http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17jkQeus3uQ

In this fascinating compilation of interviews, both German and American veterans from World War II describe their experiences of warfare on Omaha Beach during D-Day. Franz Gockel and Bruno Plota were German soldiers responsible for shooting U.S. soldiers as they dispatched from their boats onto the beach. Plota says, “The first ones to land were poor guys. The first ones almost didn’t…hardly any of them got through. None of them, you could say.” Veteran Bob Slaughter from the U.S. 29th Infantry Division talks about how American soldiers had to run about four yards of sand to attain cover from enemy fire. The highest amount of American casualties during the Normandy Landings occurred on Omaha Beach; Josef Schroder, a German machine gunner, describes the battle scene as “hell.”

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Germans & Americans Recall the ‘Hell’ That Was Omaha appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s_L4Kd9jK0

Canadian men and women who were part of the liberating war efforts in France during the Normandy Campaign remember the events they encountered. The women were nurses on D-Day and discuss the horrific images they saw as they took care of the wounded soldiers. The men, all part of the Canadian military, reflect on how important it was to them to save France from Hitler’s reign, especially because many of them had French roots.

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War Efforts of Canadian Men & Women appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b5ZTVVUJI0

Charles Sprowl, a veteran who served as an army technician in the U.S. First Unit Special Brigade, landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day with his unit. He describes the camaraderie that was created when landing on the beaches of Normandy during World War II. Sprowl explains that there was no such thing as segregation during times of battle because everybody was focused on working together for the common good of the country that they all love.

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WWII Vet: ‘When We Got to the Beach, There Was No Segregation’ appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frOot0p1_qM

Decorated veteran Gordon Smith, part of the 1051 Port Company Royal Engineers, recalls arriving at Juno Beach a day after the Normandy Landings. Smith recalls collapsing while trying to keep himself steady in a packed and tottering barge as his unit awaited orders to get to the beachhead. Strangers placed him in a pile of coil after his collapse in the back of the boat where he fell asleep, waking up later to the smell of cordite then running towards the beach despite his seasickness. Smith shares his memory of his seasickness getting the better of him with a misplaced sense of overwhelming guilt.

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Guilt Over Seasickness at Juno Beach appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO__qae2DgI

African-American soldiers reflect on the Normandy Invasion that took place on June 6, 1944. One veteran emotionally reacts to the cemetery that honors the Americans who fought on Omaha Beach at Pointe du Hoc hill. Allen Price describes being part of the 32 75th Quartermaster Company on D-Day: “Blood all over the place…You had nightmares. When I first came home, I had nightmares.” Price mentions how little Hollywood and other American cultural outlets have failed to highlight the brave service of African-American soldiers during the invasion of Normandy and World War II.

These interviews were conducted by makers of the 2008 Emmy-nominated documentary, “A Distant Shore: African Americans of D-Day,” produced by the History Channel.

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Two Thousand African-Americans Fought on D-Day appeared first on Witnify.

“As I lay there listening I thought of the awfulness of it all; the birds were singing and we Human Beings were trying to kill each other.”

John G. Burkhalter was a former Miami minister before becoming part of the 1st Infantry Division with the U.S. Army during the Normandy Campaign. Burkhalter, landing on Omaha Beach on D-Day, gives his firsthand account of the horrific sights during that day in the following letter to his wife:

Capt. John G. Burkhalter poses after World War II displaying ribbons and rank. Source: Photo from Joseph Giove III.

Dear Mable,

It is mid-afternoon here in France several weeks after D-Day. Shells from heavy artillery are humming overhead and the sounds of shells bursting are coming from all directions in the not-so-far-off distance. The regiment I’m with forms part of the front line.

I entered France on D-Day with the “Fighting First Division.”  This Division has well-trained, courageous and experienced men.

U.S. Fighting First Division posing for a photo just before they head to Omaha Beach on D-Day. Bottom far left: John G. Burkhalter.

Our officers are of the highest order, men of great courage and experience who are war-wise and have seen a lot of battle.

The First Division was the first to enter France in World War I and first to enter France in this war; they were the assault troops in the American sector on D-Day. There are not many close-up photographs of the First Division on D-Day because the beach was too hot for photography in those early morning hours. Picture-taking was better in the days that followed.

“On the way to the assault boats” by Olin Dows. England, 1944. Source: U.S. Army Center for Military History.

