Wayne M. Brewster | 1919-2016
112th Engineer Combat Battalion
116th Infantry Combat Team
29th Infantry Division
Wayne M. Brewster was born on December 3, 1919, in Woonsocket, South Dakota. He studied mechanical engineering and pursued a graduate degree in civil engineering at South Dakota State University. At the age of 24, he served as a sapper in the 112th Engineer Combat Battalion, a regiment specializing in mobility and countermobility support. As part of Operation Overlord in Normandy, on June 6, 1944, his unit was deployed to support the American infantrymen of the 116th Infantry Combat Team, 29th Infantry Division. They were tasked with capturing Omaha Beach.
On D-Day, he landed at 7:10 a.m. between Vierville-sur-Mer and Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, on the beach sector known as Dog. His mission was to support the crossing of 105mm M7 Priest self-propelled guns, but none reached the intended location within the allotted time. Under heavy German small arms fire and shell fire, he watched helplessly as his comrades-in-arms were massacred on the beach. He remembers meeting the gaze of a young American soldier lying wounded on the ground in the open: “He couldn’t move and seemed to be calling for help with his eyes,” Wayne recalls. “I asked him if the medics had seen him, and he said yes. I was afraid of moving him and injuring him further. I decided to protect him by building a small pebble wall around him. I hope it helped. I don’t know what happened to him.” Wayne continues: “One of our sergeants had his foot torn off, among other injuries. It was attached to his leg only by the Achilles tendon. He asked the orderlies to cut it, which they wouldn’t do. So the sergeant took his knife and cut the tendon himself. He was in such a state of shock that he hardly felt any pain.”
“There isn’t much else to say about Omaha Beach,” says Wayne M. Brewster. “We didn’t leave the beach until nightfall. The bodies of the soldiers remained where they had been killed. The wounded were huddled together as best they could, waiting for a transport ship to evacuate them. Some were only able to leave that spot during the night or the following morning.”
Engaged in the fighting of the Battle of Normandy, Wayne was amazed by the contrast between the war being waged and the awakening nature of Normandy, revealing magnificent flowering orchards. He discovered cider and Calvados, and remembers dozens of bees bustling around their meals. But soon, “the putrid, lingering odors of rotting dead animals and the bodies of fallen soldiers took over.”
At night, Wayne M. Brewster witnessed anti-aircraft fire lighting up the sky. “Sometimes the explosions were so numerous that shrapnel would fall by the dozen on our helmets.”
He also remembers the heavy traffic in the small village of Cerisy-la-Forêt, where his unit was tasked with building a roundabout. Wayne shares an astonishing anecdote that took place in this area: “One of our companies was tasked with recovering American mines. Once the detonators were removed, they were placed on a truck that was supposed to take them to an ammunition depot. But once we reached our destination, the depot manager refused to retrieve mines that had already been used, and the truck turned back. My unit commander instructed me to find another depot and not to return with the mines. After unsuccessfully touring several temporary ammunition storage areas, I returned to Cerisy-la-Forêt where we buried the explosives, while the detonators were neutralized.”
After Normandy, Wayne participated in the liberation of Paris and fondly recalls the euphoria of their entry into the French capital alongside the jubilant population. He then endured the terrible winter of 1944 in the Belgian Ardennes.
After World War II, Wayne worked several jobs before retiring to South Dakota, settling in Rapid City. He married Helen R. Moberg on January 2, 1953, adopting her six children: Margy, Joan, Bonnie, Kenny, Kay, and Michael. Two children followed this union, namely Steven and Vickie.
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