Ray Lambert, 88, was among the first wave of soldiers to come ashore on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944. (Nancy Montgomery / Stars and Stripes)
COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France — Ray Lambert was among friends.
Stanley Applebee was there, beneath the grass, just 19 or so when he died.
Raymond Lapore was there, strong, blond, quiet, 19 and from Massachusettes
"His dream in life, he wanted to marry and have twins," Lambert recalled.
"I’m going to put on my sunglasses in case I cry," he said.
Lambert — a former combat medic with the 2nd Battalion, 16th Regiment, 1st Infantry Division who earned a Silver Star by pulling a soldier out of a minefield, who killed the German soldier who had bayoneted him, who knew war correspondent Ernie Pyle and once talked back to Gen. George S. Patton, Jr. — was about to give his Memorial Day observances speech on Sunday.
Lambert, 88, had made his fifth trip to the Normandy American Cemetery, above the bluffs where he’d struggled to survive on D-Day nearly 65 years ago.
Lambert was the oldest of several speakers who included Normandy mayors, regional officials, and a U.S. lieutenant general and a U.S. senator from North Carolina. They were there to honor the sacrifice of the World War II soldiers and speak to the liberation they’d provided France and Europe. He was also the only one who could tell you from experience what it was like.
"On the voyage over from England the night before the invasion," Lambert said, there’d been a good dinner and high spirits. "It’s the Last Supper," one soldier joked.
But as the men made their way into landing boats to storm one of five beaches on the Normandy coast as part of the largest amphibious assault in history, all was silent, he said.
"I felt very proud to be a part of something that I knew would never happen again — had never happened before," Lambert said. "Yet I was sad because I knew many of us would not make it."
Omaha Beach, which was where he landed on June 6, 1944, the site of some of the worst casualties, is depicted quite well by Steven Spielberg’s film "Saving Private Ryan," Lambert says.
But it wasn’t like being there.
"We could hear the machine gun bullets hit the ramp. It sounded like hail," Lambert said.
They were in water over their heads, boats were blowing up, men were on fire or drowning, bullets were sweeping the water. Lambert, a staff sergeant, made it to the water’s edge and started pulling men out of the water. He got hit once, twice — "that one hurt," he said — and kept going.
"One guy was laying at the water’s edge, his left arm hanging only by the skin," Lambert said. He went to help. "He died when I was holding his arm."
In his own boat, which had 31 men at the start, just seven survived, and four of them were wounded, Lambert said.
"I wouldn’t talk about it for a while," said. "Then I realized that if no one talked about it — and there are all these guys who died, and they can’t talk about it — I realized you had to. I think it helped me. It made me feel good letting people know what the guys did."
The cemetery is one of 14 permanent American World War II cemeteries on foreign soil. Nearly 10,000 Americans lie beneath white marble crosses and Stars of David, including 41 sets of brothers, a father and son, three generals, four women and four civilians.
It will be visited by President Barack Obama for the 65th anniversary of D-Day next month.
