Journal Gazette from Mattoon, Illinois • Page 30

Lis Mondav. June 6, Mid-Illinois Newspnnors i i i i By DAVE FOPAY Staff Writer 1 fied," Solheim said of the enemy. "Right on the beach, it was pretty heavy. We got shelled and bombed even when wewere in the channel." "Though he ofteri harbored fears about not making it through the mission happened day-to-day," he said by the time the unit landed in France, he was confident of victory. That came to fruition, as the unit progressed steadily eastward.

One of the highlights of the campaign, Solheim said, was participating in the liberation of Paris. It is well documented that the French people were gleefully grateful to the Allied troops upon being freed from German rule, but Solheim said that was a bit limited in some cases. "It wore off," he said. "They weren't so friendly later. GIs are just like any others.

They can get pretty obnoxious." Solheim's unit also fought in the Battle of the Bulge in early 1945. It was near there, he re-called, that German soldiers killed several Allied prisoners of war and left them, the cold winter weather preserving the bodies. "They did nothing to those troops," he said. "They left them just as they were shot and were waiting for some big shots from the United States to come over and see what took place." The unit went on through Germany, fighting at Leipzig, south of Berlin, before ending up in Czechoslovakia when the Nazis surrendered. After the victory in Europe, Solheim had been in the service long enough to be discharged, while those with less time were expected to take part in the invasion of Japan.

He was supposed to stay in Europe only for awhile when efforts concentrated on the war in the Pacific. But when atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and led to Japan's surrender, Solheim actually ended up being overseas longer than those who would have gone to Japan, he explained. He took part in the repatria- ft- tion of forced laborers under Nazi rule and saw signs of the Holocaust, though the death camps he came upon were largely dismantled before he arrived. "There was a building with row af-ter row of shelves with numbers on them," he said. "They had been cremating a lot of them and had urns with numbers on them and each one was kept in that building." After the war, Solheim returned to Charleston, where he had moved from North Dakota in 1938.

Now 76, he retired 16 years ago after working as an Edwin Solheim in WWII' with," he said. "Sure, you were nervous. You'd be" crazy if you weren't. We knew it was important, but we just wanted to get the damn thing over so we could go home." Landing near Colleville-Sur-Mir on the Normandy coast part of the section designated as Omaha Beach two days after the first D-Day forces was probably still a little too early for the artillery battalion, Solheim said. The 155 mm "Long Tom" cannons the unit operated had a firing range of 22 miles and enemy soldiers were still too close to the unit's position for the guns to be of much use, he explained.

"We were heavy artillery and we couldn't even set up when we did get there," he said. "It was kind of a funny feeling to be landed and not he able to use our equipment. It felt like we were there too soon." But within a couple of days the unit was able to put the big guns to use and continued to use them regularly until the war ended the following May. The unit fired more than 60,000 shells during its campaign. Solheim recalled that German resistance to the invasion was so intense that early on, then-Lt.

Gen. Omar Bradley debated ordering a retreat. "They were pretty well forti A t. mmi, Edwin Solheim leafed through a booklet that, if not observed i carefully, could have been mis-'; taken for something other than vshat.it was It was'ihghtly faded, and a small water stain marred one corner of the cover. But those signs of wear did not properly indicate the publication's true age.

That was not revealed until the booklet was held closely, when one could smell the dusty of 50 years, and, even more, what was printed on its cover. I "Final Victory in Europe!" Solheim moved slowly to the center pages of the booklet. Appearing was a brightly colored map of Europe with a steady line leading from northern France, through Belgium and Luxembourg and into Germany, stopping just inside Czechoslovakia. map showed that the unit in which Solheim served did not land on the French beaches at Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944, but on June 8 "D-! Day plus two" as both the booklet and Solheim called it. Solheim seemed to be relying the booklet and other documents (actually souvenirs, now) help him tell his story, at least at the start.

"It's hard to remem-jber much after all this time," he isa'id. When coaxed, though, the Charleston man recalled some details about his involvement in the liberation of Europe, spelling the end of World War II for Adolf Hitler's Germany. From the time his unit, the 200th Field Artillery Battalion, was deployed to Europe, Solheim explained, he and other members knew they would play a part in the DjDay invasion. But while the importance and the danger of the mission were certainly on the unit's minds, that was not the biggest thought they had concerning the invasion, said. "After so long over there, we "wanted to get the thing over Seabees By AMY KAISER Staff Writer As D-Day veteran Ziba Tins-man sat in his living room overlooking his pond, his eyes showed the hurt and remembrance of the jday his pierhead ship, which was supposed to transport military equipment, was instead filled with the dead soldiers who had beenusingit.

As a member of the 108th combat battalion, Tinsman remembers D-Day as a bloody one. were in the direct fire of German field guns on the morning of the 6th," Tinsman, now 86, said. "We lost a lot of men," he said as his voice began to crack and tears filled his eyes. "You see, the pierheads had 12,000 square feet nr. i i.

