Brockton sailor marvels at heroism of soldiers on Omaha Beach

The Enterprise of Brockton, Mass., www.enterprisenews.com,
/www.wickedlocalspecials.com/dday/
Ernest Wilbur, an 87-year-old Brockton resident who grew up in Avon, was a 20-year-old second-class Navy corpsman aboard the USS Eleazar Wheelock on June 6, 1944, D-Day. On the ship were about 550 other men who would storm Omaha Beach.
They were all clustered all over the ship and they were talking very low and smoking. They were by themselves, not too excited about what was about to happen.
They left the ship by twos. The men went down a rope ladder, which was on the side of the ship. These ladders were always used by the ships to bring on goods and equipment on the ships.

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When they left the ship, two by two, with about 50 or 60 pounds of backpacks and rifles, they often found the rope ladder was very slippery. Some of them had to jump from the rope ladder on the ship to the (landing crafts). If they didnt, when the (landing crafts) would hit a wave and the ship would rise, the men would have crushed their legs if they didnt jump. This happened in a lot of cases. I never saw the men again.

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• D-Day
• WWII
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[SICKSOUTHSIDE13X3]

thank you for fighting for us i think of joining so wish me luck