Willis Irvin Jr., who was a private when he landed on D-Day, sits in front of a map showing the path of the 2nd Armored Division's involvement in World War II. Chris Thelen/Staff

'We had all prepared ourselves to die'

WILLIS IRVIN JR. AGE 79

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SERVICE: Enlisted in the Army in August 1943. Awarded three Purple Hearts, a Silver Star, a Bronze Star, a Combat Infantry Badge and a Presidential Unit Citation.

RANK: Private

WHERE LANDED: Mr. Irvin watched from a troop transport ship two miles out to sea as the first troops on Omaha Beach were cut down by sprays of bullets. He said the distant battle looked like a cloud of smoke.

"We had all prepared ourselves to die," Mr. Irvin said. "The real fear that I had was I'd waste my life and not accomplish my mission. That was my fear."

The worst of D-Day was over by the time Mr. Irvin stepped onto the shore. But even with the German machine-gunners knocked out, those first steps nearly killed him.

Mr. Irvin stepped off the ramp of the landing craft and sank into 12 feet of cold water. He had stepped into an underwater shell hole, and he was weighted down with about 40 pounds of gear and equipment.

"At that point, I just told myself I wasn't going to die," Mr. Irvin said.

Using a trick he'd learned as a Boy Scout in an Augusta lake, he pedaled his feet, effectively walking up and out of the hole until his head was above water.

He stepped over a corpse and fell in line with other soldiers. Battleships were still shelling, and Mr. Irvin could hear explosions and gunfire. The men walked in one another's footprints to avoid land mines.

MOST VIVID MEMORY: They kept their heads down as they moved through the carnage. Mr. Irvin remembers passing one man lying on the ground with a rifle standing upright beside him, its barrel stuck into the sand. A bottle of blood was tied to the gun butt and a needle was stuck in the dead man's vein. Medics had long since carried away anyone who could be saved.

- Johnny Edwards

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. 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 Augusta-area D-Day veterans and will present their stories this week.

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--From the Thursday, June 3, 2004 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle