Western+Europe+Battles

​ Tanya Neumann, Manny DeHerrera, Nick Shank, Adam Smith, Morgan Thompson

Hello, my name is Roger Johnson and I volunteered to join the army when I was just 19 years old. The Western Europe Battles I have been through were the Siege of Stalingrad, Dunkirk and D-Day. During the first battle I secretly smuggled supplies and weapons to the Allies and the Russians. In Dunkirk I was shot in the shoulder by a German soldier during one of the many battles we had. Once I was healed up, they shipped me off to Normandy for the landings, where I took my last stand as a soldier. I have seen cities destroyed within minutes, left in ruins for us to fight in. So many of my commrades have died right before me. Here are my stories, of the many battles that I have fought in.

**//__Siege of Stalingrad__//**

My first combat was in the Siege of Stalingrad on July 17, 1942, it was the bloodiest battle in the history of warfare. At the time I was a transporter of weapons for the Russians. Since the Germans captured the Volga River, severing the transportation of resources and goods to the north, I smugled the suppiles in for the Russians. The city was in ruins because of all the fighting and bombing by the Germans. It was a very dangerous time as the Germans bombarded the city, killing 40,000 people in three days, and after the 25th, the Soviets even stopped counting civilian and military casualties in the air raid. During one of the raids at the German airfield, Tatsinskaya, they distroyed 300 planes and 72 Junker B-52's while only 100 transport planes escaped the attack. The German troops did not know about the raid so Paulus, one of Hitlers loyal German Officers, stayed with the original plan, which lead to a shortage of supplies and ammunition. Finally, the Germans were pushed back and soon surrendered. But 11,000 Germas refused to surender, believing fighting to the death was better than being captured by the Soviets.

**//__Dunkirk__//**

This battle was the defense and evacuation of all British and Allied forces in Europe from May 24 to June 4 1940. During this time, the Germans were quickly advancing west toward Seden and then northwards to the English Channel, where they were effectically flanking the Allied Forces. All the Ally's counter attacks failed to stop the Germans as they make their way to the coast separating the British, French and Belgian armies. There were five battles, "Fight back to the west", The Battle of Wytschaete, Action at Poperinge, Belgian Surrender, and Defense of the perimeter. In the first battle the Germans fired explosive shells into Dunkirk, destroying the cities and leaving thousands of civilians dead.Then, the Germans pushed the British back to sea, thinking that it would be an impassable barrier. The last battle is where I was wounded, Defense of the perimeter, the Germans almost broke through to Nieuport but the British fought back and bombed them later that day. Hitler ordered his generals to halt for three days to see if the British would accept a compromise peace, but that gave the British and the French time to escaped right under the germans noses. 330,000 Allied troops were rescued.

**//__D-Day__//** D-Day, Operation Neptune, the Normandy Landings. On June 6 1944, at 6:30AM, 16 tanks and myself are supposed to land on Omaha Beach. Standing here in the tank with me are Russian "volunteers" and teenagers. Sometime in March, along this beach, the Germans doubled the complement of defenders. This was the most heavily equipped beach, with machine guns, artillery,and funneled mortars. Once the ramps on our tanks were lowered it only took 10 minutes for the leading party to be shot down. Leaderless, everybody became almost incapable of action as every officer and sergeant had been killed or wounded. Now it was a struggled for suvival and rescue. Out of 16 tanks only 2 survived the landing. Within a few hours the total amount of casualities at Omaha and D-Day are a total of 5,000 out of 50,000 American men, myself among them, while the Germans only suffered the loss of 1,200 killed, wounded, or missing.