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I may get a fact or two wrong and the historians among you might correct me if I do but this is basically the story of Company A, 116th Infantry, 29th Infantry Division, VA Army National Guard on June 6, 1944.

The 116th Infantry was assigned to take Omaha Beach. No one in his right mind would have attacked a beach like Omaha except for the fact that American bombers had pounded the hell out of it and the troops manning it weren't German troops but Polish conscripts. Except that wasn't true. American bombers missed the beach entirely and dropped their bombs about 5 miles inland. The defenders weren't Polish conscripts but were well trained regular German infantry.

There were four German strongholds focused on Company A's sector. That would have been bad enough had Companies G & F landed in support as they were supposed to. However, like almost every other company in the Regiment, they landed in the wrong location so Company A had no support whatsoever.

As Company A approached the beach at 0630 one Higgins boat with ammo took a direct hit and exploded. None of the 30 men aboard survived. Another approached the beach and dropped its ramp. Not a single soldier got off the boat alive. In the span of approximately 30 seconds, Company A had lost over 60 of its slightly more than 200 soldiers. One boat sank about 1/2 mile offshore. There were 3 survivors. The rest drowned. They waited for another boat to take them to shore but the incoming boats had been told to ignore anyone in the water and let them wait for rescue craft. Finally, a returning craft picked the survivors up. They asked to be taken to shore but the coxswain refused. They were the lucky ones.

By 0640, only one officer was alive. Every sergeant was either dead or wounded. This was 10 minutes into the battle.

Sgt Thomas Valance dropped his equipment in the ocean to keep from drowning. He was floundering in the water and one hand was in the air when he took one bullet through his palm and another through the knuckle. Pvt. Henry Witt rolled next to him and shouted, "Sergeant, they're leaving us here to die like rats. Just to die like rats." Pvt Witt did not survive. Valance took another bullet in the left thigh that broke his hip bone and received two more flesh wounds. His pack was hit twice and the chin strap on his helmet was severed by a bullet. When he made it to shore, there was not one live person around him. As Valance recalled, "The bodies of my buddies were washing ashore and I was the one live body amongst so many of my firends, all of whom were dead, in many cases very severely blown to pieces."

Lt. Edward Tidrick immediately took a bullet to the throat while exiting his boat. He staggered to the sand, flopped next to Pvt. Leo Nash and said, "Advance with the wire cutters." He was immediately ripped from head to pelvis with machine gun bullets.

Pvt Gil Murdoch found two live members from his boat. One was Pvt. George Roach and the other was Sgt. Wilkes. Murdoch asked Roach how he was and Roach said, "I can't see. I've lost my glasses." Murdoch asked Roach if he could swim and Roach said no. Realizing they couldn't stay where they were, Murdoch and Roach hid behind a knocked out boat. Roach was eventually picked up by another Higgins boat and made it ashore around 1030.

One of the luckiest boats was commanded by Sgt. Lee Polek. The boat started to swamp and the coxswain dropped the ramp. His 3 squad leaders were killed immediately. When he finally made it to the sea wall, he took a count. There were 11 men from his boat left alive, most of them wounded.

The next day, General Cota, commander of the 29th Infantry Division ran into Pvt Roach. Cota asked Roach what company he was with, "and when I told him he just shook his head." Company A was completely out of action. Of the over 200 men in Company A that prepared to storm Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944, a total of eight were ready for duty on June 7. Less than 40 had survived.

Their sacrifices weren't in vain. The dead of Company A left rifles, BAR's grenades, mortars, mortar rounds, flamethrowers and other equipment scattered across the beach. As subsequent waves came in, many of those soldiers would be dropped in deep water and be forced to drop their equipment or drown. The equipment from Company A that made it to the beach would prove invaluable to these soldiers.

Despite my love for debating all things political, ah hell, all things, I have no political motive in this one. I post it to remind us all that June 6 should have a very special place in our memory. The national D-Day memorial is located in the sleepy little town of Bedford, VA because 23 of Bedford's finest died in less than 15 minutes on June 6, 1944. If you haven't seen it, I encourage you to go. It is a very powerful experience and it reminds us of the sacrifices made by the members of the "greatest generation." As the poem at the beginning of "Saving Private Ryan" says:

And when his days are over
To Saint Peter he will tell
One more soldier reporting Sir
I've served my time in hell.
06-05-2004 12:15 AM
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