(00:00:00) Ceremonies marking the 50th anniversary of the Allied invasion of nazi-occupied Europe are taking place today president and mrs. Clinton Secretary of State Warren Christopher dignitaries from France and Britain and hundreds of D-Day veterans and their families were on hand this morning for a ceremony at the US Cemetery at cool Del Sur (00:00:18) mer from Omaha Beach in Normandy following remarks by television journalist Walter Cronkite who (00:00:24) reported The Invasion 50 years ago and the remarks of u.s. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General John shalikashvili, and then a 21-gun salute President Clinton spoke. And these last days of Ceremonies, we have heard wonderful words of tribute. Now we come to this hallowed place. That speaks more than anything else in silence. Here on this quiet Plateau on the small piece of American soil. We honor those who gave their lives for us 50 crowded years ago. Today the beaches of Normandy are calm if you walk these Shores on a summer's day. All you might hear is the laughter of children playing on the sand or the Cry Of Seagulls overhead or perhaps the ringing of a distant church bell the simple sounds of Freedom barely breaking the silence peaceful sounds ordinary sounds but June 6 1944 was the least ordinary day of the 20th century. On that chilled on these beaches echoed with the sounds of staccato gunfire the Roar of aircraft the Thunder of bombardment and through the wind and the waves came the soldiers out of their landing craft and into the water away from their youth and toward a Savage Place many of them would sadly never leave. They had come to free a continent the Americans the British the Canadians the poles the French Resistance the Norwegians and others. They had all come to stop one of the greatest forces of evil the world has ever known. As news of the invasion broke back home in America people held their breath in Boston commuter stood reading the news on the electric sign at South Station in New York the Statue of Liberty. It's torch blocked out since Pearl Harbor was lit at sunset for 15 minutes and in New Castle, Pennsylvania a young mother named Pauline Eliot wrote to her husband Frank a Corporal in the Army. D-Day has arrived the first thought of all of us was a prayer. Below us are the beaches where Corporal Elliott's Battalion and so many other Americans landed Omaha and Utah a proud names from America's Heartland part of the biggest gamble of the war the greatest Crusade. Yes the longest day. During those first hours on Bloody Omaha. Nothing seemed to go right landing craft were ripped apart by mines and shells tanks scented protect them had sunk grounding their Crews enemy fire rate the Invaders as they stepped into chest high water and waited past the floating bodies of their comrades and as the stunned survivors of the first wave huddled behind a seawall. It seemed The Invasion might fail Hitler and his followers had bet on it. They were sure the Allied soldiers were soft weakened by Liberty and Leisure by the mingling of races and religion. They were sure their totalitarian youth had more discipline and zeal. But then something happened although many of the American troops found themselves without officers on unfamiliar ground next to soldiers. They didn't know one by one. They got up they inch forward and together in groups of Threes And fives and tens the sons of democracy improvised and mounted their own attacks at that exact moment on these beaches the forces of Freedom turned the tide of the 20th century. These soldiers knew that staying put meant certain death, but they were also driven by the voice of Free Will and responsibility nurtured in sunday-schools town halls and Sandlot ball games the voice that told him to stand up and move forward saying you can do it and if you don't no one else will and as Captain Joe Dawson LED his company up this Bluff and as others followed his lead, they secured a foothold for freedom. Today many of them are here among us though. They may walk with a little less spring in their step and their ranks are growing thinner. But let us never forget. When they were young these men save the world. And so let us now ask them all the veterans of the Normandy campaign to stand if they can and be recognized. Got half the crowd standing many saluting some waving. as the Applause continues The freedom they fought for was no abstract concept. It was the stuff of their daily lives. Listen to what Frank Elliot had written to his wife from the embarkation point in England. I miss hamburgers all a Coney Island American Beer all of Duquesne American shows all up in theater and American Girls Ally you Pauline Eliot wrote back on June 6th as she and their one-year-old daughter listen to on the radio little deronda is the only one not affected by D-Day news. I hope and pray she will never remember any of this but only the happiness of the hours that will follow her. Daddy's homecoming step on the porch. Well millions of our GIS did return home from that war to build up our nation's and enjoy life sweet Pleasures, but on this field, there are 9,000 386 who did not Thirty three pairs of Brothers a father and his son 11 men from Tiny Bedford, Virginia and Corporal Frank Elliot killed near these Bluffs by a German shell on D-Day. They were the fathers. We never knew the uncle's we never met the friends who never returned the heroes we can never repay. They gave us our world. And those simple sounds of Freedom we here today are their voices speaking to us across the years. At this place let us honor all the Americans who lost their lives in World War Two. Let us remember as well that over 40 million human beings from every side perished soldiers on the field of battle Jews in the ghettos and death camps civilians ravaged by shellfire and famine. May God give rest to all their souls. 