This D-Day Division Was Nearly Disbanded Before Becoming One of Patton's Best
A German mine tore open the Navy transport USS Susan B. Anthony off Utah Beach on the morning of June 7, 1944. The ship lost power and went down within a few hours of the blast, the only large troop ship sunk in the entire invasion. Everyone aboard got off alive, including thousands of soldiers […]
Museum's Hidden D-Day Truth: The Untold Story of 101st Airborne
The D-Day exhibit inside Fort Campbell’s new Tennessee Wings of Liberty Museum does not begin on the beach. It begins behind it. Inside the museum that officially opened this month is the story of June 6, 1944, told by the soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division who jumped into Normandy before dawn, landing behind Utah […]
D-Day Soldiers Missing for 81 Years Finally Identified as 16 Are Laid to Rest
Sixteen American soldiers killed on D-Day were interred in a communal grave at Omaha National Cemetery last week, on May 7, more than 81 years after a mine blast and fire aboard their landing craft kept them from ever reaching the beaches of Normandy. The soldiers had been aboard Landing Craft, Infantry (Large)-92, a Coast […]
D-Day to Inchon: 'Greatest Ranger That Ever Was' Tommy Gwynn Dies at 106
An Army Ranger who fought through D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge and the Battle of Inchon, escaped enemy captivity twice and was wounded two dozen times across two wars has died at 106. Thomas Edward “Tommy” Gwynn, known throughout his adopted hometown of Tullahoma, Tennessee, as “the greatest Ranger that ever was,” died Monday, […]
D-Day Veteran and TikTok Star 'Papa Jake' Larson Dies at 102
PARIS (AP) — D-Day veteran ″Papa Jake″ Larson, who survived German gunfire on Normandy’s bluffs in 1944 and then garnered 1.2 million followers on TikTok late in life by sharing stories to commemorate World War II and his fallen comrades, has died at 102. An animated speaker who charmed strangers young and old with his […]
UK D-Day Veteran George Chandler, Who Escorted American Troops to Normandy Beaches, Dies at 99
LONDON — D-Day veteran George Chandler, who sought to counter sometimes glamorous depictions of the landings by recalling the horrors he witnessed escorting U.S. troops to the beaches of northern France as a young Royal Navy gunner, has died, his family said. He was 99. Chandler, who served aboard a British motor torpedo boat during […]
80 Years After D-Day, the Family of a Black World War II Combat Medic Receives His Medal for Heroism
WASHINGTON — Waverly B. Woodson Jr., who was part of the only African American combat unit involved in the D-Day invasion during World War II, spent more than a day treating wounded troops under heavy German fire — all while injured himself. Decades later, and nearly 20 years after his death, his family finally received […]
Remains of Jewish D-Day Soldier Lost for 80 Years in Nazi Mass Grave Will Be Buried in Normandy
The case of Army 1st Lt. Nathan B. Baskind was unique in the annals of the more than 73,000 U.S. service members still listed as missing in action from World War II, and the case had long gone cold. The case of Army 1st Lt. Nathan B. Baskind was unique in the annals of the […]
Black D-Day Combat Medic's Long-Denied Medal Tenderly Laid on Omaha Beach Where He Bled, Saved Lives
OMAHA BEACH, France (AP) — A medal richly deserved but long denied to an African American combat medic wounded on Omaha Beach in the D-Day landings was tenderly laid Friday on the hallowed sands where he saved lives and shed blood. U.S. First Army soldiers held a ceremony in honor of Cpl. Waverly B. Woodson […]
What Ike Remembered When Returning to the Beaches of Normandy 20 Years After D-Day
In the early morning hours of June 6, 1944, the paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division tried to ease the concerns of Army Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had just given the go order for the D-Day landings after one last bout of wrangling with the allies. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander Allied Expeditionary Force, now […]