The Crime of The Nation | Teen Ink

The Crime of The Nation

December 19, 2017
By Anonymous

Author's note:

What made me want to write this piece is how I want to go into law enforcement when I'm older.

The memory starts off with him on a boat in the ocean going to a beach. He could taste the salt in the air as the boat gets closer to the beach and the cold water of the ocean sprays all over everyone.
Our Captain tells us " When we hit the beach, make sure to move fast and watch for the murder holes. I want to see plenty of space between you guys. A group of men is worth shooting at, a single man is a waste of ammo. Keep the sand out of your weapons and I'll see you on the beach."
Explosions can be heard going off around the boat. Everyone has looks of fear on their faces. Some men are throwing up due to the rocking of the boat. Most of these men aren't even men. They're still boys fresh out of high school.
The boat driver can be heard yelling at all the men inside "Ramp's dropping in 30 seconds boys!"
Our main goal was to get as close to the beach as we could, drop the ramp and move up the beach. I was apart of the second battalion of the operation. We were the ones to first assault the beach and make our way up the beach.My mind felt like it was going a hundred miles per hour. I was thinking will I die? What will it be like when we land? The boat stops and I hear a whistle and the ramp to the boat drops and there are snaps and cracks as German machine gun bullets hit all around the boat and some going into a few of the soldiers in front of me and around me. The bullets make pieces of the soldiers, canteens, shovels, mess kits, and rubber from their flotation vests go all over the place.
Our Captain yells "Go over the side!" and pushes some soldiers over the side.
I go over the side into the cold water. As I look in the water I see soldiers sinking to the bottom and some floating. There are bullets ripping into the water, soldiers drowning because their gear is so heavy. I look underneath me and there is one soldier sinking to the bottom and looking like he was yelling for help but also looks like he is pulling at his gear to take it off. He stops moving and he hits the bottom of the sandbar.
I get up and I scramble towards a "hedgehog". These obstacles were made of metal and looked like a giant metal jack. They were used to prevent any armor from moving up the beach and assaulting the bunkers. It didn't matter what obstacles they had used on that beach because only three pieces of armor made it to the beach.
I get most of my body out of the water and make my way toward the beach. The water makes it hard to go towards the beach because the tide is up to our waist and all of our gear is dragging us down. I make it to a hedgehog and bullets are hitting the sand, making all of the sand go all over the place. I get as close to the hedgehog as possible and i look around me and i see to my left a boat gets hit with a mortar and it sets everything on fire. The boat's on fire and pieces of it are everywhere. I could smell the scent of burnt metal and burning flesh as people are running out screaming and covered in flames, trying to roll in the water to put the flames out. I look to my right and I see all of my squad getting hit by the machine gun’s bullets from the bunkers.
I move up to a wooden anti-landing barrier and i look over and i see a combat medic working on a soldier with a giant hole in his body. The blood could be seen seeping through his uniform and part of his organs were hanging out of the hole. The guy is screaming and is asking for more morphine. The medic goes into his pouch and with his hand shaking pulls out a morphine syrette. He sticks it into the soldier's thigh and makes sure all  The medic calls over another medic and he starts searching through his pouch full of his medical supplies. He pulls out a gauze pad uses it to put more pressure on the wound. As the medics are trying to patch the soldier up, the wounded soldier slowly loses consciousness and blood can be seen coming out of his mouth.
I move up to more of the beach and more and more soldiers are falling as the machine guns bullets rip into more soldiers. I dive to the seawall and everyone is huddled up and as close as they can get to it to avoid the bullets coming from the bunker above them. Someone yells for the bangalore torpedos to go into the barbed wire and the piles of sand.
I set the charge for the bangalore and yell to everyone “Bangalore charged and ready. Everyone get down!”
The bangalore explodes, and sand, pieces of wood, and pieces of barbed wire go flying everywhere. Almost everyone stands up and rushes over the hill of sand. We all run towards craters made from the mortars and corners of the bunkers that we could use as cover. I look around the corner and a line of bullets come my way and hit the stone bunker in front of me. As soon as they’re done shooting at me i turn the corner and shoot at the germans that were shooting at me and try to give some of the soldiers crossing over the hill some suppressing fire. I turn and run out from the corner up another hill and I can hear gunfire and explosions going on up top. As i come up the hill there are germans on one side and US forces fighting on another. As more and more Germans are dying, the Germans are starting to retreat. Some turn and run but to only get shot at by the American Forces. The rest of the other Germans stand up and surrender.



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