{"id":466,"date":"2019-06-06T10:14:36","date_gmt":"2019-06-06T09:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/?p=466"},"modified":"2019-06-06T10:14:36","modified_gmt":"2019-06-06T09:14:36","slug":"remembering-d-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/2019\/06\/06\/remembering-d-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering D-Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul class=\"kent-social-links\"><li><a href='http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/2019\/06\/06\/remembering-d-day\/&amp;t=Remembering D-Day' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-facebook' title='Share via Facebook'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='http:\/\/twitter.com\/home?status=Remembering D-Day%20https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/2019\/06\/06\/remembering-d-day\/' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-twitter' title='Share via Twitter'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='https:\/\/plus.google.com\/share?url=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/2019\/06\/06\/remembering-d-day\/' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-google-plus' title='Share via Google Plus'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='http:\/\/linkedin.com\/shareArticle?mini=true&amp;url=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/2019\/06\/06\/remembering-d-day\/&amp;title=Remembering D-Day' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-linkedin' title='Share via Linked In'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='mailto:content=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/2019\/06\/06\/remembering-d-day\/&amp;title=Remembering D-Day' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-email' title='Share via Email'><\/i><\/a><\/li><\/ul><p class=\"lead\">Dr Kate Rennard (University of Kent)<br \/>\nResearch Associate, &#8216;Beyond the Spectacle&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>For <a href=\"https:\/\/memory.loc.gov\/diglib\/vhp\/bib\/loc.natlib.afc2001001.85252\">Charles Norman Shay<\/a>\u00a0(Penobscot), a then 19-year-old medic serving with the 16<sup>th<\/sup> Infantry of the U.S. Army, the lead-up to the D-Day landings was, in many ways, isolating. Stationed at a base in England, the private first class and the rest of his company were \u201ccompletely sealed off,\u201d as were many other Allied troops. Cautious that their invasion plans might be leaked, Allied leaders ensured that the soldiers were \u201cnot allowed to take leave, permitted to intermingle with anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_467\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-467\" style=\"width: 502px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-467\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/files\/2019\/06\/KR5a-300x203.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"502\" height=\"340\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/files\/2019\/06\/KR5a-300x203.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/files\/2019\/06\/KR5a-768x520.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/files\/2019\/06\/KR5a.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 502px) 100vw, 502px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-467\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Charles Norman Shay (bottom left) with other members of his unit at Aachen, Germany, 1944. Photo from American Indian Magazine, courtesy of Charles Norman Shay.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>However, just before they shipped out from Britain, Shay had an unexpected visitor \u2013 Melvin Neptune, another Penobscot who he knew from his reservation. As Shay remembered: \u201cwhen we talked, we didn\u2019t talk about any impending military action that was going to be taking place. We just talked about our friends that we left behind or were already in the military service\u2026.wondering what our parents doing\u2026It was very personal\u2026.I looked up to him [Neptune had seen a lot of combat action]\u2026He gave me a lot of courage.\u201d Even in the middle of Britain, with a major combat operation about to launch, Shay could rely on his Penobscot connections for support.<\/p>\n<p>Around 44,000 American Indians and at least 3,000 First Nations, Inuit, and M\u00e9tis peoples saw active duty in the Second World War (the real number is undoubtedly much higher) and Shay was one of around 175 American Indian soldiers who landed on Omaha Beach on 6 June 1944 as part of the Normandy invasion.