Randleman Descriptive Writing

Karl
English 10H One Day Down, One Thousand to Go

I gazed up into the bleak morning sky and viewed the wafts of smoke, anything to take my mind off what was to come. The sound of the landing craft’s engines revved up indicating we were on our final approach. I gripped my Thompson and carefully glanced over it. The functionality of this gun could mean life or death for me and so it received my dearest attention. Suddenly the ear shattering sound of the big .50 caliber machine gun opened up on our boat. Immediately thereafter, the screech of a whistle permeated the air, and the front of the boat began lowering. What was slowly revealed to us was horrifying; barbed
Randleman suddenly appeared, and his presence calmed us because we knew we could trust his command. He gathered as many of us as he could and told us to take only weapons and ammo over the bluff when the time came. Only about 70 of the 160 men in our company were gathered along the bluff. There was a huge whump as a navy vessel’s round decimated the machinegun emplacement, Vincent’s radio calls had paid off. With that, Randleman yelled for us to go over the bluff and sprint to the destroyed German fortification. As we reached the ruins, a few surviving Germans crawled from the rubble, and Vincent and I dispatched them with impunity. We once again crouched under cover and began peppering the Germans who were farther inland. The men quickly gathered around as Randleman gave out orders for us to move forward in two groups and work on capturing the next machinegun position. In order to reach it however, we would be forced to climb up a rocky hillside with little to no cover. Despite the danger, we were all ready to follow Randleman to the end, for he had always been there supporting us since training. I snatched up an abandoned 30. cal. and Vincent picked up an ammunition box and the tripod. Our company surged forward and made our way up the hill. The Germans were shocked at the rapidity of our advance and those along the ridge fell back allowing for us to make it up with
As I lay in bed I realized that all the violent toils of the day were just the beginning. I had survived but one day of a campaign that could easily drag on for years. I awoke the next morning to the sound of another wave of C-47’s dropping supplies for us. Because of our huge and rapid advances, General Ike sent the first available tanks for our support. At around noon we received the orders to begin the advance again. We began marching behind a column of tanks that led us down the seemingly endless hedgerows. For the first mile we encountered only minimal resistance, and this could not have been more misleading for what was to come.
Out of nowhere, a massive onslaught of German fire erupted from the opposite hedgerow and we dove behind ours and were immediately locked in a stalemate. Occasional fire cascaded from both hedgerows as we fired and they answered, however, the exchange brought no casualties. As the standoff drew onward, a new captain named Henderson crawled along the line calling out “Hold fast we have tank support