50 years later. What a different world. We live in Germany, Japan and Italy liberated by our Victory now stand among our closest allies and the staunchest Defenders of Freedom Russia decimated during the war and Frozen afterward and communism and Cold War has been reborn and democracy and as freedom rings from Prague to Kiev The Liberation of this continent is nearly complete now the question Falls to our generation, how will we build upon the sacrifice of the days Heroes like the soldiers of Omaha Beach. We cannot stand still we cannot stay safe by doing. So avoiding today's problems would be our own Generations appeasement for justice. Freedom has a price it also has a purpose and its name is progress. Today our mission is to expand freedom to reach farther to tap the full potential of each of our own citizens to strengthen our families our faith and our communities to fight and difference and intolerance to keep our nation strong and Delight the lives of those still dwelling in the darkness of undemocratic rule our parents did that and more we must do nothing less. They struggled in war so that we might strive in peace. We know that progress is not inevitable, but neither was Victory upon these beaches now is then the inner voice tells us to stand up and move forward now as then free people must choose. Fifty years ago the first Allied soldiers to land here in Normandy came not from the sea, but from the sky, they were called Pathfinders the first paratroopers to make the jump deep in the darkness. They descended upon these fields to like beacons for the Airborne assault that would soon follow now near the dawn of a new century the job of lighting those beacons Falls to our hands to you who brought us here. I promise we will be the new Pathfinders for a we are the children of your sacrifice. Thank you and God bless you all President Bill Clinton speaking this morning at ceremonies at the United States Emma Cemetery (00:11:26) at cavils form are (00:11:28) above Omaha Beach. In Normandy, you also heard there the voice of national public radio's Neal Conan during this hour. We are remembering the thousands of soldiers who landed on the beach of Normandy 50 years ago. Today is the 50th anniversary of D-Day the Allied Landing in France that helped win the war against Nazi Germany over the last few days. We've heard a lot of speeches and tributes to those men today. We are going to hear some of the words from the men themselves. D-Day diary was produced by national public radio's Nina Ellis and Margaret West (00:12:14) Fifty years ago 3 million soldiers American and British and Canadian were in England preparing for (00:12:20) battle. They'd been training for months to cross the English Channel and attack the Nazis in (00:12:26) France. The Germans were expecting them and had fortified themselves all along the beaches of northern France in (00:12:34) Normandy. They built concrete bunkers and installed cannons and machineguns. (00:12:39) They put millions of Minds in the (00:12:41) sand and erected obstacles at the shore designed to rip through the hull of a boat. The Allied (00:12:49) soldiers would come ashore at sunrise June 6th 1944. It was called D-Day and 6:30 a.m. Was designated as a chow. Our the moment The Invasion would begin. 176,000 men were to be transported across the channel in the biggest amphibious operation in the history of the world eleven thousand ships the men would transfer to smaller landing craft called LCS and then be delivered to the beaches in groups of 30. They would land in carefully planned waves of attack and try to break through the German fortifications among the first waves were American soldiers of the 1st and 29th infantry divisions. They landed at a beach called Omaha where things went terribly wrong a thousand men died on Bloody Omaha that day The story is best told in the words of those who lived through the landing words gathered from Diaries letters and books and read here by actors memories of a day of (00:13:57) War. June fifth (00:14:04) aboard ship in the English Channel (00:14:08) They were probably more than the usual number of private prayers launch that night as the realization grew that this was not another exercise and that a dawn metal will be flying both ways. friends gravitated together I noticed no bravado or even the normal crap game. And engineer played an accordion, but there was no singing. Rev Li was to be a tow 200 with assault craft loading an hour. Later. When Prospect not Lowell anyone to sleep, but most went to their bunks early. I prayed as always but do not recall just how my petition was couched. It was probably rather personalized. And I lay on the bunk and that strangely lonely cabin and leave through a Colliers magazine. The magazine was full of War pieces that I found vapid as wartime writing tends to be all to the effect of how well everything was going. So I'll put it down and try to sleep. I was not aware of any dread perhaps it was lack of imagination or just curiosity about the trial of the drills. We have practice so long. I dozed but was awake when the ships gong. Sounded Rivoli. In a few minutes coinciding with the first break of dawn and this historic day the most tremendous Naval bombardment ever to blast out against the European continent will