First Lieutenant Alfred Sheridan Andersen was born on August 19, 1919 in Brooklyn, New York. His father, Arthur C. Andersen, and his mother, Ada Julian Clark, were both from New York City. Alfred had an older sister and two younger brothers. His father worked as a food delivery driver; eventually, Alfred would pursue the same employment, specifically ferrying beer.

The precise date of Alfred’s enlistment in the Army is not clear, but by the time of the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944, he was a 1st Lieutenant in Company A of the 116th Infantry Regiment, a unit retroactively dubbed the “Suicide Wave”. Composed of an elite group of 200 soldiers selected from the more than 15,000 men of the 29th Infantry Division, Company A was tasked with spearheading the Allied landings at Omaha Beach near Vierville-sur-Mer. As the company approached the beach in landing craft, they were faced with a withering onslaught of enemy fire due to the fact that most of the enemy defensive positions had survived the Allied air assaults intended to soften them for the amphibious landings.

The landing itself was an utter catastrophe for Company A. One entire landing craft sank before reaching shore, and within ten minutes of the other crafts disembarking, every officer from Company A was either dead or too seriously wounded to command his men. This included Lt. Andersen, who was killed very quickly upon reaching shore. When all was said and done, about ⅔ of the company’s soldiers were killed in action during that brutal landing operation. However, the 116th Regiment in general was eventually able to take the beach, ensuring that the regiments landing behind it suffered few casualties and were able to overwhelm what was left of the German defenses.

Lt. Andersen was buried at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy. He was survived by his three siblings.

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The Army citation for the 116th Regiment for “extraordinary heroism and outstanding performance of duty” reads as follows:

The 116th Infantry Regiment is cited for extraordinary heroism and outstanding performance of duty in action in the initial assault on the northern coast of Normandy, France. On 6 June 1944, the 116th Infantry successfully attacked a heavily fortified and strongly defended beach in the vicinity of Vierville-Sur-Mer, France. The beach was fortified by mined underwater obstacles, bands of barbed wire, concrete walls, and land mines. It was strongly defended by enemy troops occupying pillboxes, trenches, and underground shelters. Defending troops were protected against the aerial and naval bombardment which preceded the assault, by deep and elaborate underground shelters which had been constructed in the hills and cliffs overlooking the beach. As elements of the 116th Infantry approached the beach in assault craft, they were met with withering fire from rifles, machine guns, mortars and 88mm guns, all of which were effectively employed at close range from enfilading positions in the cliffs overlooking the beach. In addition, the beach was subjected fire from enemy artillery and mortars which were inshore. In the face of this heavy fire, and in spite of suffering high losses, the 116th Infantry overcame the beach obstacles, took the enemy defended positions along the beach and cliffs, pushed through the mined area immediately in rear of the beach while still under heavy fire, and continued inshore to take its objective. The successful assault and landing of the 116th Infantry made possible the subsequent landings of other elements of the 29th Infantry Division, which landed behind it with only light losses. During its landing and assault of the beach positions, the 116th Infantry sustained more than 800 losses in officers and men.

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Thank you, Lt. Andersen, for your courageous service and sacrifice.

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.

The author would like to express appreciation for the following sources of information used in writing this story:

NewspaperArchive.com

Ancestry.com

FamilySearch.org

FindAGrave.com

Fold3.com

The Guardian

Alfred S Andersen