Each June 6th, I honor the D-Day landings, and I think of my Father’s dangerous duty on that day nearly 6,000 miles away.
On the five year commemoration of the landings, I glue myself to the television, and I think of the incredible 160,000 Allied troops that landed on the beaches of France that day, and of the 1 million troops that would be landed on the continent by July 1.
Allied casualties on D-Day (killed, wounded and missing in action) are estimated at 10,000: killed were approximately 2,500: 1,465 American, 676 British, and 359 Canadian. The precision of the prior numbers is very misleading in light of the word “approximate.” The missing in action figure for casualties has never been resolved into killed, and exhaustive research by the National D-Day Foundation has documented 2,477 American dead on D-Day. Each few months Allied bones wash up on the Normandy beaches.
Often forgotten is the fact that in the two months leading up to D-Day, the Allies lost 12,000 fliers in air operations which prepared the way for D-Day.
Nearly all of the troops landing that day on the beaches of France had never heard a shot fired in battle.
On that June day, my father was a quarter of a world away doing what he did six days a week, serving as a bombardier in the Army Air Corp. He analyzed sites and worked out difficult, precise mathematical formulas. Then in the air in a massive bomber over Japanese-occupied China, he released bombs at the exact moment miles before the target.
Bombing raids such as these prevented Japan from continuing their drive further into South East Asia and Australia.
My father, of course, knew nothing of what was happening on D-Day until the news started to leak out over shortwave radios. The Army Air Corp withheld the official information for some time so as not to distract the airmen from their missions.
D-Day, and the A-bombs dropped on Japan were certainly the driving forces that made the end of World War II inevitable, but we must never forget that D-Day was one step of many, and that the American deaths on D-Day were but a part of a incredibly large number.
If the Normandy beach landings had failed, it would have taken longer, much, much longer to defeat Hitler, but in the end the Axis powers would have been defeated.
Approximately 416,800 Americans soldiers were killed in World War II.
My father avoided the gun fire from the ground and from Japanese planes that doomed other bombers, and he came home to South Portland.
Three years and one month after D-Day I was born.
Peter B. Hayward
Copyright © 2009 Peter B. Hayward. All Rights Reserved
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1 response so far ↓
Carl V. // July 5, 2009 at 2:56 pm |
I am equally fascinated and riveted by all things WWII. Regardless of the cynical re-writing of history that seems to be the cause-de-jour in this politically correct climate, I see the men and women who gave their time and their lives as true heroes and I feel strongly nostalgic and proud of our country and people in a time well before my birth. Nothing will change that. It is great that you have this kind of personal connection to that time. I am equally proud of those who serve today. God Bless America!