Imagine yourself back in 1944. Seventy years ago, today.
You have a son, husband, brother, father, or just a friend stationed in England that you know will be part of an invasion force to liberate Europe from Nazi Occupation. Casualties of such an invasion are expected to be high.
It is just past midnight, June 6th, on the eastern coast of the U.S. when the radio begins broadcasting news picked up from German radio stations that they are playing music for the invasion fleet landing at Normandy, France. The War Department in Washington won’t confirm the news from German sources that the invasion has begun until hours later.
By the time the beachheads are secured and the day ends in victory, more than *4400 Allied troops will be killed and 10,000 wounded, but Hitler’s European Fortress was breached.
“Thank you,” to those brave veterans who returned home and to those who rest at the American Cemetery and Memorial overlooking the beaches of Normandy, in Colleville-sur-Mer, France.
* The US National D-Day Memorial Foundation has recently done an extensive review of military records since the official the D-Day invasion casualty report was given at approx. 2500 killed. They have recorded the names of individual Allied personnel killed on 6 June 1944 in Operation Overlord, and so far they have verified 2499 American D-Day fatalities and 1915 from the other Allied nations, a total of 4414 dead (much higher than the traditional figure of 2500 total dead). Further research may mean that these numbers will increase slightly in future. The details of this research will in due course be available on the Foundation’s website at www.dday.org.
Disclaimer: On January 4, 2016, the owner of WestEastonPA.com began serving on the West Easton Council following an election. Postings and all content found on this website are the opinions of Matthew A. Dees and may not necessarily represent the opinion of the governing body for The Borough of West Easton.