start during the night our warships battleships and cruisers went ahead of us as we neared the bedi lesson. They took their position ready to pour fire at the enemy gun emplacements as we lined up in the transport area. We dropped anchor at 02 51. We are approximately 200 thousand yards 10 miles off the beach. Our big ships are in very close to bombard in this assault. The Texas is going to fire at 12,000 yards. The Arkansas is going to fire at a range of only 6,000 yards at those ranges those 14-inch guns mean business battleships Cruisers destroyers and monitors are going to blast at Hitler's Normandy defenses with rapid fire concentrated fire pinpoint fire. For 40 minutes before the first troops hit the beach. We know where Hitler's guns are they are banked in concrete and they will be hard to knock out but we're going to give them an awful wallop. In addition to the warship Firepower our LCT scary medium tanks, and these tanks will be Cutting Loose on the way in they are scheduled to hit the beach at exactly H-Hour. Oh 6:30. The Infantry will hit one minute after our tanks hit at h plus 1 minute. The naval bombardment is about to begin. Each hour is fast approaching. The liberation of Europe is on the way. Promptly at four o'clock the transport stopped engines and we all clambered over the iron rails into the landing craft, which hung from the side of the ship each man was helped in and his equipment handed over to him voices could be heard all over calling to friends and other boats. I can distinctly remember looking at George roach who was the assistant flamethrower in my boat team and how he smiled back there in the dark. He was my special pal a young fellow of 18 and not too heavily built. I wondered at the time how we would make out carrying the 60-pound can of fuel Instead of our regular packs. We had been issued assault jackets sort of vest like garment with many pockets and pull strap Fasteners to yank off in a hurry. In the various Pockets, we stored k-rations a quarter pound of dynamite with fuse hand grenades smoke grenades a syringe and morphine. Besides our regular M1 Clips. We had two slings of ammo belts slung across our shoulders. On our backs, we carried and entrenching Tool a bayonet and a poncho whatever else we could stuff in all together. Our equipment weighed about 70 pounds. The channel was extremely rough and it wasn't long before we had to help the crafts pumps by bailing water with our helmets the cold spray blew in and soon. We were soaked by this time some of the guys were seasick and some were arguing over little things that didn't count some guys like myself. We just stand-in there in the boat thinking and shivering. I remember the Battleship Texas fire and broadsides sure why we were close by is god-awful. Terrible explosions muzzle blast in our ears the Smoke Ring past doesn't look like a funnel of a tornado growing larger and larger and finally dissipating. I don't believe you should have been that close because we actually felt the muzzle blast all kinds of ships were fired a French Cruiser painted in camouflage did a good job of getting close to the shore inviting the Germans to do battle. She shelled the hell out of the beach all the ships did a great job except the LCT rocket ships, which didn't get close enough to hit their targets destroy us came within a thousand yards of the shore and let go there five and six inch guns. It must have been terrible on the other end of that artillery. My thinking as we approach the beach was that if the boat didn't hurry up and get us in I would die from seasickness at this point death is not so Dreadful. I didn't care what the Germans had to offer. I had to set foot on dry land. As we got closer to the shore the British guys in our boat kind of said to us, you know, we're going to drop this ramp and as soon as we do we're going to back out. So you guys better be ready to get off. Our instructions are to get you in and get right out. So we don't create a traffic problem with the other teams coming in behind you. Is the ramp lowered enemy machine guns opened up firing directly into our boat. Captain zappacosta was first off and first hit. Staff sergeant dick, right communication sergeant from Lynchburg was second and he was also it has he left the boat falling into the water. A medic was third and I didn't see what happened to him. Being fourth. I caught my heel in the ramp and fell sideways out of the path of a machine gun in this undoubtedly saved my life. All the men the followed were either killed by the Germans or drowned. We ultimately got to a point where the British coxon our boat said. I'm a ground. I'm a ground he dropped the ramp and Lieutenant Anderson said All Out jumped in the water and disappeared beneath the waves someone in front of the boat reached down and dragged him back in Sergeant Vandervoort. I think it was simply put his tummy gun in the ribs. The coxon and said, I think you had better get us ashore. I might say that our boat under those circumstances probably got closer to the beach than any other because we were able to get out without getting into water deeper than our knees. The front of the boat was going up and down and they were shooting at us. Some of us were going over the side because some were getting shot as soon as they got off the front one man went off the ramp when it was way up in the air and it came right down and hit him on the head and killed him. I jumped off the side and was bobbing around in the water. I just bobbed around trying to act like I was dead because I had a friend near me in