Chapter 2: Omaha Beach
The recruits were assembled and were in full military gear. Brigadier General Thompson was standing at a platform, giving a briefing. "Well, soldiers, I'm very grateful that you all have volunteered to fight against the Nazis. Now, let us be serious, we are all going to assault Omaha Beach, we shall either emerge victorious or die in glory. All of you are going to arrive there in1100 hours. First, you will proceed to Fort Shanks by convoy truck, and then barges will come to pick you there. I hereby bid you all the best of luck and God bless you all.
The recruits boarded the trucks; some already had the expression of listlessness, knowing that the truck and barge were going to send them to their death. Hawkins, Jim and Leonard felt mighty uncomfortable being the only engineers in their company, and especially with Rick and Joe sitting at a corner, poking fun on them.
In 6 hours, Fort Shanks came into view. Some were already regretting that they volunteered. The reason- they might rather stay at their comfortable homes and enjoy a cup of tea rather than being blown to bits. The recruits went aboard the barges with each company led by a field commander. The "boat trip" was slow and steady; the barges rocked slowly and steadily with a rhythm. A recruit who volunteered much later than Hawkins and company was so nervous that he dropped his rifle, which fired, to the sky, causing many other panicky soldiers to fire wildly, resulting in chaos. Hawkins was staring at someone, not the one who dropped the rifle, but a man in his 30's with a content look. The man, known as Simon looked up and saw Hawkins peering curiously at him. He smiled and said, "I know that death is fated. Don't see why there's a need to worry about." Hawkins knew by that man's accent that he is the French pastor who lives at the church.
Having someone to talk to, Hawkins introduced himself and his friends to Simon because they too had also noticed his content look. And soon they talked about Christianity and many other things like bosom friends. But someone's shrieking interrupted the conversation, "We're closing the beach! We're closing the beach! Prepare yourselves! Load your guns, put on your helmets!" The barges stopped and doors were opened, slapping the seawater below them. Soon the Nazis started firing their machine guns, aiming at the entrance first a shower of blood came falling down and some soldiers had slumped to the ground dead. Some fell into the sea and drenched it with blood. A couple of soldiers managed to set foot on the beach but were dismembered by the mortar.
Soon, everyone was covered by surf, sand, heat and fear. Jim shut his eyes on seeing two medics pulling a soldier whose legs were torn apart; trails of blood could be sighted oozing from that soldier's missing limbs. The same panicky soldier was running as if he was mad, tripped on a stone, fell and fired another accidental shot, miraculously, it was a head shot on one of the German machine gunners in a bunker, who shrieked and fell off the bunker to his death. A handful of soldiers were lucky enough to go behind enemy lines. Among some of the lucky ones were a flamethrower, a sniper, and a handful of novice riflemen and of course, Hawkins, Simon and company.
The sniper successfully downed a couple of German soldiers while the flamethrower set some poor soldiers ablaze. At the entrance of the bunkers, a sergeant lobbed in a grenade and some soldiers inside were killed when it exploded. The flamethrower gave out a long stream of fire into the bunker, burning the machine gunners inside to death.
But in the excitement, a German standing behind Simon aimed for his last shot. Leonard sighted him and yelled, "Simon! Watch out!" But it was too late. Simon jerked, touched the area where it felt numb. The pastor gave a silly smile and then crumpled to the ground.
"No!!!" Tears came streaming down Jim's blood-soaked face .He grit his teeth and picked up Simon's rifle and fired several rounds at the German who was laughing insanely. Although the German was already lying on the ground dead, Jim kept on reloading Simon's rifle and shooting them into the German's body. Jim wished that he had the flamethrower to incinerate the German. Hawkins put his hand on Jim's shoulder .Jim dropped his rifle and knelt down in front of Simon's body, he searched his body for anything Simon left behind and took out a letter which Simon wanted to send to his family in France .Jim could not understand what it read because it was in French.
After many tedious hours of fighting, the Americans finally captured Omaha Beach, but there were many casualties. A soldier was seen picking up his own arm; the sandy white beach was totally drenched with blood.
The American flag was raised when the German one was taken down. Camps were erected near the beach. Leonard suffered a broken arm when he fell into a hole when a grenade exploded earlier on .Jim resembled a Sikh with the bandage around his head and Hawkins hardly could move with one of his legs totally bandaged. The worst one was Rick who looked like a mummy when he had almost the whole of his body burnt by another flamethrower, who was blinded by an exploded mortar's shell. Joe suffered only minor burns as he was next to Rick.
