D-Day June 6, 1944

We were awakened about 12:30 A.M. And told the invasion was on. We had already been on alert for about 2 weeks after being warned that a German paratroop attack on our base was possible. I wore a shoulder holster with a 45 caliber pistol the same which I wore on combat missions. We were also instructed to wear black oxfords, as there were no brown shoes in Europe and an escape kit that included a silk map and gold coins in case we crashed or had to bail out during our mission.

This was my first lead mission with a new crew. Our bomb group consisted of three squadrons, 36 planes in all. In the lead plane the senior officer acted as the co-pilot and the normal co-pilot acted as the tail gunner . I was the pilotage navigator and directed flight from the nose turret . The other navigator kept the log and recorded all pertinent information and could replace me should I become disabled. The flight engineer fired signal flares so that all 36 planes could join the correct formation and the co-pilot confirmed it by using a signal light.

Our target was Lisieux France. Our orders were to destroy a railroad and highway crossing in order to delay German reserve troops from reaching the British and Canadian troops invasion area which we later learned code name was “Sword".

We left the English Coast knowing that France’s weather was overcast but the Channel was clear. On route to our target we saw the invasion fleet on our right, it was a memorable scene and is still frozen in my memory to this day. The ships and low flying aircraft extended as far as I could see. Large ships close to shore were firing cannons at shore to provide protection for the landing crafts that shuttled the infantry to the shore , squadrons of P-47’s and P-51’s flew at different altitudes to intercept attacking enemy planes. Little did we know that we were writing the script for many future movies.

I informed the pilot of our heading and we proceeded on our mission.. The Pilot gave orders to open the bomb bay doors. The Bombardier hunched over the Norden bomb sight but could not initially locate our target but slowly the overcast broke and I spotted the target, I pointed out certain ground features that he could see through the bombsight. He picked up the target and released the bomb load which included two smoke bombs. The other 35 planes dropped their bombs at that signal and we destroyed our target. We followed a long exit route and exited France thru the Cherbourg Peninsula.. The total mission took 7 hours and 50 minutes although the target was only minutes from our base. Of our D-Day crew only the Co-Pilot (Carter), Bombardier (Lassandro) and I survived the war.

David Ruditz

From: Mary Ann Shugars Sent: Friday, June 05, 2009 9:01 AM
To: James E. Kiley, Jr

Subject: A Wive's Tale not from Canterury

I just had the great privilege of visiting OMAha and Utah beaches at
Normandy where my husband, James Kiley had been a tank commander during
the D-Day invasion.

It had been a long-time desire of mine to go where he and so many brave
young men had fought and died so we could enjoy the freedoms we do
today. HE was buried at ARLIngton with full honors due to a Bronze
STar and PURPLe Heart with Oak leaf cluster.

I finally saw the hedgerows which had caused the tanks so much trouble
due to their thickness which the men who preceded the tanks on the
beaches had to cut through so as not to hinder the advancing tanks.

He spoke of eating on battlefields strewn with bodies and trying to get
clean by washing in his battle helmet. He told of he brave French
people who would dig up vegetables from their gardens and give the men a
stew mixed with Lipton onion soup mix.which he had received from home.

There was some humor in all the horror, he was bent over in a field
trying to relieve himself when a French woman passed and he sad Bon Jour
from his embarrasing position. He talked of the cleanliness of the
Dutch women who would sweep the streets after the tanks rolled through.

He and another tank commander decided at a cross road which direction
each would take and watched with horror as the other tank was blown up.
He really didn't talk much about the battles but said there was only
only one motto, Kill or be Killed. I think the horribly painful memories
were just too much for him to talk about.

His men knew that every day could be their last and they were so
young(he was a lst Lieutenant at 19) and despite being shot continued
until dropping into his tank he lost part of a finger and the use of
his ring finger and had to be sent to a hospital in England.

I just flew to Florida from WAshington where a group of WWII veterans
were either being wheeled or walked off a plane and despite the fact
that I almost missed my plane I took the time to shake their hands and
thank them for their service to our country.

