Omaha Beach: Honor and Sacrifice

ANNOUNCER: Funding for this program provided by... Support for this program also made possible by... Additional support provided by... [bell chimes] CONGREGATION: Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.

Hail Mary full of Grace, the Lord is with thee.

Blessed are thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus.

Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.

Amen.

Hail Mary full of Grace, the Lord is with thee.

Blessed are thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus.

Holy Mary Mother of God... [explosions] [gunfire] DON: I reached a point where I could see that I had to talk to God in a real hurry.

And I remember looking up to God and I yelled, God, no matter what it is you want me to do, I'll do it.

TIM: Omaha Beach, the Normandy coast of France.

This four-mile stretch of sand represents the courage, sacrifice and determination of a generation.

It also reminds us that the price paid in the pursuit of freedom can be overwhelming.

It was here American boys landed on June 6, 1944.

Now, some seven decades later, the old soldiers are returning, many for the final time.

The men of D-Day are no longer wide-eyed teenagers full of adrenaline and fear.

Their pace has slowed.

They're thankful for long lives full of love, laughter, and family.

But not a day goes by when their thoughts don't return to faces of friends that never had the same opportunity.

For the veterans of the American 1st and 29th infantry divisions, Omaha Beach is never far from their thoughts and nightmares.

They landed here on D-Day and saw the worst of it.

I come here because of the friends I lost, my buddies.

TIM: On this very sand American soldiers left behind their youth.

Others saw their futures end here as well.

June 6, 1944 remains a turning point in the history of the world.

11 months after Operation Overlord began, World War II in Europe was over.

Here on this shoreline is where Nazi Germany's end began.

On an overcast Tuesday morning in June of 1944, this roughly 7,000-yard of coastline on the English Channel proved to be the Allies' biggest and bloodiest battle to success on D-Day.

The first infantry division had been in this position before.

So, they were given the lead role.

The 29th infantry division had yet to see any combat in World War II.

JOSEPH: They had a good understanding they were going to see the worst of it, because obviously the Germans had four years to prepare, and making any amphibious assault operation in World War II was, you know, problematic, to say the least, you know, and it was known to be a task that was only recently considered almost impossible.

[explosions] TIM: The 1st infantry division had already made successful amphibious landings, in North Africa in Operation Torch, and in Sicily, in Operation Husky.

So, they got Omaha Beach, too.

That's what we were known for, even Eisenhower said we were everywhere.

TIM: For D-Day veterans such as Hal Baumgarten, returning here to France always brings about mixed emotions.

[splash] Thoughts drift back to what happened when he first stepped on French soil as a member of the 29th infantry division.

He often wonders why he lived, why so many others did not.

When I got off the beach I followed a big Georgia boy named Dominick Surro.

And I followed him down towards the one.

And while I was running right behind him, I heard clunk.

The sniper shot him through the head.

I felt like, why me?

TIM: It's Omaha Beach that draws Hal Baumgarten back.

For the other D-Day veterans there's not much back about war, just quiet reflection.

They know what lies ahead in this trip, they'll deal with that when the time comes.

Here in France a country liberated twice by American boys in two world wars.

There remains deep respect for these Normandy veterans from the United States.

Thank you very much.

Omaha Beach, like the Eiffel Tower or Arc de Triumph, remains a symbolic chapter in French history.

It is at the Arc de Triumph on a late May evening that traffic on Paris's famed Champs-lyses comes to a virtual standstill in honor of these American veterans of the 29th infantry division.

The Arc de Triumph is Paris's monument to its own fallen soldiers.

An eternal flame burns here for an unknown French soldier from the first world war.

The 29th infantry veterans, among them Hal Baumgarten, and Steve Melnikoff understand the importance of the ceremonies here, but more so who they represent.

STEVE: I'll tell you this, I tell my story because my story is the same story of a lot of guys who are not able to tell it.

They might be Joe or Mike or Pete or whoever, like my friend Arthur, or some of the other fellows that I lost.

It's their story, but never got the medals.

They never got, you know, any shakes or any benefits from it, you know, they were just left on the beach.

Can I get a hug out of this?

Oh, sorry.

Merci, monsieur.

Yeah, I'm a 94-year-old.

Thank you very much.

[inaudible] Thanks.

JOSEPH: The men who survived it knew they were lucky, and they knew every moment that they went on to live, and raise--marry, raise families they were fortunate men.

