"There were dead bodies floating in the water and many on the beach. Death and wreckage were everywhere. German mortar shells were still hitting the beach. The noise from the planes, boats, artillery explosions and gunfire was almost unbearable.
There was a red-headed fellow with a very white face looking up at me in a kneeling position on the beach. I stepped back from the sight, and was given a push by a man kneeling on the ground behind me. He yelled, "Do you want to get us both killed?" He was in the process of disarming a land mine.
I gestured and muttered something about the red-headed fellow in front of me. The soldier exclaimed: "Don’t worry about him, he’s dead! Just watch where you put your feet." I then came out of my daze and was very alert to everything around me." - 2nd Lt. Smith H. Shumway, 1st Infantry Division - 18th Infantry - B Company, Omaha Beach, Normandy, France, June 6th, 1944 #reality #dday #somber #stayzero #zerofoxtrot