Admiral John Hall
About the Artifact
Custom blue service coat named to Captian J.L. Hall and dated Oct. 1941 tailored by Paul Virgadamo of Newport R.I. Admiral John Hall wore and updated this uniform all through the war. While I try to find exact photos to match the uniforms, this uniform was used by Hall as Captian, Rear Admiral, and Vice Admiral.
A Bit Of History About Admiral John Hall
Admiral John Hall who had commanded the amphibious assaults on Sicily and Salerno was now tasked with landing the Fifth Corps on Omaha beech during the Normandy invasions. Unknown to Hall at the time Omaha beach would come to be known as Bloody Omaha.
Immediately upon his arrival in Britain Hall began to organize his Eleventh Amphibious Force which would consist of 691 ships and craft all part of the Allied armada of more than 5,000 vessels. The Allied armada set sail for France on the evening June 5th to arrive just of the coast of Normandy in the morning hours of June 6th, 1944.
At 11:00 the situation on Omaha beach was critical. Total chaos reigned on the beach. Damaged craft, burning vehicles, and dead and wounded men cluttered the shore. Colonel Mason, Chief of Staff of the First Division (part of Fifth Corps) ask Admiral Hall to meet with General Huebner, (commander First Army) who was considering a withdrawal. Hall firmly responded, “I am in command until the Army is established ashore ”. Hall had no idea of quitting! Hall understood the helpless feelings that Huebner had in watching a hotly contested amphibious landing but reassured him of the power behind the assault.
During these tense hours Hall aggressively used his ships to assist the troops. Due to rough water little of the Army’s artillery reached the shore which meant that Hall had to make effective use of his ships to support the landing troops pinned down on the beaches. Hall ordered “Get those destroyers in there” to which eight American destroyers and three British Hunt-class destroyers closed in on the beaches, sometimes as close as 800 yards. With their guns firing the destroyers knocked out German troops, gun emplacements, machine-gun nest, trenches, and detonated many carefully laid enemy minefields. Hall’s order reversed a sure defeat on land and maintained the precarious toehold on Omaha beach.
At 1715 First Army’s commander General Huebner and staff departed Hall’s flagship to go ashore. A message soon followed to Admiral John Hall. “This was undoubtedly a strong defensive position. Manned as it was it should have been impregnable. But there was one element of the attack which they could not parry…. I am now firmly convinced that our supporting Naval gun fire got us in; that without that gun fire we positively would not have crossed those beaches.
D-Day was almost over, and what a day it was. Hall’s force had successfully carried out its nearly impossible task of landing and supporting the Fifth Corps on the beaches of Normandy.