First wave at Omaha Beach

[TxD]

I just came across this 1960 article written by S L A Marshall about Omaha Beach.
It is somewhat lengthly but worth reading.

From the article:
"We saw no sign of fear in him. Watching him made men of us. Marching or fighting, he was leading. We followed him because there was nothing else to do."

"Thousands of Americans were spilled onto Omaha Beach. The high ground was won by a handful of men like Taylor who on that day burned with a flame bright beyond common understanding."

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc ... ch/3365/3/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Keith B]

My Uncle was a pilot for one of the landing crafts (LCT's) that transported the troops to the beach. He said it was unbelievable the amount of fire they were under. There were some of the other boats pilots that were so scared they would panic and open the ramp prior to getting the guys to the beach and many of them actually drown because they jumped out in water over their heads with all their gear. He said it was the scariest time of his whole time in the Navy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omaha_Beach" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[OldCurlyWolf]

Your uncle was the definition of courageous.

Showing courage is doing what needs to be done when you are scared spitless about doing it.

[Ed4032]

I just came across this 1960 article written by S L A Marshall about Omaha Beach.
It is somewhat lengthly but worth reading.

From the article:
"We saw no sign of fear in him. Watching him made men of us. Marching or fighting, he was leading. We followed him because there was nothing else to do."

"Thousands of Americans were spilled onto Omaha Beach. The high ground was won by a handful of men like Taylor who on that day burned with a flame bright beyond common understanding."

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc ... ch/3365/3/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Wow reading that article made my hair stand up. Truely the Greatest Generation ...

[Purplehood]

I hate to be the nay-sayer (well, maybe I like it a little), but I have to say that I do not buy into the "Greatest Generation" title that some have bestowed on our WWII Vets.

It is my contention that all who have served throughout our history have demonstrated as much courage, honor and sacrifice as any generation before or after.

Had to get that off of my chest.

[The Annoyed Man]

I'll never forget when I first saw "Saving Private Ryan" in the theater. I had a big soda, and I had to really go to the bathroom, but as hard as watching the landing scenes was, I didn't want to disrespect it by getting up to go right then. When I finally did get to the bathroom, there was about 5 or 6 guys in there about my dad's age, all crying their eyes out. I kept my head down, didn't say a thing, went about my business, and left them to their private grief. Saying anything just didn't seem fitting, and I was nearly overcome by emotion myself.

[Rex B]

My Dad was a D-Day veteran, Omaha Beach. He was just a scared 19 year old draftee, Ohio farmboy, trying to stay alive on a foreign beach. He ran landing craft for several days at Omaha, not first wave, but still taking fire and losing boats.
But that period was the most exciting thing in his entire life, and that was true of most of the WW2 servicemen. Much of their later life was spent trying to recapture that excitement. Many re-upped for the Korea festivities. Nearly all pushed the limits of whatever they wound up doing, to try to maintain just a bit of that excitement - the rush of wartime. For many it was science, for others it was business success, and for some it was sports. The military taught them personal discipline and gave them technical skills. The war taught them that they were capable of more than they ever would have believed, and they took that lesson into their peacetime lives.
Dad was no rocket scientist, but he gave over 20 years to the military, raised 4 kids, and mostly did the Right Thing. We traveled the world and the US. It was a good life. I look around at my life and it doesn't compare, though I've done my share of interesting experiences. And I look at people my age that grew up in a family that never experienced war or anything like it, and they don't have the same core the pushes some of them to take risks in order to achieve a goal.
Just as an example, I have been involved in auto racing most of my adult life. Almost every racer I've ever known came from a family whose dad was a WW2 or Viet Nam vet. Maybe that's a statistical fluke, and it's far from a scientific poll. Do you know anyone in a high-risk sport or occupation? Ask them about their family military history.

I haven't read that article yet, but I saved it to PDF to read at lunch. I'll email it to anyone who wants to read it offline.

