The Night of June 6, 1944

(Tracks Across Europe - Dal Estes)

My Captain Gryzbek came to me at about 7pm asking me to set up the defense of our area that night. Luckily, I decided to place a guard under the training table after it turned dark.  The table set under a large apple tree and helped to shadow a man hiding there.  Firing of all types continued.

Captain Gryzbek had lost all of his equipment so I gave him my sleeping bag, knowing full well that I would not be able to sleep anyway.  His driver asked if he could stay with our unit, which I consented to.

We set up our guard watch at two hour periods starting at 10pm.  All of our men dug fox holes.  This placed our 12 men at two different positions to cover the orchard that night.  Pvt. Mahlon Tressler went on guard at midnight under the table, and I found a small depression under a tree to lie down in.  At 1am there was a shot from under the table and I immediately crawled up to see what had happened. Mahlon said, "I got one coming in."  We crawled up to the arch entrance and found a dead German.  He had a sniper rifle and had clearly intended to get into the house to kill our officers.

All evening and all night long we were under constant enemy fire of various types.  About 10:30pm or so, a lone plane came over the beach but it was too dark to fire on.  We dubbed it "Bed Check Charlie" from then on.  And as far as we could learn, he did no harm.

(Tracks Across Europe - Dal Estes)
(Full Disclosure - Dad had remembered the wrong man in the original manuscript - he had the wild man Tommy Milos.  He changed it later.  I was writing from an original document.  I edited it to be Orville Munson but was lovingly corrected by my sister, that it was Mahlon Tressler.

Present Day:
I spent the evening of June 6th at an event in a small village near St. Laurent Sur Mer.  It was a gathering held in a community center to honor two WWII Veterans with a unique connection, and to honor 50 people from Bedford, Virginia who flew in to remember the Bedford Boys.

Bedford, Virginia is unfortunately known as having the most losses per capita of any other US town during WWII.  In 1944, Bedford had a population of just over 3,000.  Today it's just over 6,000.  In the first minutes of D-Day, Bedford lost 19 of it's boys.  Later in the war, three more were killed.  These were young men who had joined the National Guard and ended up in the very first wave of D-Day while serving in the 116th Regiment of the 29th Division.  The same division as my Dad.  The entire division and the Bedford Boys were honored at a wreath laying ceremony at Vierville sur Mer, the afternoon of D-Day.  (Photo below. (Gentlemen saluting was 29th Veteran from WWII)

Two of the traveling Bedford contingent stayed in the same home with us on Omaha Beach.  Linda and Alec Daniel from Bedford are members of the Bedford International Alliance, a group that maintains the National DDay Memorial in Bedford, as well as a "sister city" relationship with St. Laurent Sur Mer, France.  The two towns have visited each other frequently, have student exchanges and have developed great relationships over the years.  During the dinner, they exchanged gifts and each organization gave short speeches.  Beyond the formality of the presentations, it was clear that on both sides there is a familiarity and friendship between them.  Which is funny, given the language barrier.  The travelers from Virginia SOUND like they are from southern Virginia.  Let me be blunt - you would never mistake them for northerners.  Contrast that with the very proper French accents in the room.  It was like the United Nations of linguistics.  It was fascinating and a couple of times, very funny. Imagine a group game of Pictionary (hands flailing about trying to explain what they meant) with the audio backdrop of a Southern drawl and French.  I just sat back and watched.  But beyond the humor,  it was moving to see that people of such different backgrounds were brought together by such a tragedy.  People who would have no other reason to know each other or attempt to know each other.  An example of good, coming from bad.

The other two people who were honored were Jean and Ed Tierney, both veterans of WWII.  They met aboard a C47 and married a year later.  Ed was the pilot, Jean was a nurse.  They are 92 and 93, respectively and charming, both of them.  Jean stood up and talked about the reason they had returned to Normandy so many times since the war, "because it felt like home" she said. Ed stood up slowly, leaned on the table for support and spoke to the audience in French. It was amazing.  They were presented medals by the city. As I sat and watched them throughout the evening, I wondered how many more times they would make it back.  Of the over 16 million veterans who served our country in WWII, less than 1 million remain.

(Photo of Ed and Jean, older couple seated at the table.)