Military Myths & Legends: Medics of Angoville-Au-Plain

It was D-Day June 1944. World War II raged across many countries in Europe, and France was no exception. Tens of thousands of men and women put their lives on the line for their countries, and many made the ultimate sacrifice.

Less than an hour's drive away from the site of the largest seaborne invasion in history, two men made a stance to ensure that both ally and enemy alike wouldn't have to make that sacrifice.

In a small church in Angoville-Au-Plain, Kenneth Moore and Robert Wright, both medics with the 101st Airborne Division, set up a medical center where they provided medical care to their American comrades but also German soldiers and local French civilians and resistance fighters.

This is their remarkable story.

Kenneth Jack Moore was born in 1924 in Los Angeles County to John and Blanche Moore. He was still in high school when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. So enraged by this despicable act, he volunteered for military service in the U.S. Army paratroopers.

Following jump school, Moore was chosen to be a medic, although he got only about two weeks of medical training. 

In the summer of 1944, Moore was a member of the 2nd Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR) attached to the 101st Airborne Division �?? the famous "Screaming Eagles." He didn't see any combat until D-Day, June 6, 1944, when he was one of the thousands of troops parachuted into France. As a Medic, he carried medical supplies, but no weapon.

In the early morning hours of June 6, 1944, he and fellow medic Robert Wright, along with other paratroopers, boarded a C-47 transport plane and flew out of Merryfield airfield, Somerset, England. As the plane gained altitude, the paratroopers were told that they would be one of the first allied Soldiers parachuting into German-occupied France, around the town of Carentan, not far inland from where D-Day allied soldiers would storm the beaches at dawn. "You guys will be there first, behind the front lines. How you perform will save the lives of hundreds, thousands, possibly millions, possibly the free world," Moore's commander, Col. Howard "Skeets" Johnson, told his men.

During the flight from the south coast of England, while his blackened-face comrades cradled their weapons and checked their ammo, Moore watched a young man clean his weapon, almost manically. He then checked his own backpack of medicaments, knowing it might save lives, possibly even that young paratrooper opposite him.

As the C-47s came within sight of France and German anti-aircraft guns, a number of them were shot down and their airborne infantrymen never saw France. The plane Moore and Wright were on also received numerous flak hits, so much in fact that the pilot dove below the flak bursts. Others did the same.

Wright and Moore were dropped behind enemy lines in the early hours of June 6th before the landings on the beaches of Normandy began. The job of the 101st, along with the 82nd Airborne Division, was to cut off the main road connecting Cherbourg to Paris, which was critical to the German forces. 

In the chaos of the first few hours of the liberation of France, thousands of allied paratroopers found themselves dispersed across the French countryside. The land here is filled with bogs and hedgerows, and the Germans had flooded the bogs making it especially difficult and dangerous for the allies. As soldiers of the 101st regrouped in the dark of the night the battle ensued and tiny Angoville-Au-Plain found itself smack-dab in the thick of the fight.

Looking for a suitable site to set up a first aid station, medics Wright and Moore, with the help of Lt. Ed Allworth, quickly decided on the best option available-the small Romanesque 12th-century church in the center of Angoville-Au-Plain. 

To ensure that their aid station was recognized as a place of healing, the two paratroopers hoisted a white sheet with a self-painted Red Cross beneath the old bell tower and tried to save the lives of anyone wounded during the landing on nearby Utah Beach. 

The ancient basilica quickly developed into more than an aid station as Wright and Moore cared for a growing number of critically wounded men on the threshold of death. After stabilizing the soldiers, Wright or Moore left the church to scour the area for more injured men, including Germans.

The fighting here was intense and by the first evening, they were treating dozens of wounded soldiers and a couple of local girls, Lucienne and her friend Jean-Vienne, who were both wounded by a mortar round. While one of the medics tended to the wounded, the other would periodically risk his life by going out into the fields to search for the injured, often bringing them back to the church in a wheelbarrow.

The battle raged on for three days with both sides occupying the village at various times. When the American troops were forced to withdraw, Wright and Moore were told that they were on their own and despite the grave news, they continued about their work of tending to the wounded in the church. Joining the withdrawing Americans was Lt. Allworth. He left the medics knowing that as a combat soldier he would endanger the medics and those in their care.

Warriors from both sides were treated with equal compassion. A few died, but as the unrelenting war continued around the church, Wright and Moore renewed their efforts to rescue and treat injured soldiers from both sides. Overwhelmed by the numerically superior German forces, the Americans were again forced to retreat from Angoville-Au-Plain. Like before, both Wright and Moore refused to leave to continue their care of the wounded and dying.