6l6ctrici.iii fit his own shop and the Edwin Solheim with a map(above) showing his travels from D-Day former Brown Shoe and beyond; Standing on one of the big guns (top photo) later in the Co- European campaign. had tough task of transporting fallen Hi, mm limn lmHtm soldiers A ffa lA the land side, bridge spans were floated in on pontoons and ex: tended to the beach," he said. Tinsman said after this process was complete, the pier head was ready for the invasion equipment including 33-ton Sherman tanks, heavy field artillery, troop transports and trucks carrying supplies to be loaded by a LST. "The doors on the front of the LST opens wide as it approaches the ramp (on the pierhead), whicH is pulled up to the floor level then locked," he said. "The military equipment goes up the ramp, over the deck of the pierhead and over the bridge spans to the beach." He said the tanks would go over the ramp and deck and land on the beach without ever touching the water.

WE SALUTE Anniversary of D-Day Ph. 258-8771 Mil II Unlimited if I. lived in a virtual tent city for much of their tour of duty during World War II. mnii niu.in in in i iuu 1. 7 tmmmm iiMrmrr-r" Null msmmmmmmammmmmmmmmmmmmtm of deck surface and what bothered me the most was they served as morgues until burial grounds could be reached in Normandy." As a member of the Seabees, Tinsman was in charge of setting up artificial docks and harbors and transporting invasion equipment to Omaha Beach.

He was also assigned to man the phoenixes (breakwaters) and pierheads while in tow across the channel, installing, operating and maintaining them upon arrival in Omaha. On D-Day, Tinsman said, he was one of thousands in direct fire of the Germans. "This was a surprise to the American forces. From the water-line of Omaha Beach, back 700 feet, there were bluffs that came up that would go in height 125 to 200 feet. "Back in these bluffs was large artillery German gun placements.

As soon as the invasion started, they started firing with all they had. Omaha was called 'Bloody It was a very, very hot spot. This went on until mid-morning," Tinsman said. "Then, thank the Lord for the battleship Texas and the cruiser Houston." The men on those two ships targeted the gun placements within the embankments, and Tinsman said they saved him and the others aboard the pierhead "They blasted the bluffs with heavy 22-inch Navy shells. They just simply demolished those gun placements.

They were good," he said. Army Rangers helped to demolish the gun placements, too. Tinsman said the shooting, firing, explosions and killing went on all morning. "We lost a lot of men. The (Germans) lost a lot of boys, too," he said.

As he talked, he noted that this homes." It is the only American World War II cemetery in Britain, and President Clinton's visit marked the first time a U.S. commander in chief had come to honor the dead, most of them from the fighter and bomber crews that flewfrom England. Many died over enemy territory. Many made it back to base but died of their wounds. "Some were very badly wounded, but I never heard one complain," said a British driver who picked up casualties.

Tinsman said a pierhead, described by some as a large floating Jjarge, is 60 feet wide, 200 feet long and 10 feet high. The top of the deck clears the water by only 20 inches. On each corner of the ship are spuds (legs), which independently operate up or down to a depth of 80 feet. When the four legs are lowered to the bottom, the pierhead becomes very secure. That causes the ship to be raised and lowered with the flow of the tide.

The night of June 5, the pierhead was pulled into the English Channel. The next morning it was pulled within 1,500 feet of Omaha Beach. At daylight, the spuds were lowered. "On the port side, a large ramp was attached to the pierhead. On Some military personnel was the first time he had ever sat down and talked about D-Day.

Out of the five mechanics on the pierhead, Tinsman is the only one still surviving to tell the story of the dreadful day at Normandy. He said after D-Day, the Seabees continued to operate for 17 days. "The Seabees were an organization that wanted to gather all the skill they could. That's why I enlisted," he saic. Prior to the war, Tinsman worked in a government repair center for heavy construction equipment in Nebraska.

He enlisted in the Navy Seabees and was sent to Chicago for active duty under the Marines and primary diesel school. As a Navy Seabee, Tinsman was in charge of the engine room on the pierhead. Say it in Ziba Tinsman "Kennedy, Joseph P. Lieut. USNR" President John Kennedy's older brother, whose plane exploded over Germany; "Miller, Alton AAF Band" Glenn Miller, the band leader who disappeared over the English Channel on Dec.

15, 1944. A bronze plaque records the gratitude of the people of Cheshunt and Waltham Cross to the 10 gallant American airmen who on Aug. 12, 1944, "sacrificed their lives to prevent their aircraft from crashing on our Tinsman shows a carving he made to commemorate his World War II service in the seabees. ILost lives remembered at American cemetery a Letter to the Editor! SUN ROOFS the CAMBRIDGE, England (AP) Each white cross in the smooth jgreen lawn of the Cambridge 'American Cemetery tells a life story 'some celebrated, many unknown, most of them painfully short. Many of the 3 ,812 servicemen women buried here were crew of British-based American 'aircraft.

Others died in the invasions of North Africa and France and in the Atlantic. Among the 5,126 names of those lost at sea or missing in action are some famous names: Add to the enjoy mentof motorinayear round. Installed while you wait and guaranteed not to leak for as long as 179 you own your car. i i.