James Coyle, a platoon leader in the 505th PIR and Lt.

Otis Sampson, an old cavalry soldier with ten years in the Army, by reputation the best mortarman in the division, something he had proved on D-Day Lt. That afternoon E Company, 505th PIR, moved out to drive the Germans farther back. His last words were, 'God damn the bastards, they got me. Jack Leonard of the 82nd was in a foxhole that took a direct hit. But by noon the Germans were dropping mortar shells on the town. To the west, inland from Utah Beach, on the morning of June 7, Lieutenant Wray's foray had broken up the German counterattack into Ste.-Mère-Eglise before it got started. 'A sea of ships began to fire hundreds of antiaircraft guns with a noise that was terrifying.' That was the lone Luftwaffe foray against Omaha Beach that day. Just as he lay down, four German bombers appeared.

That evening, toward dusk, Henderson dug in at the foot of the cliff opposite the Vierville draw. I promised God that I would do all in my power to help prevent such a terrible event ever happening again.' We prayed for those who had been lost and thanked the Lord for our survival. Sometime that afternoon, Henderson recalled, 'Before the bodies could be removed, the first religious service was held on Omaha Beach. He and his section unloaded jerry cans of gasoline, the first of millions of such cans that would cross that beach. First Army passed out 125 million maps), but because the front line was just over the bluff at Omaha, only men, ammunition, weapons, and gasoline were being brought ashore, so he had no maps to hand out. Henderson's job was to distribute maps (a critical and never-ending process - eventually in the Normandy campaign, the U.S. Then we saw that the beach was literally covered with the bodies of American soldiers wearing the blue and gray patches of the 29th Infantry Division.'Īlthough the fighting had moved inland, sporadic artillery shelling and intermittent sniper fire from Germans still holding their positions on the bluff hampered movement on the beach. We saw many bodies in the water.We jumped into chest high water and waded ashore. The beach was covered with debris, sunken craft and wrecked vehicles.

Going in on his Higgins boat, 'I noticed that nothing moved on the beach except one bulldozer. Horace Henderson of the Sixth Engineer Special Brigade landed on Omaha Beach.

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