Germans Give Up To “Razor Squad”
Have you ever heard of the Razor Squad? We bet many of the German defenders of Brest never forgot these “sharp” soldiers.
“One ‘secret weapon’ which a group of doughboys invented as a gag turned out to be quite effective.”
During the Battle for Brest, American soldiers discovered a cache of German straight razors. Led by 24-year-old Staff Sergeant Elmer F. Coverdale of Milford, Delaware, and 26-year-old Sergeant Oby C. Peaden of Pensacola, Florida, several infantrymen tied the razors to the barrels of their rifles and proudly dubbed themselves the “Razor Squad.”
In the fierce street fighting that followed, many terrified German soldiers surrendered at the sight of rifles fitted with razor-sharp blades.
“It was just a gag for us,” recalled S/Sgt. Coverdale. “But the Jerries could not figure out what kind of troops they were up against.” — The Daily Mail, February 14, 1945
The remarkable story of the Razor Squad was first brought to the public by renowned war correspondent Hal Boyle, who accompanied the 2nd Infantry Division during the Battle for Brest in August and September 1944.
S/Sgt. Elmer Coverdale and Sgt. Oby Peaden served in Company I, 23rd Infantry Regiment. The company was later commanded by Captain Charles B. MacDonald, the acclaimed author of Company Commander.
Both Coverdale and Peaden survived the war and returned home. Sgt. Peaden was seriously wounded in the leg by machine-gun fire during the Battle of the Bulge, but after recovering, he rejoined his unit in February 1945. The story of the Razor Squad appeared in newspapers across the United States during 1945, making the two men well known in their hometowns.
Although S/Sgt. Elmer F. Coverdale passed away in 1968 at the age of 47, and Sgt. Oby C. Peaden died in 2010 at the age of 92, the story of the Razor Squad continues to live on as one of the many remarkable episodes in the history of the 2nd Infantry Division.