what does the red mean?

[v0031]

By daybreak, blood soaked the water, bombs broke the sky.  Thousands of paratroopers had dropped into the wrong landing sites; thousands of rounds bit into flesh and sand. Entire companies’ worth of men fell in minutes.   “Hell’s Beach” had earned its name.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

"Thousands of rounds bit into flesh and sand" - Its a poetic way of describing the machine guns firing on the beaches as the assault waves attempted to cross the beaches and reach the bluffs and hills beyond where the enemy was. 

A company is a tactical infantry combat unit of 100 to 150 men commanded by a Captain or in many cases, a first lieutenant and composed of three platoons of 30 to 50 men led by a Lieutenant (first or second grade). Typically each company has three machine gun teams, three mortar teams and three bazooka teams as well. To say that whole companies worth of men died in minutes means that they were dying by the hundreds within minutes of leaving the assault craft.

The inclusion of the paratroopers in close proximity to descriptions of the beach attack gives a faulty impression that this experience was uniform. Assuming this is the Normandy invasion being described, only two beaches were remotely this bad and in fact the presence of the paratroopers behind Utah beach meant that there was little opposition to the US Fourth Division as it came ashore and their total casaulties for the day were barely two hundred. Omaha though was ten times as bad with the US 1st and 29th Divisions getting hammered, the worst of the five and it had no paratroopers dropped behind it. They were only dropped behind two beaches because they were primarily aimed at protecting the flanks (beaches on the farthest left and right of the invasion) by capturing/destroying bridges and blocking roads. But their presence also had the effect of cutting off German units and/or their communication, destroying Artillery positions and clearing the causeways off of those beaches, which helped the troops that landed on them. In fact the missing of the drop zones had the effect of spreading the paratroopers over such a wide area, although unintended it may have actually been a blessing because it spread the Germans out further and made it even more difficult to concentrate their forces.

[⛄]

"Thousands of rounds bit into flesh and sand" - Its a poetic way of describing the machine guns firing on the beaches as the assault waves attempted to cross the beaches and reach the bluffs and hills beyond where the enemy was. 

A company is a tactical infantry combat unit of 100 to 150 men commanded by a Captain or in many cases, a first lieutenant and composed of three platoons of 30 to 50 men led by a Lieutenant (first or second grade). Typically each company has three machine gun teams, three mortar teams and three bazooka teams as well. To say that whole companies worth of men died in minutes means that they were dying by the hundreds within minutes of leaving the assault craft.

The inclusion of the paratroopers in close proximity to descriptions of the beach attack gives a faulty impression that this experience was uniform. Assuming this is the Normandy invasion being described, only two beaches were remotely this bad and in fact the presence of the paratroopers behind Utah beach meant that there was little opposition to the US Fourth Division as it came ashore and their total casaulties for the day were barely two hundred. Omaha though was ten times as bad with the US 1st and 29th Divisions getting hammered, the worst of the five and it had no paratroopers dropped behind it. They were only dropped behind two beaches because they were primarily aimed at protecting the flanks (beaches on the farthest left and right of the invasion) by capturing/destroying bridges and blocking roads. But their presence also had the effect of cutting off German units and/or their communication, destroying Artillery positions and clearing the causeways off of those beaches, which helped the troops that landed on them. In fact the missing of the drop zones had the effect of spreading the paratroopers over such a wide area, although unintended it may have actually been a blessing because it spread the Germans out further and made it even more difficult to concentrate their forces.

Did you use to join the army or something?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

"Thousands of rounds bit into flesh and sand" - Its a poetic way of describing the machine guns firing on the beaches as the assault waves attempted to cross the beaches and reach the bluffs and hills beyond where the enemy was. 

A company is a tactical infantry combat unit of 100 to 150 men commanded by a Captain or in many cases, a first lieutenant and composed of three platoons of 30 to 50 men led by a Lieutenant (first or second grade). Typically each company has three machine gun teams, three mortar teams and three bazooka teams as well. To say that whole companies worth of men died in minutes means that they were dying by the hundreds within minutes of leaving the assault craft.

The inclusion of the paratroopers in close proximity to descriptions of the beach attack gives a faulty impression that this experience was uniform. Assuming this is the Normandy invasion being described, only two beaches were remotely this bad and in fact the presence of the paratroopers behind Utah beach meant that there was little opposition to the US Fourth Division as it came ashore and their total casaulties for the day were barely two hundred. Omaha though was ten times as bad with the US 1st and 29th Divisions getting hammered, the worst of the five and it had no paratroopers dropped behind it. They were only dropped behind two beaches because they were primarily aimed at protecting the flanks (beaches on the farthest left and right of the invasion) by capturing/destroying bridges and blocking roads. But their presence also had the effect of cutting off German units and/or their communication, destroying Artillery positions and clearing the causeways off of those beaches, which helped the troops that landed on them. In fact the missing of the drop zones had the effect of spreading the paratroopers over such a wide area, although unintended it may have actually been a blessing because it spread the Germans out further and made it even more difficult to concentrate their forces.

Did you use to join the army or something?

No, history has been a passion of mine going back almost fifteen years now. Sometimes I find it hard not to just keep adding more detail.