You understand when you look into their eyes that they miss their comrades in arms.

TIM: Omaha Beach is roughly a three-hour drive northwest of Paris, about 165 miles through rolling countryside and picturesque farmland.

In early June, 1944, Normandy, France and some stretch of beach, given the code name Omaha, was just a location on a map.

To 29th infantry division soldiers Steve Melankov and Hal Baumgarten.

Don McCarthy, also of the 29th, didn't know much about this part of the coast either.

1st infantry division Corporal Walter Skudra knew somewhere across the English Channel there would be another beach assault.

Ernie Corvese had dropped out of high school to join the United States Navy, and had somehow volunteered for one of D-Day's most dangerous missions.

The funny thing is that I joined the Navy because I didn't want to go in the Army, to carry a pack.

I ended up with all those explosives on my back.

TIM: Walter Skudra had already made two landings from the sea in World War II.

Skudra was considered an old man by his fellow soldiers in the 1st infantry division.

He was 23.

To the Germans, however, the 1st infantry division was already a thorn in their side in World War II.

WALTER: And this German officer says, how big is that 1st infantry division?

He says, wherever you go, he says, the 1st infantry division is there.

He says, and whenever we met the 1st infantry division, we had trouble.

TIM: Harold Hal Baumgarten, Jewish from the Bronx in New York City was a pretty good baseball player in his day, even getting a try out at Yankees Stadium, but it was the Army who drafted him first in 1943.

A year later the 19-year-old private and rifleman in Company B of the 116th regiment of the 29th infantry division was barely alive on Omaha Beach.

I couldn't talk about it years ago.

I used to cry.

Now I can talk, but it's a cathartic thing to be able to speak about it.

TIM: Like Hal Baumgarten, 20-year-old Don McCarthy was in 116th regiment of the 29th infantry division, but in the intelligence and recognizance unit of headquarters company of the 1st battalion.

We could see the sea were not pleasant at all.

We realized this was going to be brutal, if we had to go in this type of weather.

TIM: In the English Channel in the very early morning hours on June 6, 1944.

The men of the Green 29th infantry division were leaving transport ships, boarding landing craft assault boats, or LCA's for the 12 mile trip to Omaha Beach.

The 29th was assigned the western landing zones along Omaha Beach.

We were supposed to land with 720 men over there.

But Company C and Company D got lost, and Company A lost three boats to drowning.

Company B lost two boats, and finally one hit a mine and blew up, and we were showered with wood, metal, and body parts, and blood.

TIM: Walter Skudra's veteran 1st infantry division was bound for the eastern end of Omaha, aboard flat bottom landing craft known as Higgins boats.

Like the 29th infantry division, the 1st infantry division's mission was to open up several exits, also called draws, off the beach as quickly as possible so American soldiers could drive inland into France.

By 5: 30 a.m., both division's landing craft were on their way to the eastern and western ends of Omaha.

Some 3,000 men made up the first wave.

The 1st infantry division had made these amphibious landings before, but this assault would be unlike Africa or Italy.

Waiting for both the 1st and 29th infantry divisions in the bluffs above the beach, from east to west, were thousands of German soldiers from two infantry divisions, including the battle-tested 352nd.

The Germans were positioned in trenches atop the bluffs.

They were also watching and waiting in large concrete bunkers and dozens of pillboxes, and strategically placed mortar pits.

Omaha Beach was also defended by multi barrel rocket launchers called screaming mimis in nearly 100 machine gun nests, most set up with German MG42's, which could fire more than 1,200 rounds a minute.

The MG-42's well-earned nickname was Hitler's buzz saw.

Every single inch of Omaha Beach was zeroed in with interlocking cross fire and pretargeted artillery.

The 1st infantry division 16th infantry regiment would be the first wave in on the eastern end of Omaha.

Don't think that I wasn't scared.

You were scared, but you just go, that's all, you don't think about it, I didn't think about it.

A lot of guys did, some guys broke down, but I don't know why I didn't break down, but I went through.

I say, I either make it or I don't.

TIM: Both the American 1st infantry and 29th infantry divisions were scheduled to land around 6:30 a.m., one hour after low tide.

American soldiers would have to cross anywhere from 2 to 300 yards of open sand to find any protection.

Strewn across Omaha Beach were some 10,-00 mines and miles of barbed wire to slow them down.

Even getting the soldiers to shore was problematic as thousands of landing craft barriers, many of them mined, were in the water protecting Omaha's shoreline.

