Naval Combat Demolition Unit specialist Ernie Corvese talks about landing on D-Day

07/11/19 • 5 min

From The Front To The Films: A World War II Podcast

The last time Ernie Corvese set foot on Omaha Beach, he spent 12 hours pinned down by German artillery. Much of that time he spent face-down and motionless, hoping he wouldn’t attract a sniper.

Today, as Corvese prepares to return to Normandy for the first time since he arrived on D-Day with his Naval Combat Demolition Unit, you can hear the emotion in his voice as he talks about the experience.

“I never told anybody,” he says. For decades, his four children and extended family knew little, if anything, about his WWII service.

The last time Ernie Corvese set foot on Omaha Beach, he spent 12 hours pinned down by German artillery. Much of that time he spent face-down and motionless, hoping he wouldn’t attract a sniper.

“I never told anybody,” he says. For decades, his four children and extended family knew little, if anything, about his WWII service.

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Pacific Historian Daniel Martinez Talks about Pearl Harbor and the battle for the Philippines

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U.S. Navy Coxswain Richard Fazzio talks about landing on D-Day on Omaha Beach

Richard Fazzio was a US Navy Higgins Boat Coxswain (driver) on D-Day. His LCVP (Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel) brought 30+ men of the US 1st Infantry Division into the Easy Red sector of Omaha Beach. Richard’s Higgins landing craft was the 5th boat in the 1st wave at Omaha. Most of the men on his landing craft were killed and Fazzio was wounded.