<sup>1\u00a0<\/sup>However, many other Indigenous North American servicemen and women also contributed to D-Day and experienced the preparations surrounding the operation while they were stationed in Britain. To commemorate the 75<sup>th<\/sup> anniversary of D-Day, this blog-post spotlights the stories of several of these veterans, giving voice to their experiences of the event through the lens of their time in Britain. The stories and experiences highlighted in this blog-post are diverse, from a member of a landing craft crew to a nurse to a combat engineer who was one of the first soldiers to land on Juno Beach, yet all gesture towards the incredible emotional and physical toll the invasion took on those involved.<\/p>\n<p><u>Preparing for D-Day<\/u><\/p>\n<p>Many of these Indigenous servicemen and women were stationed in England in the run-up to D-Day, doing basic training and preparing for the invasion. Shay recalled how they were \u201cassigned living quarters in houses that people had vacated for the GIs\u201d and that they \u201cmet very nice people in England and they were happy that we were there to participate in the invasion of Normandy.\u201d George Horse (Thunderchild First Nation), however, had a more intense time, as he took part in combat training in Scotland, in the North Sea, as a combat engineer in an Elite Sapper Battalion: \u201cThe North Sea was very cold, but we were young and could take a lot of punishment. We had trained hard with an eight-mile run before breakfast every day, and soon become hard as nails. They told us it was preparation for D-Day. They never told us when or where it would happen, just somewhere in the English Channel, somewhere in France.\u201d<sup>2<\/sup><\/p>\n<p><u>D-Day Operations<\/u><\/p>\n<p>For <a href=\"https:\/\/memory.loc.gov\/diglib\/vhp\/story\/loc.natlib.afc2001001.72732\/)\">Jeremiah Wolfe<\/a>\u00a0(Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians), a Signalman Second Class in the U.S. Navy, the lead-up to D-Day had also been less than calm. Based near Falmouth, Cornwall, Wolfe recalled how the surrounding areas were regularly targets for German bombers: \u201cjust as soon as night came, as soon as it was getting dark, the guys begin to look around, and we heard motors a-coming, coming, coming, and it was bombers. And they were bombing around us. The bombs hit all around our base. They never did hit our base, but outside you\u2019d see craters where the bombs hit, exploded.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_468\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-468\" style=\"width: 283px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-468\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/files\/2019\/06\/KR5b-215x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"283\" height=\"395\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/files\/2019\/06\/KR5b-215x300.jpg 215w, https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/files\/2019\/06\/KR5b.jpg 387w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 283px) 100vw, 283px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-468\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jeremiah Wolfe, a Signalman Second Class in the U.S. Navy. Photo courtesy of visitcherokeenc.com.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A few months later, he and the rest of his crew from the USS LCT 16 (Landing Craft, Tank), Amphibious Force, picked up their ship and began loading it with troops, equipment, and supplies, ready for the Normandy invasion. For Wolfe\u2019s crew, however, the day did not go smoothly: \u201cwe got underway, headed for Normandy beach, Omaha Beach, Normandy. As we were sailing along, we got in sight\u2026and there was already heavy firing going on, as we were moving right into that fire. When we landed, the commander of the rangers [the troops on board Wolfe\u2019s ship] wouldn\u2019t give the command for them to disembark\u2026he just froze. And then our captain spoke up\u2026\u201d Eventually the commander got into one of the tanks and took it off the ship and onto the beach. It was almost immediately hit by German fire and exploded, killing the commander inside.<\/p>\n<p><u>Treating Injured Soldiers<\/u><\/p>\n<p>Those who were injured in the landing and fighting that followed but survived were often transferred to hospitals in France and England. <a href=\"https:\/\/memory.loc.gov\/diglib\/vhp\/bib\/loc.natlib.afc2001001.24202\">Marcella LeBeau<\/a>\u00a0(Cheyenne River Sioux) worked as a nurse with the 76<sup>th<\/sup> General Hospital, which was located in Leominster, England in June 1944. After landing in Liverpool, LeBeau had been sent to Llandudno, Wales, for initial training and to await her assignment. In particular, she remembers experiencing the blackout and having to \u201cdirect our flashlight down, if we had one, so that the light couldn\u2019t be seen\u201d by any German aircraft.