Sixty-five years after he stormed a small, bloody section of Omaha Beach in the early overcast hours of D-Day, retired Boston firefighter James Garabee and his unheralded group of Army Rangers are receiving their long-overdue moment in the sun.
“I’m going back,” said Gabaree, 84, of Newburyport, before boarding his flight to France this week.
His unit, the Army’s 5th Ranger Battalion - which fought beside the storied 2nd Ranger Battalion, featured in the film “Saving Private Ryan” and highlighted by history - will be recognized today for the lives they lost on the beach, in a battle that was one of the turning points of World War II.
“This time they’re finally going to acknowledge some of 5th Rangers,” said Gabaree, who added his unit has been overshadowed in the public eye by the 2nd Rangers. “This time they’re going to acknowledge us. There’s a great honor in that.”
Gabaree hit Omaha Beach the morning of June 6, 1944, and snaked through enemy fire with three mine-clearing Bangalore torpedoes on his back, knowing any one of the thousands of German bullets that rained on them could detonate the 5-pound explosives, killing him and likely anyone nearby.
He placed one near a wire barricade and blasted it clear. His unit moved through the smoky chasm, dodging machine gun and sniper fire, pushing on to a rendezvous point. When his group of 23 arrived at the area where they expected to meet 500 others and join the push to Pointe Du Hoc, they were the only ones there.
“We didn’t know whether the invasion failed, or if everyone had been killed,” he recalled. “We just kept on going. That’s how we were trained.”
Later in the day, while his unit was sky-lined against a cliff’s edge, some German bullets found their mark.
“We were getting annihilated,” Gabaree said. “The first scout was shot and I got shot in the back . . . They pulled me into a defilated area and I put on the bandage.”
Gabaree’s unit kept moving forward, while he languished for two days before American soldiers found him and took him to an aid station. Lying alone, he said he battled fatigue, thirst and hallucinations, and also shot a German who tried to kill him.
Of the nearly 200,000 Allied troops who made good the largest amphibious invasion in history, Gabaree is one of the few who still remain. He spent 20 years as a Boston firefighter in Hyde Park and Charlestown and also created a successful career in real estate before retiring. He was awarded the Legion of Honor by the French government last year, that nation’s highest civilian or military honor.
As time passes and the current generation recalls D-Day only through movies and video games, Gabaree said some French still recall the real blood spilled that day.
