Ray Lambert, D-Day Medic, Omaha Beach (Full Interview)

welcome to veterans Chronicles I'm Greg Carabas honored to be joined today by US Army veteran Ray Lambert he was a medic in World War two was involved in landings in North Africa Sicily and Normandy he came ashore in the first wave with the big red one at Normandy on June 6 1944 we look forward to getting into this the entirety of all of this and sir thank you very much for being with us yeah well where were you born and raised sir I was born in Alabama and I grew up there in Alabama and I lived there until I was 20 years old when I saw that joined his service and were you drafted or did you enlist I enlisted why did you choose the army I chose the army because I wanted action and when I went to the recruiting office they asked me what I would like to do and I said if I'm going into service I want to be with a fighting unit I want to be in action what kind of training did you do first did you immediately get designated for being a medic or did that come later I that came after a basic training and we went to Fort Benning Georgia for basic training and I was assigned at that time to the second Battalion 1633 medical is that and I had had some medical training and that's how I ended up in the medics and we continued there after basic training of doing training in military medical what are the main things that medics were trained to do it's that at that time we were training as as first-line medics our job was to give first aid until they wounded and and try to say their lives give a little bit of morphine for pain and send them back to regimental in back to collecting hospitals where they can get more care when did you deploy we deployed after basic training here in the States we did a lot of training moving from one part of the country other by convoy and by train and eventually we went through and didn't have been Pennsylvania was quarantined there and left there and went overseas and we were not really deployed as we speak about deployment until we were finished got on over there right - over there so tell me about getting there and landing in North Africa Elliot uh of course went to England first we the ship that we was on docked in Liverpool and we there we disembarked there and went by rail a small rail train - ended out - Titsworth the England we were put in our barracks there that say the British military had been using and we did training there live fire training and also the medics were training with the infantry and the basic medical training they're little berries the first-aid men with companies and anything that we would be faced with when we went into action we were there for a while doing training and then we met I we were with advance detail of the first division after a while we met the first division rest of the first division that we came over with the Queen Mary in Scotland and we did maneuvers in Scotland and for quite a while there and then went back to England and uh eventually went to North Africa from there and the devil in North Africa at over L ran in North Africa was our first challenge really in the war describe it for me when we landed there in our Zoo which is outside of Iran naturally it was our first landing and a lot of the equipment's that we had such as our jeeps and vehicles were on different ships and as we went off there in our zoo we met very little resistance the Free French of course were there and with us and it was about three hours after we got in that we started facing a little more action from the enemy and the thing that we didn't have when we land there was once this ship that would went down that had our equipment on it our jeeps and things so we didn't have that so I went to a farmer that they're in our zoo and in recognization the horse in a cart this was a gray horse big wheels on the cart and we loaded it all our medical supply is on there and we I gave the farmer a receipt for the horse and his wagon and we used that on our way into Iran and we after of course we got into Iran and was settled down and got our vehicles then we returned the hearts and back to the farmer but it was the fighting going into Iran was was not really too bad we lost only a couple of guys of our medics going in one of those guys died when an electric wire was hit and went down and our guys of course we advancing up the road and trying to stay in the lower parts of the ditches on this side of the road and if power line went down on the guys that were in those and electrocuted them so we lost only the two guys on the way in torrann yeah how long were you in North Africa I'm going to bed that's AII right now there's eight six caping me but we were in North Africa Tara oh god it had to be I can't answer that question right now I don't have the dates in my mind okay but we we first as we got into Iran we were stationed there for a while in an old fort on top of a hill it looked out over Iran in that Harbor and while we were there we had to instamatics had to inspect all the restaurants and other facilities there in Iran and once that was all done then it had been cleared for other troops coming in the Restless was safe and all this sort of stuff and after that we started moving forward and to at North Africa in Algiers area and so the the fighting as we move forward into North Africa and heading into Tennessee we started meeting a lot more resistance and real heavy fighting and from what I've read you were decorated for your bravery there for risking your life to get to