the water who was hollering and waving his arms and carrying on and he was shot by a sniper on the cliff. So I didn't act like I was swimming. I just let the Tide Take Me In There was a landing craft beached in front of us with a GI going around in the propeller. There were people on the beach with no heads. No arms. As we jumped off the ramp. We sunk completely under with the weight of all our gear. I will never forget the feeling of panic. I experienced at that moment. Thankfully we had been taught in training how to strap on our packs and equipment in such a way as to get rid of it in a hurry. I was able to eject all my equipment with the exception of a gas mask and steel helmet and leaped upward from the ocean floor. Finally getting my head above water. I started swimming for the beach. The weight of the soaked close the boots gas mask and steel helmet made it near impossible, but I did finally reach water hip deep and was able to stand up. I was near exhaustion by this time and felt as though my body weighed 300 pounds. No one thought the enemy was going to give us this kind of opposition on the water's edge this turn boys into men. Some would be very brave men others would soon be dead men, but all those who survived who be frightened man somewhere their britches others cried unashamedly many just had to find it within themselves to get the job done. This is where the discipline and training took over. Well pin down in the beach. I watched incoming landing craft being shot at one of them carried Battalion surgeon Captain Robert. Where a man I knew from my hometown, Madison Heights, Virginia. the doctor had flaming red hair I watched him as he disembarked and that machine gun opened up cutting him down. I'll never forget his helmet flying off and seeing all that red hair. There was a pal of mine from Chicago with me as we got to the edge of the water and I said to him let's go and we took off across the beach and ran. I really didn't think I would make it. I didn't think there was any way you could get across that beach and survive. I really thought that was my last day but you don't want your friends to know that you're afraid so you Bluff, you know act big and tough really you're scared to death was a long long beach and a long run and I could feel the tracers going by. Bullet hit my heel and my canteen and went through my pack but didn't touch me one buddy ran ahead of us and fell into the beach. We were so loaded down with equipment that he stumbled and fell and they shot him and he fell into a puddle of water. Which turned red As soon as I could get myself oriented and get the strength to get up. I realized I could hardly see because I was wearing glasses and my glasses were coated with salt eventually. I saw our mortar team about 20 yards on to the beach with the men lying down next to the mortar not firing. I called to ask them what was happening and they said they were hit and he just couldn't fire them water. Even though it was set up for firing. The sergeant in charge asked me to fire it. I fired two or three rounds and they flew out but did not explode the sergeant yelled Murdock you dumb bastard, you're not pulling the firing pins never fired mortar rounds before. Then I started to move forward creeping and crawling and I realized that my rifle wouldn't fire because the sand had cemented the operating Rod. I smashed it with my bayonet handle, but it still wouldn't work. I finally came to one of the underwater obstacles which since we landed at low tide was out of the water. There were two people there and I spoke to them for a few moments and then I saw George roach. He said all the officers were dead. All the noncoms were dead. And that as far as he could see he and I as pfcs with a senior men on the beach. There were 13 of us alive out of 205. I remember they gave us this little vial of morphine to break and sticking your arm in case you got hit was dying and made nine easier. I don't think I had that morphine for one minute after I got on the beach and gave it to another fella. All these screaming things mortars artillery shells and all you hear them whistling you hit the dirt. Well, when you hit the dirt every time you hit it you was on top of another dead GI. It wouldn't be such thing as dig a foxhole and that's and One thing I wanted was a cigarette. I asked this medic that was running across you gotta dry. Cigarette handed me a cigarette and was hit with something. I don't know what it was but entire body is insides and everything was flown all over me must have been a mortar that him. I don't know. While resting behind the obstacles private Gillingham young Soldier fell in beside me white with fear. He seemed to be begging for help with his eyes his look was that of a child asking what to do? I said Gillingham. Let's stay separated as much as we can because the Germans will fire a to quicker than one he remained silent as I jumped up and ran forward again. / - L coming and dove into the sand facedown shrapnel Rose over my head and hit All Around Me blowing me three or four feet. My rifle was ripped from my hand. My helmet went 25 or 30 feet in front of me. When I started to jump up and run a sharp pain hit my spine from my neck to my lower back. I pulled Myself by my elbows to my rifle then retrieve my helmet and drag myself into the hole the shell it made as soon as I felt stronger. I got out of the hole and ran forward as machine gun bullets Kicked Up Sand to the right of me as the bullets came closer. I dropped to the sand and waited to be hit. I looked up to see the bullets hitting