3 heroic chaplains who served others on D-Day of World War II

Tens of thousands of Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944. That day 80 years ago—D-Day—marked a major turning point in World War II.

More than 156,000 soldiers participated in the Normandy landings, and some chaplains also landed or parachuted in with them. Here are three who showed courage and heroism.

P. Francis Sampson

Father Francis Sampson, the “Parachute Father” who served in the United States 501st Parachute Regiment, was among the 15,500 soldiers who jumped behind enemy lines on that fateful June 6.

“Probably no chaplain, Catholic or otherwise, saw more of the horrors of the battle of the hedges than Francis Sampson,” said the Jesuit priest Donald Crosby in his book Battlefield Chaplains: Catholic Priests in World War II of 1994.

Father Sampson immediately began caring for the wounded and dying, both spiritually and physically, but German SS troops captured him and took him down the road to be shot, Father Crosby and Lawrence Grayson recount in an article titled A Padre in Jump Boots.

Father Sampson would say that he was so nervous that he kept saying the “prayer before meals” instead of the act of contrition. The Germans then put him against a wall and raised their guns to shoot him, when a German officer saw the chaplain’s badge. The officer fired over the heads of the troops to stop them. Father Sampson identified himself as a Catholic priest. In response, the officer saluted, bowed slightly and showed him a Catholic medal inside his uniform and insisted that the priest see photos of his baby.

“The German officer, who had clearly saved his life, promised him that a German doctor would come in a day or two and tend to the American soldiers’ wounds,” Father Crosby recounted.

Meanwhile, Father Sampson not only saved the American soldiers, but also gave his own blood to a wounded soldier and continued to work tirelessly. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his heroism in Normandy.

After D-Day, the chaplain would be captured again by German troops during the Battle of the Bulge and, as a prisoner in a Stalag Until the end of the war, he remained committed to helping the sick and celebrating Masses. He became chief chaplain of the United States Army from 1967 to 1971. The 1998 film Saving Private Ryan It was based on one of Father Sampson’s missions related to D-Day.

P. Joseph Lacy

Father Joseph Lacy was among the 34,250 American soldiers who landed on Omaha Beach that June 6. Only a week earlier he had joined the 5th Ranger Battalion.

Ed Lane, president of 5th Rangers Reenacted, a historical reenactment group, wrote: “When Father Lacy introduced himself to the Rangers a few days before D-Day, the commander looked at him and said, ‘Father, you are old and fat. . He will never be able to follow us.’ Father Lacy looked at him and replied: ‘Don’t worry about it. I’ll do my job.’”

And the chaplain complied. He was in the first landing craft on the Omaha Beach Rangers section.

He was the last man to leave the landing craft before a shell hit it. He began leading the men out of the water toward the beach, helping the wounded and administering the last rites.

The Distinguished Service Cross awarded to him for his actions describes what the heroic priest did that day. He describes 1st Lieutenant Lacy’s “extraordinary bravery in action on June 6, 1944,” when the chaplain “landed on the beach with one of the main assault units.”

“Numerous casualties had been inflicted by heavy fire from enemy rifles, mortars, artillery and rockets. Without concern for his own safety, he moved along the beach, continually exposed to enemy fire, and helped the wounded men from the water’s edge to the relative safety of a nearby wall, and at the same time inspired the men to a similar contempt for enemy fire. Chaplain Lacy’s heroic and bold action is in keeping with the highest traditions of the service,” he adds.

Nearly half of the Rangers who landed with Lacy were killed or wounded, but they were the first to break through enemy lines. After D-Day, his chaplaincy continued with them in France, and in the 1960s, after being appointed Monsignor, Lacy became chancellor of the Archdiocese of Hartford, Connecticut, then under the leadership of Archbishop Henry O’Brien.

P. Ignatius Maternowski

Amid the crossfire of D-Day, the only American military chaplain killed in action was a Catholic priest, the Franciscan Ignatius Maternowski. The 32-year-old friar parachuted with the 82nd Airborne Division.

Lyle Dorsett, author of the book Serving God and Country: United States Military Chaplains in World War II of 2012 has recounted how the soldiers who served with the friar remembered him.

“One man said that he was an energetic and tough Pole, and that he was extremely well-liked by the men of his regiment. He was a man’s man. He did not find it funny when men told dirty jokes, spoke rudely, or took the Lord’s name in vain. More than once he said ‘Put on boxing gloves’ to anyone who made comments about the Church or confession,” he told the National Catholic Register.

Father Maternowski, a captain in the US Army, was a paratrooper with the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne. The regiment’s website recalls that the paratroopers landed near the small town of Picauville, where the only store, a grocery store, became a makeshift first aid station for wounded paratroopers.

Seeing that it was filling up quickly, with more wounded on the way, Father Maternowski made a risky move to meet with the German chief doctor in charge of his wounded to negotiate and gather all the wounded in a large space. With the religious chaplain’s badge on his jacket and wearing a Red Cross armband, he removed his helmet and walked fearlessly toward the German lines.

Surprisingly, he returned to the makeshift first aid station with the same German doctor to show him the conditions. That day, the priest must have returned later to the German lines with the German officer, because when he returned alone to the American lines, a Nazi sniper shot him in the back from one of the nearby houses.

He fell on the road, where his body lay for three days in the settlement of Gueutteville, part of Picauville. The Germans did not allow anyone to recover it. Once soldiers from the 90th Infantry Division showed up, they were able to recover his body.

There is a monument erected in Gueutteville that gives an account of the brave acts of the chaplain. In 1948, Father Maternowski’s remains were returned to the United States and buried in the Franciscan Friars section of the cemetery in South Hadley, Massachusetts. His tombstone bears the words: “There is no greater love.”

Translated and adapted by ACI Prensa. Originally published by National Catholic Register on June 6, 2019.