When my part of the Division landed, there were impressions made on my mind that will never leave it. Just before landing we could see heavy artillery shells bursting all up and down the beach at the water’s edge under well directed fire. As I stood in line waiting to get off the LCI to a smaller craft to go into shore, I was looking toward land and saw a large shell fall right on a landing craft full of men. I had been praying quite a bit through the night as we approached the French coast but now I began praying more earnestly than ever. Danger was everywhere; death was not far off. I knew that God alone is the maker and preserver of life, who loves to hear and answer prayer. We finally landed and our assault craft was miraculously spared, for we landed with no shells hitting our boat.

Into the “jaws of death”—U.S. troops wading through water and Nazi gunfire. Source: National Archives and Records Administration.

Ernie Pyle came ashore the morning after the assault and after seeing the results of what took place the day before he wrote, “Now that it’s all over, it seems to me a pure miracle we ever took the beach at all.”

The enemy had a long time to fix up the beach. The beach was covered with large pebbles to prevent tank movements, and mines were everywhere. The enemy was well dug in and had set up well prepared positions for machine guns and had well chosen places for sniping.

Everything was to their advantage and to our disadvantage, except one thing, the righteous cause for which we are fighting – liberation and freedom.

For the moment our advantage was in the abstract and theirs was in the concrete.

Wounded soldiers on Omaha Beach. Source: Department of Defense, U.S. Army. Office of the Chief Signal Officer.

The beach was spotted with dead and wounded men. I passed one man whose foot had been blown completely off. Another soldier lying close by was suffering from several injuries; his foot was ripped and distorted until it didn’t look much like a foot. Another I passed was lying very still, flat on his back, covered in blood. Bodies of injured men all around. Sad and horrible sights were plentiful.

In a recent write-up it is said of one of the colonels of the First Division that led his regiment in on the beach during the early morning, “This blue-eyed soldier had stood on the beach where thousands of men were pinned down by enemy fire, and in a quiet drawl said, ‘Gentlemen, we are being killed here on the beaches; let’s move inland and be killed there.’”

In from the beach were high hills which we had to climb. We crawled most of the way up. As we filed by those awful scenes going up the hill and moving inland, I prayed hard for those suffering men, scattered here and there and seemingly everywhere.

We filed over the hill as shells were falling on the beach back of us, meaning death for others who were still coming in. Later, one of the soldiers told me that on this occasion he saw a shell land right on top of a wounded man and blow him to bits. Before going over the top of the hill we crouched for awhile close to the ground just below the top. While lying there I did most of my praying. The shells were falling all around and how I knew that God alone was able to keep them away from us. I shall never forget those moments. I am sure that during that time I was drawn very close to God.

“As we filed by those awful scenes going up the hill, I prayed hard for those suffering men,” wrote Chaplain Burkhalter. Here, he checks the identification of a dead German soldier and administers a blessing ahead of the burial squads.
(Courtesy photo from Joseph Giove III)

Later, about ten of us were crossing along the edge of a field when we heard sniper bullets whiz by. We all fell to the ground. As we lay there hugging the earth, that we might escape shrapnel from shell fire and bullets from sniper’s guns, the birds were singing beautifully in the trees close by. As I lay there listening I thought of the awfulness of it all; the birds were singing and we Human Beings were trying to kill each other.

We are the greatest of God’s creation, made in the image of God, and here human blood was being spilt everywhere.

About three minutes later and only about forty yards away we filed by one of our own boys lying by the side of the hedge, crouched over with a hole in the back of his head. His eyes were open but he was dead, hit by a sniper. We didn’t have time to stop, we were pushing on inland making a new front as we went. Someone behind and hours later would move him.

From newly captured town, members of the 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, cross the Weser River in assault boats to take Furstenberg. 8 April 1945.

On the afternoon of the second day we were quite a way inland and two of my assistants and I were out trying to locate bodies of dead soldiers. We always take care of the American dead first and then the enemy dead. This was the second day and we were still fighting our way; inland, moving fast. Since we did not have any vehicles yet to send bodies back, all we could do on the move was to put the bodies in mattress covers and leave them in a marked place to be taken care of later by the rear echelons. Our business was to keep fighting on inland and pushing the enemy back. On the roadside my assistants and I saw a dead German officer. He was a tall fellow; must have been about six feet four. We turned him over and stretched him out the best we could. I looked at his face and was surprised to see how young he looked. No doubt he was in his twenties but he had the face of a boy. I thought: surely, this fellow was too young to die. It almost seemed that he had asked for it. I became conscious of an awful evil force behind it all to cause a young fellow like this to seemingly hunger and delight to kill and be killed. We slid his body into a mattress cover and left him by the side of the road.

