Thoughts of D-Day, and Memorial Day
In a thousand year old church in Angoville-au-Plain, a tiny village in Normandy just a few miles inland from D-Day’s Utah Beach, there is a stark reminder of the cost of war. In that church, on June 6, 1944, paratrooper medics Robert Wright (then 20) and Kenneth Moore set up a field hospital. They treated both American and German wounded as the battle raged around them. They used the pews as makeshift beds for their patients.
70 years later, the blood of the young fighting men still stains the pews.
A stunning stained glass window commemorates the parachutists of the 101st Airborne Division who rescued their village from Nazi tyranny in the early hours of D-Day.
The church at Angoville-au-Plain was just one of the Normandy invasion sites I visited in a 2006 pilgrimage to this seminal battlefield of World War Two. I walked the beach at Omaha, where thousands died under heavy fire; and at Utah, where they had an easier time of it – “only” 400 died there. I visited the gun emplacements at Point du Hoc, where Rangers scaled 200 foot high cliffs to silence German artillery batteries.
And I visited the American War Cemetery near Omaha Beach, where nearly 10,000 young American fighting men, just a portion of those killed in the battle for Normandy, lie buried. At American military cemeteries around the world, and across our country, hundreds of thousands of our fighting men and women lie at rest.
The trip to Normandy was sobering. A trip that brought up conflicting feelings. Even though I am a veteran, I am basically against war. And yet, if there was ever a war that was justified, it was the fight against Fascism in Europe. And so I am proud of those young fighting men who gave their lives so that we could have our freedom intact.
Another conflicting thought: Why do young men and women have to die, when old men make mistakes that lead to war? The men and women who fought the wars of the 20th century were young – their average age was in the late teens to young 20s. What makes our leaders think that they can so easily spend one of our most valuable resources – our youth?
We observe Memorial Day to remember their sacrifice. And in a week and a half, we will observe the 70th anniversary of D-Day, the invasion of Europe that stemmed the Nazi tide, and led to victory in Europe.
Our soldiers have been there for us when we needed them. They were there for us at Angoville-au-Plain in 1944. They were in Normandy to save our freedom. And for many, all they have for us to remember them are the blood-stained pews in a 1000 year old church in Normandy, a white marble cross in the cemetery at Omaha Beach, and our undying gratitude.
Remember their sacrifice today, and on June 6th.
by Rob Howard, Associate Editor
The Gayly – May 26, 2014 @ 11:40am