The Boys of Normandy

NewsMax ^ | 6/6/04 | Phil Brennan

[wagglebee]

At 6:30 in the morning, on June 6 1944, American troops landed on Utah and Omaha beaches on the Cherbourg Peninsula.

By nightfall some 5,000 of them lay dead on the blood drenched beaches. Earlier that morning, the 101st and 82nd U.S. Airborne Divisions were dropped behind the German lines where they also suffered heavy casualties.

The world learned of the invasion from a simply worded communiqué that gave no hint of the carnage on the Normandy beaches or behind the lines. It read: ''London, Tuesday, June 6, 1944; Under command of General Eisenhower, Allied naval forces, supported by strong air forces, began landing Allied armies this morning on the northern coast of France.''

On the beaches, troops found themselves pinned down under raking small arms and artillery fire from well entrenched Wehrmacht soldiers, many dug in behind concrete embrasures that protected them from rifle and mortar fire, and for hours the issue was in doubt.

The beach was littered with their dead and wounded but the Americans refused to give in, huddling under the cover of the small embankment and trying to work their way up against fierce German resistance. Finally, through sheer guts and determination, the Americans broke through and began to drive inland.

It was the beginning of the conquest of occupied Europe. Knowing what happened that day is horrific enough – what our men endured simply defied description.

It took the movie "Saving Private Ryan" to reveal in all it gory horror what the Boys of Normandy faced, and with sheer courage overcame on Omaha and Utah beaches.

Who were these men who walked willingly into the holocaust that killed 5,000 Americans in a brief few hours, yet overcame incredible obstacles, emboldened with the can-do spirit that had always motivated Americans faced with impossible odds?

Mostly they were boys, 17 and 18 and 19 years old, plucked from farms and small towns and big cities. Many had never been more than a few miles from their hometowns before they joined the army. Some were older, married men who accepted the call of draft boards and went off to serve their country with nary a complaint.

There was a job to be done, and it was their fate to be asked to do it. So do it they would.

All were children of the depression – a glum, gray time where for many of them, keeping home and hearth together was a daily struggle. The deprivation they endured toughened them and helped prepare them for the ordeals they would face in war.

I wasn’t there on D-Day. I was on the other side of the world in the Pacific, training for other blood baths on Guam and later Iwo Jima, an ordeal from which I was spared by an appointment to the Naval Academy. But the men I served with in the Fifth Marine Division were the same kind of people who landed on Omaha and Utah Beaches on D-Day. We just wore different uniforms.

On Omaha Beach there were kids like Paul Pugh, a gutsy 16-year old we called "chicken" who had managed to get into the Corps by lying about his age.

He was from Salt Lake City, a sweet innocent kid who wanted to be a Marine more than anything else. He died on Iwo Jima. So did First Lt. Marty Gelshannon, a fun loving, good and decent officer straight out of college when he joined the Corps. He won the nation’s second highest award, the Navy Cross, awarded posthumously.

There was Leo Oster, an 18-year old farm boy from Ohio, and Byron Lindsley, a kid from an old New Orleans family. They both were buried in the black sands of Iwo Jima.

There was an innocence about American youth in those days. They had a sense of morality and a set of values that seem quaint and outdated in these secular times. They took those values with them to Utah Beach and it allowed them to accomplish what few soldiers in history had ever managed to do before.

Above all, they were citizen soldiers – hardly any saw the military as a lifelong career. All they wanted was to get the thing over with so they could go home to their wives and raise lots of kids, marry their sweethearts, go to college, get jobs or work the family farm.

They were not glory hunters seeking fame and fortune through feats of arms. They wanted to be what they had been before they joined the armed services. And so, on D-Day in 1944, they waded ashore, worked they way forward in a hail of enemy gun fire as their friends fell dead or grievously wounded beside them and did what they had come there to do despite the chilling fear that clutched their hearts.

These men went off to war with George M. Cohan’s stirring WW I war song "Over There," ringing in their ears. There was a line in that song to which they, and the folks back home all subscribed – a line Americans today should heed.

It goes like this " … "We’re coming over, we’re coming over, and we won’t be back ‘til it’s over, over there."

And when it was over, this greatest generation came home, rolled up their sleeves and went to work and created the richest and most powerful nation in history.

[wagglebee]

The world learned of the invasion from a simply worded communiqué that gave no hint of the carnage on the Normandy beaches or behind the lines. It read: ''London, Tuesday, June 6, 1944; Under command of General Eisenhower, Allied naval forces, supported by strong air forces, began landing Allied armies this morning on the northern coast of France.''

