YEARS AFTER D-DAY

Seventy-five

years ago this June, the D-Day landings on the Normandy beaches of northern France fundamentally altered the course of World War II and thus the history of the world that followed. Tens of thousands of books and articles have been written about D-Day looking at it from a variety of angles. Some focus on the leaders, the tactics, and the strategy of the campaign; others examine the equipment, the vehicles, or even the weather. Nearly every conceivable aspect of the event has received scholarly treatment to some degree.

The Wisconsin Veterans Museum's approach of relating American military history through examining the personal stories of the individual Wisconsin men and women who were part of it allows us to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day in a unique way. We preserve dozens of stories of D-Day participants from the Badger State, and we are always looking for more. Following is a small sample of some of those stories that help us understand D-Day, as well as the ways that Wisconsin veterans participated in it...

IN APRIL 1944, on the southern coast of England, Allied forces held a large-scale rehearsal for the D-Day landings called Exercise Tiger. Madison native EUGENE E. ECKSTAM, a Navy medical officer, took part in the training aboard LST 507. Awoken at 1:30 a.m., he heard gunfire and about thirty minutes later felt the ship lurch.

"My first thought was some kind of explosion, like maybe we hit a mine or something. I really didn't know and I don't think it was until quite a few minutes after that that we heard it was a torpedo hit us and that they'd seem a lot of small boats running around so it could have been a German fast boat or a German E-boat."

By chance, a group of German E-boats encountered a convoy of LSTs participating in Exercise Tiger and attacked. Two of the eight LSTs sank, including Eckstam's. A fire spread toward vehicles and artillery shells, causing explosions.

"The ship got so hot that even through our heavy thick military shoes it was just like walking on bare tar in the hot summertime. I climbed down the cargo net and eased into the water which I later found was forty-four degrees, very cold."

Eckstam floated in the deadly cold sea for over three hours before being rescued. More than 200 sailors from his ship died, some in the explosion but others from drowning and hypothermia. Allied leaders feared that this incident would tip off the Germans to their plans for D-Day and almost called off the invasion.

Norman C. Herro of Milwaukee served in the Army Air Forces as a navigator aboard a C-47 transport aircraft tasked with dropping behind enemy lines the very first American troops to land on Normandy‚ even before the main airborne drop that preceded the beach assaults at dawn.

mission was to drop these specially trained Pathfinder paratroopers‚ to get them on the ground so that they could set up beacons, so that the mass of aircraft following us, forty-five minutes later, the whole entire groups could come in and home in on those beacons."

Janesville native Joseph D. Reilly jumped into Normandy with the 101st Airborne Division five hours before the assault troops landed on the beaches. As they approached their drop zone four or five miles inland from Utah Beach, Reilly remembered:

"The planes all dropped as low as possible. With all my equipment, I knew it wouldn't take long to reach the ground. As the wind fills the chute, you feel the familiar snap on your harness and I quickly said a prayer hoping I didn't have too many blown panels because at 800 or 900 feet, if your main chute has any problems, forget the reserve, you're too close to activate it. It was a dark night and the ground came up to meet me just as my eyes saw some trees outlined in the dimness."

Making his way through the darkness, Reilly spent the next several hours joining up with other paratroopers that landed nearby. As H-Hour approached for the assault troops on the beach, he remembered witnessing the naval bombardment that preceded the landings:

"We could hear some more small arms fire and then some heavy artillery in the distance. We came through a hedgerow and walked up a hill. When we got to the top, we kept a low profile and what we saw was awe-inspiring. About a mile away, we could see a coastal gun emplacement. A few radiomen from the Navy, who jumped with us, were just beginning to give us a show I'll never forget. On their radios, they contacted some battlewagons offshore. Their firepower was very impressive. When I saw the projectiles come and land near the heavy concrete Nazi pillboxes, first saw the blue ball of fire and then heard the explosion. They fired for about an hour and I just thanked God they were on our side."

A radioman on a patrol torpedo (PT) boat, Beloit native Donald E. Fisher deployed to Europe in the spring of 1944. "We got here in April, and went operational on the night of June fifth‚ the night before D-Day. Our job then was to screen the minesweepers which were clearing a path for the invasion fleet, protecting them against possible attacks by German E-boats."

While they didn't encounter any E-boats, Fisher and PT 503 faced other dangers. One boat from our squadron hit a mine. "We were under fire from German shore batteries, and they split one minesweeper right alongside us, but we weren't hit."

Earl O. Ganzow a native of Fort Atkinson, arrived in England in May 1944 and became part of the 237th Combat Engineer Battalion. With that unit, he took part in the Utah Beach landing, and he described it as much as censorship would allow in a June 8 letter to his wife, Marian.

"I suppose you really are on needles and pins reading the news in the paper and over the radio. Well honey, that's what it really is over here and I mean it's hell. I sure hope I don't have to go any further than I am right now. It sure is a sight and I mean wicked. But we got to get these Germans out of the way fast and we are really doing it, too."

MOTHER'S DAY SALE

APRIL 28-MAY 14

USE CODE: MOM20

FATHER'S DAY SALE

JUNE 1-JUNE 21

USE CODE: DAD20

Less than a week later, he wrote with additional details.

"Well honey, here are a few things that happened while we made our beach head landing on the day of the invasion. I can't say I was the first one to make the landing but the Eng[ineer Battalion] I am with now did and it sure was a battle. I hope for God's sake these guys don't have to make any more like that 'cause I'll be right there with them the next time. I was one of the men that came in on the third wave but we did not have it so bad as the 1st wave. But they just batter the hell out of the Gerries and I don't mean maybe. But I'll tell you more about it if I ever get home."

We will be sharing more stories of D-Day from our collections as we observe the 75th anniversary of this fateful event. If you know of a Wisconsin veteran who took part and want their story to be preserved and shared along with these, please let us know.

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