For German soldiers looking down from these bluffs on the eastern end of Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944, near the seaside village of Colleville-sur-Mer, it would be like shooting big fish in a small barrel.

One of their first targets on this section of beach, code named "Easy Red" would be U.S. Navy Combat Demolition Unit Engineer Ernie Corvese and his 8-man gap assault unit who were given the unlucky designation of Team 13.

ERNIE: Our job was to clear out all the obstacles so the infantry could land.

A lot of people don't know that, but the outfit I was in, Navy combat demolition, today they're called Seals.

Same thing.

Just about there.

TIM: It's taken 70 years, but Ernie Corvese has finally returned to Omaha Beach.

I was--I guess I was just lucky.

TIM: He's never wanted to come back here until now.

His wife Delores has traveled with him.

You okay?

Beautiful though, isn't it?

Oh, now it is.

You have to think of it that way.

Yeah.

That it is beautiful.

Yeah.

It was my turn to jump off the boat landing craft and I tripped.

I fell head first into the water.

And just at that time there was this explosion.

I found out later that it hit a rubber life raft full of our equipment.

And I went to the bottom.

And I--just before I fell I unbuckled my web belt.

The only thing I didn't unloosen was my chin strap.

My helmet got full of water and I sank to the bottom, with all the weight I had, I had 50 pounds of explosives on my back, a rifle, a canteen, ammunition, that weighed me all down.

Someone pulled me back up.

TIM: When Ernie Corvese resurfaced, the seven other men with him and his unit's small rubber boat filled with explosives were gone.

German artillery had scored a direct hit, igniting all the demolition charges on Team 13's raft.

Seven friends and fellow soldiers Ernie had trained with for months were no longer anywhere to be seen.

If there was any question as to why it took Ernie Corvesse so long to come back to Normandy, the countless nightmares over seven decades provides one answer.

DOLORES: I didn't know what was going on.

He would just yell and scream and try to get out of bed.

I don't know who he was going after.

Sometimes I got hit by him while he was asleep, not knowing he was doing it.

It was really tough, it was tough.

And yet, I didn't know anything about this, he had never told me these stories.

I crawled.

I crawled almost the whole length of that beach, because they were hitting us so hard, it was unbelievable, to get through the fire.

We had 88's, machine guns, they were throwing everything at us.

TIM: Ernie Corvese, the only survivor of NCDU Team 13 spent the next 12 hours pinned down on Omaha Beach in front of these German bunkers and machine gun nests.

I was laying there and maybe about five yards from me were two medics taking care of the GI that was laying on the ground.

And a shell came and killed them instantly.

And yeah, killed all three of them.

And I got hit.

I got hit in the fanny with a piece of shrapnel.

It didn't go in me, it landed flat.

I reached to pick it up and it burned my hand.

And that first day I was still on the beach.

I spent the night in a fox hole and I went looking for the rest of the unit, couldn't find anybody.

Lot of firing.

[gunfire] Ships, planes, strafing.

And how are you going to explain, and machine guns come from the beach?

TIM: Down on the western end of Omaha, just after 6:30 a.m., the men of Company A of the 116th regiment of the 29th infantry division approached their assigned landing zone, below another seaside village, Vierville-sur-Mer.

Hal Bumgarten's Company B followed the second wave.

We had a three-hour boat trip in, you know, from the--his majesty's ship Javelin.

And the poor guys got sea sick.

Vomiting would be the least of Bumgarten's issues when the ramps on his landing craft went down.

This part of Omaha, too, was also heavily defended with strategically placed pillboxes and bunkers high in the bluffs.

MG-42 machine guns in trenches were zeroed in on every inch of the 300 yards of open beach 29th soldiers would have to cross to reach their first objective.

Securing the Dog 1 or D1 draw, a paved road leading directly through the bluff, 600 yards inland to Vierville-sur-Mer would prove to be a deadly job.

Vierville-sur-Mer was a picture postcard seaside village before World War II came to France in 1940.

A centuries old Normandy church was the center of the community.

By the time Hal Baumgarten arrived on French soil, most of his division's first wave was already dead.

And German MG-42 bullets buzzed around his head like swarms of angry bees.

[machine gun firing] The thing that was frightening was the German machine gun.

[machine gun firing] They never let us hear a German machine gun.

And it was like, zip, and it was very frightening.

TIM: The casualty rate on the very western end of Omaha Beach was nearing 80% for the 29th infantry division in the first 15 minutes of landing.

