Max's+WWII+Narrative+Essay

__**World War II Narrative Essay Project**__ = = = = __// The Beach of Blood //__

The skies around me were black with smoke. I looked at Lieutenant John Yuvinsky as he gave me his last words. “You’ll do fine, Lieutenant.” I found myself lost for words as I looked over his injuries. The smell of his flesh was nauseating but I tried to breathe through my mouth. This was almost harder as smoke came into my lungs. I looked into the eyes of the best man I’ve ever met. A bomb shell startled me as everything went black.

I woke up on the ship sweating. Everyone else was awake and land was in clear view. Gunshots and shells could be heard clearly. Soldiers on the boat were exciting themselves; cursing and declaring that the Germans would soon be swimming in dead bodies. However, I kept quiet, knowing that getting worked up over the war would fog up my mind. I had to keep my focus on the plan. Lieutenant Yuvinsky sat in the front of the boat discussing with the sailor, Casey Wilcox. The shots began to get louder as we got nearer. Eventually boats in front of us started to get shot at and many were killed as I heard cries of people who were shot at by the heavy machine gun fire. I knew we weren’t going to make it if we kept going straight, or at least many of us weren’t. Lieutenant must have thought the same thing as he started ordering those who could swim to jump. He was a second too late; a bomb shell landed right in front of the boat and a huge explosion was set off. Our boat went up into the air and flipped. I opened my eyes under water and immediately regretted it. I felt a terrible irritation in my eye. At first all I saw were bubbles and then it cleared up and I saw many soldiers under the water with me. I was relieved to know that I wasn’t the only one alive. They started up the beach and so did I. This was a terrible sight; the machine gun was shooting underwater and bullets flew by. The soldiers who could not swim were put out of their misery. I watched in horror but made my way up the beach. I finally got my head out of the water and now saw the bunkers where the fire was coming from. I tried to avoid the dead bodies near the shore and at my best ignored the calls for help. A ship that must have been hit by the bombs was washed up on the beach like whale. I quickly took cover behind it and looked for other survivors from my ship. “Private Starkey!” I head my name called and glanced to the left. I sighed. Lieutenant Yuvinsky came over by me. “Where are the others?”

“Dead.” He said as he picked up a M1 Carbine from a dead body. He must have lost his fire arms during the explosion.

“Do we carry out the plan?” I asked the Lieutenant.

“We’re going to have to. Those machine guns are killing us. We have to take them out.” I turned the corner to find a couple of things blocking our path. Barbed wire and steel X’s were blocking our way from getting to the bunkers. We had to get more men. I saw a familiar Lieutenant coming up from the beach and he ran to join us. He acted as if he was Yuvinsky’s friend for life.

“Where’s your men?” asked the other Lieutenant.

“This is my last one,” he said and turned his head to me. “Private Starkey.” He quickly turned back to the other Lieutenant and said. “Starkey, this is my brother, Lieutenant James Yuvinsky.” I looked like a scene you would see on a playground; a little kid introducing two friends. I never knew Yuvinsky had a brother and even more a brother in the war. “I’ll have my men regroup and you can join us. You want to take down those bunkers, correct?”

“Yes.” Replied Lieutenant Yuvinsky.

James had gathered his men and we were behind the boat. The sound of machine gun fire and the smell of blood were still in the air. It was still early in the morning and I saw a long days’ worth of fighting ahead. The thought of dying was fresh in my head, but again I tried not to fog up my head with disturbing thoughts. “First of all, avoid the X’s. We’ve learned that there are explosives under them. Next is the barbed wire. We will set an explosive there and take cover. Next will be a mine field. Try to take a path which already has signs of explosion. If you go to the left or right, you’ll be blown to heaven. We’ll arrive at the bunkers and I’ll give orders from there. Let’s go!” shouted James.

We got past the barbed wire and steel X’s with the help of explosives. Three men had been taken down from machine gun fire. All that was left was the mine field. I followed closely on the tail of Lieutenant Yuvinsky; he led the way. I felt fairly safe behind him. When we had finally reached the bunkers, 10 men remained. Lieutenant James came and started to speak. “Listen here. Those bunkers are the only thing standing in between us and our men. We’ll go and kill them from the side. We need to get that pressure off the beach.” We hoped that we hadn’t been spotted yet. I turned my head back to the beach. Dozens of more soldiers were coming up to the bunker. It was hard to feel happy as the hundreds of bodies on the beach were incalculable. I was called to my senses when I heard my name. We were moving to take out the bunkers. 

