CHAPTER 25
The Fabulous Four
Sprawling hundreds of yards in front of the battery stood several well-placed signs reading Achtung: Minen! (Attention: Mines!) Hundreds of anti-personnel and tank mines guarded the entrance to the guns of the Lochrist Battery. Navigating that death trap required balls of steel: one step—one inch—in the wrong direction would blow off a body part, or if you were lucky, kill instantly.
“I believe I see a passage through that minefield.” Ranger Lieutenant Bob Edlin from A Company looked carefully at the minefield, and told his Rangers, “Maybe we can work our way up to that pillbox.”
Known for his audacity and daring, the twenty-something Texan decided that, rather than risking his entire platoon, he would take three of his best men—Sergeants William J. Courtney, William Dreher, and Warren D. “Halftrack” Burmaster. Collectively, these men became known as the “Fabulous Four,” achieving legendary status within the battalion.
Jumping off at 8:30 A.M. on September 6 with “instructions to move as rapidly as possible to permit the enemy no time in which to organize his defenses,” the 2nd Battalion had moved in the direction of the Lochrist Battery. Able, Baker, and Charlie Companies made the main thrust of the attack. Fittingly, although all the Rangers approached the fort, only one small group would force the surrender. Like at Pointe du Hoc, a band of individual Rangers acting on their own initiative changed the course of the entire battle.
Just before the small, daring team began their trek through the minefield, Edlin ordered a mortar to drop smoke on the field. With their hearts racing, the Fabulous Four dashed across the field through the cloudy, gray haze of smoke and fire laid by the artillery. As Edlin instructed, the men carefully concentrated on the well-worn foot path that unfolded in front of them, which was used by French civilians to deliver goods to the fort. Pushing their backs against the pillbox, they moved towards the door. “We could hear them talking and laughing inside,” recalled Edlin.
In a swift, fluid motion, the strong, wiry Texan kicked the door open. Courtney barked in perfect German, “Hände hoch!” (Hands up!)
Stunned, the paratroopers threw their hands up. None of the twenty went for their machine guns and assault rifles stacked in the corners of the pillbox.
Edlin shot Courtney a quick glance, “Talk to somebody. See who’s in charge here.”
Before Courtney could get the words out, Edlin’s German counterpart, a twenty-something lieutenant came forward. “Sir, I speak fluent English. I went to college in America.”
Surprised at the Germans’ behavior, Edlin chimed in, “You guys seem like you’re glad this thing’s over with.”
“We’re glad it’s over with,” replied the same German. “We’ve been bombarded with artillery, and the bombers, then here, and the fighter planes, and now we’re going to be overrun. It’s a shame we’re going to lose a lot of men. Of course, you’re going to lose a lot of men too.”
The Fabulous Four had captured one of the outlying pillboxes that formed part of the larger fortifications guarding the battery. Audaciously, Edlin pressed the German officer. “Will you lead us to the fort commander?”
The English-speaking German responded with a sharp, “Ja.”
Rather than risk all of his men to the hazards of war, Edlin decided to go only with Courtney acting as his translator. “It was a tremendous risk, and I didn’t see any point in risking anyone other than myself. But I needed an interpreter in case they were lying to me.”
Edlin told Burmaster, “Get on the radio and contact Colonel Rudder to lift all artillery fire and planes, all fire on the fort.”
Burmaster spoke firmly into the microphone on his SCR-536 radio and repeated Edlin’s command. The message stunned Len Lomell, the battalion sergeant major, when he heard it come in. No one could believe that the lieutenant and his men had survived the deadly minefield and infiltrated the Germans’ fortress. He recalled Lieutenant Arman from F Company saying incredulously to Rudder, “The fool lieutenant of yours is up there already!”
The “fool lieutenant” was audaciously pressing his luck. Edlin, Courtney, and the German lieutenant were making their way through yet another minefield to reach the main fort entrance. As they walked, Edlin casually spoke to the German officer about college in the United States, his tommy gun slung on his soldier to avoid the appearance that he was taking the German prisoner.
The men entered a long, concrete tunnel and approached a pair of massive metal doors, which opened electrically. Through the doors, they first entered a cavernous underground hospital, equipped with state-of-the-art medical equipment. Nurses and doctors and wounded soldiers filled the ward. Courtney commanded, “Hände hoch!” Hands went up.
Immediately, chaos broke out. “They were yelling at us, and they sounded the alarm. Courtney hollered something at them in German. This lieutenant started talking, and they quieted down. Courtney was interpreting to me, and he was telling them that we were going to talk to the commandant and possibly end the situation.”
Shaped somewhat like a buried skyscraper, the fort included a number of elevators for reaching its deep underground levels. The trio approached one such elevator and found several men guarding the door. The American-educated German lieutenant ordered them to lower their weapons.
He then led the Rangers to Colonel Martin Fürst’s office. Their German guide was about to knock on the door when Edlin barked, “Don’t knock! Don’t touch the door! Just step back!”