To the east, 50% of the first wave of the 1st infantry division were already casualties.

[guns firing] Hal Baumgarten was one of just two soldiers from his landing craft who survived the opening moments of D-Day on Omaha Beach.

[gunfire] HAL: Like when I look at Dog Green Secteur, I see all the bodies.

It's a--so it's kind of sad each time.

For example, on Dog Green Secteur, you know, we lost 85% casualties in the first 15 minutes, including 19 boys from Bedford and 6 seriously wounded.

They were--we were supposed to land with 720 men over there, but Company C and Company D got lost, and Company A lost three boats to drowning.

Company B lost two boats, and finally one hit a mine and blew up, and we were showers with wood, metal, and body parts, and blood.

And then, when the ramps went down, both company commanders were killed immediately, all the officers were killed, except Lieutenant--Second Lieutenant William Williams from Virginia.

And all the non-coms were killed, except for three sergeants, Clarence Roberson of Lynchberg, Virginia, and John Roach of Florida, and Bill Presley, 1st sergeant of Company B from California.

And later on all these people got killed because half the beach was obstacles.

The other half was mined.

And then they had a telescopic sights up there in the trenches, 60 feet above the beach.

So, that even the flame thrower guys coming in, their fuel tanks were hit, and we smelled burning flesh because they were cremated.

So, I didn't get wounded until I was half over the beach.

Both men, one on each side of me, got shot in the chest, I got shot in the rifle.

It vibrated.

I turned it around.

My seven bullets in the magazine section saved my life.

So, I didn't get wounded until after I hit the ground.

I looked up into pillbox number 73 on the right flank and an 88 went off right in front of me, ripped this cheek off, ripped the upper jaw off, hole in the roof of the mouth, teeth and gums on my tongue, and then I saw Clarence Roberson, one of the sergeants, get cut in half while he was praying with his rosary beads.

TIM: Don McCarthy in headquarters company of the 1st battalion of the 116th regiment of the 29th infantry division were scheduled to land just to the east of Hal Baumgarten.

But McCarthy's boat was rerouted.

The detour probably saved McCarthy's life.

As we came in, we swamped, we went off to port, and the boat rolled over, and we all went in the water.

Fortunately I got rid of my vest, got rid of all the stuff I had with me.

All I had on was my helmet, which I tied on tight.

I got rid of the combat jacket, my rifle, everything.

And into the water.

Saw my other guys had gone in with too much weight on them.

And the next thing I know there's just feet appearing.

I grabbed one kid that was next to me.

TIM: Don McCarthy reached for one of the many soldiers who was already dead due to drowning.

And I grabbed him and used him as a shield.

This bothered me more than anything else.

It really bothered me for the longest time.

It was only recent, maybe 20 years ago, that I was able to deal with that and talk about it.

But I used him as a body, like a body shield.

And we swam to the beach, and I pushed him in as far as I could.

We were probably in about 10 or 15 feet of water.

And I swam the best I could, and there was--the water was bloody and oily.

TIM: After making it to shore, McCarthy had to crawl back towards Vierville-sur-Mer.

DON: I yelled, God, no matter what it is you want me to do, I'll do it, forever, or the rest of my life.

And I most instantly, the Navy had shut down smoke flares way down below the beach near Vierville.

The smoke had drifted up by us.

At that point Colonel Cannon, who was my regimental commander, had come along in the smoke.

And said, okay, guys, get off the beach, get your ass up here, get up to the beach and run.

And it was almost simultaneously, and he yelled, 29, let's go.

And we did.

HAL: All these guys that you knew as your friends, you trained with them, and there they're laying, dead.

[water rushing] [explosion] [gunfire] RADIO ANNOUNCER: The beaches of northern France are alive right now with Allied troops.

Allied troops landing in wave after wave.

TIM: By mid-morning on Omaha Beach, more than 1,000 Americans from the 29th and 1st infantry divisions were dead or wounded.

The 9,387 graves in the American cemetery in Normandy is often the first stop when D-Day veterans return to Omaha beach.

Many 1st and 29th infantry division men are buried here.

And how they ended up under these white crosses and Stars of David remains etched in the minds of those who saw them cut down.

HAL: Those are the real heroes, the guys you see up on the hill at the cemetery.

Yeah, it is very, very moving for me.

