The night before D-Day
I have told this story to friends, but I don't want it to die so I'm telling it to all of you.
Howard Weigel of Hinton WV (known to his friends as "Monk" because he looked apish) was among the paratroopers put down in the forests inland of the beaches in Normandy to provide support for the invading forces. These men were to be dropped in deepest darkness into dense forests, and they were given those little metal clickers (often shaped like a frog) that we played with as children. The idea was that they could locate each other by the sound of the clickers, maintaining absolute silence other than the clicking.
Howard told my father, an Army Air Force tail gunner, that after he landed and disengaged from his parachute, he crouched in the undergrowth and began clicking. What had not been considered was that there would be actual clicking sounds from actual insects. Howard panicked because he could hear clicking all around him and didn't know which way to turn. He crouched in the undergrowth, shaking with fear, until by luck one of his mates found him. Howard survived D-Day, obviously, but only by the grace of god.
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