Rare WW2 D-Day flag LCI(L)-489 first wave Omaha Beach Normandy Invasion

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Rare WW2 D-Day flag LCI(L)-489 first wave Omaha Beach Normandy Invasion :
$3990.00

This is a rare WW2 D-Day Flag from the LCI-489, a landing craft infantry used during the first wave of the Normandy landings on Omaha Beach by the 1st Infantry Division / The Big Red One. The Flag is a original item, it's old, torn, and fragile in places, making sense for a Flag that's almost 80 years old.

It is a huge Flag, approximately 1.75 x 3.40 meter ( 5,5ft x 11,1ft). I think the Flag is from the stern of the ship, given the size. LCI-489 is stamped on the side in two places (see pictures). For questions, don't hesitate to send me a message!

Some more history of the LCI-489 below:

From a crewmember:

At 3 in the morning on June 6, 1944 we arrived at rendezvous area and commenced circling with LCI(L)490 as guide. We were LCI(L)489, a unit in Task organization 124.5.3, Assault Force “O” commanded by Rear Admiral Hall, U.S.N. Our assignment was to land on Easy Red, Omaha Beach at H hour plus sixteen minutes. We were fairly close to that target, as we arrived around 6:30 a.m. The beaches were mined approximately 150 yards out in the water. The mines were affixed to telephone poles driven into the sand approximately fifteen yards apart. There were mines atop each pole with a wire connected to adjacent poles. So, theoretically, even if you missed the pole you would pull the wire and detonate the mines. Earlier that morning, around 2 a.m. a Navy demolition team went under the cover of darkness to clear lanes for subsequent craft to reach the beach. It is my recollection that they did a pretty good job but at a very high cost, the cost of their own lives. It was a shock to see these men in the early morning hours, draped over these obstacles, mutilated. Though they had cleared several channels, we could not find the markers. As we worked our way to the beach, we hit one of these obstacles and began to list to starboard. The obstacle had kept us from getting up on the beach as we had practiced so many times. We had perfected a specific drill to change a variety of valves and pipes for a situation such as this. The crew performed magnificently, untangling the mess and patching up the holes. While the ship was being patched up, the commander of the troops elected to go ashore using a rope so the soldiers could wade through the water holding onto the rope. Machine gun fire and mortar started coming from all directions. The air became so full of smoke and fire that it was difficult to see. Some of the troops were hit by gunfire going down the ramp, others lost their hold on the lifeline rope and disappeared into the water. The wounded were brought back up the ramps to be treated by the pharmacist mates.

Because of heavy cloud cover, Air Force bombers who had come in before H-hour had been unsuccessful in destroying the German defenses. Their bombs landed inland and missed the beaches. Huge concrete bunkers and smaller pillboxes held artillery. An enemy gun was strafing the beach from a bunker just above the landing area. The captain ordered the ramps back up. We began to back off. I don’t know if any of the soldiers who disembarked survived at that first attempt to land, except the ones we were able to pull from the ramps. Other LCIs around us were not as lucky. Some of them were destroyed beyond repair and never got off the beach. Seems I recall a Coast Guard LCI 91 or 92 burning on the beach all day. I still don’t know how we survived. We had experienced our first site of bloody Omaha. Around 7:30 a.m., we were steaming as before, shaken and proceeded to AP76 to report.

From a pharmicist of the LCI-489

I served as pharmacist first mate for the LCI 489. I was the ship’s “Doc”. The Navy prepared us well for war. As medical officer, I received extensive training on wound care, shock, bullet/shrapnel removal, fractures, bleeding, trauma, stitching, infectious diseases, dressings, bandages, chemical warfare first aid, etc. Everybody got immunizations too. I gave typhus fever vaccine every 6 months, typhoid fever every 12 months, tetanus booster as needed, yellow fever every 24 months and small-pox every 6 months. I also served as Chemical Warfare representative, and Lend-Lease representative for our LCI. Our commanding officer was H. H. Montgomery, Lieutenant USNR. As I recall our LCI ship’s complement included four officers and between 25-28 enlisted men. Around May 1944 we brought on two additional medical men in preparation for D-Day. These men were Burton H. Hockel, Phm1/c NR, and Harold Alvin Kadle, hospital apprentice 2/c. I set these men up in the sick bay to give IVs and plasma. Approximately two weeks fore the Normandy Invasion, the ship was quarantined as a precaution. To the best of my recollection, our LCI and about 5 other LCIs among LSTs, and LCMs hit Omaha Beach just at daybreak on Jun. 6, 1944. Immediately all hell broke out. The German bunkers that were supposed to have been shot out in an air raid weren’t. For two solid days our LCI was shelled. You should have seen my helmet. I wish I had saved it for my kids to see. During the invasion itself, the sick bay expanded to include the mess hall and the deck. The men on our LCI were lucky. We did not have one single casualty. The mess hall and deck were filled with men from the Big Red One and other landing craft along side us. Al Allen, a seaman, brought wounded men to me all day on the 6th and 7th of June. He never stopped even though he took a shot across the knee. He was a good young man. He probably saved more lives than we can count in those two days, literally hundreds and hundreds. I don’t know how he maintained the stamina to keep bringing the injured from the beach onto the LCI. I patched these men up the best I could and got the really injured ones transferred to hospital ships. When Allen couldn’t get the injured to me, I went to them on the beach. When I would jump into the water with all my gear and medical kit, I would nearly go under. The waves with the weight of my gear were not a good combination for jumping into the ocean. It was so loud for two days with shelling and bombing. I’d say, “Watch out behind you Allen” and he would duck, or he’d say, “Hit the deck Doc” and I would hit the deck. We watched out for each other. It seems a miracle now that we did not lose one man on our LCI on D-day. Sometimes the air was so full of fire that it seems impossible that any of us survived. :

LCI (L) 489