June 6th, 1944. The day the 101st and 82nd American paratrooper units in concert with British
paratroops, landed behind the beaches of Normandy, to cause as much chaos and confusion as
possible, and link up with the American and British landing parties at the beaches:
Omaha: The beach where the American 1st army would land.
Utah: The beach where the U.S. 4th division would land.
Gold: The beach where the British 50th division would hit beach.
Juno: The beach where the Canadian 3rd army would land.
Sowrd: The beach where the British 3rd division would land.
We are going to follow the story of the 1st American army, or the "Big Red One."
It was 6:00 hours. It was after the bombardment from the ships. The largest military
armada in the would. The soldiers of the first army were loading in the Higgins boats.
The ropes leading down in to the boats were slippery and all the gear that those men were
wearing call together weighed in at about 60-70 pounds. They were still loading in to the
landing crafts.
Then suddenly a soldier slips and falls in to the water. He screams as he is
quickly pulled under the water. The other men on the ships watch in horror and helplessness
as a fellow fighting soul is pulled to the bottom. An officer yells, "Keep it moving, keep
it moving!"
The men start loading back up. The first raft is full of 30 men...a platoon.
We'll be following fox company. They raft bombs up and down in the strong waters as the
German war machine and the remaining 88s begin to open fire on the approaching 1st army.
The raft seems like it will never get to the beach. A man throws up in nervousness.
The raft driver yells, "Thirty seconds to the beach, thirty seconds!"
The captain in the
middle of the raft, witch is in command of Fox company then yells words of honor and
and respect. "Ten seconds!" yells the driver. Ten seconds pass and they raft bombs into
a hedgehog, a three dimensional X witch was used to stop vehicles. "CLEAR THE RAFT!" yells
the driver. A soldier opens the hatch on the front of the Higgins boat and suddenly MG42
fires and 3 men are killed instantly. Quick thinking, the captain orders his
men over the side. They quickly comply.
The captain gets to the beach and takes cover with
other men from a different company, probably Able. He then gets the attention of its
captain and tells him to get his men off the beach and up to the sea wall. The captain
is then able to gather 4 members of his squad. They make a charge up to the sea wall with
the rest of the division. They run through the blazing MG fire and are able to get to the
sea wall.
A colonel then yells, "Two kinds of people are staying on the beach, the dead
and those who are going to die, now get moving!" An engineer then rushes up to the captain
and plants the high explosives in the sea wall. "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" yells the engineer
as he dives for cover. "We got something on the other side!" says the captain. The men
rush through the hole, some getting shot. about 40 men from mixed units make it through
the hole, with hundreds still pinned down on the beach. The captain says, "RIFLE GRENADE!"
A rifleman rushes up to the captain and puts a fire grenade on the muzzle of his rifle
and shoots it at the MG that are protecting the middle. The men rush
past the two bunkers and climb up the hill to the trenches. At this point the mixed unit
has lost about two men. They engage a German squad that were just entering the trench.
They take them out then go to the second bunker they passed. They captain yells, "HAMMON,
GET UP HERE!". A man with a flamethrower shoots it in to the bunker. Back on the beach,
men that are pinned down see the flames coming out of the slit of the bunker then see
Germans jumping out of it on fire. A soldier yell, "Hold your fire, let them burn!"
The captain and his unit then clear the second bunker. They turn the engage another German
squad but it is suddenly taken out by some other force. The captain then yells, "You guys
airborne?" Another man over the distance yells, "Yeah, what took you guys so long?!"
D-Day helped change the course of the war. The beaches let the U.S. bring in supplies
to the men fighting to free France when ever they wanted.