TIM: It's taken many decades, but U.S. Navy Combat Demolition Engineer Ernie Corvese is finally able to visit a couple of the graves of Gap Assault Team 13 here in the Normandy cemetery, including that of Andrew Fleming and Harold Duncan.

ERNIE: It's beautiful, see.

[raining] They all line up, no matter which way you look.

What is there, about 9,000?

TIM: Several of Corvese's other Navy buddies he landed with on the eastern end of Omaha Beach were never found, so Ernie also spends a part of his time in another section of the American cemetery, a garden known as the wall of the missing.

Here are the names of 1,557 American soldiers who remain missing in action, here Ernie Corvese is finally able to physically and emotionally reconnect with his crew.

ERNIE: I don't see it.

[laughs] Oh, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, right there.

Preston.

That's him.

This one here.

[background noise] We were a unit, you had to be, you just had to be.

You depended on one another.

There's him, Hickey.

About a week before D-Day he joined our unit.

He was gung ho.

Kid was gung ho.

I don't know how I got through it.

You know, we landed, but the infantry, they just kept coming in and coming in and coming in and getting mowed down.

Even a third wave.

Those guys got murdered.

TIM: The sacrifices made by men on D-Day is not lost on the people of Normandy, especially in Vierville-sur-mer, where heroes are welcomed back with gratitude, just yards away from where they landed on June 6, 1944.

MAN 2: Normandy remembers, she will never forget her liberators.

TIM: It's the same reception in other villages and towns liberated by the Americans on D-Day.

Places like Saint-Clair.

MAN 2: Today is unlike any other day.

We are welcoming here a new group of Americans.

We're getting rather used to this, but not the opportunity of welcoming such a large delegation of American veterans, as well as current members of the former division of the 29th.

We are very proud of this wall, which owes it origins to two people.

These people wanted to leave something commemorating the fact that soldiers of the 29th division passed here and suffered heavily.

We are gathered here at this wall of remembrance and 70 years on.

It brings to mind what took place here in those days so long ago.

And because of the sacrifice, it reflects upon the deeds of those that we honor here today.

This wall, built by our good friends, bears witness that many responsible for its existence are connected through sacrifice.

Veterans, President Eisenhower understood that you would go forward and be true to your country's call when he said, and I quote, "The eyes of the world are upon you.

I have full confidence in your courage, devotion, and duty, and skill in battle."

End quote.

Now, that confidence conveyed by President Eisenhower was evident in the actions of our heroes.

[applause] TIM: Hal Baumgarten's trips to Normandy are always bittersweet.

Blessed with what he calls a photographic memory, Baumgarten can recall exactly where on this section of the western end of Omaha Beach his buddies died on D-Day.

He even remembers their hometowns.

Many fell by his monument to the 29th infantry division's National Guard lineage.

[gunfire] When I got to the seawall near D1, under the National Guard monument.

We got up there on that wall.

One of my best buddies had his face shot off.

He died about ten minutes after I got there.

[explosions] The other fellas on the wall, Gilbert Pitenger of New Ringgold, Pennsylvania, fellow named Zimzak of Pennsylvania, Freddie Kapman of New York.

They were still alive, but they were all wounded.

[gunfire] At the bottom of the wall on the sand was my best buddy on D-Day, laying facedown in the sand with all his equipment on.

[gunfire] It's sad.

I still, when I got to Dog Green Secteur, I can picture all the bodies laying there.

And I know exactly where each man got killed.

TIM: On an overcast June day in Vierville-sur-mer, the newest monument in Normandy, France is delivered.

The statue honors the men of the 116th infantry regiment.

What it depicts is interesting, though.

It's one 29 watching out for another, which I can appreciate.

TIM: Hal Baumgarten happens to be there.

The monument will be officially dedicated in an upcoming ceremony on D-Day's 70th anniversary.

HAL: I think it's a worthwhile tribute to the 116th.

The sacrifice made to take this beach.

I tried to charge over this wall, and there was machine-gun fire on it.

A fella named Gilbert Pitenger jumped on top and tackled me, jumped on top of me to keep me from getting killed.

So, one guy watches out for the other in the 29th.

TIM: Living through D-Day would directly impact the lives of those who spent any time on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944.

[applause] TIM: Like Hal Baumgarten, Omaha Beach is something Don McCarthy has thought about every day of his life.

McCarthy was wounded on D-Day, the victim of German artillery.

[gunfire] Several boats coming in and the Germans start popping overheads at us.

