Part Three
Omaha Beach
[June 6, 1945POW
Private First Class Murray Young kept a picture of Teresa in his wallet and wrote to her as often as he could; in the picture she wore a sailors blue and white top, as a blouse, she looked as pretty as a spring sparrow he thought.
It seemed everyone in the Army spelled his name differently [Young, Yang, Younger, Yean and so on. He sent a letter to Teresa that he was on one of the five thousand ships, twelve miles out, off the beaches of Omaha, the date: June 6, 1945. That he was looking at the coast of Normandy (Europe's France); he and 200,000 other troops that is, American and British troops - hopefully the letter would get back to her he pondered and gave it to the mailroom clerk on board.
The pathfinders had already left, the men who were to lighten the way for the drop zones of paratroopers, gliders, and infantry. This would be remembered as D-Day. Back home his sister was with her new child she was wi thout a husband, and working at the munitions plant. As he expected Teresa might be, for she said she was going to Portland to work with her girlfriend in the little city-plant built for that very purpose, which was built in kind of a dugout, quarry type, looking area. Teresa's father was taking care of his restaurant, Tony's restaurant, and they, like the rest of the world was holding their breath to see the outcome of this Second World War [WWII.
H-hour, the assault troops were crunched in Coast Guard boats [LCA's racing for shore, racing by the U.S.S. Augusta on the sidelines. Mountains of waves hit his boat on all sides, as they received direct hits from the Germans ashore, consequently blasting their boats in flames, mounds of flames, and many boats before they even got to shore were blasted apart.
You could see the soldiers holding weapons over their heads trying to make it to shore; gear on their backs, many drowning - many being crushed and sucked under t he boats, with the boats, sucked to the bottom of the ocean, all struggling just to get ashore, whereupon, Germans were waiting for them. Many would die this day, Murray knew this: like so many knew, many would be wounded, and many were wounded before the day was over.
Men from the 4th Division at Utah Beach were also hit, lightly hit at first, but then came the artillery - one could hear the German made shells 88 explode among the troops, as they rushed out of the waters onto the beaches - checking to see if they were all together, adjusting their helmets, checking their rifles once they hit the beach.
General Norman Coat, walked aimlessly up and own Omaha Beach, wits, who knows; Murray fell to a shell, it blew shrapnel to the lower section of his leg, not off just full of shrapnel. He would be a POW for the rest of the war, which would not last long, and Teresa would get word of his detention; it was a rough day. Utah Beach was the biggest success of the day by far. And by dusk, Utah was in allied control, as Murray was pulled off Omaha by the enemy and put into a concentration camp.
The only thing Murray would remember of that day for a long time was Father Edward Waters' words, servicing the 1st Division. It was months after his arrival home that he got his full memory back.
And during his recovery, after the Germans gave up, he had received a letter that was three month old, a letter Teresa had written a few days prior to his Omaha Beach, flotilla adventure, it was a Dear John Letter.
It read: Dear Murray, I have been dating another man, and I feel we need to call off our future plans. I'm sorry for giving you such news, especially while serving our country. As Always, Teresa
Part Four
Chicago to Portland
And Back home
Teresa and Dorothy had ventured to Chicago, both working for Montgomery Ward's in the packaging department. It only lasted three months, and then they took a train to Portl and and worked outside the city limits a bit, in the ammunitions plant.
There they stayed six months. And upon her return in 1944, back to St. Paul, Minnesota, she [she meaning: Teresa started dating a man by the name of Ere Erwin Wright, and his friend, Adolph Gunderson. She then heard Murray had come back home and broke it off with both men. She liked Mr. Gunderson a bit more than Erwin, but she still had that spark for Murray. She had went to visit him at his parents home, there he looked at her as if she was a disloyal companion, and yet they both knew it was love, or so it seemed to be; possibly it was a trust issue for him, and she was young also, wanting to grab some adventures in life. Call it fascination, or call it lust, whatever captures two people, that is what it was, but his anger and hurt was too far imbedded into his bones: his marrow (whatever could have been, would not be), it dominated his character, his soul, he told her he couldn't see her ever aga in. She left that day, a little sadder than when she arrived. Maybe it was good, for his love wasn't strong enough to endure such hardships.
She started dating Mr. Gunderson again, and on the side, his friend Erwin. She never did marry, but dated a man thereafter by the name of Ernie Brandt, for forty years they dated, never marrying, and when she came to accepting Christ into her heart, she had to ask him to leave [he had then, after 40-years asked her to marry him, but he died; another story and tragedy: he died thirteen years before her, and was ten-years older than her.
And when it was quiet in her home, at the ripe old age of 83, she took out his picture [Murrays picture, and said to me: There are probably not too many days that go by I don't think of Murray, he was a handsome man - wasn't he? forever young he was; she died six months after she told me that. He was one of those men - those unbreakable men, and so was she.
See Dennis' web site: http://d ennissiluk.tripod.com
Author:: Dennis Siluk
Keywords:: Chapter Story
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