on my left side again again. I jumped up and ran falling down each time machine gun. Fire came close. I continue doing this until I reached the sea wall the show that injured me took gillingham's Chin off including the bone except for a small piece of Flesh. He tried to hold his chin in place as he ran toward the sea wall. He made it to the seawall where Bill Hawks. Am I gave him his morphine shot. We stayed with him for approximately 30 minutes until he died the entire time. He remained conscious and aware that he was dying. At this point we were not sure the invasion would succeed a company was shot up. So badly that there was no organization and we didn't know what other sectors were doing. You can imagine how helpless it was to be lying on that beach those snipers shooting at everything that moved. We would disorganize because everyone was in the wrong place and three out of four of the company commanders were killed. We didn't move off the beach as we would have liked about seven or eight in the morning. We were being urged by braver and more sensible noncoms and one or two surviving officers to get off the beach and up the bluffs to Higher Ground more men from other landing craft behind us. We're making it across the beach in joining the congestion at the sea wall. It will be some time before enough courage returned for us to attempt movement up the slopes and up the beach scared worried often praying. I had been busy helping some of the Wounded most of the time moving in a crouched position a few of us help move the helpless to secure areas once or twice. I was able to control my fear enough to Race Across the sand to drag a helpless GI from drowning in the incoming tide. that was the extent of my bravery that morning then clear thinking replace some of our fear and many of us accepted the fact that we had to get off the beach or die where we were we got off the beach. From the top of the hill the view of the fleet out in the channel was awesome looking down on the slaughter of the man and the destruction of the equipment was hard to Fathom. I never heard one man. Say hello. This is not what it's supposed to be. Like, let's go back. There was so much going on that. All you could think about was to keep your ass alive. When we got near the top of the cliff. I talked to Sergeant England who had also been injured. He told me I was pale and I showed him my leg which was now swelling and turning different colors such an England told me to go back to the beach and get a medic to tag me so that I could be transported back to a ship. As I painfully walked back to the beach thousands of bodies were lying there. You could walk on the bodies as far as you could see along the beach without touching the ground. Parts of bodies heads legs and arms floated in the sea. Medics were walking up and down tagging the wounded. As I stepped gently between my American comrades. I realized what being in the first wave was all about. (00:32:08) Of all the capacities at the years diminish. None leaves greater void in the loss of the youthful ability for friendships without the questioning in restraints that complicate those of later life. I feel this void now and looking back upon friends gone on that June 6th. Together we have been through months and years of war time and confusion and strains March countless. Tedious miles lived in mud and dust heat and cold. I knew their problems both Duty and personal can they knew mine? Battalion and it's business occupied nearly all our time and thoughts and it did not matter what else we might have or not have in common. Then it all came down to this brief first day of battle on the coast of Normandy. And for so many of them it ended. For the rest of us what has been since has not been the same. (00:33:30) These are the names of the veterans who stories you've heard (00:33:33) survivors of the first waves to go ashore on Omaha Beach on June 6th. 1944. (00:33:40) John Barnes (00:33:41) Charles coffin Warner Hamlet William Jones. William, Lewis, Robert (00:33:48) Miller, Victor Miller Gilbert Murdock Arthur. (00:33:53) Neumeier Harry parley George roach, Robert sales and Robert Slaughter. (00:34:11) D-Day diary was produced for National Public Radio by Nina Ellis and Margaret West. One Minnesotan with some thoughts on D-Day is Minnesota public radio's classical music host Lynn warfel. Halt her father landed on Omaha Beach, June 6th, 1944 as a young infant room and from Pennsylvania with the first Army division Lynn visited the Normandy Landing beaches for the first time in 1984 a recent conversation with her father Bud warfel (00:34:41) revealed some of the details of that day and prompted this letter to her father (00:34:45) on the 50th anniversary of (00:34:47) D-Day. What did you do in the war daddy? That was a question. I asked often as a seven-year-old tomboy growing up in a small Riverside town in Pennsylvania. It was there I spent most of my plate. I'm pretending I was Roy Rogers or Sergeant Saunders from the 1960s TV series combat in my young mind. I thought it would lend a new direction to our war games. If we had some real stories to act out. It wasn't until now some 32 years past those backyard Adventures that I realized you like so many other D-Day veterans just plain don't talk about What you did in France in 1944 maybe as the years passed I like so many of my generation whose wars were Vietnam and Grenada became cynical about war and government and politics and decided that all war was always an unneeded evil. I certainly didn't want to know much about invasions or the military