Edward Louis Briant was born April 30, 1924 to Philip and Rose Waetzig Briant in Itasca County, Minnesota.

Philip was a WWI Army Private Veteran, Battery C 348 FA 91 Division.

4 of the 5 Briant children served in WWII.

Older brother Raymond P. Briant served in the Army, receiving the Purple Heart Award.

Older Brother Phil W. Briant was a Staff Sargeant in the Army Air Force.

Older sister Gladys served in the Navy during WWII, going on to a 28 year career as an electrical inspector with Remington Rand/UNIVAC, now Unysis Corporation.

The youngest brother was Robert.

The family moved to Ramsey County, Minnesota where Philip was a farmer in 1930 and a laborer in a packing plant in 1940.

Edward enlisted in the Army on June 13, 1942 at Fort Snelling, Minnesota. His profession was listed as Actors & Actresses. He completed 4 years of high school.

He was assigned to the101st Airborne, 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment, Company F where he earned the status of Platoon Leader.

From an article on www.dday.org:

“On 5 June 1944 the 502nd Parachute Infantry left the departure airdromes for the invasion of France.

The landing was to be made on the Cotentin Peninsula south of Cherbourg in the vicinity of Saint Martin de Varreville.

The first Battalion in 36 planes and the remainder of the regiment in 81 planes left Membury and Greenham Common Airfield respectively.

All was airborne by 2330 and the serials began marshaling at their rendezvous for the trip To France.

These were by far the most important minutes in the lives of all the men but in no way did they betray the fears that any of them might have had regarding the dangers that would beset them in the next few hours.

They were cheerful and at ease– discussing the visit of General Eisenhower who had come down to see them off– talking about Bill Lee–reading General Montgomery’s letter.

There was no fearful tenseness that might be expected. Each man had a job and he knew what the job was. Everyone was eager to get in and pitch.

We crossed the channel and turned left on our approach leg about 0030. The coast of France loomed up through the light fog that had come to make things a little disagreeable for us.

At 0048 the red light came on and jumpmasters electrified into action. “Stand in the door”– crowd forward– reach forward—listen—tense– excited now. Red light! “Let’s go Bill Lee!”

[NOTE: General William Lee, often called the Father of the US Airborne, had commanded the 101st Airborne since it’s activation in 1942. The beloved commander almost certainly would have been one of the first to hit the ground in France on D-Day. However, a heart attack forced him to return stateside in 1943. In his tribute, the 502nd took his name as their rally cry.]

With the cry of “Bill Lee” the 502nd Parachute Infantry hit the silk and ascended like Hitler’s doom on occupied France.

The jump was widely scattered covering an area of 7.25 x 8 miles. The first serial jumped at 0053 and the subsequent serials a short time after.

All the planes met considerable flak and machine gun fire and the descending troopers were fired on by small arms and automatic weapons.

Many chutists landed within or near strong points and enemy gun positions; some were in the inundated area; on housetops; in trees; many never got their chutes off they were found later, hanging in the webbing, never having fired a shot.

The bulk of the regiment, however, found opposition varied with the locality. In some places the enemy had a definite plan of defense, but by and large the resistance was not coordinated. The enemy generally stayed in their positions and fired indiscriminately at every noise and shadow.

Machine gun emplacements at important road intersections were quickly liquidated but in the initial action did cause some casualties. Commanders of all grades began gathering all available personnel in the vicinity and proceeded to the objectives.

The gun position at Saint Martin de Varreville was taken by 0400.

Part of the force was then sent to causeways #3 and #4 and by 0600 these were under our control. During the ensuing few hours isolated groups of the regiment fought in numerable skirmishes and battles.

A large portion of the Second Battalion engage the enemy at Turqueville, France, and fought there for four hours until enemy reinforcements forced them to withdraw.

By 1200 elements of the fourth division began passing through the third Battalion area (causeways). these included portions of the 8th and 22nd infantries. They were organized and didn’t look too tired.

They reported unofficially that the beaches and causeways were all clear and that landing hadn’t been too hard a job. All of them sincerely appreciated our being there and the assistance that we had given their landings.

[NOTE: These preliminary and optimistic accounts of the beach landings described only the comparatively light struggle to get ashore at Utah Beach. These men could not yet know the bloodbath that was still being fought at Omaha Beach.]

The balance of six June, 1944, was spent in consolidating our positions and attempting to get in contact with adjacent units in groups of our own man still on reported. There was little chance to rest, but we had to be on alert against an enemy counterattack”

There is a two part interview on You Tube with surviving 502nd F member Norman Swaney. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Z8ZD4ARFOE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgZUEMGOvkQ

2nd LT Edward Louis Briant was killed in action during his jump on D-Day. His death record states “Penetrating Wounds, Bullet, Missile not specified, to the stomach.” It is mentioned on the Facebook Page “Friends of the 502 PIR, Company F” that his family was told he was shot down during his landing, before his feet touched French Soil.

He was first taken to Temporary Cemetery 3508 and later buried or memorialized at Plot C Row 26 Grave 36, Normandy American Cemetery, Colleville-sur-Mer, France. This is an American Battle Monuments Commission location.

America Salutes You With Deep Gratitude For Your Sacrifice And Service 2LT Edward Louis Briant, As Well As Your Father, Two Brothers And Your Sister.

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

References:

https://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=67097

https://www.dday.org/2020/03/13/edwin-funk-and-the-502nd-on-d-day/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56642657/edward-l-briant

https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=8939&h=3526347&tid=&pid=&queryId=95b47d430c6e40ad515cb1b1cbbba2fb&usePUB=true&_phsrc=MUq1404&_phstart=successSource

http://www.airborneinnormandy.com/records/co_f_normandy_regiment/Co%20F%20502nd%20Prcht%20Inf%20Normandy%20Records%20for%20Individual%20Soldiers%20In%20Normandy.pdf

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKRG-2ZM3?from=lynx1UIV7&treeref=GS61-VJN

https://www.facebook.com /pg/FCo502/posts/ Friends of Company F, 502 PIR, 101st Airborne - WW2

Edward L Briant