The 80th anniversary of D-Day

[BTExpress]

Why do people always use that term for the Army on D-Day but not Marines at Okinawa or Iwo Jima?
Nobody "stormed" shirt.

Storms are called different things in the Atlantic and Pacific, duh!

 

[maumann]

The Ernie Pyle column the day after D-Day is amazingly written, both in its candor and specificity. No punches pulled here.

A Pure Miracle: Wartime Columns: Ernie Pyle: Indiana University

 

[Small Town Guy]

I think about my grandmother, who sent all three of her boys off to war, and what she went through. I can't imagine.

They all came home.

My grandpa and his brother served in Europe and there's a newspaper clipping from the local paper in July of 1945 that their parents received word the two had a reunion in "Salesburg, Australia" and that it was the first time they'd seen each other in four years. I'm sure great-grandma was quite confused about why her boys had ended up Down Under. I wonder if I can write in and still get a correction on that one.

Grandpa was in the 90th Recon and some parts went to Utah Beach on DDay and the others came few days later. He got a Silver Star for actions in Hof, Germany, in mid-April of '45, near the end of the war. He of course never talked much about the actual war aspects of being in the Army, but loved talking about all the other soldiers. He was my dad's dad but he talked more in-depth to my mom and she said the only thing he ever said about the Silver Star, which he got for taking out a machine gun nest, was that it wasn't right he got a medal for killing someone's sons. His farm was on a lake and he always had nightmares in his sleep about German soldiers coming on shore.

I've mentioned his old captain on the board here before. Grandpa was first lieutenant and he always spoke so much about his captain, who was killed in February of '45. Six years ago I finally tracked down that man's son, who had been a few years old when his dad died though he had no memory of him. I sent him an article I wrote where grandpa mentioned his dad. We connected on the phone and he was so grateful to talk to me and I in exchange learned so much from him. He had been to France several times to towns where the 90th Recon had been and the residents still treated those soldiers and their families with reverence for saving them. I still want to get over there at some point. A few months later I got an email from his daughter telling me her dad had died from cancer that he had battled for awhile. I had no idea as he never mentioned it and she said our calls and emails had brightened his life in his final months. I tracked down another guy in the 90th recon whose dad got a Bronze Star on the same day and in the same town that grandpa got his Silver and we've exchanged some nice messages too.

In grandpa's final months in hospice he finally opened up to me a bit more though again it was mostly to talk up his men. But he did say the only way to survive over there without losing your mind was to accept that you were going to die and just go on doing what you were doing until it happened. "Otherwise you'd go goofy."

The one guy I wish I'd known more about from grandpa was a pro golfer named Lloyd Mangrum. He served in the 90th Recon and won the 1946 U.S. Open. There are quite a few questions about his military service and what he all actually did and when he was actually wounded but there's no question he served with valor. Would have loved to talk to grandpa about him. Saw his name on a list of a reunion grandpa went to once for his unit. I asked my dad if grandpa had ever mentioned serving with a future U.S. Open winner and he said, "Oh, yeah. He did say there was a good golfer with them."

Thanks for asking some followup questions, Dad.

 

[Deskgrunt50]

The Ernie Pyle column the day after D-Day is amazingly written, both in its candor and specificity. No punches pulled here.

A Pure Miracle: Wartime Columns: Ernie Pyle: Indiana University

I can't get enough reading about Ernie Pyle and what he wrote.

 

[Twirling Time]

My maternal grandpa, whose family originated in the Tidewater area, naturally joined the Navy 1944-ish and was in the Pacific theater at the end of the war.

I know he was one of the chief machinists on the USS Coral Sea (CV43) in the 1950s. Amazingly in retrospect, he stayed in after the war and retired after 20 years with full bennies — in a historical perspective, he got out before Vietnam really ramped up. He almost made it to 2000.

 

[MileHigh]

My maternal grandpa, whose family originated in the Tidewater area, naturally joined the Navy 1944-ish and was in the Pacific theater at the end of the war.

