CARRABELLE, Fla. (WTXL) - The World War II museum in Carrabelle is releasing a historic video showing troops training for D-Day.
The year is 1942. The United States has just entered into World War II and Camp Gordon Johnston opens for military training in Carrabelle.
"Camp Gordon Johnston was a major training facility. They trained commando troops here and they were the main amphibious assault training base," said Tony Johnson, Camp Gordon Johnston WWII Museum Board Member.
Entire divisions, trained for months on end, specifically for D-Day before shipping out of England for the attack.
It was on Carrabelle Beach and Dog Island that the US Army’s Fourth Infantry Division actually trained for the Normandy invasion.
"They had physical challenges. They had obstacle courses. They were crawling through the sand and dirt. They had live machine rounds firing right over their heads," said Johnson.
Although there are stories and pictures from the amphibious training, it's not until you see a video that you fully understand what the soldiers went through.
"This last week, our archivist found a training film that we're showing here in our little theater of the training of the assault right here on the beach," said Johnson.
Even though World War II Army Veteran Salvator Esposito didn't train at Camp Gordon Johnston, he still believes that the training video and the World War II museum are important to have.
"They should carry this on because a lot of young folks now don't know what happened back then. It's something you should have," said Esposito.
Esposito like many other Americans fighting during the war were simply doing their jobs.
"I did what I had to do. After that, the war ended, right then," said Esposito.
It's said that D-Day was the start of the end of World War II, thanks, in part, to Camp Gordon Johnston.
For those unable to make it out to the World War II Museum Wednesday, it's open Monday through Saturday afternoons, and will continue to show the training video for visitors.
You can view our Emmy Nominated D-Day Special titled: D-Day: The Great Crusade here.
