Page 8

Belt No. 11, page 2.

head first into the water. (Pvt. Howard L. Grosser) To the typist: These names
in parentheses simply indicate that the man named is responsible for the preceding
statement.

"A few jumped off, trying to follow the SLP, and had gone down in water over
their heads. They were around the boat now, struggling with their equipment and trying
to keep afloat. In one of the boats, a third of the men had become engaged in this
struggle to save themselves from a quick drowning. (PFC Gilbert G. Murdock) That
many were lost before they had a chance to face the enemy. Some of them were hit in
the water and wounded. Some drowned then. Others, wounded, dragged themselves ashore
and upon finding the sands, lay quiet and have themselves shots, only to be caught
and drowned within a few minutes by the on-raging tide. (Murdock) But some men moved
safely to the boat ____ to the sands, but found that they could not hold there;
they went back into the water and used it as cover, only their heads sticking out above
it. Others sought the cover of underwater obstacles. Many were shot while so doing.
Those who survived kept moving shoreward with the tide and in this way finally made
their landing. (Murdock and PFC Leo J. Nash) They were still in this tide-born move-
ment when B came in behind them. (Pvt. Grosser) Others who had gotten into the sands
and had burrowed in remained in their holes until the tide caught up to them; then
they, too, joined the men in the water. (Grosser)

"Within seven to ten minutes after the ramps had dropped, A had become inert,
leaderless and almost incapable of action. The company was entirely bereft of officers.
Lieutenant Clyde N. Garing was back where the first boat had foundered. All of the
others were dead, except Lt. Elijah Nance who had been hit in the heel as he left the
boat, and then in the body as he reached the sands. Lt. Edward Tidrick was hit in
the throat as he jumped from the ramp into the water. He went on to the sands and
dropped down 15 feet from Pvt. Leo J. Nash (PFC). He waved to give Nash an order.
P. Nash saw him bleeding from the throat and heard his words: 'Advance with the wire
cutters!" It was futile. Nash had no wire cutters and in giving the order, Tidrick
had made himself a target for just an instant, and Nash saw MG bullets greet him from
head to pelvis. German machine gunners along the cliff directly ahead were now flying