On June 6th, 1944 I was the ball turret gunner on a B-24. After receiving "Godspeed" message rom General Eisenhower, my bomb group, the 34th stationed in Mendelsham, England, took off from our base to assist the troops landing on the Normandy Beachhead.

The weather was heavily overcast and were had to return with great disappointment. However, in the early afternoon, the weather cleared and we were able to assemble for a mission to bomb the city of Liseaux, France, with hopes of relieving the troops.

The sight of 6000 ships in the English Channel is one I shall never forget. I am sure anyone else who participated in this event, 65 years ago, will agree.

My Father, Harry Albright, flew his first combat mission on D-Day. He wrote an account of his years in the Air Force and this his his entry for June 6, 1944 -
"This date, and the next three months, deserve special attention. Although I was at the same camp, my life in the service would be changed forever. I was awakened by the C.Q. and Hank Clay, our group engineer and a personal friend of mine. Hank asked me if I still wanted to fly. I don't remember my answer, but I was awake immediately and on my feet getting dressed. I was told that a flight engineer was needed; take-off was tentatively scheduled within an hour; I should pick up flight gear and get out to the flight line as soon as possible. I was assigned to a Lt. Carter's crew, flying ship number 970. I didn't even have time enough to go to my first briefing....I didn't know anyone on this crew....The first one I met was the tall gunner, Fred Whiteside.....All night the sky had been filled with the muffled roar of thousands of airplane engines. I arrived at my plane at about the same time as the rest of the crew, and they filled me in on just what was happening. It was hardly necessary, as rumors had been flying around for the past week that something big was about to happen. No one knew for sure just where or when, but that it would happen soon. We took off at about 2:30 am...Our 20th Combat Wing led the whole Eighth Bomber Command. The 446th led, we were right behind, followed by the rest of the 2nd Air Division (All of the B-24's). The 1st and 2nd Air Divisions (B-17's) followed our lead.....I flew in the top-turret and was flight engineer."

From Carlo "Skip" Ferrera;

My father Carlo Ferrera Sr. landed in the first assault wave on Utah Beach D-Day First Regiment 4th. Infantry Division. My father, now deceased, spoke very little of his experiences from the beaches of Normandy to Germany at the end of the War. In the process partisapating in and being wounded in both the Battle of the Hurtigan Forest, the Ardens and the Battle of the Bulge. Based on information I have accumulated over the years I have composed a poem of my interpretation of my fathers experiences on D-Day, titled "Beaches".

Beaches

I often wondered how you felt... alone and crouched inside that hole….a feeling you could not reveal…. no matter how often I insisted and prodded with boyish zeal.

It started on that dreary June day….far away from home in anticipation of what may. The churning gut and sweaty hands may not be caused by channel waves……but just the fear of unknown days… and if you will be the one retained.

It’s time to go…you will not miss…the roll and heave of this dreadful trip, how could it be any worse than this horrid feel of ebb and flow. You muster to your station not fully aware of regurgitation……you brace yourself along the rail to time your leap to no avail.

Your on your way…the first in line….where you would want to be… in better times. But could it be fait disguised… and coupled with the element of surprise that saved you on that freighting day…. but not the men behind.

Into all the confusion, your birthed from the craft…in surreal dimensions the scene unfolds. As you rush forward.. men fall at your sides… with final calls to their mothers on their lips reside. There is no time to wonder why ……only a primeval need to survive.

You’ve reached the sand to your surprise in spite of many others demise….your churning gut and sweaty hands remain.. amid the relief… of terra ferma gained. Cover is scarce on this deselect scape… so you dig for you life and seal you fait.

I still wonder how you felt… alone and crouched inside that hole…a feeling that was never revealed…. he took it with him…. and in time I will heal.

