Couldn’t sleep all night; guess I was nervous. We were up at 4:00 am as the assault infantry is getting ready to go ashore. The Navy is firing in the mainland now. We ate breakfast then came up to watch the shelling and the sky is just full of bombers. All you can hear is one explosion after another. The infantry is starting for shore. A Spitfire must have been hit while strafing the beach as he had to parachute to safety and the plane crashed just ahead of us. The LCI is going over to pick him up now. We are the first LCT to hit the beach. We had a hard time getting in as the beach was lousy with mines. The shore party Engineers were blowing them everywhere. The water was up to my waist as we waded ashore. After all of the bombing and shelling and also all of he rockets that were turned loose. The ground is all tore up. The prisoners were starting to come in and there must be about 300 in the first group. I could hardly understand the landing. No shell fire on the beach at all. It was just like Anzio only better as there werent any planes in sight. We got to our bivouac area and set up. I looked through the house and found some good wine and whiskey. We went to bed only to be greeted by our first air raid. Must have only been a couple of planes as it didn’t last long.
Your Son, ‘Chick’
