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SAINTE-M�RE-�GLISE, France (Army News Service, June 11, 2014) --
Barely past midnight, in the first moments of June 6, 1944, hundreds
of aircraft carrying some 24,000 British and American paratroopers
filled the sky over France's northern coast.
The elite
Soldiers were the first boots on the ground for the invasion forces,
and the "tip of the spear" in the liberation of France.
Exposed to fire from the ground during descent, and often dropped
miles away from the intended target, the airborne units also
incurred scarring casualties in their operation, just within the
first hours.
Carrying two parachutes in its city coat of
arms, Sainte-M�re-�glise still remembers the sacrifices of those who
came to its rescue. Recently, municipality officials added a new
monument to its town center, memorializing the men who lost their
lives in the fight for their freedom.
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Maj. Gen. James C. McConville, right, and Maj. Gen. John W. Nicholson, left, unveil a new paratrooper memorial June 8, 2014, in Sainte-Mère-Église, France. McConville is the commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), while Nicholson commands the 82nd Airborne division. Both leaders attended the ceremonies surrounding the 70th anniversary of their units landing in France, on D-Day 1944. (Photo
by USAF Senior Airman Alexander W. Riedel)
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Covered in an olive-drab parachute, the memorial stood
veiled during the 70th D-Day anniversary celebrations until
Maj. Gen. James C. McConville, commander of the 101st
Airborne Division (Air Assault) and Maj. Gen. John W.
Nicholson Jr., commander of the 82nd Airborne Division,
unveiled the memorial stone, June 8.
Displaying the
unit crests of the U.S., British and French Airborne units,
followed by casualty statistics, the monument was designed
to serve as a lasting reminder of the human cost of the
battle, officials said.
"We chose to engrave the
casualties on this monument because (the numbers) illustrate
the amount of courage of these Allied Soldiers," said
Maurice Renaud, son of the wartime mayor and president of
the Friends of American Veterans in Sainte-M�re-�glise. "It
is more than a slab of granite etched with military
insignias and numbers of killed and wounded Soldiers. It is
a reaffirmation of a promise, and that promise is simple: We
will never forget."
The idea for the monument, Renaud
said, came from an airborne veteran, Retired Col. Keith
Nightingale, who served two tours in Vietnam with Airborne
and Ranger units.
"Sainte-M�re-�glise is the
Gettysburg battlefield for the American Airborne troops,"
Nightingale said. "There is no other place they have been
that has the same significance. If they hadn't succeeded
(here), the outcome of the Normandy campaign, particularly
in this part, may have been markedly different."
A
long-time visitor to Normandy, Nightingale said he suggested
that one thing that was missing in the town of Sainte-M�re
�glise.
"Each number on this statue has a name -- a
name of a young Soldier that came here 70 years ago," he
said. "Each had a family and a future he did not see. By
their deaths, they gave all of us what we have and enjoy
today. They are truly the one single family of Normandy."
In attendance during the ceremony were some of the men
who survived the war, to include George Schenkle, a former
corporal who landed near Hill 30, four kilometers outside of
town, with E-Company of the 508th Infantry Regiment, 82nd
Airborne Division.
"It was a cloudy sky and moonlight
was coming through the clouds," Shenkle recalled. "We walked
until we assembled to a larger group, since we were all
pretty scattered and didn't know what to do. When we had
enough people together, we received orders that aimed at
sealing the peninsula, so we could take Cherbourg."
Overcoming the adversity and confusion of the nighttime
landing, Shenkle's unit was instrumental in securing the
town and connecting the landing beaches for a cohesive
advance inland. Later in the war, Shenkle was wounded in the
battle of the bulge and received a Purple Heart.
"Somebody had shot me across the shoulder," he recalled. "It
knocked me down for a moment. I walked back to the aid
station, was taken to the hospital in Birmingham, England,
and it took me three months to get back to my unit."
Shenkle, who also traveled to Normandy to attend the 50th
and 69th anniversaries, said the welcome by local families
is overwhelmingly positive.
"It brings back
memories," he said. "The people here make you feel very
welcome and you don't get that everywhere. They are
genuinely glad to see us and make us welcome."
While
Shenkle said he sometimes resents all the praise heaped upon
him as a survivor of the war, he said the monument is a good
way to remember those who were lost during the fight.
"We lost a lot of good men, and it's good that people
remember what they did and left here," he said.
"The
day will come when none who fought in the battle will be
around," Renaud said. "At some point after that, no one who
has even a personal connection to the liberation will be
here to speak as a firsthand witness. Today, with this
monument, we immortalize the bravest of the brave, the
paratroopers who paid for our freedom, our future, with
their lives 70 years ago. The monument is dedicated to them.
God bless the paratroopers."
By USAF Senior Airman Alexander W. Riedel
Army News Service
Copyright 2014
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