C. R. Harbuck served in the Army's 472nd Ordnance Evacuation Company during World War II. When his unit landed at Omaha Beach on D-Day, he helped supply his company with rations. Chris Thelen/Staff

Chow time in the field

C. R. Harbuck

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SERVICE: Drafted into the Army on March 12, 1943; he was a squad leader with the 472nd Ordnance Evacuation Company, which was attached to the U.S. 1st Army; he received battle stars for the five engagements he was in during the European theater of operations.

RANK: Buck sergeant

WHERE HE LANDED: Mr. Harbuck's mechanized armored transport unit waited in the English Channel on a British landing craft as Allied warships pounded the Normandy beaches to take out enemy fortifications.

The shelling by the Navy that morning was intense, he said.

"You could see it, and feel it, and smell it," Mr. Harbuck said.

His unit, which was equipped to haul and retrieve tanks, landed on Omaha Beach later that afternoon.

Once on land, the unit rendezvoused with the rest of the company in a big field. But the company hadn't yet found the supply depot, and most of the soldiers there were without food. Fortunately, Mr. Harbuck's unit had with them 25 to 30 cases of 10-in-1 rations, which contained items such as chocolate bars, cans of meat, cigarettes, coffee, biscuits and toilet paper.

"When we pulled up in field, we asked them if it was chow time," Mr. Harbuck said.

"He said, 'Yeah, but we ain't got no chow.' I said, 'Well, we got some.' I could have done a lot of business with them."

MOST VIVID MEMORY: As his unit moved farther inland, they saw something that chilled them: U.S. paratroopers who had been bayonetted by German soldiers after their jump.

"Some of them were hanging in the trees and didn't look too good from what the Germans had done to them," Mr. Harbuck said. "So, that didn't make us feel too good about them (the Germans), either."

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--From the Sunday, June 6, 2004 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle