I hope, for your grandfather’s sake- that someone, many someones assured him that his actions SAVED lives, even as he himself survived. No greater gift than for him to have risked his life to blow up barb wire, tank traps and bunkers with machine guns— to stop the even greater slaughter that would have occurred without his incredible bravery. His humble bravery, as he watched his fellow soldiers blown to bits and cut down. The Lord had a plan for him, to survive. Deo Vindice (With God Our Defender).
Mine was in South Pacific- working with Aussie Coastwatchers many his friends- several of whom were discovered by Japanese and beheaded after torture. He never forgot their bravery, or the bravery of the Filipino guerrillas who went ashore with them, armed with machetes and M1911s in little rubber boats— in full moonlight. Just in awe of them.
My dad was sitting on Corsica waiting for the 7th Army’s chance to invade the south of France, which came about two months after Normandy.
The original plan had been to launch both invasions at once but there wasn’t enough shipping to pull off two large landings at once.
Before Normandy, really heavy fighting had been going on for nearly a year in Italy. The mountainous Italian geography is most agreeable to the defense and the German army had constructed a series of formidable defensive lines. The advance up the spine of Italy was very slow and bloody, with the liberation of Rome coming just two days before the Normandy invasion.