The Invasion of Normandy
June 6, 1944
We might fight wars today, and every country on the planet certainly has its enemies. But we live in a time where the vast majority of us are shielded from any real terror. Our addiction to the urgent news would lead us to believe otherwise, but nevertheless: the world is the safest it has ever been. And still, D-Day happened just 75 years ago. That is a stone’s throw. It’s incredible to consider how far the world has come.
When I think about D-Day–whose 75th anniversary was this Thursday–many thoughts run through my mind. First, I consider the sacrifices that so many people made in fighting for freedom in WWII. I also consider what the world was like at that time: how fear and uncertainty reigned. But the thing my mind always drifts toward is this: those men who fought there were probably my age. They were probably recent graduates– just starting out. They probably had jobs, friends, and lives back home. And if I had been born 100 years ago, I probably would have been one of them.
That is a chilling thought. If I were on those front lines, if I were lucky enough to survive, it still would have upended my life. Today someone like me has the freedom to choose what ideas to pursue, what jobs to get, what companies to found, etc. But the men who were shipped off to fight in that war didn’t get that freedom– it was decided for them.
FRONT LINE LADY, GIRL REPORTER GETS TASTE OF WAR IN NORMANDY
Friday, August 4, 1944ON THE NORMANDY BEACHHEAD–Why anyone who is scared of the dark and scared of firearms ever got themselves into the mess I did, I’ll never understand.
But there I was at midnight, trying to get a little shuteye in a tent in a field which I wouldn’t dare walk across in daylight because of mines.
I had said I wanted to go to war– and brother, I had it, as the British say.
It started out very simply.
Rena Billingham, former New York newspaperwoman now with Reuters, and I asked military permission to cross the channel in an LST.
It was to be a short trip. I didn’t bother to bring a clean shirt–neither did Rena. When we get back to London we will have spent at least seven days and seven nights in the same shirts.
The suggestion was made that we go over on a liberty ship–no women war correspondents had before. We jumped at the chance.
…
I had barely wrapped myself up in a blanket when nearby guns opened fire. I got used to these and decided they were friends when more and louder ones opened up. Then I heard planes.I speculated a little on the value of a canvas tent as protection against flak and got down under the cot, tipping my helmet over my face.
The sharp crack of a rifle sounded close. Suddenly it occured to me that we were not very far from the front line. The Germans might be trying to filter back. Never have I stayed so still.
Finally toward morning I got back on the cot. Then the planes came–waves and waves of them. They flew on and soon the ground was reverberating to Allied bombs dropping behind German lines.
Then I went to sleep.
Wilmington Morning Star, Wilmington, N.C. — Read full article
BEACHHEADS SET UP, COASTAL BATTERIES VIRTUALLY SILENCED
Penetrations Between Caen and Isigny Acknowledged In German Broadcasts
Tuesday, June 6, 1944SUPREME HEADQUARTERS ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE, June 6.–Allied tank and infantry forces landed in the Normandy area of Northwest France today and have thrust several miles inland against unexpectedly slight German opposition and with losses much smaller than had been anticipated.
The grand assault found the highly vaunted German defenses much less formidable in every department than had been feared.
Airborne troops who led the assault before daylight on a history-making scale suffered “extremely small” losses in the air, headquarters disclosed tonight, even though the great plane fleets extended across 200 miles of sky and used navigation lights to keep formation.
Naval losses for the seaborne forces were described at headquarters as “very, very small,” although 4,000 ships and several thousand smaller craft participated in taking the American Canadian and British troops to France.
The Evening Star, Washington D.C. — Read full article
ALLIES SMASHING INLAND
Sea, Air-Borne Troops Throw Nazis Back On 100-Mile Front Between Cherbourg, Le Havre
Wednesday, June 7, 1944SUPREME HEADQUARTERS ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE, Wednesday, June 7.–(AP) Masses of Allied Sea and airborne troops which landed in France with little opposition were fighting their way inland early today along a 100-mile stretch of the Normandy coast between Cherbourg and LeHavre, while heavy reinforcements were being rushed across the Channel in the face of a falling barometer.
In the second communique since the long-awaited invasion of Hitler’s Europe began before daylight yesterday, the Allied high command disclosed that more than 1,000 troop carrying gliders, participated in the airborne phase of the gigantic operation with “unexpected success” and that two U.S. cruisers and the battleship Nevada shelled the German defenses in support of the landings.
A British naval officer, who accompanied the task forces, said the supreme command was “still worried about the weather” and that there had been much seasickness among the invasion forces. The wind over the Channel grew stronger during the night.
The German high command in a special late communique declared that “fighting in the Cherbourg-Le Havre area is in full swing. South of Le Havre strong air-borne units have been annihilated. New enemy operations must be expected but have not taken shape yet. Fighting is extremely fierce everywhere as the Anglo-American are putting up a most tenacious resistance.”
“It must be admitted,” said the Nazi-controlled Vichy radio, “that the Allied beachhead area has been considerably widened and that Allied reinforcements are pouring in.”
Wilmington Morning Star, Wilmington, N.C. — Read full article
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