wounded troops yes I felt that my responsibility to my men was to have to prove myself first that's a leader to my men to get their trust before I can expect them to do things so if we we were going through a shelter valley in one case my driver and I and we saw a guy there was in a in a minefield and mine it throwing up and he was wounded there so we stopped and my driver said he was going in to get the guy and I wouldn't let him do that I went into the minefield 50 guy up followed his tracks and and fallen down the track back out so I brought him and out and saved his life got him to the aid station and we took care of him and sent him back that was one of the times that I did something did I felt that my job was to protect my men to give them their duty instead when each man was best fitted for I I think you got it and it could take the punishment on the front line it's company men and guys strong enough whereas to to bring the guy back on litter sometime as much as a mile or more from the front lines and I also would rotate those guys having one guy with a company men for two weeks and then bringing him back to let him be a little bear and sending another man is it a company aid men in war probably it's one of the most dangerous job that you can possibly have we're an infantry soldier can dig a trench get in it for fighting and firing met except beef is love all time they cannot hide themselves behind or in anything and so that the infantry guys will know they're there and it's very important that these company men live with that infantry company and get to know them and so they get to know them so if it's very important on those and as I answered some of your questions you're going to I will probably give you a little longer answer than you need or very away from that southern some what I try to get the point made sure sure let's take a quick break there mr. Lambert we'll be right back with more of your story on Veterans Chronicle [Music] we are back on Veterans Chronicles I'm Greg Columbus truly honored to be joined today by US Army medic veteran rail Ambridge he's a veteran of World War two North Africa Sicily and Normandy and sir we've talked a lot about North Africa that ultimately led to the amphibious landing at Sicily tell me about your experience there please when we had finished fighting in North Africa the next objective we had was to take Sicily we needed basis for our planes we needed air bases and supply bases so that we could continue on our fighting into other areas so Sicily was next on our mark and we left North Africa by boat and as we got out into the ocean many of the guys thought that we were going back to the States we were hoping it was going back to the States and it wasn't long before they came around giving us some little pamphlets on Sicily the language there and to think it would be faced with when we get joined up with the rest of the division we had two different ships I was on the Henrico and as we got out into the ocean the rest of the truth been upon other ships with us and we went to invade Sicily and deal it and before we this we got in close enough to the invasion area we could see a smoke and some things ahead so we knew that our battleships had been laying down some smoke in there and also throwing in some artillery shells and to that area so he got in close to the beach area and we had dropped you know probably about four feet of water and we began then to pick up the artillery fire and machine-gun fire and the we unloaded they are from the scene into smaller boats and made the invasion on the beaches there and we were faced by the 28th German tanks there was in sight of us and they were in a horseshoe position facing the beach and as we got in we started picking up casualties from from the machine-gun fire that was coming into the troops at that time and my job at that time was to try to find a place where we could treat those casualties and evacuate them and there was no place there at that particular time that was safe to do that so we were getting the wounded and getting them back and forth we could near the beach and hoping that we'd be able to catch one of these landing craft coming in and send those back out of there but the the Germans were closing in on us at that time with the tanks and one of the tanks got so close in that as they were loading some unloading some of the Clyde's on the beat ran right over those supplies and they were right down on the beach the thing that saved us there was are these the infantry guys were just moving forward and getting casualties and but they were it was amazing to see to me how these guys would face those tanks with sticky bombs as we call they stick on the side of the tanks and blow them up and they were getting up on top of the tanks and trying to fire down or drop hand grenades down in tank and eventually the tanks got a few of the tanks got knocked out and some the Battleship were firing at the tank and saying that saved us there that day was the fact that the Germans did not have foot troops in there and it was the German army was of course well trained and didn't make that many mistakes with at that time and we can never understand that but as it takes pull back they brought in 50 loads 50 truckloads of 50 foot troops and then the battle started between those guys in our infantry on ground troop and we had began to be able it's that time to get some of the wounded back in an area where we could give them a little morphine get them out of pain and dread