June Sixth 1944: Civilization's D-Day
Is Memorial Day a Happenstance?

My last three months of the war gave me a real respect for the about 300,000 Combat Infantrymen who died and the near 1,000,000 wounded.

D-Day Invasion Courtesy: mikelavella.com

(MOLALLA, Ore.) - As a grizzled World War II Combat Infantry Veteran, I reminisce about both June 6, 1944 and the meaning of Memorial Day. It seems providential that they are only days apart.

In 1940 etcetera, I didn’t have a thought in my mind about being shot at with artillery, mortars, air strafing or bombs. WW II was 6000 miles away but I did help build an Air Base in Alaska and the Swan Island Shipyard in Portland.

Right after December 7, 1941 the Day of Infamy when Japan hit Pearl Harbor we were all pulled up short. The U.S. pulled together as it never had before or since.

About 16,000,000 were in the armed forces. I don’t think any of us really wanted to be there. Basic Training was a pain in the butt and an insult to the soul but nearly all of us survived, somewhat.

I was a college graduate in chemistry and KNEW the Army could use a bright young chemist. WRONG! I volunteered anyhow and had Basic Training in Chemical Warfare. I arrived for Basic Training on D-Day and in the Day Room my new comrades in arms were huddled around a small radio. The place was quiet as a morgue except for the radio. “What’s going on?” I asked. “It’s D-Day in Europe.” and everybody just froze.

We had been expecting this and many had been training for up to two years but it still was a punch in the guts.

The horrific news filtered back very slowly and in fact casualties were under-reported (to conceal from the Germans).

The invasion attack on D-Day was made by about 5000 ships, 2700 were landing craft containing 176,000 soldiers. The Airborne had 13,000.

We also had 11,000 planes available but only 7,500 sorties. The first day 100,000 landed with 30,000 vehicles.

By nightfall about 6000 of the landing were casualties with about 2000 dead. The Airborne had about 2500 casualties. Omaha Beach had about 2000 and Utah about 200. About one-third were dead.

The war and the casualties increased from there. There were about 60,000 U.S. casualties per month and by December 1944 we had 1,500,000 casualties with about 300,000 dead, mostly Infantry but also Combat Engineers and Tankers. The Air Force fliers also had severe casualties and very few 10 man bomber crews survived 25 required missions.

I was lucky, I arrived in January 1945 at the end of The Battle of the Bulge. The battle sites we visited were enough to freeze your guts. How could anyone survive the near total destruction, well many didn’t. The casualty rates during that battle approached 90,000 per month.

My last three months of the war gave me a real respect for the about 300,000 Combat Infantrymen who died and the near 1,000,000 wounded. I memorialized my fallen comrades. How can I honor and thank those who died or were wounded so that I could survive. It is simple but profound. There is no way I can thank them enough.

I FEEL THE SAME FOR MY CURRENT COMBAT COMRADES HOORAH!

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