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June 6, 1944

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Websites:
http://www.dday-overlord.com/en/material/equipment/cricket
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/d-day
https://www.army.mil/d-day/
https://www.dday.org/overview/
https://www.historyonthenet.com/d-day/
https://www.cnn.com/2013/06/03/world/europe/d-day-fast-facts/index.html
http://www.ducksters.com/history/world_war_ii/d-day_invasion_of_normandy.php
https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/7-clever-innovations-used-on-d-day
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/dday2.htm
https://www.thoughtco.com/field-marshal-gerd-von-rundstedt-2360502
http://www.dday-overlord.com/

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I was part of the 82nd Airborne that dropped into Normandy, France during Operation Overlord otherwise known as D-Day. One of our commanders knew from previous airborne missions that communication would be a key factor fore the survival of airborne troops who parachuted behind enemy lines,. They issued us clickers or crickets as we called them, to signal each other. We would click once and to respond they would click twice. This was a unique way to communicate. On our first drop I was far away from where I was supposed to be and separated from my men. As I was easing slowly through a graveyard, I heard rustling in the bushes. I clicked once but did not hear a response. As I lifted my weapon to kill whoever was in the bushes, a voice whispered, "Don't shoot! I can't find my clicker" I was relieved and happy to have found a member of my unit. We continued on into the night searching for members of the 82nd lost behind enemy lines.

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I was part of the second wave on Omaha Beach. This place will be called Bloody Omaha because of the number of dead soldiers along the beach. When I landed and jumped off my landing craft, I ran as hard as I could. The demolition teams and artillery had cleared most of the hedgehogs and obstacles so there was not much for me to hide behind. My commander a young lieutenant from Tennessee was screaming," I'm hit, I'm hit". I ran to him to help but I could tell by his wounds he was not going to make it. A medic came to assist me and he was shot in the face as soon as he got to my side. I knew the next shot would be for me but it didn't happen. I crawled from dead body to dead body trying to stay low. By the grace of God, I made it to a rally point with some of the men from my unit. We collected our gear, assessed the situation and began crawling to our next obstacle. We had crossed 200 yards of the 4.97 miles of beach to reach the German fortifications the German created.

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See all the wonderful things Leland Normand has made

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I was a coxswain who captained a LCPV delivering 36 men at a time to the beaches of Normandy. The early morning was terrible for those who I had to transport. The ride was rough and many of the men became sick from the rough seas. They all seemed so young. We hit the beach hard as we had planned and dropped the ramp. The ramps were called the "Gates to Hell" because once they were lowered, they no longer had the protection form the German machine guns. Bullets riddled the inside of my boat.
Men slumped over, others jumped over the sides to escape the onslaught of German bullets from the machine guns on the ridges overlooking the beaches. The Germans had MG-42 machine guns firing constantly on the landing boats. We called them Hitler's Zipper because they fired at such a high rate of speed it sounded like a zipper being pulled. I tried to concentrate on my job and get back to the transport ship to get more soldiers. My second attempt to get soldiers to the beach was not any better. My gunner was killed when a piece of shrapnel went through his chest. Again I tried to get more men to the beaches. I had to maneuver my boat through dead soldiers who floated in the surf. Several of the boats weren't as lucky as I was. Of the ten boats from our ship only three made it. Of the four men on my boat, I lost my gunner and my engineer. I still think about that day but I'm not fond of talking about. I don't consider myself a hero. The heroes are those who never came home from that day.

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When the sun finally rose on June 6, 1944, we had already been in the air several hours and were almost making our way to the beaches of Normandy.  The ships and the speeding landing crafts sped toward Normandy below us.  There seemed as if there were thousands of boats with one purpose to bring down the Germans and stop the Third Reich. I was part of the 101st Airborne  division parachuting into Normandy to destroy any Nazis who would be reinforcing troops at the beaches in Normandy. As dawn broke we prepared to jump. Our line were attached to the static line and we deployed into the air.
The Germans had fortified the beaches but the guns were concentrating on the attacking forces of the beach and not us as we flew over.  I landed in a cemetery far from where I was supposed to land but we all were given coordinates to meet up after our jump. Once on the ground we were to take a bridge and hold it until relieved. We rendezvoused at the bridge and assembled our men. It wasn't long before the Germans approached.  I lowered my rifle and squeezed the trigger.  He dropped his rifle and fell to his knees. His hands and head lifted to the sky and he fell over.  It was the first time I ever killed anyone.  I will never forget how that felt.

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We sat around and waited for the orders to load the Landing Craft Vehicles Personnel or Higgins Boats as we called them. Some smoked cigarettes, some prayed but we all realized we were a long way from home. We climbed down the cargo net into the boat bobbing in the English Channel like corks waiting to approach the beaches of Normandy. The sun began to rise as we approached the beach. The Navy was bombing the beach heavily and I hoped it would be enough. I was part of Charlie Company of the 2nd Ranger Battalion landing on Dog Green Sector of Omaha Beach. We were given the task of climbing the cliffs and destroying the heavy artillery and machine guns the Germans had stationed along the beaches of Normandy part of Hitler's Atlantic Wall.
As we approached the beach, men were sea sick from the rough ride of the boat. We were given vomit bags but most did not use it. The bottom of the boat filled with the vomit of 36 men. We carried our packs which weighed over 60 lbs. We had trained in England and were nervous and excited for the mission. We were all very young in our twenties. We were invincible and gung ho ready to take on the Germans and bring down Hitler's Third Reich. We got closer. We could hear the bullets hitting the landing craft and we still had a few hundred yards to go. The door was lowered and the men in front were killed immediately. Some jumped off the sides of the boat. The life preservers were under our packs so when some did open the CO2 cartridges, the were forced face down.  Some of the men drowned and never fired a shot.  I made it to the beach and hid behind a hedgehog.  I saw so many men die before my eyes.  Wounded men cried out for medics or their mothers.  I sank as low as I could wishing I could be anywhere than on this beach as bullets pinged around me.   I realized how far I was from home and how bad I wanted to be back home

