The Beaches by Aaron Pollock, age 12

On the day June 6^th 1944, I was sent out alongside my brothers on large landing vessels to invade the sandy beaches of Normandy and if successful, to push forward. I was young and hadn’t ever shot any sort of gun before outside of training. As soon as the landing craft reached the shoreline and met the sand, all hell let loose. The noise was deafening.

Fellow soldiers fell dead before my eyes. Medics dragged injured soldiers behind anything they could use as cover. It was horrible. The murky brown greenish water soon turned blood red. I charged towards the nearest dead body to use as a shield. In my hands, I held my M1903 springfield tightly as bullets zoomed past me and made the sand grains fly high up in the air.

I peeked up to look for any soldiers who had made it up closer towards the German machine gunner’s nest. There seemed to be a squad of soldiers making their way gradually up the hill towards one of the nests. Without hesitation, I knew I had to try to get to them and made a run for it. The bullets were getting closer every leap I made. Suddenly a bullet ricocheted off my helmet scaring the life out of me, but luckily, I was okay as it did not penetrate my helmet and I kept going until I reached them. I felt a sudden pain in my thigh, to my horror when I looked down, I was bleeding.

Fortunately, one of the few men I had regrouped with was a medic. The life saver bandaged my wound and told me to stay while they continued to push forward but I refused because I would rather die trying to help them then die watching, so I gritted my teeth and followed them.

As we reached the nest, we spotted two enemy soldiers on stationery weapons opening fire, suppressing the others below. With urgency, one of my fellow soldiers chucked in a grenade before slamming the iron door shut behind them. FIRE IN THE HOLD! BOOM! The grenade went off, the German nest crumbled, leaving a pile of debris on human remains.

I turned quickly to see a German soldier charging at us carrying a Kar98K with a bayonet attached to the muzzle of his gun. I lined up my sight with his head and took the shot. And at that very moment, the man fell dead. There was no honour in taking another man’s life.

With the first nest taken out, more soldiers could now make their way towards our position. After we had taken out all the turret nest, we could push forward. After 24 hours of non-stop pain and death, the beach was secured. As I looked back towards the blood-stained beach, I saw the bodies of thousands of dead soldiers who had fought to protect their homes from the Axis forces. The same homes they would not be returning to. Their loss was unimaginable.