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D day June 6, 1944

2 Uncles. Joe Young in the 746 Tank Battalion, Utah Beach, seriously wounded at St. lo July 18, 1944. Jack Greenhaw 300th Combat Engineers, Omaha Beach. Uncle Jack never made it to the beach. The LST he was on hit a mine and sank with only about 35 survivors. He was pulled from the water and returned to a ship and then back to England. We have to keep their memory in hope the world won't have to face this again.
 
I worked with a guy who flew into Normandy the night before by glider. Was ordered to
guard bridges that the Germans were expected to blow up. A childhood friend's
father disappeared on D-Day. His mother was a bride, a mother and a widow within
one year.
 
I do not.

Wife's great uncle was at Iwo Jima, had teacher at Guadalcanal, my grandfather was in WW1, father too young.
 
I had an uncle that was made the landing. Made it through the war ok. Came home got hit by a car. He always told us he had to come to get hurt.
 
My Uncle John. I don't know which beach he landed on. Fairly late in my life I found out he had no more than stepped out of his landing craft and had one of his legs nearly blown off. This information came from brief, sketchy statements from other relatives. He survived, recovered and found a job where he could remain seated; diving a city bus. To be around him, talking to him; it was as though the war had never happened.
 
My dad just missed D Day but got to see the results of it when he went over a month later in July. The burnt out Sherman tanks everywhere were a sobering sight. He said he had serious doubts if he was going to make it back home. He wrote down some of his memories in later years and I've got some of it in a blog along with a few photos. Its as close as I've got to publishing a book of his memoirs. Here is a picture of him (centre) and a good friend from Manitoba on the left (Alec Abel). Photo taken on the island of Wangerooge just after the war ended showing some of the devastation from the bombing.

cvphoto46280.jpg

Dads story
 
My dad was there dropping bombs from a army air corp bomber with the 9th army air corp. He was the flight engineer. Last misson his crew went out on he was relieved by a new guy , they shot his plane down that day. All his flying crew buddies were killed. I have the pilots uniform with his wings on it in my closet, thats another story.







was
 
A local fellow, now deceased, who did crop spraying was a glider pilot who flew a glider load of troops into Normandy.

He wasn't exactly closed mouthed about it, but he never really said a lot either.

I had an uncle who was in France during the war, but I don't recall he was at Normandy. He was a mechanic in Motor Transport and worked behind the lines.

An older cousin of my wife's was awarded the Bronze Star in Germany as an Army 1st Lieutenant during the war. All he ever said was he got his platoon lost in the Black Forest and they gave him the Bronze Star.
 
Good friend of mine made all four combat jumps with the 82d Airborne Division. D-Day was a night jump. He landed in water and the wind kept his chute from collapsing, dragging him across the water. He cut the shroud lines to get free but was thinking that would only cause him to drown because of the weight of the equipment he was carrying. He ended up standing in chest deep water. At the end of the War he had been wounded three times but he was still in the fight. I was reading that about 2800 had made all four combat jumps and one of them, a retired first sergeant, just passed away at the age of 102.
 
One of my dads' friends, his father was there. I wonder what our current leaders would have done that day. Probably never would have landed........then where would we have been, I don't know, but not pleasant to think about if you ask me.
 
Had an uncle that was in Normandy.

One of the nicest, God fearing men I have ever known.

I made the mistake of asking him about his experience there, not knowing better. He got extremely angry, stormed out. Scared me, I was just a kid, didn't know about his refusal to relive about it.

In a few minutes he came back, all was well.

He did say that no matter what I had heard or saw in the movies, it was 10 times worse!

Enough said.
 
My uncle (Dad's brother) was a radio man on an LST, 2nd wave with equipment landing on Omaha. By the time equipment was off loaded they were directed to transport wounded off the beach. They ended up staying on the beach until the tide came back in enough to float the LST so they could get off of it, as they were grounded. Meanwhile, guns above them kept firing at them, but guns couldn't get the right angle on the ship.
 
Wife's dad was on the Tennessee when Pearl happened and several other battles in the Pacific. He had a first cousin that was a glider pilot during the D-Day invasion. The cousin came home from the war to start a concrete business in Fargo. It was interesting to talk to the both of them.
 
My wife's great uncle-brother to her grandpa. Her great uncle Lew was a bomber pilot (B-29, I think), on D-Day, and returned from the war to become a very successful sales man. Her grandpa Joe, was a very quiet man, and pretty good farmer all his life. Uncle Lew was a very gregarious man. He told me a little about his piloting once at a family reunion, but he also wrote some of his stories in his memoirs. If you ever read Chuck Yeager's book, Uncle Lew's story is similar in nature. He did not talk of the actual combat, that I remember. Mark.
 
My uncle Paul was on a British ship at the front of the flotilla early on the morning of June 6th. The meal that they were fed made them all sick and as the landing was about to begin their ship turned around and went to the back of the line. He said there was no way they could fight as they were throwing up and had diahrea. He went ashore on D+3 a d said the devistation was incredible. He ended up in the 36 hour long battle at the battle of the bulge. I asked where he was when he herd the war(in the Pacific) had ended. Said he was on a troup train in France headed for a port on the Atlantic Ocean. He said their were recruitment officers trying to get men to go to the Pacific but we're getting no takers regardless of the money or promotions they were offering. I asked uncle where the ship they were to get on was headed. He said they were told New York but they all had their doubts.
He lived to be 96 and what I just wrote is all I ever herd him say about his war experience.

Dave
 
My grandfather landed on Normandy D-Day plus 1. He always said that he never knew why they were not part of D-Day, but when he crossed he was glad that he was not part of it. He was shelled in Bastone (Battle of the Bulge) on Christmas Day 1944. After Abram's broke the line he spent the next 6 months in an English hospital.
 
My wife's first cousin one generation removed landed on D Day with the Canadian Army. He was killed during the Battle of the Scheldt in Holland in October 1944 and is buried in the Canadian War Cemetery in Agadem, Belgium.
RIP Private Thomas Hutchinson.

Ben
 
2 of my 1st cousins were killed . one in France & one in Italy. I have pretty good evidence that one came back to home alive??
 
My father was still in training, ended up in Italy,Army Air Core. Flew 22 missions, plane made it back 21 of them. On that other mission they did make it to a friendly field and repaired got back to the right base. Tail gunner B-24.
 
Used to have a guy at church who was in the first wave at Normandy. He never failed to stand up and give glory to God every anniversary for allowing him to survive it. And every time he stood there crying like he had just got home from the battlefield. It was extremely painful but he was determined to never forget the sacrifices made that day.
 
Dads brother was killed on Omaha beach.Dad was at pearl harbor. Wondered why he cried when brother and I both went to viet nam
 
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