I know he was one of the chief machinists on the USS Coral Sea (CV43) in the 1950s. Amazingly in retrospect, he stayed in after the war and retired after 20 years with full bennies — in a historical perspective, he got out before Vietnam really ramped up. He almost made it to 2000.

My maternal grandfather also joined the Navy and was in the Pacific. I need to go look up more of the details. He and my grandmother married two weeks before Pearl Harbor. He died 20 years ago next month at 90.

 

[Driftwood]

I used to know an old guy, Glen Renner was his name, who was there. All he would ever say was "Yeah, I was at Normandy on D-Day. Got shot in the hedgerows a couple of days later."
Beyond that, nothing.
His family kept trying to take him back year after year when he was still young enough to go. He refused almost to the point of being mad about them hounding him. His response was always something close to "seen it" or "once was enough" which told me whatever he did that day wasn't to be relived.

 

[garrow]

Some men who participated in D-Day and achieved prominence later: Medgar Evers, J.D. Salinger, James Doohan, Yogi Berra, Charles Durning.

 

[maumann]

After some exhaustive research by librarian and genealogist Carol Tuckwiller, more than 4,400 Allied troops (2,500 of those Americans) have been confirmed killed in the first 24 hours of the D-Day assault, which sounds horrific but way below what Eisenhower probably calculated going in. I've seen reports where he estimated up to three-quarters of the men dropped behind the lines would be killed, wounded or taken prisoner.

It was definitely sheer luck as to who got where when, particularly for 20 young men of Bedford, Va., who died in that first assault. Those men had massively high casuality rates but as more soldiers got on the beach and German positions were destroyed or captured, the chances of survival went up significantly. When you consider 150,000 Allied troops were involved, that 4,400 figure is amazingly small. Even considering 5,500 wounded, a grand total of 10,000 casualties had to be best-case scenario for the Allies.

Thanks to the Russians for holding off the Germans during the four years between Dunkirk and Normandy. Thanks to the French Resistance for taking out key electrical and phone communications. Thanks to some massive blunders by German High Command. Thanks to the weather. And especially the grit, determination and willingness to crawl across the sand with bullets and grenades going off everywhere by British, Canadian and American fighters.

And a special salute to those brave photographers who gave us such gripping images of that day.

Bless all of them.

 

[Deskgrunt50]

I used to know an old guy, Glen Renner was his name, who was there. All he would ever say was "Yeah, I was at Normandy on D-Day. Got shot in the hedgerows a couple of days later."
Beyond that, nothing.
His family kept trying to take him back year after year when he was still young enough to go. He refused almost to the point of being mad about them hounding him. His response was always something close to "seen it" or "once was enough" which told me whatever he did that day wasn't to be relived.

My dad never talked about Viet Nam.... except, oddly enough, and at length, when he first met my now-wife. It was on a trip to D.C. when she first met my parents. We were going to look at the Viet Nam memorial, and he wanted absolutely no part of it. Not really "mad" but clear he didn't care to see it.

My then-girlfriend wanted chill for a bit. So it ended up being just the two of them, and he told her stuff he never told us.

There's a trauma there I'm certain he never really dealt with.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

The Ernie Pyle column the day after D-Day is amazingly written, both in its candor and specificity. No punches pulled here.

A Pure Miracle: Wartime Columns: Ernie Pyle: Indiana University

I read a biography of Pyle more than 20 years ago. One amazing thing from that book was that the only journalism equipment that Pyle would carry in the field was a small notepad and pencils. And the only thing he would write in the notepad was the names of the soldiers he spoke to and their hometowns.

For Pyle, it was more important to listen to what the soldiers were saying to him than take notes.

 

[Spartan Squad]

Thanks to the Russians for holding off the Germans during the four years between Dunkirk and Normandy. Thanks to the French Resistance for taking out key electrical and phone communications. Thanks to some massive blunders by German High Command. Thanks to the weather. And especially the grit, determination and willingness to crawl across the sand with bullets and grenades going off everywhere by British, Canadian and American fighters.

I just want to thank the German High Command especially for their massive blunder of not waking up Hitler because they feared him more than they feared losing the war. Thank God for that.