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| 1st Lt. John M. Spalding. First Infantry Division, 16th Infantry Regiment |
John M. Spalding (often misspelled Spaulding in official Army reports) (17 December 1914 - d. 1959)
He is famous as one of the first officers (a lieutenant at the time for E Company, 2nd Battalion, 16th
Infantry) to make it up to the top of bloody Omaha Beach and clear out German defenses from behind.
He and his men, including his sergeant, Philip Streczyk, helped make the breakthrough there on
D-Day possible. His platoon landed on the Easy Red sector, and made it to the seawall largely intact,
unlike most in the first wave.
Instead of attacking up the beach exits, as was planned, he instead helped find and clear a path up
the mined bluffs, left of Exit E-1. Once at the top, his team was the first to attack the enemy
fortifications from the rear, clearing out trenches and pillboxes along Exit E-1. Later on D-Day he was
involved in actions further inland at Colleville-sur-Mer.
For his actions on D-Day, he was later awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
Spalding was a native of Owensboro, Kentucky. After the war, he returned there and served two terms
in the Kentucky House of Representatives.
He died in 1959.
Read an Interview with: Lt. John Spalding Leader 1st Section.Company "E"
He is famous as one of the first officers (a lieutenant at the time for E Company, 2nd Battalion, 16th
Infantry) to make it up to the top of bloody Omaha Beach and clear out German defenses from behind.
He and his men, including his sergeant, Philip Streczyk, helped make the breakthrough there on
D-Day possible. His platoon landed on the Easy Red sector, and made it to the seawall largely intact,
unlike most in the first wave.
Instead of attacking up the beach exits, as was planned, he instead helped find and clear a path up
the mined bluffs, left of Exit E-1. Once at the top, his team was the first to attack the enemy
fortifications from the rear, clearing out trenches and pillboxes along Exit E-1. Later on D-Day he was
involved in actions further inland at Colleville-sur-Mer.
For his actions on D-Day, he was later awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
Spalding was a native of Owensboro, Kentucky. After the war, he returned there and served two terms
in the Kentucky House of Representatives.
He died in 1959.
Read an Interview with: Lt. John Spalding Leader 1st Section.Company "E"