BW, thanks for posting this.
When I was growing up, I heard mention that my next door neighbor was in some bad fighting in WWII. He never mentioned being in the service, so I never asked him about it. He died 20 years or so ago and it was just a couple years ago that I learned a little of what he went thru. He was on one of the first, if not the first landing craft to hit Omaha beach. Everyone on the landing craft was killed as soon as they hit the beach, except him. You've heard of the men that had to climb the cliffs and the fire they were under, well, he was one of them. You also read about men that had no units to left, and just joined up with whoever made it off the beach, again, he was one of them.
I dont know what other battles he was in, but the men in our community said it was some of the worse.
There is another WWII vet in our community and he was with Pattons armored divisions. He told me he came up thru Italy, with Patton and was with him till the end of the war.
