It's Been 71 Years Today

Today is the anniversary of D-Day - 71 years ago.  My dad was a man of 32 years when the invasion of Normandy took place - a lifetime ago.  As our veterans pass on, I think it's important to consider the type of sacrifices they made, as we pass the baton to another generation and ask them to step up to meet our world's sacrifices.

This was penned by a beloved uncle, my father's last surviving sibling.

D-DAY JUNE 6, 1944
This day has a special meaning to me, my oldest brother, Jim, took part in that invasion. After the war when he came home he told me of his part in it. He was in a special group that left Plymouth the night of June 4th to go to the Omaha Beach before sunrise on June 5th. They were already at sea and ready to land when a British Navy speed boat caught up with them and advised that the Invasion had been postponed until the 6th, they turned around and went back to port but were not permitted to get off the ship. He said the ship stunk from all the vomit and feces from the men that got seasick in that terrible storm on June 4.

The next night, June 5th, they went back out and before dawn on June 6 they launched off the ship and landed in the predawn darkness on the beach. Their job was to defuse the shoe mines attached to the "Dragons Teeth" that were set to blow up our landing craft (LC) when they landed on the beach. The understanding was that the Americans would land at high tide when the Dragons Teeth  would tear open the hull of the LC and the bombs attached would blow up the craft and kill all the passengers. He was a second lieutenant trained in demolitions and land mines and his partner was also a lieutenant. Brother Jim said that they were in the water defusing the mines on the when his partner was blown up from one that was booby trapped.

Lest we forget, the 2000 men who died on Omaha beach

His death  was unfortunate because after dawn the tide went out and the LCI's dropped the men out in the waist-neck deep water, the German dragon teeth were high and dry on the beach and the LCIs were blown up by shell fire from the German positions above the beach.

Jim told me a "funny" story that when they moved inland they heard fire coming from a little farm inland from the beach. When they came to the spot where it was coming from they found a paratrooper with a broken leg leaning against a hay rick. He had a bottle of wine in one hand and a submachine gun in the in the other, he would take a swig of wine and the fire off a few rounds to attract attention from the US troops that were coming up from the beach.

In a nod to a previous blog - That's all for Now.  Carry On.