We’re at the Normandy American Cemetery three days before the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landing. It’s a beautiful, serene, thought-provoking place. We traveled 90 minutes by bus to get to the D-Day Beaches. Along the way, our guide for the day painted a picture in words that helped put the D-Day invasion in perspective, so the ride was time well-spent.
She gave us facts and figures about the D-Day invasion, but she told us stories, too. One was about Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., a son of the US president. He and his brother had served in World War I. Theodore Jr. got gassed and wounded. His brother was killed.
Roosevelt returned to active duty in World War II as a colonel. He led an infantry division fighting in North Africa. He had a reputation for always being with his men, in the thick of battle.
One Soldier’s Story
Stationed in England in 1944, general Theodore Roosevelt Jr. walked with a cane and had a heart condition. He asked to land with the first wave of troops on D-Day. His request was denied, but he didn’t relent. Ultimately, permission was granted. Roosevelt landed with the first wave of the 8th Infantry Regiment and 70th Tank Battalion at Utah Beach. He was the oldest man to land in the D-Day invasion.
Strong tides caused the 8th Infantry to land a mile south of their target. Chaos ensued, but they landed in a relatively uncontested area. Rather than try to get to the correct landing zone, they attacked from where they were, clearing the way for waves of infantry coming in behind them.
Stories abound of Roosevelt walking around on the beach with his cane, cheer-leading incoming waves of troops, oblivious to shells exploding all over the beach around him. He survived D-Day, but died of a heart attack a month later. He’s buried here in the Normandy American Cemetery.
Our guide told this story with passion and sincerity, as if she had been a personal friend of Theodore Jr. Her French accent seemed to make the story that much more poignant. By the time she had finished, we were all feeling a more personal connection to what our guys went through on D-Day.
Taking the Back Roads
From the cemetery, we went for a light lunch near a monument on Omaha Beach. After lunch we drove north, toward what had been Gold Beach on D-Day. We took small roads, staying near the coast.
Along the way, locals had put together decorations and tributes to the D-Day troops in yards, on houses – everywhere. American, British, Canadian, and French flags were common sights. The appreciation of people living in these small coastal villages, even now, was palpable.
D-Day Begins, 12:00 AM, June 6th, 1944
D-Day began just after midnight, when the first of more than 13,000 paratroopers dropped in behind Nazi beach defenses. Their job was to blow certain bridges, secure others, and take out Nazi guns protecting the beaches. Each unit had a specific mission. Hundreds of troop and armor-filled gliders, towed across the channel, followed them into the fields behind the Nazi’s Atlantic Wall.
An unexpected thick cloud cover fouled things up badly. Planes had to break formation to avoid hitting each other in the soup. Paratroopers landed all over the place. After landing, they didn’t know their location or who landed next to them. Despite everything, they managed to accomplish most of their objectives.
In addition to real paratroopers, thousands of inflatable dummies caused the enemy to chase after them far from the real attack zones. The dummies exploded when landing, ensuring they’d get noticed. Exploding paratrooper dummies – who knew?
The Nazi’s were taken totally by surprise. Nazi generals had convinced themselves that the Allied attack would be at Pas-de-Calais, not way down here, south of the Seine. If the Allies were crazy enough to attack here, they’d have to do it at high tide. That was a given. Wrong on both counts.
Meanwhile…
Meanwhile, the French Resistance started cutting telephone wires and causing havoc. During their four years of occupation, the Nazis used the French telephone system for communications. Each Nazi unit was effectively isolated without it.
At 1:55 AM, the first of nearly 1,200 bombers took off from airfields in England. They’d attack Nazi strongholds and gun installations protecting D-Day beaches.
At 3:00 AM, troop ships arrived in place off Utah and Omaha beaches. Troops started boarding landing craft. Mine and booby-trap-clearing operations would start soon. (One of many jobs I wouldn’t have wanted to have on D-Day).
The naval battle started at 5:00 AM. Battleships and destroyers shelled Nazi gun installations, and the big Nazi guns shot back. Troops huddled in their landing craft, getting seasick in the rough seas. They’d say there’s no sound on earth as loud as a battleship’s big guns. They likened shells fired from the USS Texas to freight cars whizzing over their heads. (They could shoot a 1,500 lb shell 20 miles).
Up to this point, as far as anyone in England knew, things were going more or less according to plan. The first wave of infantry would hit the beach at 6:30. That’s when our guys would learn that in reality, things weren’t even close to going according to plan.
To be continued…
To dive deeper into D-Day, see Travel Notes, Normandy, D-Day.
