The beach is cleared and the road has been built.
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Unauthorized memories Mohr is one of a few soldiers who has photos of life on Omaha Beach and aboard ship after the invasion. A buddy risked court-martial by strapping a small camera and some film to his legs. At Le Havre, the crew of the 537 took a 70-year-old homeless French man aboard after they saw him eating the garbage they had thrown overboard. They let him sleep in the engine room and he took the film ashore and got a set of prints for each crew member. Mabel stayed with the 537 for its eight months of active duty. When the boat was unloaded in England, Mohr turned Mabel loose. She was still wearing her rabbit's foot. The assault on Normandy and the six weeks sitting around at Southampton are Mohr's most memorable events from his 2 1/2 years in the Navy, during which time he added 70 pounds to his 140-pound frame. 'To be honest. I can't see -- other than that suicide -- how one of us didn't get it," he said. "I think it's because of the rabbits' feet. That sounds stupid, but you've got to give it something because we went through hell and not one of us got a scratch." When he made it back to the states, Mohr married his high school sweetheart, Thelma, who now works as a nurse at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Des Moines. They have seven children and 17 grandkids. |
D-Day +3
View from on top of the cliffs
Above & below: unloading a crane from the 537.
Bud Mohr sitting on hundreds of boxes of K-Rations being delivered to the Beach head.
Above you can see the large chains and cable used to raise and lower the ramp on the 537.