1942 to 1945 · 16th Infantry · Big Red One
John H. Lauten
He helped plan the invasion at Omaha Beach.
A Glendale lawyer who went to war in 1942, landed in North Africa, Sicily and on Omaha Beach, and wrote home to his wife, Ginny, and their little daughter, Linda, the whole way. These are his letters, word for word, with the scans you can zoom into and the history he wasn't allowed to write about.
Shared by his granddaughter.
D-Day
As intelligence officer (S-2) of the 16th Infantry, the regiment chosen to lead the 1st Division onto Omaha Beach, he was one of the few officers cleared to see the invasion plans, maps and aerial photographs.
He was one of five officers who planned the regiment’s assault on Omaha Beach. The overall plan for Normandy came from the top, but each assault regiment planned its own landing: which companies went in where, in what order, and what they would meet on the sand. His part was the enemy: the German positions, guns and beach obstacles, pieced together from aerial photographs and intelligence reports.
He landed with the regiment on D-Day and earned the Silver Star for rallying troops on the exposed beach under fire.
He never bragged about any of it. His job, he said later, “was not to shoot Germans but to determine what the military situation was.” Asked about the war, he would say only that he did what he had to do.
The Letters
Every letter, by date →- 1942 · 36 lettersEngland and North Africa, 1942The last letter before the convoys sailed, the landing at Oran, and a first Christmas overseas.Oct. 23, 1942 to Dec. 30, 1942
- 1943 · 45 lettersTunisia, January to March 1943The truck ride to the front, the Ousseltia Valley, Kasserine Pass, Gafsa and El Guettar.Jan. 1, 1943 to March 1943
- 1943 · 5 lettersSicily, July 1943: Crazy Things Happen in WarThe invasion, a tank battle near Gela and a truce at an Italian villa.July 1, 1943 to August 11, 1943
- 1944England and D-DayComing soon
Who He Was
Read his full story →John Lauten was born in Pittsburgh on August 17, 1913, and grew up in Glendale, California, after his family moved there in 1927. He studied political science at UCLA, where ROTC made him a second lieutenant, and earned his law degree at Boalt Hall in 1938. That same week he married Virginia “Ginny,” whom he had met in Berkeley.
- Nov. 1942 · AlgeriaLanded near Oran in the invasion of North Africa. Bronze Star.
- 1943 · TunisiaKasserine Pass, Gafsa and El Guettar. Became the regiment's intelligence officer (S-2) that spring.
- July 1943 · SicilyAssault landing at Gela, then the march inland toward Mount Etna.
- June 6, 1944 · NormandyLanded on Omaha Beach with the regiment that led the first wave. Silver Star.
- 1944 to 1945 · GermanyThe Hürtgen Forest, the Battle of the Bulge and the drive into Germany. The war ended with the division in Czechoslovakia.
- 1945 · HomeDischarged as a lieutenant colonel. Also awarded the Czech Military Cross and the French Croix de Guerre.
Photos & Documents
See them all →Photographs, newspaper stories and wartime papers from the family collection, with more added as the letters go up.
