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Originally Posted by burn_baby_burn
No doubt. You combine the smell, fatigue, hunger, thirst, the elements, the noise. Then add the threat of being horribly wounded or killed. Very tough to fathom.
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Its pretty interesting and tragic talking to these guys, especially on rememberance day at a legion.
Most of them were resigned to death, especially the ones at the front of the landing craft. They would rather die then be wounded, because they knew that they would be left behind and nobody wanted to suffer on a cold beach.
The training that they did for the beach invasion got them ready for the sounds of war.
One vet in a book that I read said that the seawalls weren't that far away and gave limited protection, but when the ramp dropped it looked like they were a hundred miles away.
In Farley Mowats book he talked about Operation Husky and coming off of the boats, and one young private who with unblinking eyes presented arms and marched off of the landing craft into deep water never to be seen again.