Captain William B Kenney- One of the real “Clay Pigeons of St. Lo”

[36thIDAlex]

Well everyone, today is a very special day for me. I’ve been working on reuniting these uniforms for over two years now. All belonged to native Kentuckian William B Kenney, one of the real “Clay Pigeons of St. Lo”

 

William Buckner Kenney was born to William B and Lucy Kenney. His father, William Kenney senior, was a popular doctor in the town of Paris, a fairly rural farming town about 20 miles from the long-established city of Lexington, Kentucky. His childhood was quiet despite being one of the only children in the town not raised on the large horse and crop farms surrounding the town. Despite this, he developed a strong appreciation and respect for Kentucky farmers and the agricultural nature of his community. After graduating from his local high school, Kenney decided to pursue a future in the trade and attended the University of Kentucky. While at the university Kenney joined the Sigma Chi fraternity but spent most of his time with his studies. He graduated in 1932 with a degree in Agriculture and moved back home to Bourbon County where he began his career. In 1934 he joined the newly created Resettlement Administration, a Rooseveltian federal program designed to resettle people into unused arable farmland across the United States. The program had its criticisms but in Kentucky aided in the creation of several sustainable farms in the region. In 1937 the program merged into the more well-known Farm Security Administration where Kenney was then promoted to a regional supervisor, helping oversee farmer aid and welfare programs in Kentucky during the latter parts of the Great Depression.

 

As war broke out in the Pacific and Europe, Kenney kept a watchful eye but maintained his job which he saw as important to both his community and state. By 1942, however, the call for service became too strong and he enlisted into the United States Army as a Private. At this point in his early 30s and with a college degree, the army took note and gave Kenney a commission. Once he completed basic training and OCS Kenney was assigned to the infantry branch and traveled to England to join the 115th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division. It was here he fell under the first battalion and became a platoon leader in Charlie Company. By this time the invasion of Europe was in full preparation and he along with his men began learning amphibious tactics for the up and coming campaign.

 

On June 6th, 1944 Kenney joined Eisenhower’s “great crusade.” While the 116th Infantry took the brunt of the first early morning assault, Kenney and his comrades stood on deck off the shore watching the distant smoke rising as they awaited their ride to France. Around 0900 he and the company received the order to board their landing craft, LCI(L)-412. Thankful to not be stuck in the smaller landing cart of the initial waves, the boys of Charlie Company were still quiet as they made their way towards the French shore. Reports came in that while the beach itself had been cleared, the beachhead was in no way secure. Smoke obscured much of the bluffs and causeway yet the small boat traveled on. Around 1025 the ship, along with those of the rest of the 1st Battalion, hit the shore at the Fox Green sector of the beach. There Kenney and his men gathered their packs and took their first steps onto the European mainland. Wading in water up to their stomachs, the unloading was somewhat uneventful until German artillery from the interior began pounding the beach once again. These first shots shook the men, but the rounds were largely imprecise and inaccurate. Kenney gathered his troops and the company joined the rest of the battalion for the drive inland towards St. Laurent.

 

It would not be too long after the initial landing that Kenney became a critical part of his battalion. He first earned the respect of his superiors early in the campaign while leading a combat patrol under heavy fire during the battle for St. Clair sur l’Elle and quickly stood out from the other officers of the battalion as a quick-thinking and capable combat leader. On the evening of June 17th while fighting in the forests west of Bois de Bretel new battalion commander Major Glover S. Johns was meeting with his battalion staff and some company commanders to discuss an upcoming assault when a lost German machine gunner sighted the group and sprayed them thoroughly. Many of the officers were killed, including Kenney’s commanding officer of Charlie company. While Kenney was out of the company at the time recovering after literally collapsing due to exhaustion, the desperate Major had a dire need for capable commanders amidst the dense brush fighting of the hedgerows. Upon his return, Major Johns called up this bright lieutenant to test his mettle and talent as the new CO of C company. Thankfully, Kenney was an absolute natural. Not only was his talent as a previous platoon leader great for uniting the soldiers under his command, but he quickly picked up company-scale tactics and became a natural in the harsh fighting amongst the fields of Normandy.

