caught the eye of American military planners as early as 1942.

Five roads pass through the town, including the strategic north-south N13. Plus it was only 7 miles from Utah Beach.

Whoever controlled Sainte- Mère- Église could control the northwest coast of France. Consequently, Sainte-Mère-Église became a locale the Americans wanted to take in the early hours of D-Day.

In the spring of 1944, the town was occupied by German soldiers. According to a story on the Warfare History Network website, the Germans expected the town’s mayor to cooperate with them, and his constituents expected him to resist.

Sainte- Mère- Église was near an area American paratroopers dubbed Drop Zone and Landing Zone O.

It was that zone where a glider piloted by Lt. Howard Carey Brewster, of Ruston, crashed on D-Day, killing the 26-year-old Louisianan.

Eventually, 30 paratroopers landed in the town, 20 of them on the church square.

German soldiers sprang to attack. For two days a battle raged. At noon on June 7, 1944, reinforcement troops who had landed on Utah Beach cleared Sainte-Mère-Église.

On Aug. 13, 1944, Renaud gave a speech to an unidentified group of Americans, including a colonel, thanking them for liberating his village.

It’s probable the colonel was either Lt. Col. Edward Krause, who assembled the group of parachutists that led a night assault on the occupying Germans, or Lt. Col. Benjamin Vandervoort, who parachuted into Sainte-Mere- Eglise on D-Day.

“In my little town, we know that the Americans when they would jump from the top of the sky on the land of France, not only would deliver us from the German slavery, but would be real friends to us,” Renaud wrote.

Renaud describes the occupation as “the most tragic Fairy tale that has ever been written” and seems to refer to the American troops as “ good fairies” for whom his people had been waiting but had almost given up.

“Two months ago, during the night from 5th to 6th of June, it was the first time that in a growling of C 47 (the transport planes that carried D-Day soldiers), in the moonlight of a lovely summer night, we have seen, appearing in the sky, the first airborne troops,” he wrote.

“Above us, the big bombers passes and in our west, towards the illuminated seat lighted by starshells, we could her the big booms explode.

“The Germans, Flak troops, looked at us. Suddenly, from the heavy C 47, all lights on, flying at tree-top level, the first American parachutists jumped down. We did our utmost to help them hiding from the Germans, and thus many were saved. But others were received by the Flak with the shots of their automatic rifles. The tracing balls crossed the air like huge glowing flies. A C 47 crashed on the ground . …” Renaud describes seeing more parachutists at dawn walking about the town.

“In the town it was calm. Not a ball was shot, not a shell. The Germans had gone.”

But the fighting resumed. Renaud talked about the 36-hour struggle.

“Three times from the north, twice from the south, Germans managed to get inside the town, but the soldiers of America were there. They got hold of the city and did not let it go. … “In the evening of the sixth of June, from the ditch where I had taken refuge with my family, I realized that the fight drew near, two Germans were creeping close to us in the bushes, slipping in the town, and parachutists passed afterward.” … The airborne troops won the battle, taking 346 prisoners and chasing the Germans with tanks, Renaud said.

“I was telling the children, you have been living the most tragic Fairy tale that has ever been written and I explained to them, an evil spirit had spread over our villages and threatened to destroy us forever. He has plundered our nation, he had put our young men in prison he had taken our butter and cattle from us ….

“We were waiting for the good fairies, we had been waiting since such a long time that some people had begun to doubt they would come.

“And suddenly, in this night of nightmares and dreams, before our eyes, just like once upon a time Saint Michael throwing down the devil, they did jump down on our earth, in a thunder of planes, among fireworks like children’s eyes had never seen.”

During the two months that had passed between D-Day and his speech, Renaud said the American soldiers had welcomed the French children and given them plenty of candy.

“Friends, for us the grownups and also for the future generations, you are our good fairies,” Renaud said.

He urged America not to abandon France in the future.

“We must stay friends, GREAT FRIENDS, not only for a while, but FOREVER!”

Every year, Sainte-Mère- Église holds a commemoration tribute to it liberators.