Dad's War

Today marks the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the allied invasion at Normandy, France.  Dad did his basic training at Fort McClellan in Georgia.  He was not part of the initial invasion on June 6th but landed at Utah beach with the 5th Infantry Division on July 9th.  His first engagement in a large battle was at Vidouville on July 26th.  On August 3rd, the 5th Division joined General George Patten's 3rd Army.

It was nonstop fighting from then on with the Battle of the Bulge, Ardenness Forest, the Ruhr Pocket, the Siegfried Line, and Luxemburg right to the liberation of the city of Frankfurt in Germany.  The newspaper clipping my grandmother saved.  The accompanying photo was faded and blurry but I was able to find a better image, lower right.  The middle picture is from the 5th Division yearbook that dad had.  I showed him the picture several years before he died and he said that was him, he remembered the photographer being there very well.

On May 6th the 5th Division was in Volary/Wallern Czechoslovakia where they liberated Jewish women who had been forced on a death march from Helmbrecht Concentration Camp.  They were left behind in a factory because they were too weak to march.  He wrote of the horror of it all in a letter to his sister which I have.  At 8:20am his battalion was ambushed by a German Panza Division and Dad was wounded.  At 8:30am a ceasefire was announced as an armistice was in effect.  After over 330 days of constant enemy engagement, the war was over for Dad, and he was sent first to a field hospital in France and then home to the States.

On November 17th, 1945 General Patton wrote of the 5th Division:
"Nothing I can say can add to the glory which you achieved.  Throughout the whole advance across France you spearheaded the attack of your Corps.  You crossed so many rivers that I am persuaded many of you had webfeet.  I know that all of you have dauntless spirit.  To my mind history does not record incidents of greater valor than you crossing the Sauer and Rhine rivers."

I've added a collage of dad in December, 1945 after his recovery, the Christmas card he sent to his sister where he jotted a few quick words in Luxemborg before the battle and the letter mom received from President Clinton in 1998 when he passed away.  Thank you for taking time to read this rather lengthy post but I wanted you to know what a hero he, and all those soldiers on D-Day, were.   The world owes them our freedom from fascism, a battle, sadly, we are still fighting today in this country.