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Friday, 05 June 2009 |
By KATIE MARTIRE
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Saturday, June 6, 2009 marks the 65th Anniversary of D-Day, WWII veterans are honored with a day to remember the lives lost and the duty they shared by defending our Country against Nazi Germany. Guymon's own, Colonel Norman Wilmeth flew during WWII and is attended a Pilot's Reunion to commemorate D-Day. Hooker local, Melbourne Headrick also served in WWII, "I went on D-Day plus one, one day after they hit the beach, i was there," said Headrick. "I was with the second infantry division, the one with the indian head patch on the shoulder, they are serving in Iraq now. I was in five major campaigns, we went from Normandy Beach, to Breast, from Breast to Siegfried Line and we sat there a while then Battle of the Bulge, from Battle of the Bulge on into Germany, and ended up in Czechoslovakia. I came home immediately because of the Japanese situation. I was supposed to help invade the main land of Japan, I only had 79 points and you had to have 85 to get out, I came home and took a furlough. After Harry Truman instigated the dropping of the bomb and I immediately got a discharge because I was already home then I met a little Guymon gal, we had five children together."
According to www.army.mil.com, around 160,000 allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of a heavily-armed French coastline on June 6, 1944. The allied troops landed on the beach of Normandy to gain a foot-hold against Nazi Germany. Over 9,000 allied soldiers were wounded or killed that day but 100,000 soldiers began the march across Europe to defeat Hitler. More than 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion. As each year passes, less and less of these men are left to tell their story about this tragic yet victorious day.
The most difficult landing of D-Day was at Omaha beach. Navigation problems resulted in many men drowning before they reached land. Omaha Beach also had the largest amount of German troops, and the fighting was fierce. It is the Omaha Beach battle that is reenacted in the opening of the movie Saving Private Ryan. 5. The success of D-Day was a death knell for the Germans. Hitler was forced to fight a two-front war against the Russians on the East and the Americans, British, Canadians, and French on the West. Within a year, Hitler committed suicide, and the war was over.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 08 June 2009 )
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