Most of this section of France we are moving through is farming area with fields and hedges and orchards. We see cows and chickens and ducks and pigs and all that goes with farming.

On one occasion we were near some farm houses and some large shells began to fall, so several of us near a stone barn dashed into it to get out of the way of shrapnel.

Just inside was a mother hen covering her little chicks. When we hurried in she became frightened and fluffing her feathers rose up to protect her young.

I looked at her and silently said, “No, mother hen, we are not trying to hurt you and your little family, we are trying to hurt each other.”

American assault troops at Omaha Beach.

Nobody can love God better than when he is looking death square in the face and talks to God and then sees God come to the rescue. As I look back through hectic days just gone by to that hellish beach I agree with Ernie Pyle, that it was a pure miracle we even took the beach at all.” Yes, there were a lot of miracles on the beach that day. God was on the beach D-Day; I know He was because I was talking with Him.

While in England Chaplain Burkhalter wrote his wife that he had visited many places of interest in his days off duty and among them, he was exceptionally happy to have the privilege of visiting the Baptist Headquarters in London and had a nice little visit with ‘dear Dr. Rushbrooke,” President of the Baptist World Alliance. He said that “Dr. Rushbrooke is such a humble and Godly man and that you could just see the Lord in his face.” 

Find out more about John G. Burkhalter’s D-Day experience here.

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[Text] Minister With the Fighting First Division At Omaha appeared first on Witnify.

“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. Acosta, part of the Naval Officer in Charge (NOIC) group of the U.S. Navy during the Normandy Campaign, gives his firsthand account of the wide range of emotions he felt as a young man getting the news that he and his fellow troops would be heading to Utah Beach on D-Day:

Raymond L. Acosta with fellow seaman in front of temporary dugout in Utah Beach. June 1944.

I was five days into my 19th birthday as we approached the Normandy coast on June 5, 1944 – and completely unaware of what was to happen on the beaches…Just before dawn, in the cool air of the pitch black night, I was suddenly numbed by the enormity of what was about to happen. 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!

Infantry transferring from LCVP onto larger LCI, prior to Normandy Beachhead assault on D-Day.

It all started seven months earlier, when I arrived near Roseneath, Scotland, aboard QE1, as a Navy radioman, assigned to the Commander of the Eleventh Amphibious Force (later annexed to the Naval-Officer-in-Charge, Utah Beach – (NOIC- Utah Beach). On May 16, 1944, after six months of duty in Wales and England, we were all assigned aboard Liberty Ship S/S Robertson. For three weeks we remained on board as a ‘sealed ship’, sailing back and forth between Penarth (Wales) and Plymouth (England). A most boring tour of duty, if you ask me. But then we heard, that we were to be part of a vast mobilization of allied forces getting ready to invade the European continent…we knew it was going to happen soon, but the big question remained: where.

Infantry troops, on board transport ship, preparing for the Normandy landing.

Meanwhile, almost every week, six or seven operators (of our original group of 35) got assigned to other ships, until there were only 12 of us left on the S/S Robertson. We all felt sad, since we had been together since our radio training at Northwestern University. On June 5, 1944, we set sail for Barry (Wales). During the afternoon, our skipper, Commander Dunn, called for attention and read a message from Rear-Admiral Alan G. Kirk, commanding US Naval Assault Forces. It was a grim message, about what was to be expected from the enemy, in the coming battle. I could feel the adrenalin surging through my whole body (recalling the tragic incidents during ‘Operation Tiger’), but still managed to say to one of my shipmates, with a dry throat, “I guess, this is it !” From that moment on, until two weeks later, I went into a kind of trance, though I was aware of everything that was happening around me, I guess I was unconsciously creating a mental fog to act as a kind of protecting shield. Yet, I was able to write about these historic events in the little diary I carried with me.

American soldiers landing on Utah Beach. (June 6, 1944). Source: Regional Council of Lower Normandy, U.S. National Archives.

This was D-Day, June 6, 1944 – the big day has come! And here we are cruising along to France to set up a Comcenter on the Utah Beachhead (NOIC-Utah Beach). We’re all pretty nervous and jittery, wonder what it will be like when we get there? We’ll sure know within a few hours. So far, only one enemy E-boat contact…everything was black and quiet as we sat top side on the hatch covers preparing our individual gear, when suddenly a battleship opened up nearby with its 12-inch guns, the noise was incredible. Sound waves literally entered our mouth and nose, and hit right into the pit of your stomach. Next, the sky lit up with millions of tracer fire, both sound and sight were truly awesome. It looked, no it was, the world’s greatest fireworks! I remember, feeling uncomfortable, because I thought it was so damn beautiful, how can anything so destructive, be so beautiful? As I was going down the cargo nets on the S/S Robertson’s portside, the chinstrap of my helmet became unhooked and dropped down into the waiting  Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel (LCVP), it landed on another guy’s helmet who was sitting in the stern. There was a lot of cursing and yelling, but I was lucky at least to get my helmet back, for sure!