[The Annoyed Man]

My Dad was a D-Day veteran, Omaha Beach. He was just a scared 19 year old draftee, Ohio farmboy, trying to stay alive on a foreign beach. He ran landing craft for several days at Omaha, not first wave, but still taking fire and losing boats.
But that period was the most exciting thing in his entire life, and that was true of most of the WW2 servicemen. Much of their later life was spent trying to recapture that excitement. Many re-upped for the Korea festivities. Nearly all pushed the limits of whatever they wound up doing, to try to maintain just a bit of that excitement - the rush of wartime. For many it was science, for others it was business success, and for some it was sports. The military taught them personal discipline and gave them technical skills. The war taught them that they were capable of more than they ever would have believed, and they took that lesson into their peacetime lives.
Dad was no rocket scientist, but he gave over 20 years to the military, raised 4 kids, and mostly did the Right Thing. We traveled the world and the US. It was a good life. I look around at my life and it doesn't compare, though I've done my share of interesting experiences. And I look at people my age that grew up in a family that never experienced war or anything like it, and they don't have the same core the pushes some of them to take risks in order to achieve a goal.
Just as an example, I have been involved in auto racing most of my adult life. Almost every racer I've ever known came from a family whose dad was a WW2 or Viet Nam vet. Maybe that's a statistical fluke, and it's far from a scientific poll. Do you know anyone in a high-risk sport or occupation? Ask them about their family military history.

I haven't read that article yet, but I saved it to PDF to read at lunch. I'll email it to anyone who wants to read it offline.

I used to roadrace motorcycles, and my dad was a veteran of Iwo Jima. After the war, he went to France to be a painter, living in a top floor walk up garret in the Latin Quarter, above a jazz club. He met my mother there, and got a job with Atlas Constructors which took them to Morocco, where I was born. He later went on to earn two Ph.D.s from the Claremont Graduate School, one in English Literature, and the other in American Literature. He was a university professor for most of my life. I "met" through emails and letters one of the other 6 men who had survived Cushman's Pocket with my dad. That man had been horribly wounded at Iwo—machine gun bullets to the jaw, arm, and legs, and mortar wounds to both legs, breaking them in addition to peppering them—and he went on to be a successful lawyer in Pasadena. They never knew that they both lived in the same city a large part of their adult lives, and I got to know this guy after my dad had died.

While my dad was alive, he took up making surfboards as a hobby during the 1960s and early 70s, and as a family, we all learned to to surf on the SoCal beaches. He also bought a sailboat and introduced us to the adventure of sailing to the Channel Islands. He started with a Cal 22, and owned an Ericson 29 at the time of his death. So yeah, he was an adventurer, partly as a result of his wartime experiences.

Not everybody of that generation went on to have exalted careers, but most seemed to be able to parlay the challenges they had learned to overcome during the war into a drive to do pretty well at whatever they put their hands to afterward.

[Rex B]

On this topic, I just finished reading "Requiem for a Wren" by Nevil Shute.
Excellent writer (post-apocalyptic "On the Beach"), setting is pre-D-Day and post-war.
Highly recommended. Probably out of print, but the ebook is out there.

[Ed4032]

I hate to be the nay-sayer (well, maybe I like it a little), but I have to say that I do not buy into the "Greatest Generation" title that some have bestowed on our WWII Vets.

It is my contention that all who have served throughout our history have demonstrated as much courage, honor and sacrifice as any generation before or after.

Had to get that off of my chest.

This is true and I will agree with you.

The Greatest Generation title is give to those who grew up in the Great Depression, just after the Great War. A people, who most did not have electric lights or running water, as a group stood together and defeated Nazism. No easy task as tens of thousands were killed, sometimes in a single day. This nation has never stood with such solidarity before. Their grandparents remembered the civil war. You have to wonder where they learned such fortitude.

[rdcrags]

I think I mentioned this before on this forum:

My uncle landed a glider on Normandy beach (one of them). After mustering out of the air force, one of his brothers shot him while hunting. No, it wasn't fatal, but makes an interesting true story.