then in 1984. Something happened to alter my dogmatic Vision that war is always wrong and the people who fight in Wars have some Macho ax to grind the day was August 9th 1984 and I was standing on Omaha Beach in Normandy. I spent that summer as a grad student visiting friends in London when I figured it might be a fun idea to go over to France on a shoestring and while I was there, I'd visit the beaches at Normandy after all there was all this 40th anniversary of D-Day Stefan and has a history buff. I might as well check it out. My French Journey ended at the Gold Lion Hotel tucked away in a tiny hidden Courtyard in the shadow of Bayeux Cathedral after dinner the first evening. I went to my room and called you in the states dad. Where I am you of course new because we talked about the possibility of my visit earlier that summer at first I didn't understand the complete silence that followed my question, but you couldn't answer you were in tears just because I was in Normandy. It was Omaha Beach itself that really changed things in my mind forever. I came in from the top which would have been the German vantage point in 1944 their High Bluffs around this huge and secluded expanse of sand and dunes an advantage for the enemy machine guns and mortars anything coming up on the beach would be an easy target even at a fairly long range. I picked my way down to the beach through some pretty stiff and prickly undergrowth. The only thing you said you wanted me to do a Normandy was to buy some flowers to toss out in the channel. I had such a hard time hanging onto them as I climbed down the Bluffs I couldn't imagine what it must have been like trying to go up carrying a 150 pound pack with people shooting at you. Once I was on the beach itself. I knew I had created in my mind an image of a small secluded stretch. Of sand like The Cove at La Jolla a beach maybe several hundred yards long and a hundred yards or so wide. My imagination was completely wrong. Omaha Beach is massive. There's no way off that beach to this day except across the sand over the dunes and up the bluff. Omaha was empty and strangely quiet. I walked from where you landed the place called easy read and I started to feel a little of what it must have been like I started to feel I wasn't alone on that beach. I started to cry and I didn't know why I walked out a few yards into the water to drop the flowers for your friends who never got off Omaha and even on that calm Sunny August day. It was freezing my feet were numb after standing in the channel a few minutes and I knew then how terrible it must have been to be struggling through deep water and submerged obstacles dressed in fatigues combat boots and carrying almost your own weight and equipment. I went up the bluff to the cemetery and the first cross. I came to bore this inscription private first class James Noonan 16th in Tree Pennsylvania died June 6th 1944. Then I knew this war was different the people were different both those fighting and those at home times were different. We could trust our leaders then and they were trustworthy. I knew there was a reason you weren't one of the ninety percent of your company killed that day and there was a reason I was there I sat down by Noonan's grave and cried and cried and cried. I'm still not sure why to this day. Well Dad, like I said at the beginning of this you never talked at all about D-Day or the war, but then I called you last week and you said some reporter for the local paper was coming to interview you and a couple of other vets about the 50th anniversary of D-Day in your typical graph way. You said he'll what do they want to know? Why does anyone want to know? I don't have the answer to that one either. You said you couldn't remember a thing except going over the side of the transport ship and down the cargo net into the landing craft. That was all you could remember. You said except that you couldn't see anything over the top and a lot of you were getting Seriously sick from the choppy ride you so often get in the English Channel, then you got close to the beach and the landing craft dumped you all out into the water. But that was all you could recall or so. You said the other day except that in your words complete fear turned into absolute Terror a guy next to you yelled at you to move it and you turned and recognized a high school classmate from Millersburg. Then another guy near you got hit and you grab the straps on his pack. You said you knew he was hurt because there was a lot of blood in the water but you got a good grip on his pack and dragged him up with you somebody hollered for you to let him go that the guy was dead, but you took him up on the beach and it wasn't until you rolled him over and saw his face was gone that you realize just how awful this was and still you say, you can't remember anything. Why do we want to know? You said you got out of the water at last and were pinned down by bullets kicking up the sand all around you in your words. You were all getting the crap kicked out of you. Then you remember the sound you said you'll never be able to describe the Allied Naval forces. I saw the beating you were taking on the beach and they came in at close range and ran parallel to the beach. So close to the shore their hulls were scraping the sand on the bottom of the channel then they opened up with their big guns. You said you couldn't actually hear the noise. It was so deafening rather. You felt it in your bones as they rattled in your body. You just wanted it all to stop and it wouldn't when there was a break in the