[gunfire] You know, I got whacked in the leg.

TIM: It's 6:30 a.m., on June 6, 2014, 70 years to the minute the 29th infantry division began to assault this beach.

Over here, Don.

[indistinct talking] TIM: Exactly 70 years later, McCarthy is on Omaha Beach again.

Hal Baumgarten and Steve Melnikoff are here, too.

And they're not alone.

Hundreds joined them as a toast with the region's famous Calvados Apple Brandy is raised.

We stand in the presence of giants, we follow in your footsteps.

You are a band of brothers, you are the 29th, you are the blue and the gray.

29th!

Let's go!

[applause] [trumpet playing "Taps"] MAN 3: Company, halt!

DON: It's surreal, you know, all these people, and these guys with me.

Very special moment in my life.

I'm so filled with joy right now, I can hardly control myself.

You know, I asked God that I will do whatever he wanted me to do with my life, if he'd get me off the beach, and he sures did.

Brought me here today.

That's all I can ask for, my family here, you know, the whole bunch of us that were fortunate enough that God blessed us to get here.

A few minutes later, the official dedication of the new 116th statue was held.

MAN 4: As you view the piece from the front, the soldiers standing represents the determination of all of these gentlemen.

They were never going to stop, they were never going to surrender, they were going to make it through this draw, which they did that day, and the expression on that soldier's face is to show you the determination of all the men that were on the beach that day.

One thing that these guys always did is take care of each other.

They were brothers.

HAL: Nobody will ever know what they did, who they were, somebody's got to talk about it.

And I think God saved me for two reasons, become a physician and help people, and to let people know who these guys were.

TIM: The legacy of these soldiers is something United States President Barrack Obama spoke of during his speech in the Normandy American cemetery, marking D-Day's seven decade anniversary.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: By the end of that longest day this beach had been fought, lost, refought, and won.

The piece of Europe once again liberated and free.

But it was here on these shores that the tide was turned in that common struggle for freedom.

TIM: On the eastern end of Omaha Beach, Ernie Corvese walks where decades ago he crawled just to stay alive.

This time Ernie is joined by veteran NBC news television journalist and author, Tom Brokaw, who first assigned the label of the "Greatest Generation" to Corvese and the men and women who won World War II.

It's a surreal moment for Ernie and his wife Delores.

Ernie Corvese had never wanted to come back to Normandy.

TOM: So when you resisted coming back, did you think it would be just too hard emotionally for you.

Yes, yes.

It is now.

TOM: And it still is?

Yes.

[crying] As I'm laying there, this guy, I don't know who he was, who was an officer, and he stood up and he says, there are two kind of people on this beach.

Those that are dead and those that are going to be dead.

TOM: His name is George Taylor.

We know who he was.

ERNIE: Oh.

TOM: He was a colonel in the 1st division.

ERNIE: Oh, yeah, I heard him say that.

TOM: You heard him say that?

ERNIE: Yes, oh, yeah.

TOM: When you were approaching the beach, you suddenly knew what you were in for, because you could see the chaos?

ERNIE: Mm-hmm.

TOM: But was it much worse than anything you could have anticipated?

ERNIE: Yeah, I mean, dead bodies all over the place.

Eight men to a unit.

TOM: And seven of them died.

ERNIE: That's right, yeah.

TOM: You still see their faces?

ERNIE: Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

TOM: Everyday?

ERNIE: Practically every day, yeah.

TIM: About ten miles from Omaha Beach is the German cemetery at La Cambe.

More than 21,000 Germans are buried here.

Many of these soldiers battled the American 1st and 29th infantry divisions beginning at sunrise on the morning of June 6, 1944.

In the village of La Cambe, a short distance away from the German cemetery, the mood is much more upbeat.

Liberated on June 8th, by the 175th regiment of the 29th infantry division, the battle for Normandy is never far from the thoughts of those who live here.

[applause] These soldiers will never pass into history.

They will always have a home here.

MAN 5: In homage of the buried soldiers of the 29th U.S. infantry divisions, we have decided to rename this square, up to now called the Square of the Church, and from now on, it is going to be called, the Square of the 29th Division, Blue and Gray.

Banner yet wave Over the land of the free and the home of the brave [applause] STEVE: It affects me the fact that they, you know, love us so much.

They really do.

And, yes, it is moving for me.

TIM: Scenes like the one in La Cambe are repeated in villages all over Normandy, and in large cities such as Saint-L and Vero.

