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On the morning of the fourth we were awaiting the appoin-
ted hour to set a course for France when the radio message came
over the ether,"Postpone Invasion Twenty Four Hours".

Apparently some of the ships didn't receive the message
because at the appointed hour they started across the Channel.
The captain came down to the Radio Shack to investigate and we
showed him where we had copied the message eight times at Fif-
teen minute intervals. Therefore, we stood fadt and a few min-
utes later we were ordered to overtake the ships that had de-
parted and tell them to return to their former positions. After
rounding them all up we cruised around a bit and sank two mines
that were floating around and came rather close to the coast of
France--much too close for a Lone Destroyer.

On the morning of the fifth we started across the channel
and that night when I got off watch at midnight we were standing
by off the coast of France. The men were lined along the rails
watching the gunfire from the beach. Our planes were going over
to drop Paratroopers behind the German lines and there was quite
a bit of Anti-Aircraft Fire going up. It was too cold to stay
topside so I went down below and hit my sack.

All hands were awakened at 0500 and we went to General
Quarters. Shortly afterward we opened fire. The "Nevada" and the
"Quincey" were flanking us and shells were flying thick and fast.
Soon our planes started coming over in waves of about seventyfive
wave after wave-- and began bombing the beach. We had good Air
Support there and those planes really looked Good.

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