 

In one anecdote from “The Clay Pigeons of St. Lo,” we find Major Johns explaining to Kenney the necessity of reporting the death of a replacement officer. As Kenney called some of his men over to take the body, Johns noticed an outpost covering an important field of fire dozing on the job and not paying attention. Both officers snuck up on the enlisted men and surprised them, finishing with the Major giving the GIs and Kenney a good chewing out for carelessness. After a feeble salute from Kenney, a nearby soldier warned the two that a German rifleman had been launching rifle grenades on the exact spot they were standing. They took the word lightly and both began walking back towards the CP, but no less than twenty seconds later a large pop marked the smack of a rifle grenade on the same spot they once stood. Little did they know, but an alert squad leader just saved their lives.

 

At this point the battle of the Hedgerows was in full swing and the “Big Red Team” was locked in a hectic battle with the German 3rd Fallschirmjager Division. Kenney’s life entirely revolved around a few hundred yards of French dirt barricades and the fields which connected them. Fighting was fierce as sporadic artillery bombardments punctured the wait between mass assaults against heavily fortified enemies. From organizing nightly combat patrols to setting up field of fire outpost, the rural Kentucky farmboy once again found his world encapsulated by whatever field was right in front of him.

 

On July 11th Kenney and Johns were personally confronted by General Gerardt, commanding general of the 29th Infantry Division, and warned that their battalion would play a crucial role in the final drive to St. Lo which was to come the next day. Kenney spent the night preparing his men, ensuring rations and ammo were in ample supply despite their ever-waning manpower. What came next, unknowingly, was the action which netted each man the French Croix de Guerre.

 

While waiting in the dark of night for the inevitable jump off the next morning, Kenney was shaken to arms by one of the largest artillery bombardments he had ever seen. German 60mm and 120mm mortars, 88s, 150s, rifles, machine guns and more began pounding up and down the line of the first battalion as every man clutched deep into their foxholes hoping to avoid the mist of shrapnel enveloping their section of the line. With the amount of fire incoming there was no feasible way to even look over the hedgerow to see what was happening but Kenney suspected the immediate arrival of German infantry and called back to Major Johns in warning. Less than two minutes later the first wave of German paratroopers hit Kenney’s line with grenades, rifles, submachine guns, and everything else they had. Moving up and down the line personally securing each position and outpost, Kenney worked amongst his troops to ensure there was no break in his part of the line. Without any reserves, any potential break would lead the Germans directly to regimental HQ. Kenney knew this and spent just as much time firing his Garand as the troops he commanded. The fight was tumultuous and raged for several hours of the early morning, especially since regimental HQ failed to believe the severity of the attack, leaving Kenney and his compatriots to fight off the four companies of elite German Fallschirmjager all by themselves. Finally at around 0330 did the regiment begin taking the pleas of Kenney and the other company commanders seriously. Kenney took advantage of the change and went up front with his observers, directly calling howitzer strikes on the largest clumps of Germans he could see. At around 0400 Kenney reported that the attacks on his line had let up and his flanks were secure. The battered but staunch American defenders recouped as relief swept across the line. Three well undermanned American companies had not only held off four strongly-supported companies of elite German troops, but had provided a strong enough counterattack to drive them back towards St. Lo. For their critical actions in holding the line with no help from the division, the battalion was awarded the French Croix de Guerre, an award Kenney wore for the rest of his service with pride.

 

Just three days later on July 15th, Kenney and a rejuvenated 1st battalion found themselves preparing for a final push for the city of St. Lo. Forming up the right of the battalion flank by the Isigny-St. Lo road, no less than two miles away lay the grand prize of the US First Army. Kenney was faced by a determined German for consisting of remnants from the 352nd Volksgrenadier Division, but this didn’t stop him. The Germans beat them to the punch again, opening up heavy fire in the early morning hours, but the attack was already on the move. At 0600 Kenney and Charlie Company got on the move, passing through a large bit of marshy ground directly in front of them before the Germans even had a chance to wake up. The German outposts which had kept another battalion stuck for three days were overrun by Kenney’s men in less than a matter of minutes. The assault was stopped, however, as Germans in the next hedgerow had now manned their positions and began to fire back at the 29ers. Crawling up to the edge of their hedgerow while both sides were fully exchanging fire, Kenney peeked up his head to “develop the situation,” taking a mental note of every German position firing and its strength while his men were busy distracting them. Deciding that the German left flak was weakest due to a lack of manpower, Kenney discovered a deep ditch running alongside the main road which provided a dangerous but clear opportunity for a flanking party. Sending his best squad leader and 20 men, Kenney carefully observed as they inched forward through the trench towards German lines. At the last moment before they reached the end of the ditch Kenney ordered the entire company to perform a massive feint which almost turned into a full-out charge. Smoking the German lines in white phosphorus and artillery fire, Kenney and his men yelled and fired as fast as humanly possible to draw the attention of the German infantry. At that moment the flanking squad rushed out of their cover and began causing mass destruction amongst the German lines from their rear. The Germans sat in utter confusion at why their left flank was quickly falling apart, giving Kenney time to call for the rest of the company to charge from the hedgerow and jump straight into the German lines. The action worked flawlessly, netting Kenney 28 prisoners, a dozen dead and wounded, and not a single US casualty.

