CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — Albert “Engine” Arco and Robert Dale Crim were young, naive men when they left their Harrison County homes to fight in World War II.
Albert “Engine” Arco of Clarksburg was among thousands of soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, 70 years ago today.
Both, though, grew up fast 70 years ago today as part of the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France, that turned the tide of the war against Nazi Germany, but at the cost of thousands of Allied soldiers’ lives.
“It was a hell of an experience,” Arco, of Clarksburg, said. “I never dreamed it would be like that. I was only a little over 20 years old. I remember thinking, ‘If I live today, I’ll live to be 100. Well, I’ve gotten to 92.”
Crim, of Bridgeport, said the troops had participated in dry runs prior to the D-Day invasion.
“When we first go off the boat, it was dark, and we finally got out of the deep water,” Crim said. “I got up on the side of bank, and there was a guy with one arm and both legs off. I said, ‘Oh, my God, this is real. This is not a dry run.’”
The invasion was originally scheduled for June 5, but Allied Forces Supreme Commander Gen. Dwight Eisenhower rescheduled the amphibious assault to June 6 because of the weather.
Arco, who stormed Utah Beach with the Army’s 4th Infantry Division, said that one-day delay didn’t make much difference for the men trudging through the choppy English Channel waters.
“The water was mighty rough and cold,” Arco recounted. “It was almost up to my neck.”
The troops had 90-pound packs that Arco said he ditched when he saw others around him sinking in the water.
“I didn’t even have my gun when I got off” the landing craft, he said.
Arco ran about 50 yards before he reached the beach and hit the ground.
Another soldier running past told Arco to join him or he would wind up getting shot by the Germans, Arco said.
“I got up and ran,” Arco said.
He said at one point he fell beside “an American on his back with his eyes open.”
During the confusion, Arco said he grabbed a machine pistol and a .45-caliber side arm from a dead soldier…
