The man you’re looking at is Pvt. Harold “Hal” Baumgarten. At the age of 19, Hal stormed Omaha beach on D-day, June 6, 1944. In a 32 hour period, Hal was wounded a total of 5 times.
After seeing one of his buddies being cut in half by a machinegun, Hal was determined to slay Germans. As he moved into the beach, a German bullet hit and destroyed his rifle. With no weapon, Hal kept going until an 88 artillery round landed in front of him; blowing half of his jaw off. He was then hit by a mortar and took shrapnel in the head. As he was crawling on the beach, filled with blood and body parts, Hal hit a mine and blew a hole in his foot. Somehow, he managed to move off the beach and into the hedgerows. Hal was then shot in the mouth by a German machine gun. He landed in a ditch filled with 6 dead American soldiers and stayed there till night fall. Hours later, medics finally found him in the ditch and placed him on a stretcher. As he was being carried away, a German sniper shot the medic and also shot Hal in the knee. Almost simultaneously, a round fired from a Navy destroyer took out the sniper position.
Hal was one of only two survivors from his landing craft. His story inspired the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan. #ww2 #dday #hardfuck #stayzero