Stories by Thomas Valencia and Georges Roach
Company A/116, Anderson Section
" We advanced to the beach, and many of my comrades fell ill. The sea was rather agitated. It was a turbulent crossing and we received a lot of spray.
Our boat was one of the six of Company A and when we arrived at the beach or near it, the obstacles erected by the Germans to prevent the landing, were fully discovered, where we were told that they would be, the tide was low.
I was the "Rifle Sergeant", and I was following Lieutenant Anderson on the way out of the boat, and we did what we could in relation to what we had learned to do, for so many months in England. There was a fairly wide stretch of beach, and the Germans were not at all visible but they were shooting at us with a lot of small arms.
We came down from the ramp, we had water up to the top of the knee, and we started doing what we were trained to do: move forward, squat and shoot. One of the problems was that we didn't know who to fire. I saw a few tracer bullets coming from a location that seemed huge to me. I didn't think I'd find bunkers that big. I tried to shoot the back but I had no idea what was happening. There was not much to see in front of me, except for a few houses, the water continued to rise so quickly, and the comrades I was with who had been affected disappeared very quickly, it had become a struggle to stay on his feet. I gave up my equipment, which was too heavy.
I waded in the water, and I had a hand in the air to try to find my balance, when I was injured the first time. I was wounded in the left hand, the joint was broken and the palm of my hand crossed. I didn't feel anything, except a little shot, but I knew I had been hit by a bullet. Next to me, in the water, Private Henry G. Witt turned to me "Sergeant, we're here defenseless, like rats. We're gonna die just like rats." I certainly didn't think the same thing, but I didn't think so. I never knew if we were abandoned or not.
I continued my journey forward, because that was the best thing to do. My rifle got stuck, so I took a rifle, and I fired two shots. We were shooting at something, but it didn't seem successful. There was no chance I could destroy a German location with a 30-gauge rifle. I was hit again in the left thigh, my hip bone was broken, at the same time, in my backpack, and my helmet chin strap was also cut by a bullet. I kept moving up the beach, I stooped down the wall, and then I collapsed.
The bodies of the other types were thrown to the shore, and I was a living body among several bodies of my friends, who were dead, and in many cases cut into pieces.
Thomas Valencia, 29th Infantry Division, 116th Infantry Regiment, Company A (Oral History - Eisenhower Center) _______________________________________________________________________________
"Lieutenant Anderson was the leader of our 30-man team on the boat, and each team consisted of rifle shooters, Bangalore carriers, and men equipped with flame-throwers. There were also demolishers that blew up bunkers. My job was to follow the carrier of the flamethrower, Sergeant Greenstreet, and when his fuel tank was empty, I had to start a new five gallion can.
As our barge was near the shore, the British crew told us "we'll lower the ramp as soon as possible, we'll leave, too, stand by! "
When we hit the sand, the ramp fell, Lieutenant Anderson was the first out of the boat with Private Dominguez. Within the next few seconds I was outside, and I saw that Domingues was already touched, he was lying in the water and sand. There were 100 yards of open beach in front of us. His wounds were serious.
I was lying in the sand and shooting at a house. Sergeant Wilkes tells me, "What are you shooting at?" I said, "I don't know, I don't know what I'm shooting at!"
Lieutenant Anderson was at 25 or 30 yards ahead, making us sign with his hand to move forward, and then suddenly there was no sign of life on his part.
The tide was rising quickly and suddenly I didn't see anyone, except Gil Murdoch, and I asked him how he was doing. He said, "I can't see, I lost my glasses!"
I didn't see anyone from our company except Gil, and I was in the water where I almost got knocked off by a DUKW. Gil was also wounded, I told him to wait until the boat picked him up. I was starting to swim, and a boat picked me up around 10:30. I finally joined those who remained of Company A. There were only eight of us."
Georges Roach, 29th Infantry Division, 116th Infantry Regiment, Company A (Oral History - Eisenhower Center)