
D-Day, 6/06/44, Normandy, Robert Warner 3rd Battalion 507 Parachute Infantry Regiment Company G, 82nd Airborne (click image above to enlarge), fought with his buddies against a SS Nazi Regiment at Graignes France, site of the "Secret Massacre".WWII Researcher Brian Siddall of Ithaca, N.Y supplied additional information concerning my father Robert Warner a 82nd Airborne paratrooper from Binghamton NY of the 507th PIR on D-day in Graignes France and the ensuing massacre just today 6/07/2009.
On D-Day, 6/06/1944, the 507th PIR of the 82 Airborne expected to parachute around the La Fiere bridges west of Ste Mere Eglise and hold them against an expected German counterattack. Paratrooper Robert Warner from Binghamton NY was one of the 82nd Airborne paratroopers on this day with his machine gun and 81 mm mortar platoon. See Youtube video, D-Day: The Secret Massacre, click here.
In reality, about 200 men, Robert Warner of the 82nd Airborne included, were dropped over 20 miles from their target, in the flooded marshlands around the towns of Graignes and Tribehou, which are south and southwest of Carentan, respectively theirs was the worst misdrop of any airborne unit on June 6, 1944. While pretty close from a walking distance perspective (maybe 10 miles), the towns were in the flooded zone that was created by the Germans opening the locks and flooding the fields in the lower Cotentin area. Moving to Carentan across the roads would have been risky because of the presence of German soldiers, and crossing the flooded area was very difficult.
In fact, many of the paratroopers who landed in the flooded zones never made it out of their harnesses and drowned. In addition, many of the equipment bundles of the soldiers ended up in the water as well. So, about 175 to 200 men landed in the Graignes and Tribehou areas and made their way among the terrified citizens. Some of these townspeople knew that Graignes was under observation by the Germans, including several units just to the south, and they worried that if they were seen helping the Americans, that they would be killed.
Consequently, the SS sought to make an example out of the people at the Catholic church whose interaction with the Americans had permitted those casualties to happen. The Germans burst into the rectory, dragged Father Leblastier and Father Lebarbanchon into the courtyard and shot them both to death. The Germans then discovered Madeleine Pezeril and eighty-year-old Eugenie DuJardin. Overwhelmed with fear, the two ladies had been cowering in their quarters ever since the beginning of the final assault. The Germans shot and killed both women in their beds.
Meanwhile, a total of forty-four villagers had been rounded up and were under interrogation by the Germans as suspected collaborators. They were threatened with execution if they did not turn in the names of any and all villagers who had actively assisted the Americans, but not a single one of them turned in a single name. In fact, none of them revealed the prominent role that Alphonse Voydie had played in the Graignes drama. Had the Germans known that Voydie had been the catalyst of organization that he was, they would surely have executed him too.
Knowing what was happening in town made the next act even more remarkable. A group of at least 20 Americans hid in a barn for about 2-3 days while German patrols went through the area. The farm owners organized a secret system of feeding the men and kept them alive and hidden at the risk of certain death. Eventually, a small group of survivors was secreted across the swamp by some of the young men from the town, where the Americans entered into the liberated town of Carentan.
BAND OF WARNER BROTHERS AT D-DAY INVASION OF NORMANDY JUNE 6TH 1944, the 65th Anniversary was Saturday.
Purple Heart RecipientName:
Bill Warner
private investigator
Sarasota Fl