that it wasn't a question of trying to heal a person it was trying to keep him alive and so we could put tourniquets on and that tie at that time and we did eventually be able after several hours be able to evacuate some of those you know mr. Lambert we're gonna take another break and when we come back I'll talk about your time at Normandy on Veterans Chronicles welcome back this is Veterans Chronicles I'm Greg karumba s-- honored to be joined today by US Army veteran Ray Lambert who served as a medic in World War two served at North Africa Sicily and the invasion of Normandy and sir I know after landing in Sicily you were wounded again you were wounded previously in North Africa so then after that you went back to England before the invasion of Normandy is that right yeah we went from Sicily back take yeah and then talk about the the build-up to d-day because when did you find out that you were going to be in the first wave I didn't find out that I was going to be in the first wave until we had loaded the ships at Weymouth England to go to own the invasion general eisenhower was very careful about these Saints and 50 orders out that any man that talked about where what we were going to do and hopefully none of us knew enough anyway at that time where we were going to land and what day the invasion was so we didn't really know that until we were loaded on his ships and Weymouth then they gave us that information so dawn breaks as you're in the English Channel first of all how was the ride over well we had a very rough very rough weather that year the invasion was said to be on the 5th of June and the weather was very the waves in the channel is probably five to six feet high and then the cloud was very low in heavy and rainy so it meant that we couldn't get the air support in there that we needed so after we landed on loaded these ships in Weymouth we began to know more and more about what we're getting if they had sand mock up tables on the ships and all of the noncommissioned officers in officer would study those tables where we might be able to land and I would looked at that those tables and tried to pick a place that we could set up an aid station somewhere on the beach which was really impossible of course to do after we got there saw that but on these ships that night of the fifth we stayed on this ship and they had decided that we could not make a landing I'd say and we'd make it on this six after we left Weymouth we had a convoy of ships mind Astoria's and we had all kind of small craft with us and we went and the night the guys were somewhere writing love letters home some were playing cards and some were reading the Bible and some were just sitting there thinking those guys that are those of us that had been through the other invasions had some idea of what we were going to have when we were landed there what to expect my job at that time I had replacements with me that had joined us in England we had trained them well and I was spending a lot of time with them trying to make sure that they didn't you know if they wasn't too concerned about it and it's so we went on that tight on this ship and then we anchored the next morning about two three o'clock in the morning ten miles off the shore of the how it happened in our case from Omaha Beach were ten I was out and it's a daylight begin to come up I went up on deck and I couldn't believe what I saw it looked like every ship in the world was there and every kind of ship and destroyers and everything else out there and the my brother was up on deck that night too so we talked for a while about our chances on the third invasion a lot of guys were kidding three-strikes-you're-out this is our third invasion and so the we were there until he and I talked for a while and looked at all the ships and things are beginning to get daylight and then they called for the stations I went back to where my men were and checked every man as he came up to the station where we're gonna load ended the Higgins boats and I talked to him briefly told them to keep their mind on the job not to think of anything else just to concentrate on your job that you're trained for and I checked their equipment their life jackets and life service and everything to make sure they were okay and then I would send each guy down their rope ladder to land and go into that crap that he was designed to be in that it was very rough the waves were beating the Higgins boats against the side of the ship we had all our equipment on us and we went down the net to get into the Higgins boat we had to have there were two people there that could kind of stabilize you just a little bit and you had to pick just the right time to jump in otherwise you could break your legs or be seriously hurt and so we went down and landed in to the Higgins boat there and so then the Higgins boat is coming ashore the ramp drops what happens yeah that after we load it on the Higgins boat we're onto who's there I told the entire wave that was going in on that first way was was loaded on the Higgins boat and many of the guys practically every guy got seasick because the smell of the diesel and their waves up and down in that small Higgins boat and once there although it we headed full-speed - what Omaha Beach and they waited for so high that water was there coming over the boat flashing in on top of it hey guys were throwing up all over the place and if you wasn't sick yourself pretty soon you'd get sick the boat people were throwing up in the boat so throwing up over