Photo By Sgt. Charles Leitner | The tide rises at Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, June 1, 2024. Soldiers of the 1st...... read more read more
“Like the generations of leaves, the lives of mortal men. Now the wind scatters the old leaves across the earth, now the living timbers burst with the new buds and spring comes round again. And so with men: as one generation comes to life another dies away.”
-Homer, The Iliad
CARENTAN, France - It is difficult to describe the great weight hanging over the National American Cemetery on the bluffs of Colleville-ser-mer overlooking Omaha Beach, where Soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division landed eighty years ago.
A calm exists here. The sound of the waves below, the birds and the wind, like whispers from the souls who were there laid to rest; those who fought along the beaches, through the draws and up the hills. It is not the sounds of silence, but of the endless rhythm of time, of the natural world now at peace because of those who fought and died there.
Soldiers of today serving in the 1st Inf. Div. traveled to Normandy, France, during the 80th Anniversary of D-Day in order to gain a better understanding of the unit’s history and the weight now permanent in the sand and soil of Europe.
“There’s no difference between the Soldiers of today and the ones in that cemetery because they all volunteered to serve,” said Maj. Gen. John V. Meyer III, commander of the 1st Inf. Div.
These Soldiers, who were invited to Normandy because of their accomplishments, traveled along the beaches and bluffs overlooking Omaha, they stood in the same tide where Soldiers, much like them, assaulted the beach below. They felt with their hands the places where ordinance had ripped apart the earth and where bullets drove themselves into the walls of concrete bunkers after having found their mark.
During a tour led by Col. (ret.) Paul Herbert, a historian and veteran of the 1st Inf. Div., the Soldiers heard stories of some of those who landed on the beaches 80 years ago. They asked questions, eager to know more about those ordinary people tasked to accomplish extraordinary things. They learned of Cpt. John M. Spalding, whose actions helped clear German defenses allowing for Allied troops to get off the beaches and move further inland; Lt. Jimmie W. Monteith, a draftee whose gallant efforts to direct fire towards enemy combatants before being killed in action earned him the Medal of Honor; Pvt. Charles N. Shay, a combat medic who landed with the first waves at Omaha, saved the lives of 20 Soldiers and earned the Silver Star for his heroic actions that day; and many others who wore the Big Red One patch on their shoulders.
“The life I’ve lived, the freedom I’ve had, the opportunity I’ve had, the prosperity I’ve enjoyed, everything that is good about my life is in some way derivative of the fact that we did not lose WWII,” said Herbert. “Know this history, because particularly for those fellas that wear a Big Red One patch on your shoulder, or a Screaming Eagle, or an All-American, or an Ivy, or whatever the outfit is that served here or elsewhere, you’ve inherited a hell of a legacy. These guys set the standard. This is what we’re living up to. When we walk around with that patch on our shoulder, that’s what it means.”
Prior to Operation Overlord and the Allied invasion of Normandy the Nazi war machine had cleared the bluffs adjacent to the beaches of Normandy entirely. They removed all the trees and vegetation, killing as much of the natural landscape as possible in order to build their Atlantic Wall. These efforts created the perfect landscape for German troops manning machine gun nests and artillery emplacements to capitalize on uninhibited fields of fire.
“It’s incredible to hear what [they] were able to accomplish,” said 1st Lt. John Pezzolanti, an engineer officer serving in the 1st Engineer Battalion, 1st Inf. Div. “How fortified this area was and what they went through it’s just amazing what they were able to accomplish. Thinking about what it would have been like to do it; I can’t even put myself in their footsteps. It’s really remarkable.”
Landings began soon after 6:00 a.m., just as the sun began to present itself over Europe to the east. In the ensuing minutes, Allied forces braved a maelstrom of German fire taking thousands of casualties in the first few hours alone.
Despite the German efforts, this “impenetrable” wall was breached in a single day due to the efforts of a massive Allied force with a singular mission; to liberate France and enact the beginning of the end of Hitler’s regime.
Estimates suggest that nearly 160,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944, a small fraction of the more than two million soldiers, sailors, pilots, medics and others from dozens of countries supporting the invasion effort elsewhere.
“The Soldiers who fought here, and especially the Soldiers who died here saved the world from Hilter’s vision and from what the world might have been had he won the war,” said Herbert. “Everyone of us that is alive today owes them because we’ve grown up in a freer and more prosperous world because of what the Soldiers did here.”
Of the 4,414 Allied troops killed on D-Day, 2,501 were American. Between June 6 and July 24, 1944, the 1st Inf. Div. lost 657 Soldiers. Their names are etched in the stone on a monument overlooking the beach taken by the Big Red One during the conjoined effort to liberate France and the rest of Europe. By the end of the Second World War the 1st Inf. Div. had lost 5,516 Soldiers.
Reflecting on those losses, Soldiers serving with the 1st Inf. Div. visited these sites alongside other military service members from across the United States and the world. Between ceremonies hosted by the Big Red One were others conducted by Soldiers of the British, Belgium, Canadian, Dutch, French, and German armies all taking moments to memorialize the same events and the people who participated in them.
“The French do an incredibly good job of preserving these historic sites and preserving the legacy of D-Day and the importance of D-Day,” said Herbert.
Today, these sites, once plagued by some of the most horrific acts of combat ever recorded, are now known in French as a, “site naturel protege,” land protected for its natural biodiversity and beauty. Places as diverse as people who landed upon them eighty years ago; a place no longer vibrating to the sounds of bullets, artillery and war, but to the sounds of the waves, the wind, the birds and the quiet calm of peace these souls earned.
Approximately 180 veterans who served in the Second World War attended celebrations across Normandy during the 80th Anniversary of D-Day. As the months and years go by and as with all living things these veterans will move on to the next, taking with them their vivid recollections of the events they experienced first hand.
The veterans living and dead, adorned and celebrated by the French and world alike, are owed a magnificent debt, one that can only be paid by the sharing of their stories, so that the world might never know such horrors again.
| Date Taken: | 06.06.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 08.28.2024 20:11 |
| Story ID: | 478029 |
| Location: | CARENTAN, FR |
| Web Views: | 26 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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