firing. All you could hear were moans of the wounded and dying and lots and lots of men who weren't hit weeping out of sheer Terror lying Face Down Under The Bluffs clinging onto their rifles unable to fire a shot. Even though you say you can't remember much you do recall wondering if you'd ever smell the maple trees in Blossom again, and a moment later you screamed at yourself for actually trying to get into a combat unit for nearly a year. When the Army wanted to keep you in a state sideband post. You had to make it further up onto the beach even though you had decided you were going no further, even if you were ordered to move out, but when the commander finally gave you the choice of dying further Inland later or dying And then you got up and ran toward the bluff. You were just 20 years old in great physical shape an athlete and you were running full out but under the weight of your pack and with all the gunfire in the naval shelling. You said It felt as if you were walking like in the childhood nightmare no matter how hard you run from the monster you never make any ground. You said you ran and ran and all around you the bullets hit and you wondered why no one was getting killed. Then you looked around for a split second and saw that lots of men were getting killed. You just weren't one of them yet. You say you can't remember anything but the cargo net and the landing craft, but there was that one little matter of getting trapped at the foot of the Bluffs. If someone hadn't gone in with a flamethrower to take out the Machine Gun Nest 50 yards away. The rest of your outfit would have died on Omaha Beach you remember the screams of the Germans as they died less than half of football fields length away and you felt guilty and sad they died after all they were probably just like you from a small town along a river somewhere and our Town is populated with families with names like the Loudoun slager's the fence democracy and the shell hammers the last thing you remembered it was evening and you were on top of the bluff. But you said you never felt you were safe. You only traded one kind of fear for another and all of you were in for the duration of the war non-stop until the end no furloughs home every few months you and thousands like you went from D-Day through France and into Germany. Some of you went on to Remagen some of you did what you could at places like buchenwald and Dachau and Auschwitz and saw firsthand what horrific things people can do to other human beings. Some of you went on to Berlin. So what did you do in the war dad? What was it really? Like I suppose very few of us children of D-Day vets will ever know for sure. You had to be there. Why do we need to know? I don't know that either maybe it has something to do with a passing conversation. I had with an old Pacific Theater vet. I met at my son's school last week. I told him my dad was a European wedding. Where the man asked Omaha Beach on D-Day. I replied he's lucky to be alive. The old vet said I knew he was right and I was lucky to visit Normandy to see what you did that day. And to know that there's a reason you're here. I'm here and your grandsons are here. Thanks Dad from all of us. (00:43:40) Lynn more full Holt is an announcer for Minnesota public radio's classical music station ksjn 99.5 Fm each veteran who survived the D-Day invasion has his own story to share about experiences that day some were just out of high school and had never seen any action national public radio's Bob Edwards. Spoke with a few of the men who changed the outcome of that day. Mighty God our sons pride of our nation as American troops stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day (00:44:34) President Franklin (00:44:35) Delano Roosevelt led the nation in prayer give strength to their arms stoutness to their hearts steadfastness in that Faith Bank on the Normandy Coast Jack Kuhn and Leonard lomell had (00:44:49) just scaled The Cliff at Pointe du hoc a strategic Overlook from which the Germans could fire Coastal guns on to Omaha and Utah beaches coon and lommel were two of only 12 men from D company 2nd ranger battalion who survived the climb to the top but after securing the area the men realized that the guns were not where they were supposed to (00:45:10) be so lamelle and Kun went looking for them. We went down the only Road available and by (00:45:16) luck we were at the right place at the right time (00:45:18) looked over the hedge row and there were the guns. Mr. Kuhn anything to add to the account so far. Bob we found a guns to be unprotected in a firing position with the barrels raised we heard this talking and looking over the hedge row Lynn and I saw two ranks possibly three ranks of German soldiers lined up in a field about a hundred yards away from us. It was an officer up there with a little appear to be a clipboard discussing something in German, of course with with (00:45:46) the troops (00:45:47) the protect us I crawl up on the Hedgerow with a Thompson submachine gun to keep the Germans under surveillance in case they came toward us blind. Took what the two grenades we had placed on the guns and on gear areas (00:46:00) to weld them with this hot (00:46:02) molten material that comes out of a thermite grenade (00:46:05) we had time to leave our (00:46:07) area and go back up to our 12 men (00:46:09) really 10 men and (00:46:11) get from them what thermite grenades they had and we returned (00:46:14) and put them on the rest of the guns. (00:46:17) Now as we were leaving the gun emplacement there was a horrendous explosion. We got