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Los Angeles Times June, 6 1944. This was the front page report of the D-Day Invasion from the Los Angeles Times. Papers across the country ran Extra's of the invasion. People flocked to newsstands for information on this historic day.

Source: http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-d-day-sg-20140605-storygallery.html

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Artifact 5: Uniform of American Infantry.

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Artifact 5: Uniform of American Infantry.

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This is a typical uniform of American infantrymen for the D-Day landing. Most of this is typical battle dress for WW II with the exception of the life preserver belts they carried to stay afloat.  This soldier was also given a French dictionary and armband for after the invasion.

Battle of Normandy Uniform
01 – M1 helmet
02 – M-1934 wool shirt
03 – M-1943 battle dress Herringbone Twill
04 – M-1941 wool pant
05 – M-1943 Combat Service Boots
06 – M-1938 gaiters
07 – Life preserver, belt, M-1926
08 – M-1937 belt
09 – M-1924 individual dressing
10 – M-1910 canteen
11 – Gas mask bag
12 – M1918A2 Browning Automatic Rifle
13 – Armband (not worn during the Battle of Normandy)
15 – French-English dictionary and presentation of French culture

Source: http://www.dday-overlord.com/

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This is a first hand account by Robert Edlin.  He was a member of the 2nd Ranger Battalion that joined the first wave of the assault on Omaha Beach.
"Our assault boat hit a sandbar. I looked over the ramp and we were at least seventy-five yards from the shore, and we had hoped for a dry landing. I told the coxswain, "Try to get in further." He screamed he couldn't. That British seaman had all the guts in the world but couldn't get off the sandbar. I told him to drop the ramp or we were going to die right there.

We had been trained for years not to go off the front of the ramp, because the boat might get rocked by a wave and run over you. So we went off the sides. I looked to my right and saw a B Company boat next to us with Lt. Bob Fitzsimmons, a good friend, take a direct hit on the ramp from a mortar or mine. I thought, there goes half of B Company.

It was cold, miserably cold, even though it was June. The water temperature was probably forty-five or fifty degrees. It was up to my shoulders when I went in, and I saw men sinking all about me. I tried to grab a couple, but my job was to get on in and get to the guns. There were bodies from the I I6th floating everywhere. They were facedown in the water with packs still on their backs. They had inflated their life jackets. Fortunately, most of the Rangers did not inflate theirs or they also might have turned over and drowned.

Source: http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/dday2.htm

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General Gerd von Rundtedt was interviewed by Basil Liddell Harta bout the D-day landings in his book The Other Side of the Hill(1948).  This is his account of the Allied Invasion.
I thought the invasion would come across the narrower part of the Channel, between Le Havre and Calais - rather than between Caen and Cherbourg. I expected the landing to take place on either side of the estuary of the Somme. I thought the first landing might take place on the west side, between Le Treport and Le Havre, followed by a further landing between the Somme and Calais.The Somme-Galais area seemed to us so much better, strategically, from your point of view - because it was so much closer to Germany. It was the quickest route to the Rhine. I reckoned you could get there in four days.

Although we had no definite report of the date of the invasion that did not matter, as we had been expecting it any time from March onward. The one real surprise was the time of day at which the landing was made-because our Naval Staff had told us that the Allied forces would only land at high water. A further effect of your choice of low tide, for the landing, was that the leading troops were protected from fire to a considerable extent by the rocks.

The scale of me invading forces was not a surprise - in fact we had imagined that they would be larger, because we had received exaggerated reports of the number of American divisions present in England. But that over-estimate had an indirect effect of important consequence, by making us the more inclined to expect a second landing, in the Somme-Calais area.

Source: https://www.thoughtco.com/field-marshal-gerd-von-rundstedt-2360502

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These metal structures are called hedgehogs. these were lined up on the beach to stop tanks and funnel people to where they want them to go. These hedgehogs also provided cover for the allies.

Source: https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/7-clever-innovations-used-on-d-day

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13,100 paratroopers from the 101st and 82nd airborne divisions were used in the D-Day invasion.

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Injured men yelled for medical attention during the chaos of the invasion. 80% to 90% of those injured on D-Day received medical attention within 10 minutes of being injured.

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Members the 101st Airborne the "Screaming Eagles" apply war paint to each other before being parachuted behind enemy lines.

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The beaches of Normandy were defended by mines, barbed wire, and "hedgehogs". These metal obstacles were used to prevent tanks and other vehicles from penetrating the German line of defense.

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Approaching Omaha beach in a Higgins Boat. These landing crafts were made in New Orleans, LA.  The invasion of France was the beginning of the end of the war in Europe.

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June 6, 1944