June 20, 2003
Account of first wave of the D-Day landing.
Stumbling around the
Observer Magazine, I found this
excellent account of how it felt to be part of the very first wave at Normandy, the so-called "Suicide Wave", in which very few survived. Tells the story of some Brits and some Americans from Virginia.
On 6 June 1944, the elite troops of Company A, 116th Infantry, stormed the sands of Omaha Beach as part of the first wave of the D-Day landings. Within minutes, most were dead, including 19 men from one small town in rural Virginia. In this extract from his gripping book, Alex Kershaw details the lives and deaths of these young men, and tells here for the first time how the bravery of a British naval officer helped save many of the Bedford Boys...
Quite a story. Can't imagine heading into virtually certain death like that.
