Thirty days after the D-Day invasion in Normandy, France, Durango resident Pete Ferrari arrived to secure the bloody battlefield. Seventy years later, his memories of his gruesome experience remain vivid.
As a U.S. Army sergeant, Ferrari was sent with the 863rd Battalion to the beaches of Normandy on July 6, 1944, 30 days after D-Day.
On Friday, Ferrari, 97, was watching television news from his kitchen table. He recounted his World War II experience with precise detail.
Ferrari was part of Battalions Battery “A” and led one of the gun sections that was sent to Normandy’s Omaha Beach. His gun section consisted of 16 men.
The gun sections were ordered to defend the emergency-made airfield located along the beachhead. They also protected the Army supply depot.
“We watched the airfield and air crafts and made sure the Germans did not advance,” said Ferrari, who was 25 at the time.
The airfield was built with metal mats attached piece by piece, he said.
It allowed aircraft to evacuate the wounded and dead from the inland to St. Lo, France, he said.
Injured soldiers were taken to St. Lo because the United States had a base there. At the time, they were fighting the Battle of St. Lo.
Ferrari said even though he and his gun section arrived at the beaches 30 days after D-Day, there was still debris such as helmets, shoes, jackets, downed trees, craters and shell holes along the shoreline.
There was a constant parade of ambulances bringing the wounded and dead to the emergency airfield, Ferrari said.
Three or four C-47s would come in at once and pick up the injured soldiers, he said. Each C-47 would carry about 30 soldiers back to St. Lo.
Dead soldiers were flown to England. They were then taken to the U.S. for burial.
Many of the dead soldiers were taken away in GI trucks.
“Their blood was dripping from the trucks out onto the dirt roads,” Ferrari said. “You don’t see much of this gruesome stuff written anywhere.”
It was a painful, unforgettable sight, he said.
The dead were taken away in the GI trucks and buried at St. Eglise Cemetery, an American cemetery and memorial established after D-Day in Normandy.
The 863rd Battalion was in Normandy for about 30 days.
Battery “A” received a Distinguished Unit Citation for the 863rd Battalion for showing extraordinary heroism in action against the enemy.
“It’s morbid,” Ferrari said. “Things were really messed up.”
tferraro@durangoherald.com
