I was apart of the 16th infantry, first infantry division. We were a lot of young men that haven't seen a second of war. Stationed out in the Atlantic on our landing ship. There were all sorts of ships around us. There were destroyers, aircraft carriers, other landing ships. The sea looked packed. It was around 23 hundred hours, sky was dark, no one was sleeping because we all knew in a few hours some of us would die. We had no idea of what we were going to encounter.
As we all stood on the deck of our ship we joked around about how we'll see each other on the beach or in Paris. This foolishness continued around until midnight when the sound of bombers flying overhead silenced us. We listened as the twin engine bombers head towards the beaches. A half an hour later the sound of bombs going off reassured us that the bombers were clearing a path for us. We thought we would walk onto the beach and start getting set up. Boy, were we wrong.
At 05 hundred hours we loaded into our amphibious vehicles that would take us to the beaches. They had rope ladders down to these boats and the rough sea made the climb down nauseating. When all thirty men were in the boat, it began to circle around the larger ship, waiting for the rest of the boats to load. Due to the sea most everyone was seasick. You had guys throwing up over the edge and other guys having trouble keeping steady, it was not a great experience.
When all the boats were loaded, we started heading towards the beach. We were assigned to the section of the beach called Omaha. There were four other sections. The sections were Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. Utah and Omaha was where the Americans would land while the British and Canadians would land in Gold, Juno, and Sword. The boats were only about 11 miles out so it took around a half an hour for us to say our prayers and mentally say goodbye to our families.
About 2 miles out is when artillery and mortar fire started coming in. It would hit the water and cause the water to go up and come back down on us. The boats reached the beaches and let the ramps down. As soons as the clang from the metal door was heard, it was all chaos. Machine guns opened up on the boats, killing many. I rushed out but fell to the side and into the water and let me tell you that water was colder than Alaska during winter. If it wasn't the cold water and gun fire shaking me up it was the awful noise. The noise of men getting hit and crying for help, men drowning because of their heavy gear. It was horrible.
When I got my head above water, I realized that other men were holding onto my trying to breathe. I was able to get onto shore next to a tank trap. I looked back to see everyone that had got out of that boat, except me, didn't survive. I wasn't able to stay there because the tide started coming in. I then started crawling inch by inch to a dead body. When I got there, I would lay still for a while, and then continue. I was halfway across the beach when I spotted out of the smoke, one of the guys I met on the boat. I crawled to him to find him alive. I started to help him tend to his wounds. As I did this, a sniper spotted him and turned his head into a fine red mist. What was left of his head plopped back down to the sand.
This instantly made me put my face in the sand and my hands on my head waiting for my bullet. If he had seen my friend he must have seen me. I waited and waited but the bullet never came. I'm guessing the sniper had found a more important target. Quickly I then made my way over to a nice size rock were a squad amount of soldiers were hiding behind. I made my way to the highest ranking soldier their and found a squad leader. He said to follow him and do as he say. I really didn't have any choice.
We sat there as random pockets of men ran toward the cliffs only to be ripped apart by gun fire. The squad leader said on his go, charge the cliffs to get under the guns. A minute later he told us to charge and we did. I ran as low and as fast as I could. It seem like forever until I hit cement wall and kneeled down. I saw the leader and two other guys come up next to me, the others didn't make it.