George Roach
Omaha Beach
Company A, 116th Infantry Regiment, U.S. 29th Division
------------------------------------------------------------------------
To listen to the complete, un-edited version:
http://play.rbn.com/?britannica/brit...normay269u1.rm
Edited transcript
The company commander was Captain Taylor N. Fellers and the exec was Lieutenant Ray Nance. Lieutenant Anderson headed up our 30-man boat team, and each boat team had riflemen, wire cutters, bangalore torpedo men, and flamethrower people. I was with flames--the assistant flamethrower. There were also demolition men, to blow the pillboxes. My job was to follow the flame gunner, Sergeant Greenstreet, and when his flame tank ran empty, I'd switch on a fresh five-gallon drum.
As our assault craft came closer to shore, the British crew told us, "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." When we hit the sand, the ramp went down and Lieutenant Anderson was the first off the boat with Private Dominguez. In the next few seconds, I went off, and I saw Dominguez had already been shot and was lying in the water and sand. There were 100 yards of open beach in front of us. Casualties were bad. I dropped into the sand and fired at the house and Sergeant Wilkes asked me, "What are you firing at?" I said, "I don't know. I don't know what I'm firing at."
Lieutenant Anderson was 25 to 30 yards in front, waving his hand for us to move forward, and suddenly there was no more sign of life from him. The tide came in rapidly and suddenly I didn't see anyone else except Gil Murdoch, and I asked him how he felt. He said, "I can't see--I lost my glasses."
I didn't see anybody from our company, so Gil and I got back into the water and went out to a knocked-out DUKW. Gil was wounded so I told him to stay until a boat picked him up. I started to swim ashore and a boat picked me up around 10:30. I finally joined up with what was left of A Company. There were only eight of us left for duty.
07-29-2001, 05:01 AM
Linear Mode