Its scary to think that if today's liberal media had been around in WW II, we would have lost the war. 5000 dead in the first day at Normandy, the left would be hysterical.

[Iscool]

My dad survived Normandy...Supposedly Normandy was somewhat of a secret operation...Apparently the Germans weren't surprised...

I have wondered why they didn't bomb and shell the daylights out of the Germans before the landing...Seems like a few thousand napalm bombs would have fried them...

[JLS]

Let's see:

1. The operation was highly secret with much deception that kept several Panzer Divisions out of the fight until the Allies established a foothold in France.

2. They did have a large aerial bombardment and a shorter naval bombardment. But it was cloudy and the aerial bombs mostly fell too far inland.

[VOA]

I have wondered why they didn't bomb and shell the daylights out of the Germans
before the landing...Seems like a few thousand napalm bombs would have fried them...

My understanding is that in the months before D-Day, there was a huge amount of bombing.
And that the Allies did something like make sure that for every bomb dropped
in the Normandy sector, they dropped four bombs in other sectors.
And I think on June 6, there was a huge naval bombardment by Allied ships
(battleships and cruisers).

Plus, the loss of many of the "swimming" Sherman tanks in the rough water made the
situation perilous for the soldiers who made it to the beach.

But, all that being said, my naive amateur brain has always wondered why
more Mustangs and Typhoons weren't sweeping the beaches and hitting
German emplacements with bombs, missles and .50cal gunfire.

All I can think is that since this was an Army operation...and the Marines/Navy were
busy perfecting the art of close-in air support, that wasn't tried and lots of
other strategems were employed (some not so good).

But when the Luftwaffe can send only 2 Messerschmitts up to just see what's happening
on the beaches (see "The Longest Day") and a LOT of Panzers are held in reserves
for the "real attack" at Calais, and Rommel even goes home for a family
celebration because the Germans percieved the weather to be too bad for an
amphibious invasion...
that would tell us that it was a relative, but not complete, suprise to the Germans.

Thank G-d there was at least some element of suprise...otherwise we'd been
driven into the sea.

But for those guys who endured (or didn't survive) that first wave landing...
no thought of "partial suprise" could have brought any comfort.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

.

A LION IN WINTER =


Sgt.Major BASIL L. PLUMLEY =


NORMANDY-1944 / Jumped into Nazi-Occupied France the night before the Beach Invasion

PORK CHOP HILL-1953 / Fought at the last Major Battle of the Korean War

IA DRANG Valley-1965 / Fought at the first Major Battle of the Vietnam War


(Photo)
Sgt.Major BASIL L. PLUMLEY at Pleiku Airstrip after the IA DRANG Valley's Battle at Landing Zone X-Ray.

http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_set3.htm


(Photo)
Actor SAM ELLIOTT, who portrayed Sgt.Major PLUMLEY in "WE WERE SOLDIERS" - The 2002 RANDALL WALLACE Motion Picture starring MEL GIBSON about our IA DRANG Valley-1965 Battle.

http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_collection.htm

[VOA]

(as we do every year!)
I'll see your Basil Plumely and raise you a Jake McNeice, my mild-mannered postman
who kept his past quiet until his name appeared in the references of a Cornelius Ryan book!
But Plumely's jumps in different wars...that's awesome.
I'm pretty sure all of Jake's four jumps were in WWII Europe.

McNeice's story finally got some justice in the book linked below:


http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1932033122/qid=1086557125/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-6073268-5971038?v=glance&s=books

[usapatriot28]

Apparently the Germans weren't surprised...

Uh, better check your facts there. It was two or three days before Hitler and Rommel were convinced that Normandy was the real attack and not a diversion from Calais. By that time there were 1.5 million allied soldiers in France.

Also, if your father is still alive, thank him for me. If not then may God Bless him.

[Psycho_Runner]

In honor of the liberals, I call this day "The Normandy Quagmire"

[nonliberal]

Ze French were perfectly happy living under the Nazis. The Eastern Front was an ideal situation; Nazis and Communists killing each other off. Pure evil v. pure evil. We should have just let them fight and not opened up the second front.

In hindsight, Normandy was a mistake.

[Mrs.Liberty]

Read Steven Amrose's D Day....the Germans were surprised...Hitler had been expecting an invasion elsewhere in France..and the great majority of the armaments and better trained soldiers were deployed there, not at Normandy.

[Iscool]

Thanks...My dad is gone now...Like so many others, he was in/thru-out Europe from 41-46...You couldn't pry any war information out of him if your life depended on it...

There were a few times as a child, I remember my dad hittin' the floor when a loud storm rolled in...

They were all heros...

[Iscool]

Thanks for the history lesson...