Writer: Cadet CPT Avah Wetherwax
Photographer: C/CPT Avah Wetherwax
Wiesbaden High Junior ROTC Warrior Battalion traveled to Normandy with 20 Cadets for the D-Day 80 th Anniversary events and saw the sites where history was made. The fateful day of June 6, 1944 and the days that followed the invasion forces landing, first by air then by sea, led the Allied Forces landings into Hitler’s “Atlantic Wall” and opened the Western Front against German forces. The Junior ROTC Cadets, Instructors, Teachers, and Chaperones traveled to a site located on the western edge of Utah Beach near Quineville, France. A significant point to be made was seeing the history of D-Day to understand the daunting challenges encountered in D-Day forces and keeping alive the memory of the Veterans who fought and died on D-Day beaches and drop zones.
The Cadets were divided into groups and assigned segments of the tour to provide a staff brief on the event, forces engaged, and significance of the military action with leadership examples that were essential to success of the mission. Cadets conducted research on the battles within D-Day and this mosaic of stories revealed how all phases of the operations with the small, isolated battles came together to ensure success of the invasion.
The entire group including cadets, Instructors, Teachers, and Chaperones conducted Physical Readiness Training on Utah Beach on the first two days running along the sea wall on Utah beach at Dawn. This displayed the distance involved for those hitting the beach on D-Day as at 0700, it was low tide. The low tide created the exposed approach of nearly one mile to reach the seawall for the troops of the first wave. The Cadets visited the La Fière causeway and the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR) Memorial commemorating where forces from the 507 PIR fought to seize an 82 nd Airborne Division Objective and then hold in a four-day battle. This battle represented the Airborne missions connected to landings as this secured the critical routes off of the beach. The positions fought off mounted German counter attacks seeking to destroy the landing forces on the beaches.
Cadets later moved to Sainte-Mere-Eglise to visit and experience the town market square, and Church where SGT Steel famously remained in his parachute, snagged and dangling from the church bell tower on the entire day of 6 June. The Cadets visited Amferville to see the 1/507 PIR memorial and the D-Day planned “Drop Zone T” where F Company successfully landed. The Cadets were able to observe the Liberty Jump Team conducted a reenactment of the D- Day drop on the evening of 4 June with LTC (R) Jon Ring, Wiesbaden HS JROTC Senior Army Instructor and member of Liberty Jump Team, participating.
Cadets visited the Pointe-Du-Hoc Memorial to have a briefing and to see the key terrain of D- Day which had US Army 2d Ranger Battalion assigned to conduct assault climb from amphibious landing with grappling hooks. Today, the battle-scarred terrain has grass and low bushes, but it still hosts prominently the tremendous craters and cracked or scattered concrete bunkers from the naval bombardment and Army Air Corp sustained bombing that targeted the German heavy gun emplacements. The German guns in this position could easily range Allied landing beaches, and ships of Operation Neptune, the world’s largest seaborne invasion in history. Moving from Pt, Du Huc the cadets next visited Normandy American cemetery in Colleville-Sur-Mer. The manicured grounds with white marble tombstones were impressive from the start as you entered the Normandy American Cemetery. The main walkway was being transformed for the 6 June 80 th Anniversary event with United States President Joseph Biden and French President Francois Macron. The Cadets met David Marshall of 84 th Infantry Division and Charles Braun of US Army Air Corps hosted by the Liberte Jump Team. The cadets engaged in lively conversation and escorted two World War II Veterans maneuvering through the crowded pathways of the cemetery and assisted in moving the two veterans to see several grave markers of comrades.
During the Airborne Operations of D-Day, there were paratroopers dispersed far and wide from the 101 st Airborne due to enemy fire. In one of the lesser-known incidents in D-Day, one chalk of paratroopers from Headquarters Company, 507 PIR were dropped in a small town of Hémevez on the northern edge many miles away from “Drop zone T” landed on the Headquarters building of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel while he was away in Paris. The SS troops guarding the HQ fired on the paratroopers while landing, killing several. They captured and then killed seven paratroopers and ordered the villagers to bury the bodies. The villagers complied with the orders, but secured the personal effects of the soldiers and marked the burial site. The villagers maintained the site, reported the incident, and led American officers to the grave site of the paratroopers as the German forces retreated. The memorial to these seven paratroopers is maintained by the town of Hémevez in the local church cemetery and a ceremony is held to honor these paratroopers each year on 6 June.
Cadets visited both Omaha and Utah beaches and were able to appreciate the depth of the task for the amphibious landing forces. The lay of the beach and terrain behind the landing beaches along with German fortifications made all the difference to the troops hitting the beach. Whereas, Utah Beach had estimates of 300 casualties and Omaha Beach had an estimated 2,400 casualties. The Cadets experienced the scope of the task the troops faced on that fateful dawn 6 June at low tide and in the cold water, experienced the distance the troops had to run under murderous fire while loaded with weapons, ammunition, and equipment. The lack of cover and concealment on the beaches today is the same as it was for D-Day troops 80 years ago.
The Warrior Battalion Cadets conducted a brief ceremony on 6 June 2024, at 11:00 in Quineville, France, western Utah Beach, to commemorate the 80 th Anniversary of D-Day. The ceremony recognized the invasion forces tremendous efforts and costs in personnel to take the landing beaches and Airborne forces in taking critical objectives behind the beaches and blunting enemy counterattacks. The choice of 11:00 ceremony was symbolic as this represented an approximate time of the first link-up of US Amphibious landing forces with US Airborne forces in the Utah Beach area. This link-up connected the two forces, seized the critical causeways across the marshes to allow a continued build-up of the beachhead, and protected the exposed beaches from German counterattacks.
One of the most telling observations of the tour was the sheer number of people visiting the D-Day area. Soldiers of the US Army, air crews and aircraft from US Air Force conducting fly-by over the historic sites and World War II reenactors using restored World War II US military vehicles traveling throughout the area, or in demonstration camps across several towns centered on D-Day events. The Airborne Museum in Sainte-Mère-Église located across the market square from the Church, was a key point of learning that revealed what the paratroopers had for equipment, mission briefings, and contained within were a C-47 and WACO glider on display.
As the trip came to an end, Cadets were assigned a task of writing to themselves in the future what their reflections on D-Day and what they learned from visiting D-Day Normandy 80th Anniversary. Additionally, Cadets will be presenting their experience to JROTC classes in August with the summary of the D-Day visit and points of significance along with actions taken by American Leaders in that historic event.