the side of the boat and it was just a situation there where you'd get sick of everything is going in but we hit it in full speed and as we got inside of the land where we could see land we could see puffs of smoke and the lady as lay down some smoke in the air from some of the battleship and that was beginning to rise and be out so we were getting to a situation where we could see the beach air and as we got closer in we picked up machine-gun fire on the boats and some mortar fire on the Higgins boat and when we got to the beach so we had certain areas of slots that we won't call him where each of the Higgins boats would go in and we went in and when we got then the they dropped a ramp I was standing in this front left corner and I told the guys there you it's very knowing you couldn't hear much but I feel the guys stay on the water as much as you can we can see the machine gun in front of us firing at us one switch to our left that Omaha Beach which we need one's the wet on the other side it was firing in and then mortars and artillery shells were coming in we had one boat - they left the bus it was hit well and fire and I remembered seeing one of the guys jump overboard on our south even the shoes were burning and so those guys we never saw it yet was the ramp went down I went off I guess something went through my right elbow of my arm and that began to bleed a little bit and kind of crushed the bone and so I immediately went on to water and moving in his fours I could that way and the next thing that I found in front of me was a guy hung up on barbed wire and the Germans had crossed sides and with the cold iron gates all these things were in there too so that hopefully the Higgins boat went tip over or not come in be in there but we did get through that and so I began to talk to my man and tell them to try to save the guy that were drowning was the beach really just everywhere you looked with dead people dead guys dead soldiers and then floating in the water they were guys they had a lot of equipment on them and they life it service them and they liked the service had tipped them up in some areas in there they were drowning so we immediately tried to save those guys they were infantry and we had to go to a man that was floating and you to him and turn him over when you waves live and dead if he was dead we left him and went to try to save the guy that was still alive and get him back on his feet and get him out the ways were coming in and the guy that were dead was being pushed in to the weeds and then pulled back out again and it was I continued to work that way and going on the water and getting guys and I the third waste was coming in about the time that's I had was getting bleeding bad and getting weaker but I still was working that time I got a wound in my left thigh all these with get out of here 14 inches you could see the bone and my clothes were torn I put a tourniquet on that and somebody gave myself a shot of morphine and went back into the water to help those guys I was talking to my the Myers one of my corporals and Rayleigh poor was another one of the guys I tried to motion and get them together in the noise with with all these stuff going on and both being hit and artillery coming in and it was you couldn't really have a conversational place like that so I talked to those guys that we had to find someplace that we could get these wounded guy so that did the Germans were firing straight atom so guy was wound it and he was on the ground they were killing they fired until they killed him bullets were flying all around us even throughout some time bouncing off our helmet and shrapnel is made coming in and so I continued doing that and I was getting weaker all the time and one guy so hung up on the blog iron I could see his hand and that's and I'm with he was waving in there and I went to him went onto the water and got him finally I had to go under twice to get him loose from the barbed wire and I found that it was like his life preserver was caught up in a barbed wire so unbuckle that I took him in my bad arm which I was using like this and was taking him out and as we were going out the another boat came in the Higgins boat came in and dropped his anchor he hit me in the back and pushed me and the guy that I had to the bottom the ramp it you the ramp hit me in the back and push me to the bottom with the guy that I had and so I couldn't I was under that ramp which is weighed about 2,000 pounds of so I think they estimate and I knew that unless that ramp went up that we were both going to die there so I I prayed that God would give me the strength I asked for the strength to save this man I wasn't really concerned about asking for my life but I wanted to save this guy and the ramp went up and so I have no we have no reason to know why that ramp went up but it did go up and that that Hagin book backed out and moved to another position on the beach it could have been because of the fire power in that error was so terrific that you know it was just impossible and or it could have been that they realized they were in the wrong spot and move but whatever the reason was that went up and I took the guy and I crawled with a broken back back till I could get that guy back out to the beach and I tried to go back in again but I couldn't walk and I was kind of crawly in the water to get to a guy that his arm was off just little strength of holding his arm and he was every time the waves come in his arm would go like this and he would try to reach