D-Day memories

They joined the military as ordinary men from Southeast Missouri, willing to do the tasks set before them, ready to carry out whatever orders their commanders gave. Few area veterans expected to become heroes or fight in a battle that would change the course of the war.

But they did.

Today marks the 60th anniversary of D-Day, a battle that took two years to plan and cost thousands of men their lives.

After World War II ended, these veterans came home as heroes, having saved freedom and democracy around the globe. Only 4 million of the 16 million American veterans who served during World War II are still alive today.

Clemon Crain, 81, of Cape Girardeau was a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division during World War II. He spent 144 days in battle -- at Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge and in Holland.

Crain had trained for the June 6, 1944, mission and knew his unit's role was "to cut off all supplies to the Normandy Beach area."

What he didn't know was that he'd spend 38 days there trying to fend off German troops.

"It was loud and noisy, and there were all kinds of weapons the Germans were trying to use on us," Crain said.

As the jump planes were flying overhead, around 450 feet in the air, so were the bullets.

"We were all anxious to get out because the bullets were coming," he said.

Some paratroopers were wounded even before they jumped from the plane. Thousands of others would be injured or killed in battle during the coming hours and days.

Though most area veterans were honored during Memorial Day services last week, few D-Day observations are planned. The Stars and Stripes Museum in Bloomfield, Mo., will have a special program at 3 p.m. today with guest speakers and veteran testimony. A new exhibit about D-Day also will be on display.

Hit and miss

The Allied invasion as it played out was a mistake, but it turned out to be the most advantageous of maneuvers for the troops. According to the plan, the paratroopers were supposed to hit the ground and then assemble and move as a unit. Reinforcements would come ashore and continue the attack.

But most of the 82nd Airborne Division was scattered across a 40-mile range. Crain landed with five other men from his plane. Eighteen started out together aboard the aircraft.

"That proved to be more of an advantage than we even realized till we got out," he said.

The scattered troops confused the Germans, who would have been expecting one large contingent of Allied soldiers.

Generals at Fort Bragg, N.C., today train new soldiers using the D-Day strategy, referred to as "little groups of paratroopers."

"That raised more hell and caused more confusion with the Germans than we could have as a platoon or company," Crain said.

Still, the losses were monumental. Out of Crain's regiment of 2,056, during the battle at Normandy 336 soldiers were killed, 660 were wounded and 165 were missing in action.

Securing the beaches at Normandy took days of intense battle.

William Davis arrived at Omaha Beach six days after the initial invasion. At 86, his memory sometimes comes and goes, but he does recall details about those early days in June 60 years ago.

"They were still shelling things," he said. "We were supposed to move in and clean up what was left."

Davis, who lived at Benton, Mo., until moving to the Missouri Veterans Home, was an infantryman with the 79th Division. He kept busy during battle as an assistant machine gunner.

He was taken prisoner a short time after his unit arrived at Normandy. With so many men from his unit being killed in battle, "we didn't have anything to do but to give up," he said.

American soldiers learned never to underestimate the enemy, Crain said. His unit hoped the Normandy mission, called Operation Overlord, would change the course of the war, but they couldn't have anticipated that Nazi Germany would surrender within a year.

Davis spent 10 months in a German prisoner of war work camp 150 miles north of Berlin before coming back to the states when the war ended.

Crain returned home in December 1945.

Neither man wants any glory for their roles in the war.

"We were guys who did what we were trained to do and to the best of our ability," Crain said.

ljohnston@semissourian.com

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