Jay shivered as he smelled the putrid smell of puke on the bottom of the US Higgins landing craft headed for Normandy, France. He felt lightheaded as the boat shook violently in the choppy tide.

“Jay, you don’t look so good,” said his longtime friend, Andrew.

“Why the hell am I here?” Jay said.

“No clue. You're the one that enlisted,” Andrew remarked. Suddenly, a loudspeaker rang out through the Higgins boat.

“Attention soldiers! We are two miles offshore from where the largest seaborne invasion ever known to man-kind is taking place. I wish you all the best of luck, and I want you to remember what you are fighting for today. Adolf Hitler has been terrorizing the world, and our efforts today will be a big deal in stopping him. Now go kill some Germans!”

When the door of the landing craft dropped, it looked like a scene from hell.  The water looked burgundy from all of the blood. Screams of terror and agony rang out through the crisp, cold air. A split second after the door was dropped, the first couple rows of soldiers in the landing craft immediately dropped to the floor at an overwhelming swarm of enemy fire.

Jay had difficulty getting off the boat fast enough as he stumbled across the layers of corpses on the bottom of the boat. Bullets from the Nazi’s 55 millimeter heavy machine gun were whizzing inches past his body in every direction. He could see the massive machine gun mounted in the Nazi fortress that loomed over the beach.

Jay sprinted for cover as he spotted a nearby German “Hedgehog.” Hedgehogs were placed on the beach by the Germans so that if the Allies landed at high tide, the sharp edges on the twisted metal structure would puncture a hole in the boat's hull, making it sink. Jay crouched behind the twisted hedgehog and caught his breath. The constant BOOM of mortars rained down on the beaches, blowing bodies up into the sky. He looked at the beach, but it was all dark green, and there was not much sand. As Jay took a closer look, he realized that horrifying truth; those green lumps were bodies, thousands and thousands of dead bodies. Jay saw a mortar headed straight toward the Hedgehog he was behind, and he immediately started sprinting for his life. He spotted a barbed wire fence and sprinted as fast as he could to try to get away from the mortar’s explosion. He dove toward the fence just as the cloud of flames erupted right where he was sitting just seconds ago.

A thought popped into Jay’s head as he regained his balance. What happened to Andrew? His longtime friend, whom he had known for most of his life, was most likely dead, just like thousands of other men on this beach. He wanted to cry. Just cry for hours for all of the things he had already seen on this beach. Cry for all of the innocent soldiers that never deserved to die. Cry for Andrew. He wondered in his head, why am I here? What made me want to fight in a battle I knew I was going to most likely die in? What is my fate going to be on this beach?”

Jay saw some other soldiers on the other side of the fence. He crouched behind the sharp barbed wire fence and made his way over to the group of huddled soldiers.

“We’re all gonna die! We can’t make it off the beach without getting mowed down by a line of fire from that big gun!” remarked a tall, scruffy looking soldier.

“Now don’t blow a fuse about this! If we stay calm, we might have a chance,” said a shorter soldier.

“By the looks of it, that big gun is aimed right at us, and if we even try to push forward, it’s gonna obliterate us all. We have to somehow use something as cover if we wanna make it outta here,” Jay said.

“That’s it! We can use one of the blown up Sherman tanks as cover!” said the tall scruffy soldier.

“Okay men, let's move!” Jay acknowledged.

All three men ran towards the smoldering American Sherman tank and crouched behind the large, sharp tank tread.

“Okay men, there's a nearby sand dune that’ll get us up and off this beach. There's only one problem. No other men have been able to get that far yet. If we get up and off the beach, we might be able to take out some of the German defenses so more troops can get off the beach,” proposed the tall scruffy soldier.

“Sounds like a pla-- GET DOWN!!” Jay screamed. A mortar was headed straight towards the Sherman Tank. Jay and another soldier got away just in time before the mortar obliterated the smoldering Sherman Tank. Jay looked at the body of the scruffy looking soldier, laying on the ground. Dead. Jay looked at the dog tags of the tall, scruffy soldier. “M. Kavanaugh” was imprinted on the silver dog tags. Jay was just speaking to Kavauagh a few seconds ago. Now, the lifeless stare of Kavanaugh’s corpse was looking into Jay's eyes. Things can change very quickly in a war, Jay thought. One minute you're alive and well, and the next minute you're dead.

“C’mon, we have to make it to that fort,” said the shorter soldier. Jay took one last glance back at the body of M. Kavanaugh and then started running toward the terrifying, gray Nazi fort looming over the beach.

As Jay was running, he suddenly felt lightheaded. This might be the last few minutes of my life, Jay thought. There's a chance I will never see my family and my friends ever again. Why did I enlist just to die? Why do I put my life on the line for people I don’t even know?

Jay snapped out of his trance when another mortar came inches from blasting Jay into the sky. “Damn Germans,” Jay mumbled. All of the men rushed toward the Nazi fortress. Jay saw a Nazi soldier guarding the fort. Without thinking, as if the command was programmed into his brain from the countless hours of military training, he raised his rifle, and BAM. The soldier fell right to the ground with splatters of blood on his head. Jay didn’t even have the time to think about what just happened.

Jay and the other soldiers rushed inside the German fortification like a swarm of angry wasps spreading out in every room. Jay and two other soldiers rushed inside a German pillbox containing a mortar. Another soldier shot the German who was operating the mortar before he even had a chance to turn around. Jay looked out of the tiny, concrete window that was built into the German bunker. As he stared down at the beach, it was a scene from hell.

Jay stared in shock at what he was seeing. Bodies littered the ground, covering the whole beach in a dark green, bloody red mess. Landing crafts were upside down in the bloody water, and smoldering Sherman Tanks were scattered on the bloody red beach. Jay would have this image forever embedded in his mind. The terrors that he witnessed were unbearable, but he had to move on. He was extremely lucky to even be able to walk, let alone be able to fight. Thousands of other soldiers couldn’t even make it to this point; they died before they had a chance to even fight.

“You alright, man?” said a voice out of nowhere.

“Wait, that can’t be possible. Andrew?” Jay observed as he felt the warm hand on his shoulder.

“Hey, man. Yeah, it’s me. Took ya’ a while to realize that,” Andrew said with a smile.

“I'm so glad you and I are still alive! I thought you were dead for sure after the mortar exploded right outside the boat!” Jay remarked, a smile beaming from ear to ear. 

“It's not over yet. We’ve still got the whole country of France to take back from these stupid Krauts,” Andrew said.

The Germans tried to defend their fort for several hours, but eventually the Allies took the fort.

“The fort has been cleared out. We survived this part, but we have a long road ahead of us. We need to start moving to Berlin now,” said the Sergeant from the sand dune.

“Yes, sir,” Jay and Andrew said.

As Jay and Andrew stepped out onto the streets of Normandy, France, the people on the streets erupted with joy like a fiery volcano! They all were smiling from ear to ear, knowing that the Nazis would finally be pushed out of this part of France. As Jay was walking with his fellow soldiers, he saw a French mother and her child with tears in their eyes. He finally realized he wasn’t fighting this war for him. He wasn’t fighting this war to prove something. He was fighting for the people. All of the lost souls who lost their family and friends to the devastating Nazi Reich. He was fighting for his country, just as his ancestors fought for America’s freedom.

A tear rolled down his cheek, but he just wiped it away and smiled. Smiled that D-Day was finally over.

 

 

 

-Jai M.