Skip Ferrera

My daddy, Thomas Harber, landed on Utah Beach in Normany, France on D+6. He was in the 553rd MPEG Company and they had a burial detail with graves registration in St. Lo. He was in Versailes, Bastogne (the bulge), the Rhein (Ramagan Bridge) and at the end of the war they were in Weirner, Germany which was about 14 miles from Buchenwald where President Obama spoke today, June 5th. When he was there the Buchenwald Concentration Camp was just liberated and a few surviving persons were still alive but there were piles of deceased people and tongue and groove wagons were filled with bodies. This was such a horrible experience for he and his buddies to experience at the younge age of 20. He is now 85 years old and still active and remembers the scene as if it were just yesterday.

I am privileged to have come from a family from which many served during WWII. My father and two uncles were in the South Pacific for 4 years as well as several uncles in Europe (The Battle of the Bulge, D-day, D+1 etc.). As was often the case, none would openly share their experience. We usually found out because of things that were said about them at a ceremony or through one of their friends that would come to visit. Since you requested a D-day account, here is one that may be of some significance. At 19 our uncle John Bachi was severely wounded in North Africa. He was slated to be sent home. He stayed on. He was in the first wave at Omaha Beach. He died about a month later in the battle for Saint Lo. He along with many others are honoured every Memorial Day in Elk Rapids Michigan (pop. about 1500).

My father was 31 years of age when he landed on Utah Beach on D-Day. He was also a shooter and helped liberate the towns of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, and St Lo. He dug foxholes along the hedge rows. I do not know too much about that and I was wondering if Fred DeCicco knew my faher, Franklin M. Millman. He is now deceased as of 1992 and I would love to find someone who might have known him that day. He said that he almost drowned when he jumped off the boat but managed to get to shore.

I tookk my father back to the Normandy beaches in 1988 and we took a ferry from Wexford, Ireland to the French coast. We went to the American cemetery and visited the beaches where he landed. I remember I was speechless at that time seeing that it was a beautiful sunny day and not a wave in the sea. The trip affected my father and he wanted to go home, but I took him to Paris, where he had lived in the Petite Palais during that time. He ended up with Colonel Jaworski in war crimes -- he was the driver. I would like to get his war records but someone said that the building they were housed in burned down a long time ago. He was happy I took him there but was upset by it. Sincerely, Diane Millman Trask, Boca Raton, Florida

My father was 31 years of age when he landed on Utah Beach on D-Day. He was also a shooter and helped liberate the towns of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, and St Lo. He dug foxholes along the hedge rows. I do not know too much about that and I was wondering if Fred DeCicco knew my father, Franklin M. Millman. He is now deceased as of 1992 and I would love to find someone who might have known him that day. He said that he almost drowned when he jumped off the boat but managed to get to shore.

I took my father back to the Normandy beaches in 1988 and we took a ferry from Wexford, Ireland to the French coast. We went to the American cemetery and visited the beaches where he landed. I remember I was speechless at that time seeing that it was a beautiful sunny day and not a wave in the sea, and thinking of what happened in 1944. The trip affected my father and he wanted to go home, but I took him to Paris, where he had lived in the Petite Palais during that time. He ended up with Colonel Jaworski in war crimes -- he was the driver. I would like to get his war records -- someone said that the building they were housed in burned down a long time ago. He was happy I took him there but was upset by it. He was from Moorestown, N.J. but ended in with the Texas-Oklahoma outfit and trained in Mississippi (Camp Van Dorn) before going overseas. I was born Sept. 18, 1944, so I did not get to meet my father for a few years. Sincerely, Diane Millman Trask, Boca Raton, Florida

My father was 31 years of age when he landed on Utah Beach on D-Day. He was also a shooter and helped liberate the towns of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, and St Lo. He dug foxholes along the hedge rows. I do not know too much about that and I was wondering if Fred DeCicco knew my father, Franklin M. Millman. He is now deceased as of 1992 and I would love to find someone who might have known him that day. He said that he almost drowned when he jumped off the boat but managed to get to shore.

