Posts Tagged ‘Omaha Beach’
In memoriam
Posted: May 27, 2019 in MiscellaneousTags: cemetery, holidays, in memoriam, Memorial Day, Normandy, Omaha Beach, the fallen, war, WWI, WWII
Thursday doors…WW II door
Posted: October 15, 2015 in Thursday doors, TravelTags: doors, German sentry box, Omaha Beach, Thursday doors, travel, WW II
This door “adorns” a German WW II sentry box we saw while visiting Normandy’s Omaha Beach and environs some years ago. My f-i-l landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day.. Although in the Navy, he’d been assigned to a landing party that included his friend, who died in the water near their Higgins boat, a fate suffered by too many. My f-i-l was the only member of his group that made it to the beach.
Once off the boat, the men had to wade through a long stretch of shallow water under the eye of the Germans and their guns occupying the high ground ashore. Those who made it to the wide, flat beach encountered not only gunfire but all sorts of mines and obstructions. Seeing the peaceful beach today, it seems inconceivable that not only did men make it ashore, but that this day was one of the turning points of the war.
The visit was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, one that at one point or another brought tears to all of our eyes. My f-i-l also served in the Pacific theater.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Humanity…a different look
Posted: September 12, 2014 in Weekly Photo ChallengeTags: Omaha Beach, postady, Weekly Photo Challenge, Weekly Photo Challenge: Humanity, WWII
hu·man·i·ty
noun \hyü-ˈma-nə-tē, yü-\
Weekly Photo Challenge: Grand
Posted: December 6, 2013 in Family, Weekly Photo ChallengeTags: awesome, D-Day, family, history, Omaha Beach, postaday, war, Weekly Photo Challenge, Weekly Photo Challenge: Grand
The Weekly Photo Challenge is “Grand” but has an extra layer this week: the “wow” factor. To stand on Omaha Beach, where my father-in-law landed on D-Day (and survived), knowing the history and seeing the distance that had to be overcome in what was literally a world-changing moment, definitely has the “wow” factor, albeit in a different way than seeing something grand and beautiful. And yet, this place is in its way, both grand and beautiful….and awesome, in the real sense of the word.
Friday Fictioneers: Remembrance
Posted: October 2, 2013 in Family, Friday FictioneersTags: D-Day, family, flash fiction, Friday Fictioneers, Omaha Beach, one hundred word story, short story, war, writing, WWII
Friday Fictioneers. One hundred words to tell a story, a snippet of life told tightly. Does it succeed? You let me know.

Copyright E. A. Wicklund
Remembrance
Standing there, he can only imagine (because Dad had rarely spoken of it), dropping into the Higgins boats, men crying, boys stiff with fear; your best friend dying next to you in the ocean red with blood, men drowning as their water-filled helmets trapped them under waves. After staggering the long yards through waist-deep ocean, the vast expanse of Omaha Beach still waiting, filled with mines and hedgehogs and openness, the deadly rain of ammunition falling all around. Behind, the inexorably rising tide; ahead, the unknowable.
The gulls’ hoarse cries echo the forgotten screams of the defiant and the dying.
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A snippet of what my father-in-law and so many others experienced on this and other beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944.
Higgins boats: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LCVP_%28United_States%29
Hedgehogs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_hedgehog
My father-in-law’s ship:
Want to read more stories? Click here.
Lest we forget
Posted: May 28, 2012 in Family, Memories, Musings, PersonalTags: Memorial Day, memories, Omaha Beach, personal, Remembrance Day, war, WWII
Memorial Day. In memory. (more…)