July
24:
Company C, 3110th Signal Service
Battalion boards boat for Normandy, earning Normandy
Campaign Participation Credit for being off English soil and on
the water before 2400 on the last day of the Normandy Campaign. July 25: Company C lands on Utah Beach. |
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![]() Felix's copy of General
Eisenhower's letter to the troops deploying to Normandy
(All images are from the collection of Felix A. Cizewski. © 2010 the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center.) |
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Copies of General Eisenhower's
letter on other sites: http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=75 http://www.eisenhower.utexas.edu/dl/DDay/SoldiersSailorsAirmen.pdf |
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Normandy:
What
a Signalman may have experienced
"The enduring memory of Normandy is that of the dramatic and heroic invasion of 6 June and the great breakout and pursuit emanating from COBRA at the end of July. Yet most of the campaign was a grim struggle and those who fought there are more likely to remember the dreadful bocage; the heat, the mud and dust; the terror of unseen mortar and sniper fire; the incessant artillery and aerial bombardments; and the loss of many an enemy that was rarely seen. Certainly few who fought there in the hot summer of 1944 would dispute Rommel , who gave the campaign its epitaph: 'It was one terrible blood-letting.'" From: Carlo D'Este, Decision in Normandy "Although the Luftwaffe possessed no power to impede Allied operations seriously, it was still capable of causing considerable irritation, and even acute fear among men living and working on their principal targets, the beaches. "Each night, up to 50 Luftwaffe aircraft droned overhead, bombing almost at random, yet wit the near certainty of hitting something in the crowded perimeter. The Americans called the night visitation 'Bedcheck Charlie'. "The men behind the beaches--a great army of support and supply troops (emphasis added), inevitably not the most highly-trained or best equipped to withstand bombardment--dug themselves deeper and deeper into the dunes. "'We were terrified by the bombing,' said an NCO who had landed with a port construction company on 6 June, expecting to proceed immediately to Caen to reopen its facilities. Instead he and his comrades were stranded for weeks behind the beaches in bewilderment and misery. 'We were so frightened, so glad to be alive every morning. We hadn't expected to be in anything like that.' Each night they lay down in their gas masks, as protection from the great smokescreen that was ignited to shroud the piers from enemy bomb aimers. "The bald statistics of ...dumps blown up by air attack..and men killed by brief strafing attacks make the Luftwaffe('s)...impact upon the Allied build-up seem slight. Bur for those who were on hand to suffer these small disasters, they seemed very terrible indeed. "Infantry...took great pains to avoid occupying positions near a major signal units (emphasis added) for fear of German radio locators and the fire that they could call down. "The rear areas were littered with...cautionary....signs...simply (stating) DUST MEANS DEATH. Except when rain and bast columns of tracked vehicles had chewed the roads into muddy ruins, one of the greatest perils was the dust thrown up by speeding convoys, bring down a deadly rain of German artillery fire."
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Newsletter
in
French reporting on the return of the French Army (2nd French
Armored Division) to Normandy, France: Original French, HTML format Original French, Adobe PDF format English Translation, HTML format Click on link to download and install Adobe Reader ![]() |
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Scenes of
Normandy, 1944: What Felix may have seen. |
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Felix's
review
of D-Day movies
Dad took his children to see the movie "The Longest Day" which was released in 1962. His only remark was "it wasn't like that". In 1998 when "Saving Private Ryan" was released.I asked asked him if he was there at Normandy. In a joking way, he told about getting as deep into a foxhole as he could. |
INDEX: Cizewski,
Lovetere, Musbach, & Robinson Family History © 2006 - 2010 Leonard H. Cizewski Last Modified on August 3, 2010 |
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