Brooklyn Eagle (August 24, 1942)
Got Nazi, says Ranger who fired first shot
Soldier from Iowa corn belt credited with initial U.S. crack at foe on continent
London, England (UP) –
Franklin Koons, a 23-year-old farm boy from the Iowa hog and corn country, moved up to a crack in the old French stable wall, poked his rifle through and pulled the trigger.
Today Cpl. Koons was credited by his commanders with firing the first American shot on European soil in World War II.
Koons is a member of the American Rangers and he participated in the Dieppe attack last week. But not until he got back to Britain and the reports of the Americans in the attack were checked did he know he had fired the first shot.
Koons went ashore on the Dieppe coast with three other American Rangers. They moved up under cover of a gully toward their objective – a Nazi coastal battery – and encountered some sniping from the Germans.
Sure he got one ‘Jerry’
Here, in Koon’s own words, is how the first shot was fired:
I took refuge in a stable and began sniping back, firing through a crack from a standing position. I fired quite a number of rounds at odd, stray Jerries who sometimes appeared, and I am pretty sure I got one of them.
There were three other Americans in his group and while he has been officially credited with firing the first shot, his companions also fired at about the same time.
With Koons, when the invasion barge grated on the Dieppe beach were Staff Sgt. Ken Stempson, 25, a former railroad employee at Russell, Minnesota; Sgt. Alex Szima, 22 a former bartender at Dayton, Ohio, and Cpl. Bill Brady, 23, a magazine salesman from Grand Forks, North Dakota.
Koons was reared on a fark and before he went into the Army, he was a livestock auctioneer and farmer.
Addressed by Mountbatten
Before the raid, the men were addressed by Lord Louis Mountbatten, head of the Commandos. Koons said he didn’t have any fears about the assignment after that and slept soundly until just before the order to the boats was given.
He said:
I went to sleep again during the Channel crossing and was awakened by shore fire by the Germans. We landed on French soil after wading 30 or 40 yards through the surf.
After the party accomplished its missing, it began a rearguard action as it dropped back to the beach behind the shelter of hedges, Koons said.
The party was under heavy gunfire and some were killed. The dead were left in France but the wounded were carried along to the water-edge, where the party seized a small boat. They placed the wounded aboard and then pulled into the Channel, where they waited for a boat to return them to Britain.