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80 Years Ago, a Different America Pulled Off a Feat of Logistical Genius Framed by Bravery
Thank God America in 2024 is not being asked to repeat the same thing.
This is what German soldiers saw on the morning of June 6, 1944, at Omaha Beach. Omaha was one of the five landing beaches (Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword). Omaha and Utah were assigned to the American landing forces. The first landing craft hit the beach at 6:30 a.m. (H-hour). By H+6 minutes, all of the men who first stepped onto the French shoreline were dead.
The Germans, like the soldier in this photo, waited for the American boys to land, run up the beach a ways, and then take positions flat on the sand.
This German soldier didn’t know that 19 of the 30-plus men lying before him, the first warriors from a massive invasion force, were from one town, Bedford, Virginia. Two weeks later, that town of 3000 was devasted to learn that in the first minutes of the invasion, over 19 of its sons were gone forever. A National Guard unit from Virginia, these men became eternal heroes for Virginia and the United States.
This is a photo of them leaving home in 1942. Like millions of others, they were shipped off to England for years of training before the big day.
