D Day

Sixty-five years ago, Allied forces landed on Omaha and other French beaches and began the last bloody phase of the war against Hitler and his followers. Can you imagine how it must have felt to be a teen-age American, Canadian, or British boy jumping off a landing craft into the direct line of massive German artilliary. Even though the attack was a surprise to the Germans, there was enough fire power in place by the enemy to kill over three thousand of the invaders as they waded through waist-high water, holding their weapons above their heads.

Even though a lot of horrible war was yet to take place, this invasion meant that Hitler and his forces were not invincible.

I spent years in Germany during the 1950's and lwas told that not all WWII German soldiers were excited about being soldiers, and, if it is to be believed, most hated Hitler and wished he would go away. And of course, most Germans that I met said that they knew nothing about what was going on in the concentration camps. I'm sure that some of them did not know about what went on in the camps, but I'm also sure that most Germans did know but were not sufficiently motivated to do anything about it.

When I first arrived in Germany early in 1953, the country was still in ruins. As my troop train rolled through Aachen, I could not believe what I saw. As far as I could tell, there was not even one building that was not seriously damaged in some way. I also saw people in rags trying to cook food over small fires amid the rubble.

When I left Germany late in 1956, it was a different Germany, with new modern buildings, clean streets and not much rubble left. At the time, an ad campaign was going on in Germany. Posters showed bombed out buildings and rubble, with the caption: :"Vergessen?" In effect: Have you forgotten what it was like? This reminder was necessary because as the economy grew and people now had food and lodging, they were not doing enough to ensure that the madness of WWII would not recur.

I was 7 years old when Pearl Harbor was bombed. I remember the day. I was curiously watching out of the front window of 167 Ash Street in New Bedford, Massachusetts. There was a lot going out on the narrow street in front of the house on the sunny Sunday morning. Young boys were running through the neighborhood selling newspapers and yelling "EXTRA, EXTRA, Read all about it!"

During the next four war years, as a street kid, I had lots of opportunities to do my little bit for the war effort. With small wagons, my friends and I would collect bottles, cans, paper, metal, and other material needed by the government. I seem to recall that we brought most of this to the local U.S.O. where all of the material was bundled up in a hurry to ship to those companies making war material. The paper was brought to a large warehouse supplied by St. John's Catholic Church. The piles of newspaper and magazines towered over me. We were very proud of our little part in the war effort.

My uncle Allen served in the Army; Uncle Billy served in the 8th Air Force in England; Uncle Lincoln served in the Coast Guard; Aunt Laurana served in the WACS; my mother became a war-effort welder; Cousin Earl fought with the Army in the Battle of the Bulge; Uncle Malcolm was an air raid warden .... etc... We were all involved in some way, no matter how young or old.

We now live in a retirement community in which there are many residents who served actively in WWII and it is extremely interesting to listen to some of the stories that they tell.

Today, there is a ceremony going on in Normandy, France, at Omaha Beach. French Legion of Honor medals were just presented to former soldiers of Great Britain, the United States, Canada and France.

At the ceremony, President Obama and other dignitaries gave speeches. Something you will hear about in the news.. Prime Minister Brown made a gaffe when he mentioned that they were at "Obama Beach".. he caught and corrected what he said, but I'm sure that the press will pick up on it and since he is having troubles at home, they will probably tease him about it.

CSPAN had a program today in which it was stated that if it wasn't for New Orleans, we would not have been able to invade on D-Day. A gentleman (forgot his name) developed small-draft boats for use in the New Orleans area over the years, and he was able to modify such boats so that they could be used to convey all of those troops from ship to shore. No other type boats could have done so.

Commander in Chief Eisenhower delayed the invasion to make sure that there would be enough of these boats so that the landing would work. Otherwise, they would have had to try to invade through the existing Atlantic ports which were so fortified that there might be a posibility that such an invasion could not take place sucessfully.

Thank you, WWII veterans, for all you did for the world. Just imagine what it would have been like if the Axis had won the war!