I took my father back to the Normandy beaches in 1988 and we took a ferry from Wexford, Ireland to the French coast. We went to the American cemetery and visited the beaches where he landed. I remember I was speechless at that time seeing that it was a beautiful sunny day and not a wave in the sea, and thinking of what happened in 1944. The trip affected my father and he wanted to go home, but I took him to Paris, where he had lived in the Petite Palais during that time. He ended up with Colonel Jaworski in war crimes -- he was the driver. I would like to get his war records -- someone said that the building they were housed in burned down a long time ago. He was happy I took him there but was upset by it. He was from Moorestown, N.J. but ended in with the Texas-Oklahoma outfit and trained in Mississippi (Camp Van Dorn) before going overseas. I was born Sept. 18, 1944, so I did not get to meet my father for a few years. Sincerely, Diane Millman Trask, Boca Raton, Florida

My father was 31 years of age when he landed on Utah Beach on D-Day. He was also a shooter and helped liberate the towns of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, and St Lo. He dug foxholes along the hedge rows. I do not know too much about that and I was wondering if Fred DeCicco knew my father, Franklin M. Millman. He is now deceased as of 1992 and I would love to find someone who might have known him that day. He said that he almost drowned when he jumped off the boat but managed to get to shore.

I took my father back to the Normandy beaches in 1988 and we took a ferry from Wexford, Ireland to the French coast. We went to the American cemetery and visited the beaches where he landed. I remember I was speechless at that time seeing that it was a beautiful sunny day and not a wave in the sea, and thinking of what happened in 1944. The trip affected my father and he wanted to go home, but I took him to Paris, where he had lived in the Petite Palais during that time. He ended up with Colonel Jaworski in war crimes -- he was the driver. I would like to get his war records -- someone said that the building they were housed in burned down a long time ago. He was happy I took him there but was upset by it. He was from Moorestown, N.J. but ended in with the Texas-Oklahoma outfit and trained in Mississippi (Camp Van Dorn) before going overseas. I was born Sept. 18, 1944, so I did not get to meet my father for a few years. Sincerely, Diane Millman Trask, Boca Raton, Florida

My father was 31 years of age when he landed on Utah Beach on D-Day. He was also a shooter and helped liberate the towns of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, and St Lo. He dug foxholes along the hedge rows. I do not know too much about that and I was wondering if Fred DeCicco knew my father, Franklin M. Millman. He is now deceased as of 1992 and I would love to find someone who might have known him that day. He said that he almost drowned when he jumped off the boat but managed to get to shore.

I took my father back to the Normandy beaches in 1988 and we took a ferry from Wexford, Ireland to the French coast. We went to the American cemetery and visited the beaches where he landed. I remember I was speechless at that time seeing that it was a beautiful sunny day and not a wave in the sea, and thinking of what happened in 1944. The trip affected my father and he wanted to go home, but I took him to Paris, where he had lived in the Petite Palais during that time. He ended up with Colonel Jaworski in war crimes -- he was the driver. I would like to get his war records -- someone said that the building they were housed in burned down a long time ago. He was happy I took him there but was upset by it. He was from Moorestown, N.J. but ended in with the Texas-Oklahoma outfit and trained in Mississippi (Camp Van Dorn) before going overseas. I was born Sept. 18, 1944, so I did not get to meet my father for a few years. Sincerely, Diane Millman Trask, Boca Raton, Florida

My father was 31 years of age when he landed on Utah Beach on D-Day. He was also a shooter and helped liberate the towns of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, and St Lo. He dug foxholes along the hedge rows. I do not know too much about that and I was wondering if Fred DeCicco knew my father, Franklin M. Millman. He is now deceased as of 1992 and I would love to find someone who might have known him that day. He said that he almost drowned when he jumped off the boat but managed to get to shore.

