EDITORIAL: ‘The bravest soldier I ever worked with’

The D-Day invasion involved 5,000 ships carrying men and vehicles across the English Channel, as well as 800 planes dropping more than 13,000 men in parachutes. A further 300 planes dropped bombs on German troops defending the beaches. More than 100,000 Allied troops made it to shore that day.

The toll was heavy: Estimates are that nearly 5,000 Americans were killed with thousands more to lose their lives in the fighting through France and on to German surrender in May 1945. On this day every year, America and other nations remember D-Day. We owe a special debt to those who fought and to those who died.

In Orangeburg, a famous D-Day story centers around Hugo Sims Jr., who died 60 years after D-Day in 2004.

You can list newspaper editor, congressman, school board member, bank chairman and so much more on his lifetime list of service and accomplishment, but it is his role in World War II for which Sims will be most remembered by a community and grateful nation.

A member of the 101st Airborne Division, Sims was dropped behind German lines in the early morning of June 6, 1944. The unit had 2,000 men when it went in. Only about 800 came out a week later. The soldiers secured the bridges over the Douve River amid stiff resistance.

In Sims’ words:

“On the night before the invasion, Col. Skeets Johnson got all of us together out in the woods and stood on a table and said he wanted to shake every man’s hand. He gave us a talk about going in, killing Germans, and then whipped out his knife, saying ‘Before the end of this day, I’ll sink this knife into the heart of the dirtiest Nazi bastard on Earth.’

“It was still daylight at 10:30 p.m. on June 5 when we lined up to jump. If you’re the officer in charge, you jump first, and can even cancel the jump if conditions aren’t right. But Col. Allen had me in the plane with him, so as a first lieutenant, I was second in rank, which meant that I would jump last (to make sure they all jumped).

“As we were approaching France, the Germans were shooting at us. By the light of the full moon, you saw tracers coming. Every 10th bullet seemed to be lighted, a speck of fire. It would remind you of fireworks at the fair. The bullets appeared to be moving slow from afar but then speed by.

“When I jumped, there was the rush of the air, the noise of the plane, and then, like any other time, everything seemed so peaceful. You’re just hanging in the air. I caught myself pulling my feet up, thinking I could dodge the bullets. They really were about 50 feet or so from me.

“Parachutes back then were not as easy to get out of as now. When I hit the ground and before I could get out, I heard somebody coming and assumed it was a German or one of our men. I was supposed to snap a hand cricket, and he would snap back if he was one of our men. In case he had lost the cricket, I was supposed to say ‘Flash’ and he would answer ‘Gordon.’ I snapped my cricket. No answer. I said ‘Flash’ a couple times. No answer.

“So I started to shoot, but hesitated, thinking that if there were more than one German, the second might shoot me. Then I looked up and recognized the man as one of my friends, another lieutenant.

“Every time we ran into anybody, we’d pick them up. Whoever is highest in rank takes command. I ended up picking up 70 men. The drop scattered the American soldiers all over the peninsula, and we were to gather in battalions. Instead, we were like a bunch of gangsters, but it was really better than if we’d dropped in the drop zone because the German couldn’t fix on us.”

The next day, June 7, Sims and about 150 other Allies lay in ambush until about 600 German paratroopers were out in a field. They then opened fire, killing a couple hundred, he has said, and taking the remainder prisoner.

For his efforts, Sims was among those honored by having his name included on a “Wall of Liberty” in Normandy, France, commemorating the 50th anniversary of D-Day.

It was during that observance 30 years ago that then-Florida Congressman Sam Gibbons nominated the name of Sims to be one of the first placed on the wall. Gibbons, who parachuted into Normandy along with Sims, called the former captain, “the bravest soldier I ever worked with.”

Lee Harter is editor of The Times and Democrat.