The sounds of the machine guns were now deafening. I was within one hundred feet of the pill box and we were all lying down. James and Lieutenant Yuvinsky led the way. He gave the call to fire. We all stood up. It made me feel better that we weren’t sure which bullet killed the down. As more and more troops came up we tried to take down the bunkers. Our group of ten stayed fairly close together. Among the group was our sailor Casey Wilcox. I barely recognized him with the dirt and blood covering his face. I wondered if I looked that way, too. I rubbed my face with my left hand and looked at it. I couldn’t tell if it was full of dirt from my face or if it was already like that. Looking back at it, I don’t understand why I really was thinking of it. I guess I got caught in the moment because I heard my name being called. I got lost in my thoughts a lot. It was Lieutenant Yuvinsky. “Good job boys. We can finally get those soldiers off that beach of blood. We’ll start moving supplies up into here as soon as possible.” The term beach of blood hit me like a brick. It must have been gallons. Some say that the water was red that day, but I never looked closely in order to save my stomach. The trip back wasn’t that hard to be honest. Lieutenant Yuvinsky and Lieutenant James let me ride back with them. We got into a truck and I have not recalled anytime in my life where I was more happy or relieved. My legs felt like they were in heaven. Everything was fine except for a painful headache I had. I figured it would end as soon as we got into town.

I must have fell asleep, because I was woken up on the ground. There was a strange sensation I had in my right leg and I looked. It was gone. A sudden panic came over me until I realized I had to stay calm. I looked at my surroundings. The truck that I was riding must have ran over a mind or something because it was upside down. I crawled over to it and took the tarp that had covered the top. I wrapped it around of what was left of my leg and tried to figure it out. My memory was hazy but the last thing I remembered was talking to Lieutenant Yuvinsky. Then it hit me; Lieutenant Yuvinsky! I looked up and searched for him but there was no sign. Would he have left me? Was I alone? Again I tried to clear my mind. I must have gotten knocked unconscious when the truck was flipped because I didn't remember any explosion. My biggest fear was how was I going to get out of here and find help. I knew that soldiers must have been near by, unless I had been out for a long time. Then to my relief I heard a moan, and it came from the other side of the truck. I didn't try to stand up and just crawled over to the other side. Sprawled out on the ground was Lieutenant James, and he was hurt bad. At least it looked like it until he looked up at me. "Soldier!" He said, scaring me. I looked at him. "We have to get out of here!"

"But what about Lieutenant?" I asked, sort of scared to hear the answer. "What happened?" I added before he could answer.

"We were sitting there and talking, about mom and family. You had fallen asleep about an hour before. Then suddenly an explosion lifted us into the air. I don't know what happened, must have been a mine. I was thrown from the truck and I saw John get thrown too. I never saw you and was scared that you had died. After I woke up I couldn't see or hear any sign of life. Then you came." As he said this, I thought about it. I tried to imagine two bodies being thrown like they were sacks of flour, and stopped myself. All of this had happened to fast. I felt tears in my eyes. I started to cry but quickly stopped myself. I tried to not make it obvious but Lieutenant James must have noticed. "Get yourself together, we are going to get ourselves back with the soldiers." With that he stood up and winced. He got to his feet and saw the situation I was in. I tried to stand up and he put his arm around my shoulder to help me. We started off in the opposite direction of the beach.

I lost count of the days but I knew it was several. The important thing was that Lieutenant James had stayed with me and he mine as well have been the savior. He had stuck with me but I could see he was worn down. The shots however were getting louder and I knew we were getting closer. Then suddenly he collapsed. He quickly said he was sorry but stayed on the ground. "It's going to be okay." I tried to reassure him. I knew it wasn't. His breathing was heavy and he was gasping for air. I looked at Lieutenant James Yuvinsky as he gave me his last words. “You’ll do fine, Lieutenant.” I found myself lost for words as I looked over his injuries. The smell of his flesh was nauseating but I tried to breathe through my mouth. This was almost harder as smoke came into my lungs. I looked into the eyes of the best man I’ve ever met. Then I was startled by voices behind me.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">"Private Starkey?" I heard someone ask. I was saved.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">__//**Bibliography**//__
"ARMY.MIL Features." //D-Day//. Web. 27 Mar. 2012. <http://www.army.mil/d-day/>. <span class="source_label"> Website [|Tags]Edit[|Delete]  Schild, Mr. D-Day. Lecture.