As Sub-Lt Green prepared to return to the transport, he noted that Dog Green was for the moment tranquil. Only the thud of waves smacking ashore and occasional shouts of command could be heard. On the beach, the men of Company A flopped into prone positions in a scraggly line just short of the obstacles, while Cpt Taylor Fellers, at the far right of the line, conferred with some non-commissioned officers. Meanwhile, the tide surged forward, so rapidly that it seemed to exhort the Americans to push ahead.
Then all hell broke loose.
No one could tell where the enemy machine gun fire came from; only its distinct rrrrp, like a rag being torn, was audible. But no one could fail to notice its obvious effects, as thousands of bullets kicked up spouts around the startled GIs, many of whom were promptly hit. A German machine gun spewed out 1,200 rounds a minute, and at that rate, it could kill alot on Americans in a hurry - especially on a beach with no cover and no craters.
Fellers was probably the first to die, but it is impossible to determine how, because every member of his thirty-one member team died with him. It was a slaughter. Of the 155 Company A soldierswho had just exited the LCAs, nearly 100 died on Omaha Beach, and most the rest were wounded.
I actually stood right about where that happened.