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U.S.
soldiers wounded in combat are
evacuated by ship to England.
/ U.S. National
Archives photo
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Remembering
the D-Day Greatest Generation
heroes
By James
Brodell
Editor Emeritus
Thursday marks the 75th
anniversary of the allied invasion
of Europe in 1944. There will be
speeches, celebrations and
commemorations of the so-called
D-Day. But the day that saw 10,500
allied casualties in less than 24
hours was just the start of Round
One.
At home in the United States the
first word of the invasion, as
reported by the Columbia
Broadcasting System, came at 12:37
a.m. eastern war time from German
sources. News gatherers
continually monitored European
stations.
A Berlin station monitored in
London quickly followed the German
Transoceanic Radio shortwave
announcement to report on the
presence of foreign paratroopers
in Normandy. In the French city of
Calais, a radio station began
broadcasting in English with light
music directed, the station said,
to the invaders.
CBS reporter Bob Fox in the U.S.
warned listeners that the German
report might be a trick to cause
resistance fighters in Europe to
begin attacks prematurely.
That theory died two hours later
when the radio network carried a
recorded speech by Gen. Dwight
Eisenhower from the Allied
Expeditionary Force headquarters
in Britain. Among other warnings,
Eisenhower told resistance
fighters to await his signal to
begin sabotage and other attacks.
That might have been a trick by
Eisenhower because resistance
fighters were very much a part of
the invasion with attacks on
transportation and communication
networks such as rail lines that
delayed arrival of German military
reinforcements.
The report of D-Day generated
great joy in Americans and
Canadians on this side of the
Atlantic. There were prayer
services, public speeches and
rallies in large cities. Local
broadcasters converted what little
information they had into 24-hour
coverage.
There was a lot to celebrate. Two
days earlier, U.S. troops
liberated Rome. The tide had
turned in the Pacific Theater,
too.
The allied military reported 2,697
U.S. deaths on D-Day on both Omaha
and Utah beaches. Canadian deaths
on June Beach that day were 355.
The British suffered 1,043 losses
on Sword and Gold beaches. There
also were deaths in Free French
and Polish units.
There also were significant losses
at sea as German guns hammered
allied ships, landing crafts and
amphibious tanks.
The joy over the invasion quickly
gave way to reality as Western
Union messengers delivered the
telegrams telling next-of-kin
their servicemen had died.
Germans put up strong defenses,
and no one knows what might have
happened if Adolf Hitler had
not been hoodwinked by
allied suggestions that Normandy
was just a distraction from a real
invasion.
From the Normandy beaches, allied
troops had to fight for weeks
through the French countryside
full of hedgerows hiding deadly
German Tiger tanks and infantry.
During the six days, starting June
6, 1944, nine American and seven
British and Canadian divisions
landed in Normandy. Germans, too,
began to bring in reinforcements,
including some from the Eastern
Front with Russia. The allied
advantage was control of the sky,
although German aviators at times
dropped sea mines to threaten
shipping and managed to strafe
allied troops.
Troops who landed had 11 months of
grim fighting ahead, including the
Christmastime Battle of the Bulge
and the invasion of the German
homeland. Then they figured they
would be shipped to the Pacific to
fight Japanese.
Germany responded to the invasion
in less than two weeks by
targeting Britain with the V-1
rocket to be followed by the
ballistic V-2.
Those who did not live through
these times might have difficulty
understanding the mood then.
Those Western Union messengers
were individuals to be feared.
Some who lost children in the war
posted gold stars in the window of
their flag-draped home. Some
windows held more than one star.
Those on the Homefront still
suffered the inconveniences of
war. Many foods and gasoline were
rationed. Most meats were
rationed. There was a steady trade
in horse meat and game animals.
Blackouts were routine, and local
white-helmeted wardens enforced
the rules. Lucky residents managed
to buy heavy drapes that would
block lighting from the streets.
The unlucky had to make do with
the dark.
Days were punctuated with drives
for metals, rags, fat, paper and
rubber, all for the war effort.
Trains were the main source of
long-distance transportation.
Newspapers and radio were the main
sources of official information.
U.S. ocean beach resorts were
dotted with gun emplacements in
anticipation of invasion.
Healthy looking young men who were
not in uniform generated some
suspicion. “Draft dodger” was a
serious insult. Posters warned
“Loose lips sink ships.”
Troop convoys halted traffic.
Women were now well represented in
the trades previously held by men.
Rosie the Riveter also built
electronics, loaded boxcars and
grew wheat.
Hardly anyone alive at the time
does not know someone who remains
in France or Belgium. Some small
towns lost a high percentage of
male high school grads.
Those who served during World War
II have been called the Greatest
Generation. Very few are alive
today. Their legacy endures,
nevertheless.
A 1944 video from U.S. National
Archive of the D-Day can be
reached at this link*
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Did you have family and friends in
the service in the D-Day invasion?
We would like to know your
thoughts on this story. Send
your comments to: news@amcostarica.com
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