https://exploringrworld.com/a-visit-to-the-d-day-beaches-gold-juno-and-sword/
June 6 was the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Under
General Dwight D. Eisenhower, over 160,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches
of Normandy, France, to gain the European foothold in Europe that led to the
defeat of Germany a year later. History tells us that more than 5,000 ships and
13,000 aircraft supported the invasion. Of the landed troops, more than 9,000
were killed or wounded. Some died jumping from the Higgins boats into the rough
surf. Cousin Cal said the heavy packs pulled some under, and if it helped if
one could swim, Cal said it is debatable.
D-Day – or any other war or invasion – just didn’t happen
“over there.” Kewaunee County has been touched by all the wars. Even the War of
1812. Then British sloops Felicity and Archangel were patrolling
Lake Michigan to keep an eye on the French and alliances they might be forming
with Native Americans. Joseph McCormick, who first visited the area in 1834, came out
of that war with the rank of Major. He is buried in the Evergreen Cemetery.
Civil War veterans were buried in Ahnepee/Ahnapee/Algoma before McCormick, but
his military service was the earliest. Ahnepee/Ahnapee/Algoma men were among
the Kewaunee County men who served in the Civil War and in those after. Algoma
men were among the Kewaunee County men at Normandy too.
During late summer 1944, Algoma Record Herald carried
a reprint from Canton Repository. The article looked back at D-Day
saying that America was not then fighting with money and material, but with
thousands of lives. The Repository said that until war struck home, it
was not understood. It was happening daily with telegrams from the Secretary of
War saying he “regrets to announce…..” or “he died heroically.” The article
went on to say that survivors paid in sorrow for the sacrifice of the dead and
only survivors were qualified to speak of the war.
This anniversary probably marks the last time World War ll
veterans will be in attendance for the anniversary event. Few who lived through
World War ll are alive now. Who will begin to understand the sacrifices made at
Normandy and all over the world in a few years?
The National World War ll Museum at New Orleans says that of
the 160,000 allied troops storming a 50-mile stretch of the Normandy coast,
there were 8,230 U.S. men who were killed in action, wounded in action, or
reported missing. Thousands more allied troops were wounded or were missing.
Algoma men were among those in the ships, landing craft and planes, or in the
50,000 vehicles striking beaches with code names such as Utah, Omaha, Juno, Gold,
and Sword. Omaha Beach saw the greatest number of casualties. Second Lt.William Murphy was born in Oconto but located in Kewaunee in 1945. He was known to be at the Omaha Beach landing with the 35th Division. Kewaunee's Sgt. Marvin Zimmermann was there with the 3rd Division.
By June 11, when the beachheads were secured, over 326,000
men had crossed with over 100,000 tons of equipment. Eleven months later, on
May 8, 1945, Germany surrendered.
The Nevada was the only ship present at both Pearl
Harbor and Normandy, and Gunner’s Mate Ray Gerhart was aboard. Gerhart manned
the big guns. Another on board was Pharmacist’s Mate 3c Melvin Nessinger who
was kept busy in sick bay. Being launched in 1914 and serving in World War l,
the old battleship was the flagship at the Utah Beach landing. Hit by 7 bombs
and 2 torpedoes at Pearl Harbor, the ship lost 120 men.
U.S. Navy Seaman Melvin F. Lessmiller was one who took part
in the invasion of Iwo Jima and in the invasion of the Philippine Islands. He also
took part in D-Day though aboard the Texas, the sister ship of the Nevada.
When Pfc. Thomas Kaye returned to Algoma, the Record
Herald noted his certificate from his commanding general, Maj. Gen. Charles
H. Gerhardt, who recognized the unusual fighting toughness of his 29th
Infantry Division at Normandy. All participants of Normandy were entitled to
one star on their theater ribbons. Kaye was wounded at Normandy in July and
returned to the front six weeks later.
Seaman Melvin Nessinger wrote to his parents from the Nevada,
telling them D-Day was something Hollywood could never reproduce. He said
several hours before H-hour, the sky was lit with dropping shells, but the men
didn’t know whose shells they were. He said their minds were torn by what
they’d find and the mines that lined roads. Nessinger contrasted the tracers’
beautiful patterns across the sky as the ship vibrated in the drone of over 800
bombers and shells hitting an 8-mile stretch of beach.
Although the Germans knew Normandy was going to happen, their
intelligence didn’t have the exact timing. Weather made the difference. Shore
batteries were firing on the invasion fleet when just after dawn Messerschmitts
came out of a cloud bank to meet tracer fire. For Nessinger, hours melted into
days and nights, and during the days one could see Allied transports from
horizon to horizon as bombers and fighters worked to find enemy positions. Mel
thanked folks for their letters and the prayers which he said were being heard.
He was proud to be serving on the ship and glad his parents had heard how well
the men on the Nevada accounted for themselves. The Nevada set
new records for accuracy that day.
Though Lessmiller was in the Navy at Iwo Jima and Normandy,
he credited the Marines when he told his parents that the Marines have “what it
takes, and they take what they land on, no matter what.” Both Nessinger and
Gerhart went on to remind Algoma residents to keep buying war bonds because on
D-Day alone the Nevada presented “the Germans with a gift of a million
and a half dollars in ammunition alone.” To put that into perspective, that
amount would be about $26,000,000.00 in 2024.
When Judge Donald Gleason spoke at Algoma High School’s 1944
commencement, he offered graduates advice and encouragement. He referenced the
war and D-Day saying the graduates would never forget their “graduation and
D-Day – the day of the European invasion.” It is doubtful that any ever did.
