"Two minutes until we reach the beach, when we get to the beach you will push forward until you are at the objective or dead. may god have mercy on your soul, I'll see you on the beach."
Sargent Dan was in charge of until we were to regroup on the beach where then I, Sargent Ned, will take charge and lead soldiers that are still alive. the water was as cold as ice and my men were hurling their breakfast back up for all to see.
"One minute!" the captain yelled as we quickly approached the beach.
Men and boys all around me were praying and crying, waiting for their inevitable demise. A loud whistle was blown as the ramp of our boat was lowered. Almost immediately suppression fire was unleashed upon us blood was sprayed everywhere as the boys in front of me fell over toppling the rest of us
"over the sides!" I yelled
We got back to our feet and started scrambling for our weapons and canteens. We started to jump over the sides. What a bad idea that was, most of the men didn't even know how to swim. We were down ten men already and i knew that number wasn't gonna grow. But for the soldiers who could swim we tried to grab the people who couldn't but our hands were full, so unfortunately those men died.
We were pinned down before the shoreline knee deep in water, we hid behind the Czech hedgehogs that were placed there a few weeks earlier. There were bodies everywhere on the beach, landmines were going off all around us as bullets flew by us. Men were screaming in pain as there organs were hanging out of their bodies. The sight was horrific hundreds of bodies on the ground, explosions everywhere you look.
We pushed up the beach and spread out, a medic was tending to a man who had been been they knew he wasn't gonna make it but it was to give the man hope before he died. We made it to the objective right behind mound that blocked the gunners' line of sight so we were safe enough for a while. We used pipe like bombs to get through the barbed wire blocking us from advancing.
"FIRE IN THE HOLE!"
The explosion was loud enough to make any mans ears ring for a good hour afterwards. Once we made it past the the dunes it was all down hill from there, we snuck around the back of the bunkers.
"Clear!"
Someone threw a hand grenade into the doorway of the bunker, when it went off a German soldier emerged from the bunker, as soon as he walked out he was killed almost immediately.
"Get in there Composo light em' up!"
Composo was a what we called a flame trooper, which basically meant that he fought with a flame thrower, he lit the whole bunker up. We heard screams and on the other side of the dune we heard
"DON'T SHOOT LET THEM BURN!"
We soon got word that we have taken the beach and we moved to the shelf of the beach where we set up camp. I took a stop by the medical bay where I saw hundred of men lying there with open wounds, broken bones, and the occasional missing limb. One couldn't help but wonder who all these people are and if they were gonna make it And what their families are wondering back at home. I went back to my little square where there was a letter from home, I opened it and started to read,
"Ned, its pop pop, I and everyone else hopes you are doing well last time you wrote you said you were being deployed out to Omaha, hey pick me up a snow globe or something?, I wish you luck on that endeavor, please for me don't come home in a casket, something tells me that something great is gonna happen soon, don't let that instinct be a lie. Your mother is well her back is all better now, the doctor said it was just a calcium deposit that broke up, Your little brother can't wait to see you again whenever he has the chance all he'll say is "where's Ned mommy?", he's the cutest thing i swear, any way i'll let you go you're probably really busy, with great love" - pop pop.
My grandfather and I were really close he raised me in place of my dad who left my mother when I was born, but i forgive him he was 16 and a father what else was he gonna do? Anyway my mother was always having back problems but now that they're better she should feel like her old self again.
It was around five in the afternoon when Colonel Griffen came up to me with a folded piece of paper and he said
"Here's your new mission a downed plane has been spotted about twenty miles south of here and I want you and 5 other men to go with you I don't care who but you're in charge any questions?"
"what are we doing at the plane?"
"looking for survivors or anything that can help us in the long run."
I saluted him and he walked away. I stared at the paper for a few minutes an thought to myself,
"This isn't gonna be good."
