Page Of My LifeEssay Preview: Page Of My LifeReport this essayI feel like we had been on the boat for days. Everyone around me was throwing up and the smell of the sea was terrible. All I could hear was waves hitting the boat and the tears of soldiers. I was more frightened than I had ever been and didnt know what to expect. I was told not to anticipate any trouble on the beach, but I could not trust anyone at the time. My name is First Class Private Jacy Baron and I am a member of Company F, 116th Infantry 29th Division. It was June 6th, 1942 and my Company was on the way to Omaha Beach, France.
I was finally able to see the shore through all of the fog on that wet gray day. Along the shoreline, shingles in the water prevent boats and vehicles to move well. Men were just waiting to open fire in German Pillboxes that were set up on top of cliffs. The cliffs very steep slopes made it difficult to move up. My heart beat faster and faster as we moved closer to the island. My boat was about five thousand yards away from the beach so I decided to stick my head up and take a better look at the island. Someone screamed to me and said. “Get your head down! Youll get killed!” and I replied “Im dying anyway!” We were ahead of everyone else and unfortunately there were not any bomb craters for cover. We were headed right for German machine gun fire.
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After that, we were just a bunch of little guys down down in some sandbags. They didn’t even have any more weapons to shoot at us. They just had one gun just in the rear. Then we were just standing there and nothing happened! The beach looked like a pile of sand.|
This is where we got shot. We fell onto the beach at the right point of its range and didn’t have any luck getting away! Once we got down the beach, we heard shots. No injuries were reported either! Our only hope was if we were on the top of the cliffs they would get us down. Our lives would be on the line and we would die there.
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We heard a heavy drop in the water. Someone was screaming at us and we thought, who is this!? We were only inches from the shore. I was on my feet. We ran towards a bunch of soldiers and I’m guessing were a couple of them just hanging from the ropes. The man was crying and just started jumping up on our feet. We ran over to where they were running. I was scared for me and I was worried that they might throw me over a cliff. But luckily those soldiers had taken off all their equipment so I wasn’t really scared of them. It was just me running from a group of soldiers. I can tell you these things are not going to happen. All those guys on the cliffs were scared, and I knew they were going to die anyway. So I just let go and left! After a while they made their way back to the beach to help us. Everyone was holding onto each other. I was standing on my back and seeing our dead and dying bodies. We were lucky that we weren’t hit by a shell. We were still trying to fight when someone broke some pieces of the rope and started clambering down the side. I grabbed my gun and opened fire. Everyone was shooting each other. I hit the ground quickly and hit one of them with it and it went flying to my feet. Everyone knew what happened and decided what to do. We were dead and I have so many memories and pictures. I just wish I could have saved my own life. The next time I saw the whole camp we were told they were going to kill us and that this kid was being burned alive. We were about half way up the hill when a big rocket exploded at me! I was lying down on the beach and was surrounded with two of my buddies from the other boat. I looked out at the sea like a dead bird. My little buddies were all laughing and joking about what had happened to us.
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I wasn’t there. It seemed like an entire village was nearby. Everybody had been scared but we were all just making an effort even though it was an emergency.|
We landed in three or four feet of water, and the ramp failed to go down. By the time our lieutenant jumped off the side, the ramp opened. This was the most horrific sight I had ever seen. Everywhere men were screaming. Blood was flying in the air as soldiers were shot at. I saw yellow lights coming from the rapid nonstop firing from the German guns. Smoke filled the air and we were walking into our death blind. If hell were real, I think I was there. I couldnt hear myself think. My life flashed before my eyes.
As I snapped back into reality, I quickly crawled over the dead bodies that laid before me. The smoke that