Jim Bratten
Seventy-five years ago this Friday, June 6, 1944, Operation Overlord commenced; the Allied invasion to save Europe from occupation by Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler’s National Socialism had engulfed the continent and threatened the survival of the Western democracies. His armies had to be defeated.
There may be no day that is a better illustration of American exceptionalism, or the good our country brings to this world, than the incredible sacrifice of Americans that fateful day; men who gave their all to conquer French beaches named Omaha and Utah.
Lieutenant Ray Nance, 28, and Captain Taylor Fellers, 29, led Company A of the 116th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Division, a company of 170 men. Capt. Fellers and his men in Company A approached Omaha Beach pre-dawn.
Allied generals expected one in four to be a casualty by the end of the day. Fellers’ and Nance’s Company A, the first wave of men to hit Omaha, were all on that beach by 6:45 a.m. British Naval officers in charge of the Higgins boats called it the “suicide wave.”
Fellers’ and the other 29 men in his Higgins boat all perished within minutes of landing, hit by volleys of bullets and mortar rounds. Lt. Nance’s boat arrived minutes later. By the time he waded through the surf and reached the sand of the beach he saw no one from Company A. His rifle wet and useless, one of his heels blown off and shot in one hand, Nance crawled forward, using the corpses of his fallen buddies for cover, until he reached the base of the cliffs. Only one other man survived from his boat.
Of the 170 men from Company A, 91 were killed and 64 wounded; leaving only 15 fit to fight. That day, Allied casualties totaled 10,000 and 4,413 brave men lost their lives. But the enemy was doomed to defeat and freedom would be preserved for hundreds of millions. Sadly, people forget the 150,000 brave souls that landed on Normandy that day to liberate Europe.
Today, 72% of students are unaware who fought in World War II or why. Hopefully, what D-Day heroes sacrificed 75 years ago may never have to be repeated. Hopefully.
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