On the morning of June 6, 1944, Pfc. William R. Munsch, hit Utah Beach with the D-Day assault forces running for his life and ducking bullets everywhere (see article: 95-year-old WWII vet recalls D-Day, fighting in France http://articles.mcall.com/2012-10-05/news/mc-war-story-bill-munsch-20121005_1_wwii-vet-german-troops-hedgerows ).
Utah Beach was the code name for the right flank, or westernmost, of the Allied landing beaches during the D-Day invasion of Normandy, as part of Operation Overlord on 6 June 1944. Utah Beach, about 3 miles (5 km) long, was the westernmost of the five landing beaches, located between the villages of Pouppeville and La Madeleine, France which became the right flank anchor of the allied offensive along the left bank (western bank) of the Douve River estuary.
The German called this sector code W5.
“The hardest thing was on D-Day, coming in to the beach. There were so many bodies in the water, the last guys must have had a lot of trouble getting to the shore” the 95 year old south Allentown veteran remembers. “I remember almost drowning.”
He recalls pushing his way through those who were dead and/or dying on his way to the beach.
“Guys that were in bad shape, maybe hit, would grab your leg for support. You hate to pull away from the guy, but he’s pulling you in the water and dragging you with him. You knew he wasn’t going to make it. I didn’t think I was going to make it myself” he said.
“German artillery’s up in the hills and they’re throwing shells and they’re killing guys like flies”, he added.
“I got hit with a shell. I don’t remember anything about it”, he added.
See video link: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/warstories/