User talk:ISW-ACE
6th June 1944, D-Day
As my platoon stood wearily in the cold, grey, steel landing craft, the waves smashed
against the sides like explosions spraying us with the freezing cold sea water. As we
neared the beach, we could all see the aptly named ‘murder holes’. I shuddered as the
cold spray once again covered my body with icy cold water. Omaha Beach had appeared
to have sprouted deadly fingers waiting to grasp our crafts in their metal claws.
The craft’s captain yelled to us “30 seconds open hatches!” Then the fear really set in
strongly. My friend beside me kissed his cross hoping God would save him from the
death sentence. I firmly grasped my rifle and waited for the 10 second call.
“10 Seconds!!” The men opening the hatches held the wheels tightly and then a piercing
whistle shrieked from behind me. I braced myself for the onslaught which was seconds
away. The front hatch wheels started freely spinning giving the machine gunners in the
murder holes and easy target. The first shots rang out mowing down the men in the craft
slightly ahead of us. Now the shots and explosions were tearing the air apart with their
shrieks and screams.
I bailed off the boat into the water. The cold cut through me like a knife as I sank into the
blue void. It was a kind of peaceful place in a beach riddled with death. Bullets silently
zipped through the water like something out of a movie. But this was no movie. Men
were being torn to shreds all around me
I snapped back to reality and struggled out of my deadweight pack which was dragging
me to the sea floor. I finally freed myself and shot up towards the surface. As I reached
the surface the deafening noise arose around me once again. I could hear the screams of
dying men, barely old enough to fight, the roar of bullets and shells being fired towards
our soldiers and the dull thuds of hot lead connecting with flesh. Mortars were raining
from the sky and landing all over the beach, crushing men with their murderous
explosions.
I ran to one of the iron battlements and crouched behind it with two men from my
platoon, bullets pinging off the iron, trying to penetrate it to reach our soft flesh. I looked
to my right and saw a soldier with a flamethrower being shot in the gas tank and bursting
into flames, the smell of burning napalm and flesh cloying my nose. Three men around
him were caught in the explosion and fell to the ground engulfed in flames. I heard a dull
whistling above me and glanced upwards at it. It was a shell from a fighter. I watched it
fall down, my eyes mesmerized by its graceful yet deadly trajectory. It landed about 15
meters from where I crouched behind the iron battlement.
The sheer sound of it deafened me, the force of the shockwave crushing the air out of my
lungs. I was thrown back a few feet and landed in shallow water, the sound of bullets still
ringing out around me. I was dazed and couldn’t comprehend what was going on around
me, the world seeming to go in slow motion.
I could see things no man should ever have to see; bloodstained water from the young
men trying to fight for their country, limbs that had been torn clean from the body with
tendons and veins still bleeding, men sprawled on the sand riddled with bits of lead
I crawled towards the battlement again noticed the two other men were dead, full of
shrapnel. I pressed my body against the cold iron and took one of my dead ally’s rifles. I
looked back to see my sergeant being shot by a machine gunner. I turned back towards
the murder holes and aimed towards the Germans manning them.
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