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.