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| Major Charles Johnston was the executive officer in the HQ Company, 3rd Battalion, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment. He commanded the Americans at the Battle of Graignes. Photo provided by Felix Alicea (enhanced using MyHeritage.com) |
Charles T. Johnston never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
I was unable to find a photo of Charles T. Johnston. Given his high rank, I am hoping that someone can locate a photo and send it to me to update this story.
UPDATE: This photo is courtesy of Stephen G. Rabe, Ashbel Smith Chair in History (emeritus), University of Texas at Dallas
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| Major Johnston is standing in the 2nd row on the extreme right. |
He was born on May 26, 1918 in Tennessee. His father was also born in Tennessee while his mother was born in North Carolina. His father died when Charles was an infant and he lived with his granduncle for a time. Later he and his widowed mother moved into her brother's home and she worked as a department store decorator. It appears that Charles was an only child.
He probably attended the University of Tennessee where he was an ROTC platoon sergeant.
At some point after that he accepted an officer's commission in the army and he volunteered for the paratroopers. He became a major in the 3rd Battalion, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division. He was the executive officer of the HQ Company.
The 507th PIR replaced the 504th PIR that had taken heavy casualties in Italy. It was selected to take part in the predawn D-Day airdrop to keep the Germans from reaching the beaches. German flak as the transport planes reach Normandy diverted the planes off of their planned course. As a result Major Johnston and the troops in the planes near his all jumped into a location far from their planned drop zone 15 miles away. It was the worst misdrop of D-Day.
Major Johnston determined it was impractical to march to the intended drop zone and ordered the 150 men under his command to defend the town they were in -- Graignes. Because they were out of position, there was no option to get resupplied, but the local French residents disbursed and collected ammunition and other supplies they found from the D-Day drop and fed the Americans from their own food.
This was an HQ unit, not a rifle company, but they did their best to adapt. They set up an observation team in the church belfry so they would see any advancing enemy in time to give warning.
For three days the Germans ignored the paratroopers in Graignes. On June 10 an SS Panzer Grenadier unit approached Graignes, but withdrew after challenged by the defending paratroopers.
They returned the next day, outnumbering the Americans ten to one. On June 11 the SS troops were initially repulsed, but they attacked again. A very effective enemy artillery barrage took out the belfry observation post. The Americans pulled in their lines. Recognizing they were badly outmanned, Major Johnston ordered his men to breakout individually to make their way to friendly lines. More artillery came in burying Major Johnston at his command post at the local school.
The Americans withdrew under cover of darkness. They were unable to take their wounded with them. They remained in the aid station set up in the church. In an act all to common to German SS soldiers during the war, the wounded Americans were executed.
Major Johnston was found wounded in the ruble of his command post the next day. The SS interrogated him for serval hours and then executed him. His remains were not found until after the war. No member of the SS was ever held to justice for these war crimes.
His grave is at Lynnhurst Cemetery in Knoxville, Tennessee. If anyone reading this can take a photo of this and email it to ww2fallen100@gmail.com, I would like to add it to this profile.
An excellent account of the Battle of Graignes by Martin K. A. Morgan can be read here.
Last year on this date I profiled army cook Harry Weber, 3rd Infantry Division. You can read about Harry here.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.
Please consider joining the public Facebook group to increase the exposure of this project. Go to: WW2 Fallen 100
I came across a photo of MAJ Johnston
ReplyDeleteI also came across MAJ Johnston's Interment Report from the US Army. It contains witness accounts and other information. Sad fate for him and those eight men that were taken away. His remains were found on 12 June 1946. RIP MAJ.
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