Chemical Mortar Battalions in Combat
On D-Day, June 6, 1944, the 87th Chemical Mortar Battalion went ashore during the first hour of the landing on Utah Beach and quickly began to fire rounds over the cliffs above. The 87th paid a heavy price, with a total of 84 men killed in action during the unit's 16 months overseas. Like the CWS as a whole, the 87th and the other three chemical mortar battalions who fought in Normandy fired only high-explosive, smoke, and phosphorus shells, never the toxic chemicals for which their mortars were initially designed.