Breaking the German Line on the Crozon: St. Efletz

This extract is from the book "Battle for Brest" by Jonathan Gawne. All rights reserved. Anyone with further information on this action should drop me a line (jon 'at' gawne.com ). I am always interested in finding out more of the story.


Monument placed at the site in July 2003

It reads (in French) "To the memory of the officers and men of the 28th Infantry Regimnent of the U.S. Army killed in the liberation of Lanveoc in September 1944." Lanveoc is the local town that covers the areas of Laguniat and St. Efflez.

This stone now stands along the main road running between Lavenoc and St. Efflez: just between the American and German lines of 15 Sept 1944.

What is really great about this monument was that it was thought of, developed, and paid for by the local townspeople - not by the veterans.


It was drizzling on the morning of 15 Sept. 1944. The 3rd Battalion, under Major Ward of the 28th Infantry, moved up to the front lines on the Crozon Peninsula. On the left was Company K under Captain Clarence Hollingsworth. On the right was Company L under 1st Lt. John O. Gawne. Both companies were understrength from the heavy fighting to the north of Brest. After a ten minute artillery barrage they moved out at 0800 hrs., initially meeting with only scattered small arms fire. About 0900 hrs. both companies were stalled against the German main line of defense just east of the small village of St. Eflez. To their front was an open field covered with German machine gun fire.

At roughly 1000 hrs. Lt. Gawne snapped. After fighting his way from Normandy, he was suddenly filled with an uncontrollable rage for all the young men on both sides that were being hurt and killed. Why didn’t Ramcke just give up and spare them all this useless fighting? Jumping up from behind a small rise he madly charged the German machine gun that was holding them up, and promptly fell - his left side smashed by a few rounds.

After working his way back to a small dirt road on their left flank, Lt. Gawne held his bleeding side and told the men on the line, “Be careful boys, look what they’ve done to me.” He then staggered back down the road to a nearby farming village. Walking down this road he was exposed to German observation from the south and was shelled with small mortars. As he reached the cluster of stone houses known as Laveneoc, a company medic, Pvt. Ira Bathurst, came out to help him to cover. Lt. Gawne waved him off saying it was no use both of them getting hit. Bathurst ventured out into the mortar fire anyway, and helped the lieutenant into a farmhouse and onto a bed. Gawne then tried to get the medic to bring his wrist watch back up to the company as it was the only one they had.

After giving Gawne a shot of morphine, the medic realized that unless he got this man back to the aid station soon, he was done for. When the medic left to get help, Lt .Gawne looked at his bloody hand and, in his last conscious moment in France, left an imprint of it on the stone wall. Meanwhile, Bathurst discovered that the men bringing up the telephone connection to the rear had come under German fire and dropped the reel out in a field. After they refused to venture back to get it, Bathurst dashed out into the open, grabbed the wire reel, and brought it back, saying “Here’s your phone, now get me an ambulance up here right away.” After passing through the battalion aid station, and the 107th Evac. Hospital, Lt. Gawne was sent to Morlaix where he was flown to a hospital in England. After losing most of the ribs on his left side, and over half his liver, he finally woke up many days later.

Back at Company L command had passed to 2nd Lt. Thomas K. Yelland. He would be wounded a few hours later, around 1500hrs, and command would be assumed by Technical Sgt. Charles E. Ballance. Ballance, the senior NCO left in Company L, reorganized the men and got them moving. Shortly after reorganizing the company Ballance was shot and killed. Captain Lowry was sent down from Bn. HQ to assume command. Over in Company K no less than four lieutenants were killed or wounded. Company I, in reserve, was committed to the left flank in an attempt to swing around the German defenses, but little progress was made.

The 3rd Battalion was finaly able to break the German defenses at St. Efletz because of Captain Hollingsworth. He had noticed that a ravine ran down his left flank, right into the German lines. On the morning of the 15th it had been filled with fog and Holingworth hoped this would be the case on the next day as well. With his company at half strength, Holligsworth reorganized his unit and put one full strength platoon under Lt L.H. Goal. This platoon was send into the ravine with orders to attack at dawn under cover of the fog. Aided by Sgts L. Stubblefield and Alfonse Schittaci, the attack down the foggy ravine succeeded. Goal’s men were able to get into the enemy lines before the Germans knew what had happened. Attacking the Germans with grenades and bayonets at first, Lt. Goal added to the confusion by turning a German machine gun on the defenders. When the fight had ended the Germans had withdrawn from the position leaving 60 prisoners, 25 machine guns, and a knocked out assault gun. It was later discovered that in using the ravine the men had avoided an extensive antipersonal minefield in front of the German lines. After the encounter Hollingsworth wrote, “I always hated fog before, but now I love it, it’s wonderful!”

As an after note, medic Ira Bathurst made several trips up and down the dirt road from Lanevaneoc to help evacuate casualties from the front line. It was not until a day or two later that he again passed by the area and found it marked off with engineer’s tape. Inquiring why, he was told that the road was heavily mined. Telling the engineer that he didn’t believe it as he had traveled that road a number of times, Bathurst was shown where an antipersonnel mine fuse protruding above ground. In one of those stranger than fiction stories, Bathurst learned he had walked right through a thick minefield many times without ever having realized it.

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