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NEWS: [See all News]
Raymond S. HOBACK - 29th Division.
Bedford Boys Fallen - Raymond Samuel HOBACK never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrified his life for our freedom... Raymond may have made it out of his landing craft, but he never made it to shore. Others recall seeing his body in the water. Bedford also failed to make in on the beach. He was killed by an exploding 88mm shell. Their time in the battle could be measured in minutes... [American D-Day facebookRead more...
[Posted: 2020-01-21 22:40:05]
RIP - Robert GIGUERE - Navy.
It is with heavy heart we learn the passing of Mr. Robert GIGUERE, a veteran of D-Day (Normandy)... He was 93... Four days earlier, Giguere rode across the choppy English Channel toward the Normandy coast with the Sixth Naval Beach Battalion. When his carrier grounded on the beach, a Teller mine detonated from beneath and tore through the ship's hull, Killing several soldiers below deck... [American D-Day facebookRead more...
[Posted: 2020-01-21 22:58:23]
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WALL - IN MEMORY OF: [See all Messages]
WOLTERS HENRY H
1ST INFANTRY DIVISION
Every time when I go to Normandy I pay my respect to Henry Herman Wolters and send the photo's from his grave to his Family.
Honored by Herman Wolters
[Posted: 2024-02-29 20:28:14]
PALMER SAMUEL C
29TH INFANTRY DIVISION
Samuel Clinton Palmer Service ID: 35803938 From: Tallega, Lee County, Ky Birth Date November 28, 1924 Casualty Date June 6, 1944 Army Corporal HQ Company, 2nd Battalion, 116 Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division Casualty Type KIA - Kill in Action Location: Omaha Beach, Normandy, France
Honored by Jeffrey Palmer
[Posted: 2023-12-25 14:40:54]
   1 - 2 / 135 messages   
OMAHA BEACH MEMORIAL - TESTIMONIES
Partager
Signalman 2c Clifford A. Goodall

7th Naval Beach Battalion
Communication Section


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We left late June 5th and traveled all night, as a matter of fact we heard the paratroopers heading toward the beach, I'm guessing about 1 am. The weather was quite rough and one of the ships company Signalman was quite sea sick, so I gave him the pills they gave to us, because I never got sick after the trip to England. He told me that as sailors they were not supposed to get sick. He let me sleep in his bunk for a few hours while he was on watch.
We anchored next to a Cruiser, some said it was British, but when that opened up it shook the whole LST. We had been scheduled for H-Hour +2 but we kept standing by until word came we were not going because the beach at Omaha was a disaster and nothing was moving. We watched all day as destroyers were laying down smoke screens and guns just kept firing. At night when German planes (or any plane) came over all the ships in the harbor opened fire and you would have thought it was like twenty 4th of July fireworks. They eventually had to halt all ships from firing a day or two later because they were shooting at our own planes.
We landed (our group) early the next morning, and as the LCVP dropped the ramp, right there was one of our 7th Beach guys floating face down in the water. When I got on the beach one of our guys who landed on the 6th yelled to me that "your buddy got it" meaning my pal Douglas Vaughn who never got off the VP. We of course, first dug foxholes and then got to work signaling ships for various supplies at the direction of the Beachmaster and bringing them in at various locations at our beach. There was still some shelling and at one point there was machine gun fire. Also snipers were around and more than one were women. The Engineers built a stockade of sorts to hold them.
The first couple of days I worked around the clock and ate very little and after that just the old K-Rations. We finally got a few C-Rations which were much better and I believe it was 10 days or 2 weeks later the army opened up a tent and were serving chow.
Bringing in the LCVPs was not too bad, the guys only had to wade in knee deep water, depending on the tide, but larger craft carrying vehicles hit those horrible sand bars had a rough time getting ashore. All the vehicles were water proofed, and many times all you could see on a Jeep was the drivers head. We had to haul a number of them out with a bulldozer. Right in back of where I was working they were stacking dead bodies like cord wood and at one point they had a bulldozer dig a trench and bury many until they could make graves which they did later on.
There were a number of things that scared me half to death but the worst time was during the storm of June 19th to the 23rd. This was an absolute nightmare, nothing moved in or out and no aircraft were flying. We got word they were running short of ammo at the front, so we went all around the beach picking up ammo and putting in boxes to be sent to the front. I was given to Captain Hammond of the 149th as his communication guy to get the beach open after the storm abated. Hammond did a heroic job and finally got some paths open.

Posted: March 3, 2009
Copyright: Laurent Lefebvre