it with his good hand to save it from being washed away so I got to him by crawling or whatever I did I got to him and pulled him back a weightless enough away from the ways that he wouldn't be washed out in the ocean and gave him a shot of morphine and I told him I said look you gonna be okay we'll get you out of here and he died in my arms I was holding him and he died there and so I was getting weaker at that time and I went back over it crawl back over a half walking in half I don't know I I was moving and I get back over to where I could talk to Mars again and we saw the only thing that we could see on the beach was a big rock and we didn't know at the time that was German concrete but it looked like a rock and it worked out and so I told Mars and some of the other guys to start taking him wounded down to that rock and get behind that rock it was the only thing that you could on that entire beach area that you could get behind there was nothing else there to give you an intersection so we were able to get the guys started over there and then on the third wave the regimental aid group had come in and they were at that time and down east of athens then beginning to try to find a place where they could set up and treat some Faceman so I tried one more time to go in and get a guy and I couldn't make it so I went back out and talk to the guys again and said I can't go any further I was very weak bleeding terribly as my back was bad so I passed out day on the beach what do you remember next I don't remember who picked me off the beach but the next thing I knew I was on LTTE which is the landing ship tanks you know they have the big belly as we call it where they can open up put tanks in there and that was full of guys on litters and I was put on the upper part of the boat on a litter of stretcher we call these they and so a navy doctor came around and looked at my dog tags and he says we have another Lampert on here and I knew this there was my brother because we were the only two Lambert's in the 16th Infantry and I asked him I said how bad is he and he said we may have to remove his arm and leg and I said please don't you know he'll I got why I don't know what died he I just said please don't and they gave me a shot of morphine and we eventually ended up back in Weymouth there and then you stayed in the hospital for a really long time yes I which when we got to Weymouth they started unloading these the they won't get off their home to the dark and I was on it on a stretcher on the dark and they brought another guy and down next to me and I didn't recognize it it was my brother but they didn't know that but I didn't recognize it he was this white is that paper and it's clothes were bloody and torn and so I didn't I didn't recognize it and they put us in an ambulance and took us to a field hospital that had to come over from the states and set up a big huge tents and things that made our Hospital out of that all American doctors and nurses and they took us off when we got the offing out of the ambulance and all this staff we were the first two to go to that hospital and all the staff and doctors and everyone was out to sea I guess wanted to see what to shut up caucus would look like so they took us in the operating room and cleaned us up in there and dressed their wounds best I was out first but my brother his brother was so much more damaged than I was and they would be in a cot out in a ward and later they brought him out after several hours and they gave us something and we both fell asleep and the next morning early my brother woke up and he that first time he realized that I was there and he said to me what's mother going to think because she had had notices that we were both wounded in African both again and Sicily and so we did we talked a little bit and they gave us a little food and then shifters out of there two different hospitals and I went to hospital in England Cheltenham England and I was there for about eight months before I could walk very well have you dealt with back pain ever since yes my back has always bothered me but luckily over the years I've been able to do quite a lot of things that I wanted to do with that even play some golf and I established my businesses and ran those so I still have pain with my back that's why I took thee the medication this morning and but I am I've lived with it and I have a lot to to be thankful for that I've gotten this for it nineteen nine years old and I will continue on do any things I do helping people and working with our future soldiers and things until the day I die amen what a great what a great attitude when you think back to that first wave I would guess there's a number of things that could come to mind how it was almost impossible for that first wave to make any progress but at the same time nobody was giving up right so what comes what do you think about when you think about that day well I do when I think of that I think of the how brave our young men are and and everyone this that landed on that day was meeting an impossible situation the engineers had gone in ahead of the first way to try to destroy some of the hazards in there that we'd fate and when we went in the beach was littered with dead those guys I think were all killed and I think about these how these guys what they were doing of putting their life on the line for their families in their country and how might this I hope someday will mean to other people and but it was just absolutely your mind was on what you were doing