off the beach, and race back to the supply ship to pick up another load within less than four minutes. We heard, though that not too many of the Higgins boats made it up to the beaches so the men mostly had to wade or swim in the water to get to the beaches.
But it wasn’t only soldiers who were brought over in these Higgins boats. These work horses also brought over tanks, trucks, jeeps, supplies and everything else we needed including sections of pipelines which our engineers would have to put together so that fuel could be pumped to France from England through an underwater pipeline. This thing was called PLUTO which I think stood for something like Pipe Line Under The Ocean. They also brought over sections of what were to become artificial ports which were code named Mulberries. One was to be in the eastern British section of beaches and one was to be in the western American section.
Harold is heading over to Utah and I just got a letter from him delivered to me special…
June 6 about 0700
Hey Frank,
I was supposed to be on shore by now but there’s another SNAFU so I’m stuck in a tub called a Higgins boat. I just finished my bailing water duty which helps to take my mind off how darn sick I feel. We take turns bailing out the water that washes over the sides. I’ve heard these tubs are unsinkable but no one in our boat is willing to take the chance so we take turns bailing. We also tried to take turns puking but our stomachs aren’t that cooperative. Plus, you know how I am. All I have to do is hear the word and I’m ready to gag. I’m sea sick as heck and I’m miserable Frank, but in spite of the agony my stomach is going through, you should see what the water looks like. I say water but truthfully, you can hardly see the water. Almost every square foot has a boat of some kind in it. I bet you could hop from boat to boat and walk to the shore, there’s so many of them!
There are barrage balloons to keep prying eyes away too. What makes it more of a spectacle (if that were even possible) is when our fighters fly overhead. You can barely see them because it’s so dark but it’s good knowing they’re there. There are even a couple of warships including one I heard was hit at Pearl. I guess they’re there to bomb the crap out of the coast line defenses which suits me just fine because if they do their job properly, it’ll make my job that much easier. Earlier there was a lot of bravado from the guys in the boat with me but now as we are approaching the shoreline and the beach we were ordered to land on, it got pretty darn quiet in the boat and most guys seemed to be reflecting on what’s going to happen. I know I am.
We’re moving out now Frank, so I gotta go. I love you and hope to write again soon. Really pray for me, Frank.
Harold
Jesus. The tension is unbearable over here. We’ve got close to a quarter million guys lined up to assault France. It was timed to the second and with this goddamn weather, it’s a real crap shoot if we’re even going to get some of them ashore. Given Captain Stagg’s weather report, we were lucky we could land or fly anything in that very small window of clear weather. But “clear weather” is a relative term, we came to find out. The Channel currents are a lot stronger than we planned for and it was soon reported to us that some of the vessels were far off course which clearly made the seaborne landings more dangerous and challenging than we had thought. The heavy cloud cover forced air pilots to drop their paratrooper loads either higher than the clouds or in some devastating cases, lower than the clouds which meant that some of those guys barely had time to open their chutes before they plunged to the ground.
As the hours of DDay ticked down, we received report after report after report, although they sure didn’t come in fast enough to suit us back here in Portsmouth. It seems our guys on Omaha ran into the crack 352 nd German Infantry Division which
But it wasn’t only soldiers who were brought over in these Higgins boats. These work horses also brought over tanks, trucks, jeeps, supplies and everything else we needed including sections of pipelines which our engineers would have to put together so that fuel could be pumped to France from England through an underwater pipeline. This thing was called PLUTO which I think stood for something like Pipe Line Under The Ocean. They also brought over sections of what were to become artificial ports which were code named Mulberries. One was to be in the eastern British section of beaches and one was to be in the western American section.
Harold is heading over to Utah and I just got a letter from him delivered to me special…
June 6 about 0700
Hey Frank,
I was supposed to be on shore by now but there’s another SNAFU so I’m stuck in a tub called a Higgins boat. I just finished my bailing water duty which helps to take my mind off how darn sick I feel. We take turns bailing out the water that washes over the sides. I’ve heard these tubs are unsinkable but no one in our boat is willing to take the chance so we take turns bailing. We also tried to take turns puking but our stomachs aren’t that cooperative. Plus, you know how I am. All I have to do is hear the word and I’m ready to gag. I’m sea sick as heck and I’m miserable Frank, but in spite of the agony my stomach is going through, you should see what the water looks like. I say water but truthfully, you can hardly see the water. Almost every square foot has a boat of some kind in it. I bet you could hop from boat to boat and walk to the shore, there’s so many of them!
There are barrage balloons to keep prying eyes away too. What makes it more of a spectacle (if that were even possible) is when our fighters fly overhead. You can barely see them because it’s so dark but it’s good knowing they’re there. There are even a couple of warships including one I heard was hit at Pearl. I guess they’re there to bomb the crap out of the coast line defenses which suits me just fine because if they do their job properly, it’ll make my job that much easier. Earlier there was a lot of bravado from the guys in the boat with me but now as we are approaching the shoreline and the beach we were ordered to land on, it got pretty darn quiet in the boat and most guys seemed to be reflecting on what’s going to happen. I know I am.
We’re moving out now Frank, so I gotta go. I love you and hope to write again soon. Really pray for me, Frank.
Harold
Jesus. The tension is unbearable over here. We’ve got close to a quarter million guys lined up to assault France. It was timed to the second and with this goddamn weather, it’s a real crap shoot if we’re even going to get some of them ashore. Given Captain Stagg’s weather report, we were lucky we could land or fly anything in that very small window of clear weather. But “clear weather” is a relative term, we came to find out. The Channel currents are a lot stronger than we planned for and it was soon reported to us that some of the vessels were far off course which clearly made the seaborne landings more dangerous and challenging than we had thought. The heavy cloud cover forced air pilots to drop their paratrooper loads either higher than the clouds or in some devastating cases, lower than the clouds which meant that some of those guys barely had time to open their chutes before they plunged to the ground.
As the hours of DDay ticked down, we received report after report after report, although they sure didn’t come in fast enough to suit us back here in Portsmouth. It seems our guys on Omaha ran into the crack 352 nd German Infantry Division which
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