The recruits were assembled and were in full military gear. Brigadier General Thompson was standing at a platform, giving a briefing. "Well, soldiers, I'm very grateful that you all have volunteered to fight against the Nazis. Now, let us be serious, we are all going to assault Omaha Beach, we shall either emerge victorious or die in glory. All of you are going to arrive there in1100 hours. First, you will proceed to Fort Shanks by convoy truck, and then barges will come to pick you there. I hereby bid you all the best of luck and God bless you all.
The recruits boarded the trucks; some already had the expression of listlessness, knowing that the truck and barge were going to send them to their death. Hawkins, Jim and Leonard felt mighty uncomfortable being the only engineers in their company, and especially with Rick and Joe sitting at a corner, poking fun on them.
In 6 hours, Fort Shanks came into view. Some were already regretting that they volunteered. The reason- they might rather stay at their comfortable homes and enjoy a cup of tea rather than being blown to bits. The recruits went aboard the barges with each company led by a field commander. The "boat trip" was slow and steady; the barges rocked slowly and steadily with a rhythm. A recruit who volunteered much later than Hawkins and company was so nervous that he dropped his rifle, which fired, to the sky, causing many other panicky soldiers to fire wildly, resulting in chaos. Hawkins was staring at someone, not the one who dropped the rifle, but a man in his 30's with a content look. The man, known as Simon looked up and saw Hawkins peering curiously at him. He smiled and said, "I know that death is fated. Don't see why there's a need to worry about." Hawkins knew by that man's accent that he is the French pastor who lives at the church.
Having someone to talk to, Hawkins introduced himself and his friends to Simon because they too had also noticed his content look. And soon they talked about Christianity and many other things like bosom friends. But someone's shrieking interrupted the conversation, "We're closing the beach! We're closing the beach! Prepare yourselves! Load your guns, put on your helmets!" The barges stopped and doors were opened, slapping the seawater below them. Soon the Nazis started firing their machine guns, aiming at the entrance first a shower of blood came falling down and some soldiers had slumped to the ground dead. Some fell into the sea and drenched it with blood. A couple of soldiers managed to set foot on the beach but were dismembered by the mortar.
Soon, everyone was covered by surf, sand, heat and fear. Jim shut his eyes on seeing two medics pulling a soldier whose legs were torn apart; trails of blood could be sighted oozing from that soldier's missing limbs. The same panicky soldier was running as if he was mad, tripped on a stone, fell and fired another accidental shot, miraculously, it was a head shot on one of the German machine gunners in a bunker, who shrieked and fell off the bunker to his death. A handful of soldiers were lucky enough to go behind enemy lines. Among some of the lucky ones were a flamethrower, a sniper, and a handful of novice riflemen and of course, Hawkins, Simon and company.
The sniper successfully downed a couple of German soldiers while the flamethrower set some poor soldiers ablaze. At the entrance of the bunkers, a sergeant lobbed in a grenade and some soldiers inside were killed when it exploded. The flamethrower gave out a long stream of fire into the bunker, burning the machine gunners inside to death.
But in the excitement, a German standing behind Simon aimed for his last shot. Leonard sighted him and yelled, "Simon! Watch out!" But it was too late. Simon jerked, touched the area where it felt numb. The pastor gave a silly smile and then crumpled to the ground.
"No!!!" Tears came streaming down Jim's blood-soaked face .He grit his teeth and picked up Simon's rifle and fired several rounds at the German who was laughing insanely. Although the German was already lying on the ground dead, Jim kept on reloading Simon's rifle and shooting them into the German's body. Jim wished that he had the flamethrower to incinerate the German. Hawkins put his hand on Jim's shoulder .Jim dropped his rifle and knelt down in front of Simon's body, he searched his body for anything Simon left behind and took out a letter which Simon wanted to send to his family in France .Jim could not understand what it read because it was in French.
After many tedious hours of fighting, the Americans finally captured Omaha Beach, but there were many casualties. A soldier was seen picking up his own arm; the sandy white beach was totally drenched with blood.
The American flag was raised when the German one was taken down. Camps were erected near the beach. Leonard suffered a broken arm when he fell into a hole when a grenade exploded earlier on .Jim resembled a Sikh with the bandage around his head and Hawkins hardly could move with one of his legs totally bandaged. The worst one was Rick who looked like a mummy when he had almost the whole of his body burnt by another flamethrower, who was blinded by an exploded mortar's shell. Joe suffered only minor burns as he was next to Rick.