the job done by 8:00. Early in the morning and not that time the beaches were starting to swarm (00:46:28) with men. So you can see how important it was to do away with the guns appoint to Hawk and that's what we did below Pointe du hoc on Omaha Beach private Harold baumgarten of the 29th Infantry was dodging sniper and machine-gun fire. Baumgarten had landed on the beach before Dawn. He had been wounded Twice first in the side of the face. When an 88 millimeter German shell exploded then again by shrapnel as he helped a wounded sergeant from company a at noon General Norman Dakota rallied the troops of the 29th Infantry shouting 29. Let's go he ordered his soldiers to climb the Bluffs at Omaha Beach and go Inland baumgarten was given the option of evacuating but refused. I didn't want to quit fighting because I saw all my dead bodies there and I was still crying Med. I thought I was going to die. Anyway, you know after all being a In 19 years old and being shot in the face. I had teeth and gums laying on my tongue which I couldn't spit out and I couldn't swallow baumgarten remembers looking at his German wristwatch just (00:47:38) as he and 12 other men (00:47:40) stormed the bluff. It was 1:00 p.m. Once on top. They fought off two German attacks at five PM baumgarten received his third wound when he tripped a mine and shrapnel tore through his left foot as night fell baumgarten and the six other men who were still alive found cover behind a hedge row about 12:00. Midnight. We were ambushed all of us got shot. I only got shot through my left side of my lip and I fell on two of the fellows they were already gone. So they didn't mind and the other people were moaning for a while and then I heard silence. So I was the only one left looking up. There was a very bright moon. The brightest Moon that I probably ever saw in my life between 12:00 and 12:30. German planes came over us. So here I am all alone. I don't see any more 29 is around me. I see German planes above me. I thought we lost the war. Well Harold baumgarten awaited his Fate on the bluff above Omaha Beach. Jim McLaughlin was writing a letter to his parents from an Air Force Base in England in the letter. He described his impressions of D-Day Impressions. He observed from the top turret of a B-26 bomber one of twelve thousand planes (00:49:00) the provided air support for the Allied Landing when I look down from the top turret at the traffic and the channel. I couldn't believe that there were that many ships in the the whole world all Headed in the same direction and then a few moments later to see that beach was really wide angle in all of these landing craft and figures running up the beach and saying explosions then identifying our Target in a small village of we stir am there were field after field covered with thousands of parachutes each color coded according to its cargo and then hundreds and hundreds of the gliders that had come in before Dawn. Did you ever think of what was going on down there? Absolutely. Can you imagine Landing in the dark and then being ready for if necessary hand-to-hand combat with an enemy that you just read about or learned about and training missions. I talked later to some people who were on the ground then they said it was so confusing. They couldn't believe that they were going to win anything from my perspective though from about an altitude of about 4,500 feet. We had a broad view of all of this and I didn't think there was any way we could lose (00:50:48) Jim McLaughlin expressed his optimism that night in the letter he wrote to his parents back in Normandy Harold baumgarten waited wounded (00:50:57) and alone above Omaha (00:50:58) Beach until an American Ambulance picked him up just before Dawn he was wounded for a fifth time when that (00:51:06) Lance was ambushed by German soldiers (00:51:08) Leonard lomell Jack Kuhn and what remained of the 2nd ranger battalion held their ground against three German attacks that night at Pointe du hoc all but McLaughlin are participating in D Day ceremonies today in Normandy (00:51:24) lead us to the saving of our country. And with our sister Nations into a world Unity that will spell a short piece that I will be done. Almighty God. The Taps played today at Normandy on the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Allied invasion brass bands played battle Flags waved soldiers marched end up stirring speeches bridged half a century today between D-Day struggle for freedom and an uncertain post-cold War President Clinton spoke as did Britain's Queen Elizabeth. So did the French President Francois mitterrand. He thanked D-Day Veterans for the freedom of the world and through a translator mid-run said their action had ensured armed conflict in Europe had become inconceivable among the Allies, but that the war for Freedom continues we see that in former Yugoslavia there is to war and in many parts of Africa death is still Waging it's terrible trade. And therefore we must all work together. We must all work within the United Nations. We must show courage and we must show patience and it is our turn to say let's go French president Francois me to Ron president václav Havel of the Czech Republic polish leader luck Valencia and queen Beatrix of the Netherlands applaud about their National military contingents March past and the sound of gunfire gave salutes thousands of elderly veterans many in uniforms encrusted with World War two metals watched old bombers and Fighters Thunder past against the Silhouettes of Warships offshore D-Day the commemoration of the 50th anniversary.