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Morris Henry Magee

Before they'd left England, they had thought the casualties
would be 50-60%. You could just look around you and figure
that about half of you would be gone. But after Eisenhower's
briefing of the top men, they were more optimistic and figured
it would be closer to 20%. And Magee still thinks that was
about how it turned out.

When daylight came, they suddenly saw hundreds of ships of all
kinds, shapes and descriptions. Battleships, LCTs, mortar
landing crafts, and the sky full of planes. At daylight
they were within sight of land and the whole panorama lay
before them. The beach, Magee remembers, looked much
like Moody beach in Maine, with hotels and houses along [inserted] sand [end inserted]
dunes.

At 7:30, they started firing. They fired for 35 minutes. The
infantry was going in at this time. [crossed out] [illegible] [end crossed out]

At 8:05, their LCT turned and went back out again to wait for
the infantry and others to get in. About this time also,
the German heavy guns started shelling. He remembers
nothing of what anyone said or thought. Mostly they were
looking around. Every once in awhile someone would call
your attention to a ship that had gotten it.

At 9 o'clock, they went [underlined] in. They tossed all the unused ammunition overboard. [end underlined] [inserted] (Ammo they couldn't carry) [end inserted] They were expecting anything when
they went in, since they'd heard the Germans had all sorts
of beach obstacles which would explode their craft as they
went over it. They were almost surprised when they didn't
explode. Magee doesn't remember a fear, only a numbness and
being terrifically keyed up. They landed about 25 feet
from shore and bogged down on something. The water was about
5 to 6 feet deep. The tanks were waterproofed, and Magee [inserted] was in one so
[crossed out] doesn't remember feeling wet. [end crossed out] he didn't get wet. [end inserted]

The worst hour for Magee started right now. For now that they
were on shore, they had to wait for the infantry. There was
a cement wall about 4 feet high and the infantry were behind
this wall shooting at the houses. The Germans were shelling
the beach. They couldn't shoot from their tanks, but they
spent the hour combing everywhere for snipers. Magee doesn't
think they hit any -- the snipers were too far away and you
didn't often see one. Some of the infantry men behind the
wall were smoking, and some were firing. Other were moaning
from wounds. People were dropping like flies all over the
place and there was a great deal happening. Magee thought
he remembered a stench of blood. They were waiting their
turn to go through one of the few holes in the wall that
led up the streets of the town. (Berniere-sur-Mer) During
the hour, there were more and more holes through the wall
but they had to have one that led up the streets. During
this time they were an open target, although by this time
many of the Germans were pushed back.
The LCTs during this time were loading wounded onto them
as fast as they could. There was so much going on,
noone was frightened. Magee's brother and cousin were in