THE LUCKY FEW - Survivors tell the tale of D-Day, 70 years later

The Virginian-Pilot ^ | 1 June 2014 | Mike Hixenbaugh

[Alas Babylon!]

A 91-year-old man lifts off in a commercial airliner bound for France and for a moment can imagine himself in the cabin of a Douglas C-47, preparing to leap into moonlit darkness.

Norwood Thomas was just a boy, really, the first time he arrived in Normandy. Now he is returning for the last time, once again mindful of his own mortality.

More than 100,000 Americans were there at the start of the campaign to retake Europe from Hitler. Only a few hundred are expected to return this week. Thousands more, many too frail to travel, will mark the 70th anniversary of D-Day back home.

Thomas flew out of Norfolk last week. Grant "Gully" Gullickson isn't far behind. Cary Jarvis and Eddie Shames wish they could join them; they'll spend the day with family in Virginia Beach.

None of them knew one another on that day, yet they are forever linked by it. They are among the lucky few - the ones who survived brutal fighting and then the merciless march of time. Almost all of their buddies are dead.

Memories dull with age, but certain moments stick with them: The feel of cool sand against the face; the cries of grown men struggling for air; the smell of exploded gunpowder and burned flesh.

The tales they tell sound improbable and, with few living witnesses, some details are elusive. But these men were there; this is how they remember it.

For at least one more day, the world will pause and listen.

[Alas Babylon!]

Two year old story, but relevant for today, I believe. Read on; lots of good personal stories from the men who were there THAT Day...

[Fantasywriter]

Did they plan D-Day for a moonlit night? I once researched the night they dropped the first atomic bomb. It was as close to a moonless night as it’s possible to get.

[SkyDancer]

The atom bomb on Hiroshima went off at 8:30am - maybe you’re thinking of when Enola Gay took off?

[wbill]

Ed Shames was a member of Easy Company, 501st (Band of Brothers). There can’t be too many of them left.

[lacrew]

I think they were delayed a few days due to weather, and any planning about the level of moonlight somewhat went out the window...as they were severely risking loss of surprise with every passing day.

[PGR88]

Men will bear any burden, suffer any hardship, and make any sacrifice if they know their cause is valuable and they are supported by their leaders and the nation.

[jmacusa]

And the bomb over Nagasaki detonated at 11:00 am.

[Fantasywriter]

I didn’t know the exact time. All I did was take the date of the first bomb and plug it into a moon-cycle calculator. The result was thin thinnest possible crescent. If the night had already passed, then that wouldn’t have been a factor.

[Fantasywriter]

thin thinnest = the thinnest

[Sequoyah101]

A full evening of reading to remember.

[Fantasywriter]

Thanks for the info.

[sdpatriot]

From Reagan’s 40th Anniversary D-Day speech on June 6, 1984
http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/reagan-d-day.htm

>>>The Americans who fought here that morning knew word of the invasion was spreading through the darkness back home. They fought — or felt in their hearts, though they couldn’t know in fact, that in Georgia they were filling the churches at 4 a.m., in Kansas they were kneeling on their porches and praying, and in Philadelphia they were ringing the Liberty Bell.

Something else helped the men of D-day: their rockhard belief that Providence would have a great hand in the events that would unfold here; that God was an ally in this great cause. And so, the night before the invasion, when Colonel Wolverton asked his parachute troops to kneel with him in prayer he told them: Do not bow your heads, but look up so you can see God and ask His blessing in what we’re about to do. Also that night, General Matthew Ridgway on his cot, listening in the darkness for the promise God made to Joshua: ``I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.’’<<<<

[Alas Babylon!]

Delayed one day. The planned D-Day was 5 June, but the weather was horrible. The beach obstacles on Normandy would only be submerged on an extremely high tide, and that was why the moon cycle was so critical (extra high tides at full and new moon).

If our mass landing would be successful, it HAD to happen during a monthly lunar high tide.

The Germans were so convinced that the weather would stay awful, and so delay any invasion, that Rommel asked for and received permission from Hitler himself to take leave and visit his wife in Germany for her birthday.

Our forecasters had better information, and saw a temporary 24-36 hour clearing/calming coming in from the North Atlantic on the morning of the 5th.

Eisenhower then made the decision, tonight we go!!!

That's when later that afternoon he went to visit the boys in the Airborne while they were loading up on the C-47s.

Eisenhower visits the paratroopers

[SkyDancer]

Sorry if I seemed to nit pick - :)

[SkyDancer]

I read the book The Making Of The Atomic Bomb several times and it sure laid out how they did it. Now if Home Depot just carried a few items that .....

[dfwgator]

“Up to this point, I have been the most powerful man in the world, tomorrow, I am going to be the most powerless." - General Dwight D. Eisenhower

[Talisker]

Norwood Thomas was just a boy, really, the first time he arrived in Normandy.

No, Mike, he was a man. And if you can't get that basic thing right, nothing else you say is worth anything.

[DugwayDuke]

Actually, the invasion did not take place at high tide. The first landings went in at three hours past low tide. Here’s an explanation:

http://www.leif.org/EOS/D-day-tides.pdf

Read the paragraph on page 38 beginning “The Allies would certainly have liked to land at high tide...”

[Fantasywriter]

Not at all; it’s very helpful to learn more. It just never occurred to me that it happened in broad daylight. Pretty amazing!

[SkyDancer]

In that book it gives survivors pretty detailed description on what it was like that morning. I was there a couple of years ago.