I Didn’t Feel Too Good
The boat ride to Omaha Beach was somewhat peaceful until the ramp of the landing craft went down. Sgt. Hy Haas looked out on a scene of pure terror. Smoke and machine-gun bullets filled the air. The sound of mortar and artillery shells exploding was ear-splitting. Haas went into the water first to scout for mines, and then drove his self-propelled anti-aircraft gun off the landing craft into the water. It was pandemonium. He had been on the beach only a few minutes when an officer ran up to him gesturing to a point ahead. There was a German bunker blocking the advance to the bluff overlooking the beach. Through a clearing in the smoke, Haas got a clear shot at the bunker and destroyed it.
This proved to be an important action in the drama on Omaha Beach. Haas had opened up one of the vital egress routes off the beach, allowing his comrades to advance onto the high ground beyond. Not long after, he was moving past the destroyed bunker:
There were the Germans we had shot. They were in an awful state. And you could say, “Look, thousands of our guys were hit, and I don’t know how many dead.” Yet when I saw what we had done, I didn’t feel too good. Because I had never really hurt anybody before. Those Germans were our enemies, and yet to see those guys bleeding from the mouth… They just lay out there on the bunker. I don’t know if they lived or not.426
We read the description of battles and see the casualty figures, and think that we understand what happened. However, we either have to see it for ourselves, or we have to read a first person account such as this, to truly grasp the tragedy. Combat is not a video game. Men inflict real pain and suffering on each other, and many do not survive. Fortunately, humanity does not disappear entirely, as the conscience of this young soldier proves. He did his job, but he didn’t feel good about it. Hopefully we will always find young men of such character to defend our nation.
How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
—Hebrews 9:14