He was killed later a half a world away on Ie Shima in the Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa, the largest). The island was our main receiver complex when I was stationed there doing comms work at Kadena.
“In this column I want to tell you what the opening of the second front in this one sector entailed, so that you can know and appreciate and forever be humbly grateful to those both dead and alive who did it for you.”
There is a sentence that make an old man tear up.
My God. That man could write!
It was a different time and a different America, where Americans did for their country and not to it.
I hadn’t known about this part - now I’m going to have to go pull my Naval ops of WWII books:
“They tell epic stories of destroyers that ran right up into shallow water and had it out point-blank with the big guns in those concrete emplacements ashore.”
my father in law was in the first wave at omaha beach as an enlisted engineer. the landing craft didnt get far enough in and when he stepped off the ramp he went down but a fellow soldier grabbed him by the hair and dragged him ashore. once ashore he was operating equipment and had his wrist watch shot off. his commanding officer told him to get off the machine becuase he knew how to operate and reapair all of them. within seconds the officer mounted the machine and took over and was shot in the head. he got back on the machine and did his job clearing obstacles.
My father in law made it all the way thru to the german surrender. In another case he was asleep in a foxhole and this big fat german fell in on top of him. He was small and said they both struggled and it took him an hour to maneuver his rifle and kill the german and he said it took him two hours to dig himself out due to the confines and weight of the german on top of him.
He had so many hashmarks that when he went to paris on r+r he said a general saluted him.. He felt it was his patriotic duty to fight for freedom. When he came back they questioned his citizenship (he was born in san fele) and his father had gone back to italy in the middle of 1915 to fight in ww1 against the austro hungary german alliance with the west allies. It took a year to straighten it all out.
Along the way he was asked to volunteer for glider training for requirements in burma but he declined and soldiered on in the fight against germany. a high percentage of the glider volunteers died in crashes. about 40% of the engineers on omaha were killed...
I thank you. At least here people remember the sacrifices of history.
Yesterday. I took advantage of my Amazon Prime membership to watch 20 episodes of that fantastic 1952 TV series, “Victory at Sea” at no charge! An amazing patriotic series presented by NBC with Richard Rodgers (Rodgers & Hammerstein) music detailing much of the US Navy action in WW2, from the convoys that were so savaged by the U-Boats to the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
In WW2, it can be truly said that all gave some and some gave all, so comparing one battle to another is really pointless as all participants were endangered. This series made clear that these Axis advisaries were insatiable and committed to our destruction in order to save their own worthless hides.
It is a shame that the issues are so much more clouded today. Our ‘sophisticated’ culture abhors the blatant nationalism and propaganda from WW2 to the point that they bend over and tuck their cranium into their rectum. Multiculturalism is fine but it does not excuse the metrics as to what society / culture has the best record for the most people.
Thank You for posting this.
Today I was in the grocery store and I saw a senior man on a mobility scooter with a WWII Veteran cap. I asked him what day is it today?...and without missing a beat he replied
“72 years ago today”
I was humbly honored to be able to thank him.
I had my Currahee - Camp Toccoa Paratroopers t-shirt on.
We love our Veterans.
All of you.