D-Day
By: Kathryn Judy and Ally Milnes
The Beaches
101st Airborne
Casualties for the Allies
Stories
After arriving in Portsmouth we were given briefing about every day and told of our assignments. After being shown photos of the obstacles and being briefed on where we were to land on the beach in France, we were no longer allowed outside the fenced are and there were guards about every 50 feet. We were assigned to boat crew #8 and were to land in the first wave on Omaha Beach with the 1st Infantry Division. The Ranger Battalion was to land and climb the cliffs to our right. Our boat crew's job was to make gaps through the obstacles at low tide so that the second wave could make it through as the tide would be coming in. The 1st Division was to attack the German positions. He was put to work with three other men. He had to clear the way for the boats by clearing out the mines and and booby traps. The ships then were moved out on June 4 during the night but because of the bad weather they had to go back and leave again the next night. They had to get off the boat and walk through water to get to the beach, he was one of the last people to get off the boat so he had to help carry the boat of explosives onto the land for the soldiers.
Roger Airgood:
He was a twin-engine pilot, he flew a C-47's. He had many practice flights before he was called into battle. On June 4,1944 he pained his plane with the black and white invasion stripe. They had to put the stripes on the planes because it made it easier to identify them for the naval force. On June 5 they were signaled for take off. All the planes had to get into the V formation once in the air. He took part in the first wave of planes. They kept flying and soon they came upon tracer, there were many tracers coming up from the ground. They created a lot of problems for the pilots. He said it was almost like flying through hail. For the paratroopers that were in the plane waiting for the green light to jump, the pilots of the plane have to slow down the plane so the speed was slower making it easier to jump out and also safer for the paratroopers. With some minor problems in the planes he made it back to the landing zone safely. The only problem he found that he had was that there was a hole in one of the main gas tanks, but they have back ups they can use, but he was worried that once they landed and shut off the engines something bad might happen. But nothing happened and everything was fine.
Edwin J. Barrios
He was a marine electrician from 1942-1445. He would build cargo ships, steel tank lighters, and landing crafts. He talks about all different kinds of men came together to get the job done. There was 6 other people working under Barrios. They built things that would help the people in the war.