A perfect day & Storyteller honoured it well with this blog by Catherine Hamrick.
They said the LST could ride higher in the water when landing in trim. She hit the sloping beach, and the bow door fell and disgorged jeeps and tanks and finally men with hands to work. It was gray all round, the water, the sky, ship after ship beside, around, and behind as far as he could see, if he dared to look back.
He looked forward only. German mortar and artillery shells exploded, but he looked forward only—wreckage, strewn wreckage of metal, of flipped, ripped jeeps, of wire, of bodies, whole and fallen, of twitching pieces, arms here and legs there, of detached trunks spilling guts, of oozing, foaming blood.
His automatic-motion hands dragged and patched the broken living and passed them to other hands that stretchered them up the ramp.
The day thundered, but he distanced the noise. He heard nothing but the whir in his brain, punctuated…
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Dr Mustapha Tahir 
Brought this to the fore:
We huddled behind the steel doors, as the LST bobbed and ploughed through the rough. My fear cloaked and made me crouch. As the LST got closer to shore, I heard the pitter patter – bullets rapping on the steel door. German machine guns. The sergeant blew the whistle – time for the door to drop open as we beached. Pitter patter turned to rat-tat-tat! I lost my fear – mesmerized at the approach of death. Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat.
I remained transfixed – spellbound – and the door clanged and splashed open – – – –
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Many thanks Eric for agreeing the American Storyteller Catherine Hamrick did come out with some awesome passages. Her words, not mine! You Americans are leading in blogging!
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