Pensieve 2.0

In the war that changed the world….
Victory was not achieved by one man….
But by the lives of many.

May 20, 1944
Camp Toccoa, Georgia

More long marches tomorrow. Then obstacles with Cpt. Foley and weapons training with Sgt. Moody. Everyone is dead tired.

My unit, the 506th paratrooper regiment is an all volunteer unit. Our officers drill us continuously. I’ve trained for months and I haven’t even jumped out of an airplane yet. The army has never had an airborne unit before, and that makes the brass nervous, and what makes the brass nervous makes us train even harder.

June 1, 1944
Camp Toccoa, Georgia

Cpt. Foley summoned the Baker company for a briefing. It seemed that we were finally going into the war arena.
This was the big one. Operation Overlord. Air and seaborne invasion of Normandy.
On H-hour D-day, seaborne infantry will attack 5 beaches code-named Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. The airborne will be landing 6 hours before H-hour, before the aero-naval bombardments.
We have to catch the Douve river crossings linking Utah and Omaha and protect the flanks of Utah beach. As one of the pathfinders for my unit, I’ll be landing ahead of the main force to plant beacons for marking landing zones. At first light the main force of the invasion will hit the beaches.
If we pull this off the Germans are in for one hell of a surprise.

June 5, 1944
2330 hrs
Outskirts of St. Mere Eglise, France

It was time. I bailed out of the airplane and landed on the patch of land. I quickly removed my harness and moved ahead. I looked up. Pvt. Heath was slowly coming down in his parachute. Suddenly I heard some gunshots. I cautiously moved ahead. There was a lone German soldier ahead. I took aim with my M1A1 carbine and put a single bullet through his head.
I went ahead and around the corner. Pvt. Heath was dead. He was dangling like a puppet from his parachute which got tangled up in a tree. I saluted him and took the beacon. There was no time to waste.

I finally found the dropping zone and planted the radio beacon and waited.
I heard the drone of the planes. The main force was approaching. I saw the ironic white of the chutes opening above the heat of the battle.

The Germans too noticed this and opened fire. Luckily we had the walls in front of the houses to take cover. One guy with a MG42 machine gun was creating a lot of problem. I had to make a quick move to finish him off. I cocked my carbine, shouted to Pvt. Wier to cover me, and rolled to my right. In the middle of the roll, I fired. Luckily it hit the machine gunner. He fired his last shots as he fell down. But I had completed my roll to the next wall by then. After that, it was fairly easy to take out the remaining guards, because they were unprepared to counter this quick attack.
Cpt. Foley urged us, “Everybody move..Come on”. We went on towards the village of St. Mere Eglise.

June 6, 1944
0020 hours
St. Mere Eglise, France

Nobody seemed to have dropped where they were supposed to. I hadn’t yet seen anyone from my unit yet, but luckily I hooked up with Cpt. Foley and Pvt. Wier from Baker Company. We also had men from Able, Dog, and Fox Companies with us… what a mess.

We were getting ready to capture the village of St. Mere Eglise, about 5 miles from Utah Beach. We were approaching through a narrow trench with minefields on each side.

Captain Foley said there’s two platoons of German paratroopers in that village.
I’d say we’ve got a serious fight ahead of us.

Finally we reached the end of the trench. Cpt. Foley said, “All right guys, get set to move, On my command.
“LET’S GO. LET’S GO!!”

One by one, we jumped out of the field into the open ground. That was close to suicide, but we had no other option. The Germans were waiting for us in the buildings ahead.

“MG42’s! Hit the dirt!”, shouted Cpt. Foley, “Get suppressing fire on those 42’s.”

We suddenly heard the drone of a plane nearing.
“Incoming!”, “Mortars!”, everybody was screaming.
As if we had asked for more, the German planes started airstrike on the ground.

However, this proved a little helpful as we could now take cover behind the massive cattle which fell dead on the ground. But it still was not easy with the mortars going on. We had to keep moving forward. We get caught here, we’re dead!
We eliminated the enemies one by one and moved slowly forward, taking cover.
I heard the sound of another plane growing. It dropped mortar just a few feet ahead of me. I saw Pvt. Wier’s body flying high in the air because of the impact. Another good soldier dead! I started feeling the pain. I also had got some burns and cuts from the shrapnel. We went forward, nevertheless.

“Keep your heads down!”
“Down! Damn it, stay down!”
“Watch your angles”
Cpt. Foley was firing orders. I was wondering which one had the higher rate of fire - his mouth or his SMG!!

When we got close enough to the building, Cpt. Foley ordered me, “Clear that building; toss a grenade. Then get that gunner down on the half-track and let’s go!”
Damn! Why has it to be me always?

I went closer to the window and tossed a grenade inside.
“Achtung!”
“Werfen sie ihn”
Next thing I saw was the grenade was coming back to it’s owner.

“Fire in the hole! Take cover!”
I dived just in time to escape from the grenade.

The Germans came outside by then and we could take them out easily as we were in position.

We finally cleared the building and moved ahead. Next target was the anti-aircraft gun. We took out the Germans soldiers who manned the AAG and planted an explosive.
“Good job, son! Squad, move up, GO GO GO!”, came the order from Cpt. Foley.

We cleared the area of the remaining troops. This was proving to be a bitter battle.

June 6, 1944
0410 hours
St. Mere Eglise, France

“Alright fellas, take 5, but listen up. We’ll hold this place ’til reinforced, but this is just a tiny village in a war and country full of ‘em, so our work has just begun.
“For those of you who’ve seen your first action - welcome to the Big Time. For those of you who’ve seen it before, trust me - you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
“We’ll redeploy those German machine guns, setting up a defensive perimeter. Keep your guard up and your buddies in mind. Good work!”

I yearned the war to be over as the words of Cpt. Foley faded in my ears.

Courtesy: This story is inspired by the game “Call of Duty”