1944: Tale of Two Brothers

D-day

June 6th 1944. I clutched the butt of my M1 Garand, holding tightly to the grip and gas piston of the rifle.
"Check your rifles boys were coming in hot!" our CO shouted of the blaring gunfire. Without a moment's hesitation I pulled back the bolt on my garand and quickly realized I hadn't put a clip into the rifle when we got onto the boat.

"Good job dumbass." Bryan said sarcastically. Bryan and I had come from the same hometown a small town just outside of Des Moines, Iowa. When the war broke out we were the first two to sign up, somehow by GOd's hand we ended up sticking together all the way to now. He coolly placed a magazine into the grip of his 1911, he had been lucky getting issued a 1911 I had been issued a snub-nose .38 that within a week of basic training had lost its iron sights, casing ejector, and half of the grips. When I wrote home about it I promptly received a package containing a Smith and Wesson model 29 in .44 magnum, it wasn't a surprise my dad had been the head of the sheriff's office and that's what the whole department carried but it was nice to have none the less. The boat shook as we hit the shore.

"GO GO GO" our CO shouted at us ushering us off the boat under extreme machinegun fire. I rushed off the boat I heard nothing but the rattle of machine guns all around me. I ran 15 meters up the beach and dove into a crated cause by a kraut mortar. Quickly flipping the safety off my rifle I started to take shots at the cliffside where the germans were. One...two...three my shoulder shuddered under the tremendous recoil of the 30-06. A blinding flash went off to my left. I was knocked back and lost consciousness, I was jerked awake by Bryan rifle in hand yelling at me. I got up in a daze and started shooting again, people were falling all around me cut down by the german machine guns. "We've got to get to the sea wall!" I yelled to Bryan firing the 6th shot out of my rifle.

"I know, do you have the banger poles?" He yelled back ducking his head behind the tank trap we hid behind. I pulled the two segments of rod out of my bag and nodded. "Alright on me!" he said jumping up from cover and dashing like a madman to wall. I followed no more than 5 feet behind, Bryan reloaded his M1 as soon as we hid the wall. The wall was just tall enough for us to hide behind, if we could get through the wall we'd only have to advance about 20 meters before hitting the trenches where we could stick it to them. I put the banger into position ready to blow the wall. "Sarge! Over here!" Bryan called to a sargent in our platoon. He made his way to us with 5 more men behind him.

"Names Josh." The sargent grumbled letting loose 30 round of .45 acp from his Thompson submachine-gun.

"Nice to meet you. Ready?" I said. He nodded the banger pole went off blowing a 10 foot long segment of the wall to shards. We rushed Josh in lead with his men behind him then me, then B inside the ryan. We made a mad dash to the trenches jumping in and getting straight to german killing. Josh took 3 men and went left while Bryan and I took 2 others and we went right, we rounded the first corner to see three germans shooting over the wall of the trench. Bryan fired downing the the germans, we looked to the left to see a pillbox. I kicked in the door, looking straight down the barrel of a Mauser 98. I pulled the trigger sending him to the ground in a single shot. I kept pushing through Bryan right behind me. There was another door I again kicked it in only this time it wasn't just one guy with a rifle. It was several guys on an MG-42. "SHIT!" I yelled jumping around the concrete corner taking Bryan to the ground with me. The gun opened up sending concrete and bullets flying above our heads. Bryan threw grenade into the room. Silence, we looked at eachother then poked our rifles around at the same time. The grenade had hit its mark and killed the gunners. We turned around and left the box, I went through the entrance again A german wielding a bayonet jumped me. He knocked my rifle from my hands pinning me down like a child would a bug. I fought to get free he brought the point of the Bayonet to my arm and cut, just barely before Bryan blew his head clean in half with my rifle. We got up and kept running, we made it about 50 yards before finding another german this one wielding a shotgun, I dropped him. We pushed another 30 yards that's when I heard three crisp shots from behind me followed immediately by a scream. Bryan was shot.