Edlin turned the knob, and he and Courtney bolted through the door. Seated behind a large mahogany desk, Martin Fürst looked up as the Rangers crossed the room. Edlin yelled “Hände hoch!” as he shoved his tommy gun at Fürst. Shocked and stunned, the alarmed colonel stammered several words in German asking what was going on.
Fürst calmed down quickly, though, and Edlin thought, “This is one of the coolest characters I’ve ever seen.” The colonel got up, walked over to a table, poured a drink, and asked in German, “What do you want?”
Courtney attempted to stammer something in German, and the colonel condescendingly said, “You don’t need your interpreter, lieutenant, I speak excellent English.”
Edlin responded, “Fine. Why don’t you just surrender the whole fort and all your prisoners and get this whole thing over with.” Edlin added that he had taken the pillbox and wanted to discuss surrendering the fort, which would avoid a lot of casualties.
Fürst demurred.
Edlin then tried to convince Fürst of the futility of the situation. “You’re completely surrounded. There’s Rangers all around you. And the Air Force is going to bomb you.” While part of this strategic situation was true, Edlin really had no idea. He tried to drive home the bluff powerfully so that Fürst could save face.
Fürst looked at Edlin and said, “I’m not going to surrender.” The colonel picked up the telephone near his desk, asked a question in German, and hung up. Within a matter of seconds, the black phone buzzed. Fürst picked up the receiver. Edlin’s stomach tightened and his heart raced. The colonel looked up at Edlin. “Ah!” he said.
On the call, he had determined that there were only four Americans in the fort. “Well, there are only four of you, so you’re my prisoners.”
Outnumbered by eight hundred Germans, Edlin continued the unbelievably audacious bluff with a poker face—one that would fool the most cunning riverboat gambler. “The thing that happened, I have no explanation for it whatsoever.” It was then that, out of his ass, Edlin pulled one of the gutsiest stunts of the war. The odds were eight hundred to four, but at that moment in time, he knew he was all in. “I had a tommy gun and a pistol on my hip and a knife on my boot. And I reached over and grabbed a hand grenade from Courtney and I pulled the pin on it. And I stuck it between his legs.”
Edlin looked directly into Fürst’s eyes. “You either surrender right now, or I’m going to release the pin, and you’ll be a dead man!”
Fürst played his last card. “You know, if a grenade goes off, you die with me.”
Edlin was prepared to die. He responded, “Yeah, but it’ll be worth it. I’m gonna count to three and on three, I’m gonna release the grenade.”
Fürst caved in by the count of two. “All right, all right, I’ll surrender,” he stammered.
Edlin told the colonel to get on the PA system and order the entire fort to surrender.
21With a tommy gun to his head and a live grenade near his crotch, Fürst got on the microphone that linked to the fort’s PA system. He ordered the garrison to surrender, hand over their arms, and take no hostile action against the Americans. Through Burmaster, Edlin contacted Rudder, who facilitated the surrender of the Lochrist Battery. The entire 2nd Ranger Battalion assembled outside the fort. The Germans hoisted several white flags around the area and in the defensive positions of the fort. Dog Company and the other companies within the battalion stood at attention as the Germans began surrendering their weapons. “Initially, I thought only several hundred Germans would surrender. In all, eight hundred and thirteen Germans began stacking their arms.”
Fürst and his fellow German officers exchanged salutes with Rudder and surrendered the fort at 1:30 P.M. on September 9, 1944. Notably, Fürst’s surrender of the Lochrist Battery effectively eliminated a crucial redoubt in the western portion of Germany’s Brest defenses. For his actions, his superiors recommended Edlin for the Medal of Honor.
22Mopping-up operations continued for the next two weeks. The Rangers cleared the Breton town of Le Fret, which contained a German “hospital plant” that held Allied prisoners of war. In accordance with the Geneva Convention and to avoid fratricide, the Allies employed highly restrictive rules of engagement, which prohibited the firing of artillery nearby. Despite these restrictions, the soldiers cleared the area largely without incident. They captured forty German soldiers and rescued four hundred Allied POWs.
In the third week of September, Dog Company and the battalion assembled to prepare for a mission that would involve a seaborne assault on the last remaining German strongpoint on the peninsula. But similar to the events at Cherbourg, Allied ground forces overran the defenses, making the seaborne attack plans moot.
On September 18, the German garrison in Brest surrendered. The long and bloody campaign in Brest ended with a final act of defiance. In the surrender ceremony, German General Hermann-Bernhard Ramcke smartly approached newly promoted American Brigadier General Charles Canham. On D-Day, Canham commanded the 116th Infantry Regiment but now served as assistant commander of the 8th Division. Months earlier, with the 116th, Canham relieved Dog Company on the coastal road near Pointe du Hoc. Swagger stick in hand and wearing full dress uniform, Ramcke approached Canham with a cocksure attitude. “Let me see your credentials,” Ramcke demanded with disdain.
General Canham locked his steely gaze with Ramcke and pointed at his men. “These are my credentials.”
