“It was as though the curtain was about to go up on one of the biggest shows in history, and I was part of the cast! I knew it was going to be a small part, but the overriding sense of it all was that I was there!” Raymond L. … Continue reading
Roger L. Chagnon, a Naval Officer in Charge (NOIC) during D-Day, gives his firsthand account of setting up radio and communication centers on the beaches of Normandy: It was D-Day, June 6, 1944 – at approximately 10:30 a.m., the Communications Group, comprising about 7 officers and 40 enlisted men (mainly … Continue reading
Veteran Travis Winfree, who served with the 29th Division during D-Day, gives a firsthand account of his landing on Omaha Beach and his role during the Normandy Campaign. Winfree was responsible for setting up hospitals around various places in Belgium during that time. He tells one story about being sent … Continue reading
Bernard Horowitz, a technician in the U.S. Army’s 553rd Military Police Escort Guard (MPEG) Company during World War II, is interviewed by Jonathan Salomone. In this interview, Horowitz talks about what jobs he was assigned to do when he first got to Normandy, nine days after D-Day. Horowitz explains the horrors … Continue reading
“This is the first time there was racial discrimination. We had black troops in the area and we were separated from them.” “One day, Hitler made an announcement that he would drive us back into the sea. We were told to sleep with our gas mask. They thought, the … Continue reading
“I landed under heavy small arms fire in a dry field near a farmhouse. I cut my way out of my harness and dashed for the nearest hedgegrow…” Frank E. McKee was a Sergeant in the 2nd Battalion, 508th Paratroop Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division during World War II. … Continue reading
World War II veterans return to the beaches of Normandy, most for the first time since D-Day. One man describes how he snuck onto Omaha Beach before the invasion began and set up explosives before watching the scene unfold below them. Another veteran, Bill Doyle, walks through the D-Day graves … Continue reading
U.S. Army Air Corps Veteran Joseph C. Beyer recalls his experience of dropping paratroopers in the town of Carentan in the Cherbourg Peninsula on D-Day. A few weeks later, the Americans had cleared the air fields so that Beyer and others could land in France and bring-in supplies and haul … Continue reading
Richard Dorff signed up to enlist in the U.S. Navy at 18 years old, becoming a first-class seaman that helped to guide a landing craft onto the beaches of Normandy during D-Day.
Sergeant Mike Fitch of the U.S. Army’s 29th Infantry Division remembers storming the most dangerous zone of Omaha Beach on D-Day. He describes the chaos of getting into his landing craft and how he was “scared to death.” Fitch explains how he looked for potential areas for cover as he … Continue reading