 

The next section of ground was not as easy-going and rougher ground kept Kenney and his troops stuck behind yet another Hedgerow. Well-hidden and entrenched German fire teams kept up a steady pressure on the company and a flanking party was quickly put to rest by a hidden German machine gun. Artillery was not doing much and rifle grenadiers were shot twice by snipers, things were not looking good, but at that moment Major Johns rolled up with a 75mm Sherman ready to keep up the attack. The steel monster let out a rip from its main gun, sending a German paratrooper scurrying from his spot, and strafed the German lines with .50 machine gun fire. Kenney and the company broke loose and within seconds another 100 yards of French real-estate had changed hands. By dusk of that first day Kenney and his men had taken over 500 yards of German territory, far more than any other unit in the regiment, albeit with some heavy casualties sustained in the later parts of the day.

 

According to Major John’s, the darkness failed to stop Kenney. Described as a “whirlwind of leadership,” Kenney worked throughout the night up and down his front from one end to the other refusing to stop for rest or food. Encouraging each one of his men, Kenney found every potential problem in the company and came up with some solution which would allow for even greater attack in the morning. He was so distracted that right before dusk he failed to notice an incoming mortar round which landed so near to him that the concussion slammed him into the side of a hedgerow, knocking him out cold. Thankfully, the round hit a shallow hole, saving Kenney’s life. While his radio operator was making a desperate call to Major Johns that Kenney had been seriously wounded, Kenney ran over, grabbed the phone, and corrected the report himself. Sadly, this was not the end of the night for Kenney, and several hours later yet another mortar shell landed almost identical to the first but this time leaving Kenney’s back and legs peppered with shrapnel. Kenney woke up before litter-bearers could arrive and began walking back towards his company. Johns would hear none of it and ordered Kenney back to an aid station with no further argument. Johns claimed that “Kenney was too good a man to risk any further and he had done his job for the time being.”

 

For the next two days the Big Red Team led the American charge into St. Lo, becoming the first US unit to enter the city by clearing resistance street by street until all Germans had been pushed from the city proper. The defense was rough and German counter attacks came swift, heavy, and often. Johns lost many officers and lost several other company commanders as well as their replacements. Kenney, all the way back at the division clearing station, could tell the situation was getting dire by how many company officers were being sent back. Despite still being in recovery from surgery to remove the mortar fragments from his back, Kenney was not one to leave his outfit in a mess. The morning of the July 18th he woke up before any oderlies could get to him, put on a fresh set of clothes over the bandages covering his entire back and legs, and made his way on his own staggering several miles through roads and hedgerows until he reached the city of St. Lo. Walking into Johns’ command post as the sun began to go down, Kenney claimed “Major, I heard you got into town all right, but were sort of short of company commanders.” Johns’ face lit up with utter joy as he welcomed back one of his top field leaders.

 

