The 75th Anniversary of D-Day brought to mind the experiences of three of our family members during World War II.
Uncle Ed arrived on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day+1. According to my mother, Ed’s younger sister by six years, Ed (pictured above) was sent to Europe immediately after basic training but was not allowed to communicate with his family. Subsequently, the family learned that he had been sent to England to ready for the invasion.
According to my mother, “He said he would never forget what the Channel looked like, all blood and guts. ‘It was terrible,’ he said. ‘Men were screaming. It was horrible.’”
To make matters worse, my uncle and another soldier were struck by lightning. Fortunately, doctors and medics were nearby and the men were treated immediately. My uncle suffered no aftereffects of the strike.
Soon, he was sent to Belgium to continue the fight against the Nazis.
Ironically, if the weather had not postponed the D-Day Invasion, the troops would have been landing on the very day my mother was graduating from high school. It is hard to imagine the mixed emotions her parents must have been feeling. Even though the did not know for sure that their son would be involved in the invasion, they must have worried about the possibility.
My father served in Germany in the occupation forces after Nazi Germany fell. He liked to tell the story of playing baseball on an Army team in front of a huge crowd in Germany. Of course, the crowd was actually there to see a soccer game–as part of the healing process–and not baseball.
It is also a point of pride in our family, that my grandfather, Ed’s and my mother’s father, met General Eisenhower. My grandfather, an Italian immigrant, worked for a Philadelphia firm that custom-made Eisenhower’s uniforms. My grandfather was a presser. So, the thinking goes that my grandfather was the last to touch the uniforms before they went to Eisenhower.
After the war, when he was in Philadelphia, the General stopped at my grandfather’s place of work to thank them for the terrific work they did and shook my grandfather’s hand.
Several years ago, I saw one of Eisenhower’s uniforms on display as part of an exhibit in the National Archives in D.C. Was it one that my grandfather worked on? Without any basis in fact, I’m going to say yes.
Just because it’s nice to imagine!
The Q-View 