The memories live on
Exploits recalled for Medal of Honor winner from McKees Rocks who was killed on D-Day
Even though it was his 32nd birthday on June 6, 1944, Technician Fifth Grade John Joseph Pinder Jr., the son of a Western Pennsylvania steelworker, was having a miserable morning.
As the landing craft he was aboard crashed through the waves off the Normandy coast, he was concerned about his brother, B-24 bomber pilot Harold Pinder, who was listed by the 8th Air Force as missing in action.
Harold’s B-24 The Sky Queen had been shot down in January 1944 over Belgium. Tech-5 Pinder, a radio operator, who was known as “Joe” was stationed in England at the time preparing for the Normandy invasion with the 1st Infantry Division, the legendary Big Red One.
He visited Harold’s base to ask about his brother, but the other airmen said his plane went down, disappearing into the clouds. That was all they knew.
Joe, who later wrote home to his father and mother about Harold, told them he hoped he was still alive and a prisoner of war, but he didn’t know for sure.
Now aboard the landing craft headed to Omaha Beach, Joe struggled along with the other 102 soldiers of the 16th Infantry Regiment’s Advance Command Post to keep their footing as the heavy seas tossed them about on the boat’s slick metal deck.
Many of the men were seasick, throwing up into rubber bags then tossing the contents over the sides
of the boat.
They were all soaked from the cold North Atlantic water rushing over the deck, but things were about to become worse.
When the ramp on the landing craft splashed into the surf 100 yards from the beach, Lt. Col. John H. Matthews in charge of the command post was shot through the head, according to an account by John C. McManus in his book “The Dead and Those About to Die, D-Day: The Big Red One at Omaha Beach.”
As the rest of the men jumped into the surf, machine gun bullets stitched the water while mortar and cannon shells exploded all around them with uncanny accuracy.
More than a third of the men in the Advance Command Post were killed or wounded even before reaching the beach.
Most of their equipment, including their radios, was lost. The pre-invasion plans of the Advance Command Post disintegrated into chaos, was how Mr. McManus described the scene in his book.
Once on land, men took cover behind beach obstacles placed by the Germans or tried to find shelter on the rocky shore, but Joe knew this was a recipe for disaster.
Without the radios to establish command and control on the beach to coordinate the assault on the German defenders, the men would be isolated into small groups and destroyed one by one by German machine gun, mortar and cannon fire, which was precisely the plan devised by German General Erwin Rommel to stop the invasion at the water’s edge.
Joe’s Medal of Honor citation described what happened next: “Carrying a vitally important radio he struggled towards shore in waist-deep water. Only a few yards from his craft he was hit by enemy fire and was gravely wounded.
“Technician Fifth Grade Pinder never stopped. He made shore and delivered the radio. Refusing to take cover afforded, or to accept medical attention for his wounds, Technician Fifth Grade Pinder, though terribly weakened by loss of blood and in
fierce pain, on three occasions went into the fireswept surf to salvage communications equipment. He recovered many vital parts and equipment including another workable radio.
“On the third trip he was again hit, suffering machine gun bullet wounds in the legs. Still this valiant soldier would not stop for rest or medical attention. Remaining exposed to heavy enemy fire, growing steadily weaker, he aided in establishing the vital radio communications on the beach. While so engaged this dauntless soldier was hit for the third time and killed.”
“He would not stop for rest or medical attention,” Capt. Stephen Ralph, his company commander, said later when the Army interviewed him while considering Joe’s actions for the Medal of Honor.
The Army recognized his heroism at Omaha Beach with a posthumous Medal of Honor in 1944. The citation credits “His conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty… and concludes, “The indomitable courage and bravery of Technician Fifth Grade Pinder was a magnificent inspiration to the men with whom he served.”
This year marks the 75th
Charles Maritz, VFW post commander
anniversary of D-Day, and although first-person remembrances are fading of what occurred that day, Joe’s memory is still alive in McKees Rocks, where his father was a steelworker before the family moved to Burgettstown when a new job opened up for his father at another steel mill.
His family later moved to Butler and Joe graduated from Butler High School in 1931.
A photo of Tech-5 Joe Pinder is still on display in the McKees Rocks Borough Building, and Tracey Pederson, a former council member and the borough tax collector, said it reminds her of the sense of duty and honor Joe had for his country.
There is also a plaque dedicated to him at the McKees Rocks War Memorial on Chartiers Avenue. A street banner honoring him, as well as banners honoring other McKees Rocks veterans, can be seen on Chartiers Avenue near the VFW Vesle Post 418 in McKees Rocks.
Joe’s brother Harold survived the war after being taken prisoner by the Germans in Belgium where his plane crashed would often come to McKees Rocks for the Memorial Day parade and ceremony, said Charles Maritz, the VFW post commander. Harold Pinder died in 2008.
“It was a privilege to hear Harold tell us what led up to Joe receiving the Medal of Honor,” Mr. Maritz said.
The Pinder family has donated Joe’s Medal of Honor to Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum, along with letters he wrote home, a letter from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to the family, and the contents of Joe’s wallet recovered at the Normandy beach where he was killed.
“Joe carried a picture of his brother Harold in his wallet. It is very touching,” said Michael Kraus, the museum’s curator, who created an exhibit honoring Joe’s service on D-Day that people can view through the summer.
“People need to see the Medal of Honor and hear the story of Joe. It is a national treasure,” Mr. Kraus said.
“It was a privilege to hear Harold tell us what led up to Joe receiving the Medal of Honor.”