None of them knew what they were practicing for. Then, on June 5th, [Edward] Gorman got the news. “They just said, ”˜You’re in the first units,’” he recalled. “That’s all they said to us.”
By the next morning, Gorman had boarded the flat boat, called a Rhino ferry, and was on his way to the invasion. As the ferry neared the shore, the mine exploded, damaging the unloading ramp. The soldiers were stuck, and German planes were dropping bombs all around. “How they missed us, we don’t know,” Gorman said.
The scene as he and his compatriots reached the shore was horrific and still shakes Gorman to his core.
“When they talk about a pool of red, I mean, you see the whole — hundreds of yards of shoreline,” he said, crying.
Read it all (and the video is highly recommended).
(NBC) A 90 year WWII Veteran Recalls a Harrowing Landing at Omaha Beach nearly 7 decades ago
None of them knew what they were practicing for. Then, on June 5th, [Edward] Gorman got the news. “They just said, ”˜You’re in the first units,’” he recalled. “That’s all they said to us.”
By the next morning, Gorman had boarded the flat boat, called a Rhino ferry, and was on his way to the invasion. As the ferry neared the shore, the mine exploded, damaging the unloading ramp. The soldiers were stuck, and German planes were dropping bombs all around. “How they missed us, we don’t know,” Gorman said.
The scene as he and his compatriots reached the shore was horrific and still shakes Gorman to his core.
“When they talk about a pool of red, I mean, you see the whole — hundreds of yards of shoreline,” he said, crying.
Read it all (and the video is highly recommended).