John R Sertell

S/Sgt John Sertell was killed in action on 06 June 1944, serving with Company C, 741st Tank Battalion. On the morning of June 6, 1944, Company C launched its amphibious "DD" tanks alongside Company B, roughly 6,000 yards off the Normandy coast, with orders to reach the shore at Fox Green on Omaha Beach. The waters proved far rougher than anticipated for these specially adapted swimming tanks, and as the day's journal entry was written, Company C's tanks, along with the remaining vehicles of Company B, were listed as missing and unaccounted for. The men of this company had entered the invasion in the earliest and most exposed wave, launched far from shore in open water under fire, and the uncertainty recorded that day reflects how chaotic and costly those first hours of the landing were. S/Sgt Sertell was killed in action that day; the report does not specify the individual circumstances.