Utah Beach aerial photograph.

We landed on Utah Beach, at 10:30 hours from an LCVP. Two officers, RM 3/C John Besemer and myself, got lost from the bunch, when some German shells started whizzing by, some of which landed too damn close! I got a terrible bruise on my right knee when I fell on one of the steel mats laid out for the tanks, it hurt like hell, but I don’t think they’d award Purple Hearts for tripping over your own feet! We must have hit the sand 12 times before we found the rest of our guys near a German blockhouse. On D-Day 1 we dug our foxholes and started setting up communications and standing radio watch in the enemy bunker, now free from its former occupants. I wish they would get that kraut gun that keeps shelling the beach, he’s getting to be a real pain…the following days were kind of hectic; too many damn enemy guns going off and too many German planes, what a hell of a racket. Impossible to sleep, all you can do is lie in your foxhole and shake all night. This morning I must have jumped into my foxhole for cover 75 times.

Then, they shot down an enemy plane, it was June 8, it was strafing the beach, and the pilot had to evacuate, he parachuted down about 60 yards from us. Some jerk in the bivouac area started shooting at him while he was coming down, and we all yelled to him to quit shooting. The boys from the 2d Naval Beach Battalion got hold of the enemy pilot and hustled him off without much ceremony to the prisoner of war (POW) cage. We then later met the incoming troops and reinforcements, and tank crews rolling by our bunker. We were however still subjected to random attacks by German aircrafts which bombed the beaches at night, since we had no searchlights, we couldn’t see them. An enemy ‘88’ still opens up now and then, and about 40 yards from us, a soldier stepped on a mine and up he went in the air, you still have to watch where you walk around here…German prisoners keep pouring into the cages, they certainly don’t look like supermen anymore.

German prisoners being searched on Utah Beach. June 8-9, 1944.

My ‘private’ foxhole is now four feet deep, and I have stuffed a cot in it, while over it I placed a pup tent. It’s not exactly home, but at least it keeps me dry. The Army boys are always shocked when we tell them we are Navy. We dress like them, eat with them, and who ever heard of sailors living in a foxhole? we’re supposed to be on a ship, sleeping in nice dry and clean bunks! I remember the 4th of July, when we had a grand display of flares with tracers and guns blasting all over the place, without an enemy in sight. I wonder what the German POWs must have thought about us lighting up the whole sky. On July 10, the 2d NBB left us for England…and we all expected to go too, one day or another. I was granted my first leave after approximately nine weeks spent on Utah Beach. Early September 1944, I received my papers, for transferring back to the United States, where I got back September 10, 1944. I managed to survive D-Day.

Find out more about Raymond L. Acosta’s D-Day experience here.

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[Text] ‘Some German Shells Started Whizzing By’ appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luWm2lqjq1k

“There were five that didn’t make it and our tank did. One out of six tanks. There were five wiped out right there. 25 men. Five tanks.”

Canadian veterans involved in the invasion of Juno Beach on D-Day discuss what they remember from the mission. The men tear-up as they recall their last conversations with loved ones, the troublesome weather, and the overwhelmingly horrible sights that accompanied this infamous invasion.

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Canadian Vets Tear-up While Recalling D-Day appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvuEs0mBOD0

John “Jack” Springer, a veteran who served in the army during the Normandy Campaign, talks about landing on Juno Beach during D-Day. He discusses how his faith grew during that time, as well as how he prided himself in putting others before himself. In Springer’s words: “I wasn’t scared for me, I was scared for my men.”

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A Juno Beach D-Day Landing appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmMJuDvuiIg

Bill Millin, the personal piper to Lord Lovat, a prominent British Commando in World War II, was ordered by Lovat to play the bagpipes as his fellow soldiers died around him on Sword Beach and all the way to the seize of Pegasus Bridge during the Normandy Landings. Millin asked some captured German snipers why they never targeted him and he was told that they all assumed he was a “dummkopf,” a dolt or a stupid person. His courageous yet risky actions are portrayed in the 1962 film, “The Longest Day,” starring John Wayne.

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Why Germans Didn’t Shoot This D-Day Bagpiper appeared first on Witnify.