and the reason that I had trained my men that way because if you're thinking about what your training is and what you're doing it keeps your mind off of a lot of the danger and things you're not looking out there and seeing that and that's the way I was is to keep my mind on what I was doing rather than to look up and gets frightened or something what we saw it's it's hard to explain feelings at a time like that because your feelings are not normal and so it would that was a type of thing on the beach there I'm also struck by the selflessness you were talking a little bit earlier while you were trapped under the Higgins boat ramp well I'm okay for the most part if I don't make it but god please help this man yeah I'm trying to say yeah that's remarkable and they may have been common among the other men on the beach but in our general culture that's remarkable well is that you know I never I never thought of much about that you know it's just what my job was and that's the way I am that's the way very Lambert is that's the way I am today I have feel that my responsibility is to to do everything I can to help someone else I sacrificed myself in the war for that reason and since I've been out I contribute every way that I possibly can to crippled children and wounded warriors and it's just the way I am and I realize everyone in the same way but we can't be you know it's very difficult for me to be to a point or like you mentioned selfish to be a selfish person and think of myself before someone else if just not the way I am wounded in North Africa wounded in Sicily when it four times four times four times on Omaha Beach and one of the few who can still tell that story today and sir it's been an honor to have you with us thank you very much for your time is there anything else you'd like to add I would just like to get to tell you one little incident and it happened in North Africa if I made sure on Hill 609 near Kasserine pass in North Africa the Germans held a high ground and we needed the high ground in the 16th century attacked heel 609 it was a terrible battle the Germans er with fixed positions there and we lost a lot of men and the finally we we took the high ground from the German oh yes we had an aid station set up at the base of the mountain and the next day we had to use half-tracks in any vehicle we could to bring the dead out of there there was so many the next day we held that that the hill all day long and I went up late that night late that evening to check on my company men because we the infantry companies were holding the land up there so as I was going up the side of the mountain there was a lot of boulders there and big rocks and things I was got to a point and I was standing with my back to a big boulder and I heard a kind of a scraping noise up top and what I did I looked back and that put me back to that big rock and a German came down with a fixed bayonet on a rifle and went through my field jacket and cut that out and went through the fleshy part here and fell down there in front of me and he came at me again with a bayonet and I've reached to try to get the end of the rifle and when I did he pulled the bayonet back and that's why this finger is like this it almost cuts his finger off and we had been told that the Germans were snipers were killing medics and we could take off our Geneva process in our Marcel I had a 45 that I learned myself with and the second time that he went back like that I had time even with my hand finger almost cut off to get my pistol and I got it out and when he came at that time I shot him twice and he fell on the ground rolled a couple of times on the side the hill and I would I checked him he was dead and I went through him got his identification there was one little photograph in his pocket and him and two young women on it and German writing on the back I didn't understand that but later when I got the in station we decided that was him and his sister and his girlfriend I still have that little picture today and every time I look at it it reminds me that that is the only person in my lifetime that I had to kill and so while I was doing that I was not frightened I my training dog taught me to do something react to the situation after it was over and I was looking at this young guy there about probably two years younger than I was at that time he might have been about seventeen here we are in a different country than our own fighting each other for something we don't even know why sometime and then I got I started shaking sweating and everything else and that that didn't last very long but actually I think the worst experience that I had of having to do that absolutely mr. Lambert it's an incredible legacy and an incredible story from three different theaters that you've shared with us today thank you for being with us and I can't thank you enough for your service to our country it's an honor to have you with us yeah very well ray Lambert is a US Army veteran of World War two from North Africa to Sicily to Normandy serving as a medic I'm Gregor rhombus this is Veterans Chronicles you

Channel: American Veterans Center

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Keywords: AVC, American Veterans Center, veteran, veterans, history, army, navy, air force, marines, coast guard, military, navy seal, world war ii, wwii, world war ii veteran interview, d-day, omaha beach, invasion of normandy

Id: GEXWJ3Jk4x4

Length: 50min 51sec (3051 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 03 2020