D-DAY, in A Fly: Deceptive Operation Bodyguard, Gruesome Battle of Normandy and the Aftermath (War Classics In a Fly Book 5) by Edgar Wollstone

Author:Edgar Wollstone [Edgar Wollstone]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 2020-10-01T00:00:00+00:00

US soldiers of the 8th Infantry and 4th Infantry Division scaling the sea-wall at Utah beach, on D-Day

But their worst nightmare was about to unleash. Out of the five beaches Omaha was the bloodiest. The beast of Omaha was lying in its lair and it had been awakened. No sooner had the men reached the shore; they were faced with intense firing. For a few seconds they could make no sense of it. What had happened? Their naval and aerial fighters were supposed to make the coast clear for their arrival. Wasn’t that the plan?

When the first wave of men arrived on Omaha in the pre-dawn hours, not even a single German strongpoint was destroyed. The 741st, 743rd and 745th Tank battalions that were supposed to provide cover to the landing troops had been delayed woefully due to the strong winds and this would alter the tidings of the day gravely. The 27 amphibious Sherman “crab” tanks of the 741st tank battalion were all subject to dastardly wind and waves of the sea and all, save two, were sunk to the deepest recess of the ocean. Their deployable floating screens were rendered feeble in front of the gigantic crashing waves.

With their plan awry, and a weather as furious as the vengeful waves, the landing men were sitting ducks to German armored gunmen safe and secure inside their formidable bunkers. As a result the team in the 743rd battalion decided to land their vessels direct on the beach, unsupported by their counterparts, unshielded by the air or naval cover. The 745th tank and its commanding fleet were battling tremendous odds in the heart of the sea and couldn’t wade their way until the next day of D-Day.

The ships that managed to reach the shore in time had to disembark with their heavy artillery and swim through the crashing waves to reach the shore. Some couldn’t even manage to swim as the heavy equipment made their already onerous task even more impractical. On reaching the shore, the men were exhausted and fatigued. The ones that managed to wade through the opposing waves were subject to unscrupulous shelling and bombing. The weary men saw black water turning to an ever-growing pool of redness with the blood of their team mates. With not even having the time or conditions to realize what was happening, they wade through and a handful of hardy ones manage to get a toehold on Hitler’s European ground. The scene looked brutal, the situation was dire, and an abysmal beginning for an ambitious mission as D-Day, the men were at the verge of mental collapse.

By 7:00 hours when the second wave arrived, they had come expecting the first wave must have neutralized all coastal fortifications and they can carry their invasion inward. But the second wave of men were treated as brashly as the first and the closer they sailed they saw the mayhem that was unleashing every second. No sooner had they arrived, bodies of men who sat cheek by jowl with each other few seconds ago, began to float all around them.

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