German Fire Shattered Able Company

At 6:36 a.m. on D-Day, Able Company of the 116th Infantry Regiment landed with the first wave at Omaha Beach and was immediately swept by German machine-gun and mortar fire. Within seven minutes, the company was leaderless and unable to fight as an organized unit. Only one officer, Lieutenant Elijah Nance, remained alive, and he had already been wounded twice; by ten minutes, every sergeant was either dead or wounded. After half an hour, roughly two-thirds of the company had been lost.

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