William Gniecko

William Gniecko was a 1st Lieutenant in the 29th Quartermaster Company of the 29th Infantry Division (United States) during WWII.

Adulthood

March 1944 - Appointment to Graves Registration

In March 1944 Gniecko was appointed as the 29th Infantry Division's Graves Registration officer.

1 June 1944 - preparations for Operation Neptune

Gniecko and his four enlisted men were part of the 3604th Quartermaster Truck Company, and attached to the Division by V Corps possibly by this time. The company was near Plymouth and the Helford River (near Falmouth) where they were loading up onto the LSTs for the invasion with their trucks, supplies, etc.

6 June 1944 - D-Day

On 6 June 1944 Operation Neptune began. Gniecko, his group, and the other groups arrived on time 1000 yards (914.4m) from Omaha Beach, and were waiting to land at their scheduled times through the first or second wave. Due to insufficient amount of ferries to the shore, Gniecko, his group, and other groups, except for 2nd Lt Robert Rosenberg's section, they weren't able to get to the beach at the scheduled time. Throughout the day, they were left waiting off shore, and were exposed to strafing and bombing attacks by German planes. From their position, Gniecko and everyone else would have been able to watch the landings.

Between 1100 8 June to early 9 June 1944 - D+2 and D+3

Between 1100 of 8 June (the establishment of the company's bivouac) and early 9 June, Gniecko and his group of four enlisted men and a ¾ ton 4×4 Weapons Carrier were finally able to ferry to the beach, and able to join the company at its bivouac 1/2 miles (800m) south of Vierville-sur-Mer. His group was also joined by the other groups of the 3604 Quartermaster Truck Company, from Lt Alley's, Lt Graf's, and Lt Rentschler's.

From around D+1 to D+2, when Gniecko returned to the command post, a direct order from General Gerhardt was recieved by Gniecko (the first one he received from him) stating to clean up the beach of bodies. Gniecko got the men of the Graves Registration as well as other men who were "idling" on the beach to help start the first cemetery. They chose to start the cemetery between the beach and the cliffs. During the process there were some shells and small arms fire that came from the Germans. Despite this, they were able to get the job done swiftly by using a bull-dozer to bury 456 men in this new cemetery just off the beach.

20 September 1990 - Letter to Robert M. Miller

On 20 September 1990, Gniecko wrote a letter to Robert M. Miller, who was in command of Fox Company of the 175th. In it he wrote an account of his experiences after starting the Graves Registration:

I was appointed the division’s Graves Registration officer in March 1944. My first
direct order from Gen. Gerhardt when I went back to the command post on D+1
was to clean up the beach of bodies. I started the Graves Registration boys and all
idlers on the beach to help. The first cemetery was between the beach and the
cliffs. Despite shells, and even small arms fire, the job went apace. Using a bull-
dozer, we buried 456 men just off the beach.

This account is somewhat in contradiction to that of the After Action Report by Captain Frank B. Hines Jr. sometime after the battle, where Hines Jr said that his group had come on D+2, not D+1 as Gniecko claims here. 1990 was 56 years after D-Day, so it is possible that he had a slightly faulty memory and mistakenly said it was on D+1 instead of D+2, unlike Hines' report which was a month to a few months after the battle. It could be argued that Gniecko could have easily remembered the hundreds of dead bodies as he described and the smells and sight of it which might have made him remember it better, however on what day he came in could be argued to be an insignifiant detail in that experience. It could also be argued that Hines Jr could've forgotten as well. Due to the time span from the event between the sources it is to be considered that Hines Jr's account is more accurate since it is closer to D-Day.

Bibliography

1. https://worldwartwoveterans.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/1940-Maryland-National-Guard-part-2-SM.pdf
2. Balkoski, Joseph (2004). Omaha Beach : D-Day, June 6, 1944. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books. ISBN 0811700798.
3. "Frank B Hines Jr". WWII Archives. 24 April 2023.
4. https://aad.archives.gov/aad/record-detail.jsp?dt=3061&mtch=3&cat=all&tf=F&q=William+Gniecko&bc=&rpp=10&pg=1&rid=2069646&rlst=2069646,2071694,2071695
5. https://aad.archives.gov/aad/record-detail.jsp?dt=3061&mtch=3&cat=all&tf=F&q=William+Gniecko&bc=&rpp=10&pg=1&rid=2071695&rlst=2069646,2071694,2071695
6. https://worldwartwoveterans.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/1940-Maryland-National-Guard-part-2-SM.pdf
7. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/209366737/william-p-gniecko
8. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/209366264/william-p-gniecko
9. https://www.myeasternshoremd.com/times_record/news/caroline-honors-veterans-at-monument-ceremony/article_76fb43a8-4f5e-5b46-8c60-6806d5a31b65.html
10. https://www.neighborwho.com/Sharp-Rd-Denton-MD-addresses/
11. https://www.genealogybuff.com/de/state/webbbs_config.pl/noframes/read/25
12. https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/stagser/s1400/s1499/html/ssi1499g.html
13. https://www.stardem.com/obituaries/obituaries-for-march-3-2005/article_fb68a94e-d334-5717-a11e-ce613acf4e3b.html
14. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KTN8-WRN
15. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J2CW-6PV
16. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:D6B9-64PZ
17. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L928-W9SX-X?i=147&cc=2329262&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AQVJY-S6N4
18. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKRH-R4ZT