Facing a low draft number, Jay Pearlstein enlisted in 1941. He served in the Army's 12th Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, and led his unit onto Utah Beach during the invasion. Chris Thelen/Staff

'It was mass confusion'

Jay Pearlstein, Age 87

EDITOR'S NOTE: The stakes were high and well understood. To Allied Forces - and the Nazis - the success of World War II rode on the outcome of the invasion of northwest Europe on June 6, 1944, better known as D-Day.

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Code-named Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy landed more than 150,000 U.S., British and Canadian troops along a 50-mile stretch of coastline in 24 hours. Six divisions assaulted five code-named landing beaches - Omaha, Utah, Gold, Juno and Sword.

Those who survived that hellish day will never forget what they saw.

The Augusta Chronicle talked to a number of area D-Day veterans and will present their stories over the next eight days.

* * * *

Service: Enlisted June 1941; served with the 12th Regiment, 4th Infantry Division; awarded two Bronze Stars.

RANK: First lieutenant

WHERE LANDED: It was about 10:30 a.m. when Mr. Pearlstein's unit hit Utah Beach. The boat's British skipper dropped the ramp, but the first two jeeps that disembarked capsized.

Mr. Pearlstein, who was platoon leader and on the third jeep, said he refused to leave the craft until it got closer to the beach, despite screams from the captain to get off the boat.

"Of course, on the beach it was mass confusion," Mr. Pearlstein said, "trucks out there burning, bodies on the beach. It was just a mess."

Creating even more confusion was the absence of landmarks that troops were supposed to use as rendezvous points once they hit the beach.

Shelling from Allied ships had obliterated most of them, which they had memorized from replicas of the landing areas.

Mr. Pearlstein said he and his platoon managed to join the rest of the company at about dusk and hunkered down for the night. Even though it was June, he recalled the night being extremely cold. Many soldiers used discarded parachutes to keep warm.

They woke up the next morning to discover that someone else had the same idea - a German soldier.

"He spent the night there with us," Mr. Pearlstein said. "There was so much confusion. When he woke up, he just threw his arms up. He was surrounded, of course."

MOST VIVID MEMORY: As a platoon leader, one of Mr. Pearlstein's jobs was to find the rendezvous point for him and his men to join up with the rest of the company.

However, the absence of landmarks made doing so difficult, and his platoon was piling up behind him.

Amid the chaos, he spotted a military police officer who was already on the beach and asked him for directions.

"(The MP) said, 'Ask him,'" Mr. Pearlstein said, "and there was a guy on the beach who had no head."

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--From the Sunday, May 30, 2004 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle