>When the ramps were dropped, the German machine-gunners concentrated their fire on the opening. In some places men leaped off and found the water over their heads. “Many were hit in the water, good swimmers or not. Screams for help came from men hit and drowning under ponderous loads… There were dead men floating in the water and there were live men acting dead, letting the tide take them in.”
A staff sergeant in the 1st Division saw a direct hit on the neighbouring assault boat. Several of the men on board were blown “fifty or sixty feet in the air”. There were cries in all directions: “I’m hit! I’m hit!” Machine-gun fire criss-crossed the beach and, “as it hit the wet sand, it made a ‘sip sip’ sound like someone sucking on their teeth”.
One soldier saw a fellow GI running from right to left, trying to get across. An enemy gunner shot him as he stumbled. “He screamed for a medic. An aid moved quickly to help him and he was also shot. The medic lay next to the GI and both of them were screaming until they died a few minutes later”.
A member of the 1st Battalion watched the fate of a devout non-com, Sergeant “Pilgrim” Robertson. He “had a gaping wound in the upper right corner of his forehead. He was walking crazily in the water without his helmet. Then I saw him get down on his knees and start praying with his rosary beads. At this moment the Germans cut him in half with their deadly crossfire.”
The first soldier through the wire was hit by a burst of machine-gun fire. “Medico!” he yelled. “Medico I’m hit. Help me!” He moaned and cried for a few minutes. “Finally he died after sobbing ‘Mama’, several times.”
* Antony Beevor, *D-Day: The Battle for Normandy*, on the nightmarish chaos of Omaha Beach
mcfarmer72 on
Lord that makes me sad.
MeeMeeGod on
Wounded men is a stretch
ReesesPieces2020 on
I wonder how long into the landings this picture was taken
SergeantPancakes on
D-Day was the deadliest day for the U.S. armed forces in its history, if you don’t count the Battle of Antietam because technically only one side was officially the U.S.
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>When the ramps were dropped, the German machine-gunners concentrated their fire on the opening. In some places men leaped off and found the water over their heads. “Many were hit in the water, good swimmers or not. Screams for help came from men hit and drowning under ponderous loads… There were dead men floating in the water and there were live men acting dead, letting the tide take them in.”
A staff sergeant in the 1st Division saw a direct hit on the neighbouring assault boat. Several of the men on board were blown “fifty or sixty feet in the air”. There were cries in all directions: “I’m hit! I’m hit!” Machine-gun fire criss-crossed the beach and, “as it hit the wet sand, it made a ‘sip sip’ sound like someone sucking on their teeth”.
One soldier saw a fellow GI running from right to left, trying to get across. An enemy gunner shot him as he stumbled. “He screamed for a medic. An aid moved quickly to help him and he was also shot. The medic lay next to the GI and both of them were screaming until they died a few minutes later”.
A member of the 1st Battalion watched the fate of a devout non-com, Sergeant “Pilgrim” Robertson. He “had a gaping wound in the upper right corner of his forehead. He was walking crazily in the water without his helmet. Then I saw him get down on his knees and start praying with his rosary beads. At this moment the Germans cut him in half with their deadly crossfire.”
The first soldier through the wire was hit by a burst of machine-gun fire. “Medico!” he yelled. “Medico I’m hit. Help me!” He moaned and cried for a few minutes. “Finally he died after sobbing ‘Mama’, several times.”
* Antony Beevor, *D-Day: The Battle for Normandy*, on the nightmarish chaos of Omaha Beach
Lord that makes me sad.
Wounded men is a stretch
I wonder how long into the landings this picture was taken
D-Day was the deadliest day for the U.S. armed forces in its history, if you don’t count the Battle of Antietam because technically only one side was officially the U.S.