D-Day + 75 Years

June 6, 2019

D-Day + 75 Years

Detroit, MI, USA

On the left is the grave of Col. Ollie W. Reed. On the right is the grave of his son, 1LT Ollie W. Reed Jr. The elder Reed died 30 July 1944 during the Battle of Normandy. He never knew that his son had died 24 days earlier in Italy. Colonel Reed's wife found out about the death of her husband and her son on the same day. The family requested that they be buried next to each other. They lie next to each other in Plot E at the Normandy American Cemetery.
Photo by Chris Monroe

I have spent the better part of a month trying to put my thoughts about the 75th anniversary of Operation Neptune (D-Day Landings) and Operation Overlord (Invasion and Liberation of Normandy) in this blog space, but I have failed to press "publish." If you have read this blog before, you know I have a "no backspace" policy. I don't write for others to enjoy, but for me to have a place to freely release my (generally over-emotional) thoughts and to share a little historical insight with others. But I have found it hard for me to write this piece so freely.

As you know by now, I spent more than three years living in Europe, stationed in Germany with the US Army. As an avid and passionate student of history, the opportunity to travel among the scarred grounds of Europe's centuries of warfare provided endless opportunities for exploration. I spent weeks at a time traveling through every corner of battlefields young and old, learning everything I could. I would drive through the night for the opportunity to talk to a museum curator or to explore a field where there had previously been a machine gun bunker. But the greatest experience was talking to the men and women who were a part of creating the moments that changed the course of history. 

Flags of allied nations in Normandy. There were 13 countries
with troops on the ground on D-Day with financial and
logistical support coming from more than 25 countries in total.
Photo from Wikimedia

This years' D-Day commemoration is almost certainly the final large-scale numerical anniversary gathering of veterans of the Battle of Normandy. Those that were 18 years old in 1944 are now 93 years old. Yet thousands from around the globe are gathering this week in Normandy to recall their historic efforts, and honor the fallen. June 6, 2019 is not just an American commemoration. The Battle of Normandy was not only the largest invasion and liberation in the history of modern warfare, it was quite possibly the last time that a worldwide collection of nations formed a coalition for battle on moral and ethical principles above political objectives. Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of politics in play, however the 13 countries with forces involved in the Invasion of Normandy, and the dozens more that provided support, were very much aware of the moral obligation to defeat the extremism of Nazi Germany.

I had the fortunate opportunity to travel to Normandy on five occasions. When I was not playing tour guide for visiting family or friends, I was exploring the areas beyond the tourist choked museums and flag-draped coastal towns. In these places I found incredible places and people that quietly keep watch over the Normandy battlefields and cemeteries.

American Servicemembers killed in the Battle of Normandy
during June and July 1944 are interred at the Brittany American
Cemetery near Saint-James, France.
Photo by Chris Monroe

On one of my trips to Normandy in 2016 I was introduced by a battlefield archaeologist to a friend of his, an 86-year-old French lady named Alice. She lives in Normandy, not far from Brittany American Cemetery. She spends most Sundays after church walking among the graves. During each visit she prays a rosary over the graves of three American soldiers, imparting prayers on their souls and their surviving families. She told me that she has been doing this for more than 40 years, because she was a young girl during the Battle of Normandy and she remembers the terror of the battle going on around her family's farm and their relief at the sight of Americans as their farm was liberated. When I crunched the rough numbers in my head, I realized this means she has prayed over every single cross and star in the cemetery as well as every name on the wall of the missing (4,908 total). She said her prayers were answered as a little girl and that she owes a debt of gratitude to every interred and memorialized American. I could not help but have a moment of emotion in appreciation for her patriotic passion and give her a hug. I don't know what happened to Alice after our 2016 encounter. But I hope she is living her best life in Saint-James. Vive la liberté!

Operation Overlord progression map. Despite getting on set on
the beach on June 6 1944, it was more than a month before they
established a secure foothold in Normandy. The city of Caen is
9 miles from the water, and was not taken until early July.
Illustration by VOX

On another trip I stopped by one of the most famous American war commemorations in the world, the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. I struck up a conversation with a man admiring a statue at the center of the memorial.He was an American World War II veteran named Jerome. He was originally from New York but moved to Vermont after the war. He was a radio operator who scaled the cliffs of Point du Hoc in support of the 2nd and 5th Ranger Battalions. Unknown to Jerome, his brother (I forgot his name) had landed on Omaha Beach with the 1st Infantry Division, just a couple miles down the coast. His brother was killed while attempting to move off the beach. He reminded me that beyond June 6, many men died in the weeks that followed just trying to establish a foothold inland.

This is the statue I was admiring when I met Jerome.
It is appropriately named "Spirit of American Youth
Rising from The Waves.
Photo by Chris Monroe

Jerome told me he had cancer and wanted to come visit his brother's grave for the first and last time before he died. I was unsure what to say to this man. I had simply struck a conversation about the beautiful sculpture at the front of the pond, and now I was face to face with a hero of this battle. Again I was overcome with emotion. Noticing I was struggling to keep myself together, he commented on my US Army Veteran hat, changing the subject and asking about my military service. In my mind I'm thinking "EXCUSE ME!! You are 100 times the bad ass Soldier I could ever dream of becoming. I am not worthy to even shine your boots, and yet you want to learn about me!?" Jerome's honor exemplifies everything that his generation embodied. They went to do a job and they did it without expectations of praise or parades. 

Every June we provide praise and thank them endlessly for their sacrifices 75 years ago. We must make sure though that we thank them not just in words, but in actions. We have to live every day as a nation embodying the ideals of freedom and liberty that they fought for. If we do not, then what was the purpose of their sacrifice?

"You are the pride of our nation, you are the glory of the republic, and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts." - President Trump, 6/6/2019

I am thankful for the opportunity to have met Alice and Jerome along my travels. I will share some more stories of Normandy soon. Every single trip to Normandy was special for me and I am still itching to go back again soon. There are many stories that deserve to be told. I would love to continue to meet the people who had a firsthand account of the history as it happened in June and July 1944.

Chris

There are 9,388 burials at Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, France. 307 of these commemorate "Unknowns." There are an additional 1,557 honored on the Wall of the Missing.
Photo by Chris Monroe