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. “I landed with 'Bronx New York' on my field jacket and a Star of David on my back," he said. "That was for the Germans." No safe spaces needed here. #stayzero #zerofoxtrot #ww2 #war #badass