Normandy
Breathe. That is what I kept telling myself as each second, minute and hour passed while I was on the landing craft, as it made its way from the carrier to Omaha beach in Normandy.
This whole operation was a chore to plan. From what I know, our commanders took months — if not years to plan it out. The Nazis choosing to invade the Soviet Unions in 1941 stretched them thin, and their resources were skint. Suddenly, they were locked into wars on two fronts: a war in the West, where we had finally begun to take it back to ’em, and a war in the East, where the Russians sent body after body in the way of the Nazi war machine. Neither Stalingrad nor Moscow were to fall to the Germans.
The Allies had already invaded Sicily and began their march up Italy, and Mussolini has been running up and down the Alps, looking for Hitler to bail him out once again. Southern Europe was secure. Now, it was time for the North, where Normandy would provide us with an ample springboard to launch our invasion into mainland Europe, liberating the people from the devil’s workers at hand.
Some of the younger men had high hopes over these landings at the Normandy beaches. After all, we tricked the Nazis into thinking we were going to land at Calais, a little further, and the closest part of France to Britain. Basically, the crossing would have been quicker, and we made them think that that’s where we’re going. Our younger guys were boyish, thinking that the resistance would not have been as strong at Normandy as at Calais. They were right, but also they were wrong.
This was still a war that we were fighting, and we weren’t fighting any enemy, but the greatest enemy mankind has ever faced. At Normandy or Calais, we would have still been met with fortifications across the beaches: hedgehogs, barbed wire, landmines, and machine guns. All instruments of war and weapons that could tear human beings to shreds in a matter of seconds. This isn’t quite the summer holiday to France that most people would envision.
But we weren’t most people. We were different. Whether we were confident or bullish, we were still aware of what we faced, and took it on anyway. Early in the morning when we landed at the beach, bullets rained down upon us from the machine guns that were manned by the Germans. Soldiers would barely make it to shore before a .50 calibre bullet ripped them in half, or a landmine blew their legs up from underneath.
When I hit the beach, what followed was hours of fighting that felt like an eternity. To be honest, I spent most of it under a rock, shielding myself and my team from fire, praying for it all to be over. I could feel the bullets fizz past me, hitting the sand around my legs, reminding me of the inches in war between life and death.
By that point, two of my friends already lost their heads in the chaos, and I had to pretend nothing happened. That’s war. That’s expected. Before we left the carriers, we prayed as a unit and enjoyed a huge breakfast. Bacon, eggs, sausages, you name it. I guess that explained the puking on the way down. But it also was a sign, we weren’t expected to make it, so that was our chance to be right with the Lord Almighty, and to enjoy at least one last meal before we meet the man upstairs. I hope my friends aren’t annoying him too much.
Finally, we made enough ground and pushed the Germans back, occupying the beaches across Normandy and in the English Channel. There was still a ways to go, Germany were not going to give up any time soon, despite being now sandwiched by us and the Russians, and the Japs were fighting to the death, but it was progress.
We went on to liberate France shortly after. I watched de Gaulle march down the Champs-Elysées — what a sight it was. We pushed into the Ardennes, surviving the Battle of the Bulge, freeing the Low Countries, returning Belgium and the Netherlands to their rightful places.
Finally, we made it to Berlin. Before anyone could get to him, Hitler killed himself, robbing anyone else of the pleasure. Just like that, the spell was broken, and the German people were free from Nazism, and the path to democracy began.
My unit was the greatest. Our soldiers were the greatest. We were the greatest. All of those fighters that went to hell and back with me, all are my dear, dear friends. Those that perished then or since, are in my heart till I join them.
Marvellous men. Our generation saved the world, and I’ll never forget any of them.
