Donald F Turner

1st Lt Donald Turner was killed in action on 06 June 1944, serving with Company B, 743rd Tank Battalion. On the morning of 6 June 1944, Baker Company came ashore at Omaha Beach's Dog Green sector, its Duplex Drive tanks carried directly onto the sand by landing craft rather than launched offshore in the water as originally planned. This decision brought the company's tanks onto the beach at nearly the same moment that Charlie Company was landing at nearby Dog White, giving the infantry pinned down along that stretch of shoreline armored support in the earliest and most exposed hours of the invasion. Landing amid heavy German fire directed down onto the beach from the bluffs above, the tanks of Baker Company took up firing positions to help suppress the defenses threatening the men struggling ashore around them. 1st Lt Turner was killed in action that day; the report does not specify the individual circumstances.