I took my father back to the Normandy beaches in 1988 and we took a ferry from Wexford, Ireland to the French coast. We went to the American cemetery and visited the beaches where he landed. I remember I was speechless at that time seeing that it was a beautiful sunny day and not a wave in the sea, and thinking of what happened in 1944. The trip affected my father and he wanted to go home, but I took him to Paris, where he had lived in the Petite Palais during that time. He ended up with Colonel Jaworski in war crimes -- he was the driver. I would like to get his war records -- someone said that the building they were housed in burned down a long time ago. He was happy I took him there but was upset by it. He was from Moorestown, N.J. but ended in with the Texas-Oklahoma outfit and trained in Mississippi (Camp Van Dorn) before going overseas. I was born Sept. 18, 1944, so I did not get to meet my father for a few years. Sincerely, Diane Millman Trask, Boca Raton, Florida

My father was 31 years of age when he landed on Utah Beach on D-Day. He was also a shooter and helped liberate the towns of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, and St Lo. He dug foxholes along the hedge rows. I do not know too much about that and I was wondering if Fred DeCicco knew my father, Franklin M. Millman. He is now deceased as of 1992 and I would love to find someone who might have known him that day. He said that he almost drowned when he jumped off the boat but managed to get to shore.

I took my father back to the Normandy beaches in 1988 and we took a ferry from Wexford, Ireland to the French coast. We went to the American cemetery and visited the beaches where he landed. I remember I was speechless at that time seeing that it was a beautiful sunny day and not a wave in the sea, and thinking of what happened in 1944. The trip affected my father and he wanted to go home, but I took him to Paris, where he had lived in the Petite Palais during that time. He ended up with Colonel Jaworski in war crimes -- he was the driver. I would like to get his war records -- someone said that the building they were housed in burned down a long time ago. He was happy I took him there but was upset by it. He was from Moorestown, N.J. but ended in with the Texas-Oklahoma outfit and trained in Mississippi (Camp Van Dorn) before going overseas. I was born Sept. 18, 1944, so I did not get to meet my father for a few years. Sincerely, Diane Millman Trask, Boca Raton, Florida

My father was 31 years of age when he landed on Utah Beach on D-Day. He was also a shooter and helped liberate the towns of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, and St Lo. He dug foxholes along the hedge rows. I do not know too much about that and I was wondering if Fred DeCicco knew my father, Franklin M. Millman. He is now deceased as of 1992 and I would love to find someone who might have known him that day. He said that he almost drowned when he jumped off the boat but managed to get to shore.

I took my father back to the Normandy beaches in 1988 and we took a ferry from Wexford, Ireland to the French coast. We went to the American cemetery and visited the beaches where he landed. I remember I was speechless at that time seeing that it was a beautiful sunny day and not a wave in the sea, and thinking of what happened in 1944. The trip affected my father and he wanted to go home, but I took him to Paris, where he had lived in the Petite Palais during that time. He ended up with Colonel Jaworski in war crimes -- he was the driver. I would like to get his war records -- someone said that the building they were housed in burned down a long time ago. He was happy I took him there but was upset by it. He was from Moorestown, N.J. but ended in with the Texas-Oklahoma outfit and trained in Mississippi (Camp Van Dorn) before going overseas. I was born Sept. 18, 1944, so I did not get to meet my father for a few years. Sincerely, Diane Millman Trask, Boca Raton, Florida

My father was 31 years of age when he landed on Utah Beach on D-Day. He was also a shooter and helped liberate the towns of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, and St Lo. He dug foxholes along the hedge rows. I do not know too much about that and I was wondering if Fred DeCicco knew my father, Franklin M. Millman. He is now deceased as of 1992 and I would love to find someone who might have known him that day. He said that he almost drowned when he jumped off the boat but managed to get to shore.

I took my father back to the Normandy beaches in 1988 and we took a ferry from Wexford, Ireland to the French coast. We went to the American cemetery and visited the beaches where he landed. I remember I was speechless at that time seeing that it was a beautiful sunny day and not a wave in the sea, and thinking of what happened in 1944. The trip affected my father and he wanted to go home, but I took him to Paris, where he had lived in the Petite Palais during that time. He ended up with Colonel Jaworski in war crimes -- he was the driver. I would like to get his war records -- someone said that the building they were housed in burned down a long time ago. He was happy I took him there but was upset by it. He was from Moorestown, N.J. but ended in with the Texas-Oklahoma outfit and trained in Mississippi (Camp Van Dorn) before going overseas. I was born Sept. 18, 1944, so I did not get to meet my father for a few years. Sincerely, Diane Millman Trask, Boca Raton, Florida