A Utahn at Utah Beach— June 6, 1944 By MAX FINLEY
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ax Finley was bor n in Castle Dale and g rew up in the nearby coal mining town of Mohrland. In 1940 he graduated from North Emer y High School in Huntington. He attended the University of Utah where, at 6’ 5”, he played basketball and was on the track team. Inducted into the army at Fort Douglas on May 12, 1943, Finley was assigned to the 549th Field Artillery Battalion—whose soldiers were usually known as the 49ers. After training at Fort Hood, the 549th left Texas by train on November 27, 1943, for Camp Shanks, New York. On December 9, 1943, Finley sailed for England on board the Uruguay, a one-time luxury cruise ship converted into a troop transport. He arrived fifteen days later at Southampton, England, on Christmas Eve 1943. The 549th was headquartered at Hartford Manor, just outside Northwich in west-central England—approximately twenty-five miles southeast of Liverpool and twenty-five miles southwest of Manchester. Finley was assigned to the fire direction and survey team and would accompany the infantry and other frontline troops to radio back directions for artillery fire. Beginning in March 1944, training for the D-Day landing intensified and plans for the American landings at Omaha and Utah beaches began to unfold. In the following memoir, Max Finley, now a resident of Price, recalls his experience with the first American soldiers to land at Utah Beach on the French coast in Normandy on June 6, 1944. Max Finley in England. COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR
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