The next day Kenney regained control of his company as the 1st Battalion rotated out of St. Lo and to a rest station, allowing the 134th of the 35th Division to take over. These are just a few of the stories revealed about now Captain Kenney’s time in those first two months of combat. A proven, capable, and respected combat commander, Kenney became Major Johns’ right-hand man for almost any pinch on the field. Kenney led C Company through the 29th great campaigns from Vire to Brest to the defense of Teveren-Geilenkirchen. At the end of October Kenney was transferred to serve as Major Johns’ assistant S-3, a job which he enjoyed, but not so much as leading his troops back in the field. Johns granted his request to once again command a company of his own, this time B Company, as the division prepared for their drive to the Roer River. Unfortunately, this command would not last long. While advancing south of a main road through pastureland towards the town of Siersdorf, Kenney and his company came under some of the harshest recorded fire the battalion had ever undergone. German artillery sighted in the company directly and machine guns let loose from all directions. There was quite literally nowhere for anyone to go and sinches of dirt hastily piled up in front of a man made the difference between life or death. For Kenney, his desperate pleas for support were only answered with radio silence from division. Within minutes the company suffered over 25 casualties and by the time they were rescued, Kenney was among them. Although not physically wounded, I believe Kenney suffered a severe stress attack, possibly combat shock, from the devastating attack which he had been thrown. Marked as returning to a hospital as a non-battle casualty, Kenney would never return to see his boys of the Big Red Team. I suspect after seeing so much brutal combat almost consistently from D-Day up until that fateful day in November which finally broke his will, Major Johns did not want to risk the life of a man he respected so greatly, and refused Kenney’s many letters begging to once again rejoin the unit up until the very end of the war.

Kenney spent the months afterward with a training regiment in England, preparing fresh divisions and replacements arriving from the United States for the harsh combat of the continent. He did his job well, although begrudgingly, and finished his combat career as a self-described “chairborne” commander. By the end of Kenney’s military career he had racked up an impressive amount of awards including a Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, two Purple Hearts, a Croix de Guerre with Silver Star and a Croix de Guerre with palm leaf.

 

Once back in Bourbon County he married Waller Payne in 1947 and settled once again as a farmer cultivating crops and livestock such as tobacco, beef cattle, hogs, and sheep. He was heavily invested in his community and in 1949 served on the board to create Bourbon County's first African American Youth Center which signaled a major step towards integration in the county. For many years he worked in the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, at one point taking on the job of state director for the US Farmers Home Administration overseeing rural housing and farm-related loan programs for families across Kentucky. He remained in the US Army Reserves until 1968, retiring as a colonel.

 

This is just some of a much larger grouping that a good friend of mine has maintained, I got the winter coats several years ago when the estate was first cleared. Two huge trunks were uncovered after the estate and sold to my friend and together we were able to research and find all kinds of things about Kenney. He was truly an incredible soldier and one of the craziest Kentuckians I have ever studied. Sadly I have yet to uncover his silver star citation, but there are simply so many actions he could have earned it for I will just have to wait until I visit the archives in Maryland. Among the group are his two winter uniforms, his dress tunic with British made 115th DUIs, British made pants, shirt, tie, socks, British made patches, german made knife, misc insignia, and even a named gaitor. This is a group I am incredibly proud to preserve and plan to for a long, long time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LCI(L)-412 landing Kenney and the men of C Company

[36thIDAlex]

Marked is Kenney’s line prior to the big push of the 15th

[Military_Curator]

An absolutely incredible grouping Alex. Great writeup and amazing uniforms! Good luck with the search of his SSM citation; I know you'll be happy with what you find on it.

 

Parks

[Kurt Barickman]

Really nice grouping and congrats! I have that book on the bookshelf and although it has be quite a few years since I read it, I still distinctly remember the night time Fallschirmjager  attack described in the book. To have a group from a prominent officer of the 115th is just really cool. Thanks for posting.

 

Kurt

[36thIDAlex]

On 11/9/2020 at 2:42 PM, Kurt Barickman said:

Really nice grouping and congrats! I have that book on the bookshelf and although it has be quite a few years since I read it, I still distinctly remember the night time Fallschirmjager  attack described in the book. To have a group from a prominent officer of the 115th is just really cool. Thanks for posting.

 

Kurt

Thanks both Kurt and Parks! It’s a truly special group and you can’t ask for much more out of a 29th ID uniform than to be from Major Johns’ outfit and one mentioned frequently throughout Clay Pigeons. I sped read through the entire book in about two days once I realized. They were some brave souls and Kenney was no exception.

[36thIDAlex]

This is the first anniversary in which Kenney’s set has been in my collection, thought I would bump for all he was doing 77 years ago today.

[Brian Dentino]

Great write up and incredible items Alex!  Truly a treasure to be able to preserve Capt. Kenney's history and items in your collection and honor him and all the others that saw some terrible fighting during the month of June 1944 and onward.  Well done and a great post!