Ramps Acted As Shields Before Being Dropped
D-Day veteran Frank DeVita recalls how difficult it was to be in charge of lowering the ramp as his landing craft approached Omaha Beach during the invasion of Normandy in 1944. DeVita, who was only 19 at the time, recalled the machine guns hitting the front of the boat as “like a typewriter,” which he described as “like a typewriter.” When Frank DeVita was ordered to lower the ramp, he took a breath. “I had it in my head that when I dropped that damn ramp, the bullets that were hitting the ramp would make their way into the boat. As a result, I went completely still.” However, the coxswain yelled at him again, this time ordering him to lower the ramp, and DeVita complied. “I dropped the ramp, and the first seven, eight, nine, ten guys went down like you were cutting down Wheat,” he says, with regret. “They were only children.”
Ramps Acted As Shields Before Being Dropped
