D-Day

Utah Beach - click on images to enlarge

 

Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force: 

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. 

The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.

In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world. 

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped, and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely. 

But this is the year 1944. Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned. The free men of the world are marching together to victory. 

I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory. 

Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.   

- Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Forces 

Pfc. Howard H. Gaertner waded-ashore at Utah Beach following the initial invasion as an infantry replacement.  Trained in heavy weapons – mortar and machine gun - he was assigned to M Company, 47^th Infantry, Ninth Division as a machine gunner in a weapons platoon. 

After being bottled-up in the Bocage of the Norman countryside where progress was often measured in a few hundred yards – at the close of July he participated in Operation Cobra - the breakout at Saint-Lô.  In the ensuing weeks his unit linked-up with British troops to out-flank and encircle fleeing German forces.  Straining their supply lines to the extreme his unit later provided infantry support to General George Patton’s armored dash across Northern France. 

Howard was convinced that his squad was the first to liberate Belgium when they surprised and captured a group of unsuspecting German soldiers sipping wine at a Belgian café.  You would have to take his word for it.  Later in September he was wounded in the Meuse River crossing and for Howard the war was over. 

Recovered from his wounds Howard served in the occupation army in Germany, returned home, went to school, got married and raised a family.  If he was alive today he would be 94 years old. 

Funny thing is that other than vague and general terms he rarely spoke of his time in combat as I was growing-up.  It wasn’t until I was in college that the details emerged. 

My first of three trips to France was in 2012 and Jill and I spent time touring the Normandy battlefield in a rental car.  Meticulous records maintained by the US Army allowed us to literally retrace Howard’s footsteps through the Norman countryside.  Spooky stuff for sure. 

I’ve included a couple of photos from the invasion beachhead that are before and after pics of real places he may have walked. 

Raising a toast to the Greatest Generation for liberating continent Europe from totalitarian rule....

beach sea wall

 

beachhead bunker