Time of blood and courage

By BONNIE ADAMS

Wounded soldiers lay on Omaha Beach, screaming for help.

The explosions, artillery and gunfire were deafening.

German soldiers killed U.S. combat engineers as they crawled upward to destroy enemy machine guns poised above the beach.

"They were dying and it was an awful feeling, a terrible feeling to see dead Americans, my buddies. ... The dead bodies, the wounded crying for help and not being able to help them."

Albert Yascavage's D-Day memories turn 60 today.

On that day, there was confusion, a strong smell of gunpowder and blood on the beach.

"All you could hear was guns, the ships' guns and we could hear the aircraft overhead making their bomb runs and we could hear infantry firing their machine guns and rifles."

Yascavage and five other Army radio operators waded ashore in stomach-deep water about an hour into the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. Their mission was to support communications for the 9th Infantry Regiment ahead of them.

"The confusion was terrific because the infantry was listening to squad and platoon leaders. No one knew what anybody else was doing," Yascavage said.

Enemy bullets hit their three-quarter-ton radio communications truck, but the men were not hurt. They could not stop advancing along the beach to help other fallen soldiers.

"We wanted to help them, but there's no way that we could. We couldn't help a person that was dying or wounded really bad. We saw a lot of blood, you know, they were covered with blood."

Their communications truck driver carefully avoided running over the dead and wounded.

"We saw the bodies all over the place, some of their arms blown off and dismembered," Yascavage said.

He and other radio crew members constantly scanned their surroundings, looking for the enemy. "We were very conscious of what was going on. We had to be."

Yascavage, 81, used to have nightmares about that day, but the bad dreams are gone. He talks about his experiences now, unlike right after the war when he only wanted to forget.

"You can't let it affect you after all these years. I'm a person who it doesn't bother after that long."

Yascavage joined the U.S. Maritime Service and trained as a radio operator before World War II. His interest in radio had begun when he was a boy in Plymouth Township.

He enlisted in the Army after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and trained at Camp Atterbury, Ind.

"I slept many nights with headphones affixed to my ears to learn Morse code and to increase my speed in translations." He is still able to interpret Morse code.

He and his wife, Dolores, live in Ross Township where he operates a ham radio and collects old military radio manuals.

Known to fellow soldiers as "Yasky," he shipped out to Europe to serve with the 2nd Signal Company of the 2nd Infantry Division. In Wales, the soldiers were issued gas masks and special fatigues to guard against moisture.

They loaded their communications truck onto a boat there. "We didn't know where we were going," Yascavage said. They knew there was to be an invasion.

When he stepped off the landing craft onto Omaha Beach, he concentrated only on staying alive.