Vero was left devastated after brutal fighting between the 29th infantry division and it's German occupiers in August of 1944.

MAN 5: It is our duty as representatives of the people gathered here together to keep the world aware of the blood of these fighters.

Let us be faithful to their sacrifice, building a new name and in the name of our future generations, a world that is more just and more humane, but allow me also to turn my thoughts towards all those who survived, very often injured in body and bruised in soul.

They carry the souvenir of their missing brothers in arms.

TIM: Among those watching closely are a group of students from the George Washington University in Washington D.C.

These young men and women, many veterans themselves of war in the 21st century, spent a week following these D-Day survivors around Normandy.

Witnessing for themselves the reverence given these soldiers who fought for France's liberation.

ELENA: I guess the hope of some of the younger generation of veterans is that we can sort of live up to that standard, that World War II veterans set up for us.

So, I like to know what they did in their lives after the war, and what they're doing now and if they are enjoying the trip here, and what kind of feelings and emotions it brings back to them.

CHAD: The French people are extremely appreciative, for a lack of a better term.

They adore the veterans who served here and they adore the sort of ideals and democracy that the United States celebrates as well.

DAVID: At every event we've gone to, every town, all the residents are coming out to pay their respects to the veterans.

When the "National Anthem" is played, the "Star Spangled Banner", the French people, they're singing it, they know the lyrics better than a lot of the Americans.

I'm not sure I have seen so many American flags flying.

And they're flying alongside the flags of the US, and France and Canada, and even Germany.

[bells tolling] TIM: The church in Vierville-sur-mer holds a special place in the hearts and minds of 29th infantry division men who have come back to Normandy.

Reaching it was one of their main objectives on D-Day.

It remains a symbolic place tinged by victory and loss.

[applause] HAL: You figure how short life is and you got to live it every day.

And that's the way I have felt.

TIM: Looking down on the eastern end of the Omaha Beach at the end of the day, on June 6th, 1944, Navy Combat Demolition Unit Crewman Ernie Corvese had a profound sense of relief that he was still alive.

ERNIE: They wanted to give me a purple heart, but I refused it.

I said, I didn't get wounded.

They gave me a job and I had to do my job.

When I got out of the service, I went back to high school and I finished.

TIM: 31 naval combat demolition men were killed and 60 wounded on D-Day, a casualty rate of 52%.

The NCDU's are honored on a monument to the United States Navy at Utah beach.

1st infantry veteran Walter Skudra has never forgotten the men whose lives ended on Omaha Beach on June 6th, 1944.

WALTER: My rosary at nights, when I say the prayers, I especially--I don't pay for the guys on holidays.

I pray for them every night.

I even pray for the people who were in the concentration camps that got killed by the Nazis and I say, and God bless the people that didn't make it back home.

Every day, not holidays, every night.

TIM: For these veterans, coming back to Normandy fulfills a lifelong responsibility to their friends and fellow soldiers under the white crosses, Stars of David and on the wall of the missing.

The real heroes, all D-Day veterans say.

Let's see, there is Duncan, Fleming, Golder, Harry.

I didn't talk about D-Day until 1988, 44 years later.

TIM: Don McCarthy understands war is random in who it selects to live and who will die.

He lived while other 29th infantry division soldiers to the left and right of him on Omaha Beach did not.

DON: I yelled God, no matter it is for me to do, I will do it forever, or the rest of my life.

TIM: That is why almost everyday since the end of the World War II, you will find Don McCarthy in church, saying his rosary.

He sits in his pew to honor a promise he made in the early morning hours of D-Day when a very scared 20-year-old pleaded with God to save his life.

He also prays each day for those who asked for the same thing he did on that morning, but never got to live a full life and remain in Normandy, close by to where they fell on June 6th, 1944, right here on this stretch of sand, known forever in history as Omaha Beach.

When you find your way Through this life you make, I hope you live each day For all its worth Go where your heart leads And dream your wildest dreams And all of these things I will pray for you And when your time is through, My final wish for you Is to count your blessings, Not your regrets With peace inside your soul and all that heaven holds, I hope you'll always know I will pray for you I will pray for you I will pray for you Through every darkness Through every light It's rolled ahead of you I cannot carry you But I hope you'll always know I will pray for you And I hope you'll always know I will pray for you ANNOUNCER: Funding for this program provided by... Support for this program also made possible by... Additional support provided by...