As the Americans retreated, German soldiers stormed the church and kicked the doors open. In the eerie silence that followed, the Germans slowly lowered their weapons upon seeing German soldiers as well as American paratroopers under the medical care of Wright and Moore. A German officer arrived. Observing the compassion tendered, he asked if more of his wounded men could be brought in for treatment. Wright and Moore offered their assistance without hesitation or fear. Obliged, the German officer even called in his own doctor to assist the American medics. 

During their three days holed up in the tiny church of Angoville-Au-Plain, Wright and Moore faced many challenges. Unable to get supplies, they had to make do with what they had and with just the two of them to treat so many wounded they hardly ever slept. 

During the fighting that raged outside, a mortar shell hit the roof of the church causing further casualties and all of the church windows were shattered by gunfire, some of it from American troops thinking there were Germans in the church.

When another mortar round exploded in the church year, two German Fallschirmer (paratroopers) snipers dropped down from the church tower and surrendered to the unarmed medics. They had unknowingly been up in the tower the entire time. Both asked if they could stay to help with treating the wounded. Moore and Wright were more than happy for their support.

At one point U.S. soldiers rushed into the church to say they couldn't hold the town and recommended at least one of the medics fall back with them. But by then, the church was so packed with wounded that blood was leaking onto the floors as well as the pews. The two medics looked at each other and told the soldiers that both must stay and continue to treat the wounded.

During their three days holed up in the tiny church of Angoville-Au-Plain, Wright and Moore faced many challenges. Unable to get supplies, they had to make do with what they had and with just the two of them to treat so many wounded they never slept. 

At times, the battle raged so close that the church shook violently, blowing out the windows. When a mortar round came through the roof but didn't explode, it forced a chuck of the ceiling to come crashing down, smacking Moore in the head, causing him to bleed. That's when he got the Purple Heart. 

Regardless whether the Germans and Americans variously controlled the church after D-Day, Moore and Wright both won the respect of all sided. On several occasions, they were in the German-controlled territory but when the Germans saw they were also treating German wounded, they left them alone.

By June 8th, 1944, the fighting around Angoville-Au-Plain finally came to an end. Allied forces had the area secured and the war would move on toward Paris and the eventual defeat of Nazi Germany. 

In all, Moore and Wright treated more than 80 soldiers, including about a dozen Germans. They were awarded Silver Star medals for their actions, and both served in other battles, including the Battle of the Bulge.

But the scars of what took place in Angoville-Au-Plain have remained for the past seventy plus years. The cracked flagstone floor in the center of the church, shattered by the mortar round, and the bloodstained pews can still be seen in the church.

A memorial in the town square honors the two American medics. Inscribed on the memorial are carved these words: 'In honor and in recognition of Robert E. Wright, Kenneth J. Moore. Medics 2nd Battalion 501 PIR 101st Airborne Division. For humane and lifesaving care rendered to 80 combatants and this church in June 1944'

Inside the church are two stained glass windows commemorate the 101st Airborne Division, the first one is dedicated to the two medics of the 2nd Battalion of the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment (101st Airborne Division). The second one honored the American parachutists.

After the war, Moore returned to California and worked for the Chevron Oil Company as an area representative. He eventually owned several gas stations of his own until the mid-1980s when back problems forced him into retirement.

He and Wright occasionally returned to Angoville-Au-Plain for ceremonies commemorating their life-saving actions on D-Day.

"I think the reason it's gotten attention now is that we weren't involved in killing, we weren't trigger pullers," he said. "I tell my grandchildren that my role in the war was sort of as an observer. I wasn't a rifleman killing people, and I was there in one of the big historical events of our century." 

Kenneth Moore died in Sonoma, Calf. December 7, 2014. His first marriage was to Genevieve Wells in 1959. She passed away in 2001. He married for a second time to Beverly Thomson. She also passed away. He is survived by his son Francis, who lives in San Francisco and five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. 

Robert Wright was born in Ohio on February 9, 1924, the son of Bertha and Pearl Wright. He died Saturday, December 21, 2013, at the age of 89. At his request, his ashes were buried in the Angoville-Au-Plain cemetery. 

Editor's Note: The story of Moore and Wright was told in a documentary by war historian Tim Gray, "Eagles of Mercy," that aired on PBS and a 2013 book, "Angels of Mercy," by Paul Woodadge.