A week or two later, the Record Herald editorialized
about the thousands and thousands of “American boys” giving their lives to
“erase Nazi tyranny from the face of this globe.” The paper pointed out that
such tragedy stirred others and that a steady flow of war materials was
necessary. The paper went on to say that maybe production wasn’t as dramatic as
men struggling against machine guns but production was imperative. The paper
opined that one day Algoma residents might learn that Algoma-made airplane and
glider parts played a role in the invasion of Europe. Residents did indeed
learn the role of Algoma Plywood in its production of boat hulls, airplane
wings, nose cones and the plywood being shipped to other places for further
manufacturing.
And the U.S.S. Nevada? Wikipedia tells us that Nessinger
and Gerhart served aboard the 2nd U.S. Navy ship to be named for the
36th state. Launched in 1914, it was the lead ship of two
Nevada-class battleships and the first of the “standard-type” battleships.
Trapped at Pearl Harbor during the attack on December 7, it was the only
battleship to get underway during the attack. The damaged ship was salvaged and
modernized to serve in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. In addition to the
invasion of Normandy, the U.S.S. Nevada took part in the bombing of
Cherbourg and the invasion of southern France. When the war was over, the old
battleship was used for atomic bomb practice. It was decommissioned in August
1946 and later sunk for naval gunfire practice.
Nessinger, Gerhart, and Lessmiller told some of their D-Day stories. Stangelville’s James Steinberger never did. He was one of the thousands killed at D-Day. The Record Herald said that “up and down the quiet streets of this country and along rural highways, the homes of America were paying the price for D-Day.” Casualty lists were beginning to catch up.
Twenty-two-year-old Pvt. Steinberger, of Co. M, 16th
U.S. Infantry, served a little over a year before he was killed in action. He
was buried at a military cemetery in France until remains were brought home in
April 1948. He was posthumously awarded Bronze Star. There were memorial rites for Staff Sergeant Sylvan Seidl who was missing
in action on November 20. Seidl took part in the D-Day invasion with the 28th
Infantry and saw action in Luxembourg where he was wounded. On December 15,
1944, Kewaunee Enterprise told readership that Casco’s Sgt. Sylvan Seidl,
29, was missing in action in Luxembourg on the German frontier, according to
messages from the Red Cross and from the War Department. He enlisted in July
1941 and was awarded a Purple Heart.
The July 28, 1944, paper brought news of another death. Town
of Luxemburg Army Paratrooper Cpl. Joseph Treml was another killed in action at
Normandy on June 21. He was a veteran of North African campaigns and Sicily
before being transferred to Ireland. From there he took part in the Normandy
invasion. A memorial requiem mass was held at Casco.
Gerhart said four days before the ship was sealed with no
outside contact permitted. When they got underway, the invasion was called off
so they spent 12 hours at sea while mine sweepers were busy cleaning the
channel. When the invasion started, they could hear the bombardment 100 miles
from the Normandy coast. He said when they got to their objective, they found
it was a complete surprise to the Germans but at “6:00 all hell tore loose.”
Their first job was breaking down the German wall on the shoreline, blowing it
up to that the landing forces and tanks could get through. He said it was a
giant structure of concrete and steel, 12’ thick and 8’ thick wide, constructed
all along the Normandy coast except where there were natural cliffs. Blowing up
that wall consisted of 10 rapid salvos into the structure. After that, they
switched to beach targets. Gerhart described the marshes along the Normandy
coast that were flooded by the Germans to protect against invasion.
Raymond Julius Gerhart was born in Algoma on September 4,
1921, and died on October 15, 1979, in San Diego, California. He is buried in
El Camino Memorial Park
The Nevada was at her station for 79 hours and when
the ammunition ran out, the ship returned to an English port, reloaded, and
went right back out. All in all, the Nevada was at Normandy a week.
Every night, he said, they were under attack by the German’s new radio-controlled
bomb, but with a new secret defense installed on the ship, the bombs dropped
harmlessly out of the way. Lessmiller and
Nessinger were proud of their work and said that on D-Day the Nevada set
new records for accuracy in fire.
During July 1981, Record Herald ran an article about Larry
Zirbel, the youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Zirbel, who spent D-Day aboard
ship. Zirbel, who no longer lived in the area, served in the Navy and spent 38
months on a troop transport, making 13 round trips taking 6,000 men across the
Atlantic and bringing German prisoners to the U.S. on the return trip. After
D-Day, passengers were wounded Americans.
Coast Guardsman Darwin J. Paul was a member of the Naval
crew in the American Assault Force on the D-Day invasion and Lt. Adrian
O’Konski was with the 8th Air Force when he was awarded the Air
Medal for exceptionally meritorious achievement. He was a navigator on a Flying
Fortress and took part in what he called “the greatest show ever staged -the
D-Day invasion of June 6.”
Pfc. John R. Liebl of Luxemburg was a member of the glider
troops of the 82nd Airborne Infantry Div. that had landed hours
before American, Canadian, and English troops were wading to the beaches of
France on D-Day. Liebl’s division held off two full German divisions that were
trying to stop the landings. They captured two towns and fought for and held
four bridges. Lt. Ted Burmeister of Kewaunee received a Presidential citation
leading an assault at Normandy. Otto W. Marek, Jr., formerly of Kewaunee was
wounded at Normandy.
Also at Normandy was the U.S. Corps of Engineers' tug Ludington, now in Kewaunee's harbor and open to being toured. The tug belonged to the Army in 1944. It eventually was taken to Charleston where four Kewaunee area men were sent to get it. Renamed, the Ludinton was the workhorse of the Great Lakes and worked on Lake Michogan's harbors and piers and well beyond.
Sources: Algoma Record Herald; Kewaunee Enterprise; World War ll Museum, New Orleans, visit.
Map: https://exploringrworld.com/a-visit-to-the-d-day-beaches-gold-juno-and-sword/
Paintings: NLJ Art
