Six on WW II: 76 years ago yesterday -The triumph and tragedy of D-Day, in black and white; The mighty word on D-Day; Eisenhower had a second, secret D-day message; This Picture Tells a Tragic Story of What Happened to Women After D-Day; These photos
philip panaritis
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“Fred” Smith was a member of the 87th Chemical Mortar Battalion and had just come ashore under heavy fire the morning of June 6. He had been overseas only since April. He had turned 19 on May 3.
75 years after D-Day, veteran still wonders why he was spared.
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He was digging a foxhole when an enemy shell hit, killing him instantly, according to historian Michael Connelly, who has written about the battalion.
Smith was 18 when he registered for the draft a little over a year earlier in Gate City, a small town near Clinch Mountain in southwestern Virginia. He entered the Army on July 17, 1943. His father was a World War I veteran, also an Army private first class, and served in an artillery battery.
Smith’s registration card described him as 5-foot-11 with blond hair and blue eyes. It listed a rural delivery address and noted that there was no telephone in the home. He had one sibling, an older sister named Kathleen.
He was one of the 2,500 Americans who perished on D-Day. And Lawrence, 47, and Callie Smith, 39, almost certainly got a telegram saying their son had been killed in action. His death was noted, among many others, on July 27, 1944, in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. ...
The site is now the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, which contains, row on row, the graves of 9,385 Americans, most of whom were killed on D-Day and during the fighting that followed.
But Smith didn’t stay there.
Four years later, on July 16, 1948, his body was shipped home to Gate City, via Kingsport, Tenn., just over the Virginia state line. A funeral was scheduled for two days later at the First Methodist Church. He was buried in the veterans section of Holston View Cemetery, across the mountain in nearby Weber City.
Pallbearers and color guard were provided by the local American Legion post, according to a newspaper account at the time.
The next day, his father applied to the government for a bronze grave marker. It would simply state that Smith served in World War II and lived from May 3, 1925, to June 6, 1944."
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“You are about to embark on the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months,” declared the supreme Allied commander. “The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.
“In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.
“Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped, and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.
“The tide has turned. The free men of the world are marching together to victory.
“I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory.
“Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.”
An estimated 5,000 Allied troops, including 335 Canadians, would die that day. Eleven months later, their comrades in arms would march into Berlin."
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"The bitter, colossal Battle of Stalingrad was the key turning point of World War II, paving the way for the eventual defeat of Nazi Germany."
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