Story. I arrived in a third wave. So dday was at 6 30. I got in about eight oclock. And by that time they the fighting in the in the fortifications had already been taken taken place. So the only thing i had to worry about was artillery and in snipers matter of fact, i only lost one man on on the beach and he was shot right between the eyes with by a sniper. Now the next day i lost eight which is half my men. In haysville and chris beck and thats one of the things that concerns me about the media. And so forth when they show dday usually they talk about overall and and the carnage that was there which certainly was. But they make it look like we didnt have any difficulty really and we didnt we lost the Fourth Division lost 197 men. There on right on the beach on dday but the next day when we attacked chris beck and hayesville. We lost 50 of her men and within three or four days. And like i said, i the second day i lost eight. Out of the out of 16 guys. So it was our dday i would always say our dday was really the second day. Yeah. Because we we had to wade through all of that water because the the exits werent all open. And and do the fact that we all landed in a different different place what we were supposed to why the one exit which was exit 3 was really crowded and so the the 22nd infantry and the 12th, which came in behind us walked through that and it took them about seven hours for us to walk through that while that water then we hit a road and then we went up the road to a place called fairville and then we spread out and made our skirmish line. And wait until morning because about i was surprised to find that that it didnt get dark over there until about 11 oclock at night. So about 11 oclock why we began to put out our scouts and dig her holes and that sort of thing and wait till next day and next day why its 6 30 why we jumped off to attack the as bill and chris back. Now our second our third battalion 22nd infantry at more difficulty than the first two because they were actually part of the first first wave and their job was well with the eighth infantry was to was the good eighth introvers to go inland, but our third third battalion was to hit and then go up to beach and take out the the fortifications there and so they were down on the beach for a week. Or maybe two because there was a whole extension of that fortification line that run from utah beach clear up to what they called the clintonville ridge. And it took us about three weeks to get through that couldnt build reasons one fortification after another. Matter of fact that is also where the the several navy ships. That were sunk. Had difficulty there was only about two of them. Theyre actually sunk by by fire german fire. But the mines. Were terrible they dropped minds in there and there was a there was a good dozen. Navy ships that were destroyed in utah beach and you never hear about that. I put that in my new book matter of fact and make sure that they got credit for what they what they had done. What was your i guess . Mission what was your assignment or your objective on the first day on dday to get to to capture variable which we didnt have to do because the air force the paratroopers. Had had done that it took that so we had we bypassed then. So that was our first task and then the other the second task actually was to attack quiz back and as bill on dday. Theres no way that we could have been able to have done that. But so we didnt quite reach our objective the first day. We we achieved our position but not not our objective. Can you tell me a little bit more about . The fighting the next day and having to take out chris bay. Yeah. Yeah now were already in their hedgerows. And as youre aware of the hedgerows were. Really difficult fighting and again, the germans would sit back there and they had all of the avenues of approach to the os those fortifications zero dn already. They were mapped. They were fire ranged arrangements already been made. So they just sat there and waiting for you to come and you had to go over the hedge road and cling to the sides of them and and now what we are our standard way of fighting was that we would have the artillery fire for 15 minutes to an hour on positions over there but the germans again were dug into the hedge rows and so it was hard to get to them and then hopefully wed get the p47s which we called our infantry air force to come in and die bomb and with their 500 pound. Bombs and strafe with their 50 color machine guns and soon as that lifted why we would would then we would push off. And but then as soon as that lifted the germans would come out of their holes still, you know. Waiting for you. And and then when you actually got to the fortifications then they had radios connected with each other. Hes back a chris back with with israel. And then they also had a back door. Where they could swing out their their troops and come around and to your side and hit you from the side without your your knowing it. And that was that was really tough matter of fact the very first day. We got on top. Of haysville and the fellow the commander of the haysville german. Command there he knew. What was you know what was going to happen so he radioed down to chris back to actually fire their artillery on us while we were on top of it. We thought it was friendly fire. Hitting us and we had to we had to retreat. And thats the next day that we had to do the job all over again. And this time i did get troops out there out the doors in the back and came around hitters on the side. And we ended withdraw that day. So for two days there, we lost a lot of men, but we didnt we didnt we didnt take it, but third day we finally got in there and what we did we brought the third battalion off the beach. In behind them and once you get behind these fortifications then you then you can you can do your thing, you know. And we discovered that worked really well and we got to the sig fig line then in germany. Because wed there there we would pen and pin them down bring a Tank Destroyer in behind them stick their big 90 millimeter gun in through the aperture and shoot about five or six rounds and what was left theyd come out, you know. But we begin to he was flamethrowers, of course to hear against the ace field goes back. We had one Sergeant Sergeant riley matter of fact too who . Eventually random 75 yards got behind the haysville and gave it some squirts. Nothing happened. Yeah, give it another couple more squirts and nothing happened, you know, and he about to give up. You know all of a sudden he heard a thing and a flash. And what had happened the gas had gotten inside in their ammunition. And the blew it up. And they came out pretty fast after after that. Yeah,ou can watch this interview in its entirety along with other well, its that time of year across the country, High School Students are prepping for advanced placement exams. In various topics. And here on American History tv, were going to take a look at the 2023 advanced placement