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_469\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-469\" style=\"width: 270px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-469\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/files\/2019\/06\/KR5c-244x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"270\" height=\"332\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/files\/2019\/06\/KR5c-244x300.jpg 244w, https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/files\/2019\/06\/KR5c.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 270px) 100vw, 270px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-469\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Marcella Le Beau in 1944. Photo courtesy of Wisdom of the Elders, Inc.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Eventually, the 76<sup>th<\/sup> General Hospital was transferred to Leominster, a \u201cbarracks-type hospital,\u201d where they were preparing for D-Day: \u201cSo we were set up there in Leominster, England, in our general hospital and waited for D-Day. And we were called to work one day, about 2:30 in the morning, to report to our duty stations. And we got our casualties then from the invasion\u2026I think we had a few patients, you know for other reasons\u2026We didn\u2019t hear much on the news, you know, but we got our first patient about 2:30 in the morning and from then on we were busy all the time\u201d with the high number of casualties. LeBeau would eventually be transferred to France and Belgium in August 1944 to serve in hospitals there.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>These stories give us a brief insight into the D-Day contributions of Indigenous North Americans in Britain but there are many more. Three of those featured are from oral histories recorded as part of the Library of Congress\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/vets\/)\">Veterans History Project<\/a>,\u00a0an incredible resource. So far, the Project has collected <a href=\"https:\/\/memory.loc.gov\/diglib\/vhp\/search?query=%2Brace%3AAmerican+%2BIndian+%2Band+%2BAlaskan+%2BNative&amp;field=all&amp;war=worldwarii&amp;loclr=blogflt\">over 100 interviews<\/a>\u00a0with American Indian and Alaskan Native veterans who served in the Second World War, some in the European theatre and others in the Pacific, and is collaborating with the Smithsonian\u2019s National Museum of the American Indian to gather more.<sup>3\u00a0<\/sup>As the experiences of the four veterans that are featured here demonstrate, Indigenous North Americans contributed to the war experience in Britain in a variety of ways and yet they aren\u2019t often recognised in histories of the conflict. By amplifying these veterans\u2019 voices, this blog-post serves as a commemoration of their involvement in the Second World War, particularly here in Britain.<\/p>\n<p>If you have any information about Indigenous North American visitors to Britain that you would like to share, please contact us via <a href=\"mailto:beyondthespectacle@kent.ac.uk\">email<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/beyondthespec\">Twitter<\/a>, or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/beyondthespectacle\">Facebook<\/a>, or visit our <a href=\"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/beyondthespectacle\/\">website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><sup>1\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cPatriot Nations,\u201d National Museum of the American Indian, accessed 5 June 2019, https:\/\/americanindian.si.edu\/static\/patriot-nations\/world-wars.html#ww2; \u201cIndigenous People in the Second World War,\u201d Veterans Affairs Canada, accessed 5 June 2019, https:\/\/www.veterans.gc.ca\/eng\/remembrance\/history\/historical-sheets\/aborigin; Ramona Du Houx, \u201cMedic at D-Day: The Humble Heroism of Charles Norman Shay,\u201d <em>American Indian Magazine<\/em>, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Summer 2018), accessed 4 June 2019, https:\/\/www.americanindianmagazine.org\/story\/humble-heroism-charles-norman-shay<\/p>\n<p><sup>2\u00a0<\/sup>Quoted in Pamela Sexsmith, \u201cGeorge Horse \u2013 a veteran tells his tale,\u201d Saskatchewan Sage, vol. 8, no. 2, 2003, accessed 5 June 2019, https:\/\/ammsa.com\/publications\/saskatchewan-sage\/george-horse-veteran-tells-his-tale.<\/p>\n<p><sup>3\u00a0<\/sup>While you can search these oral histories by \u201crace\/ ethnicity,\u201d it is not always clear how an interviewee has come to be designated \u201cAmerican Indian\u201d and so researchers looking specifically for Indigenous veterans should be cautious. Some are clear about their tribal membership, while others who have this designation do not mention it at all in their interview, so it is hard to know what connections they have to any tribal nation. However, one interviewee specifically says that while he was born near the Chickasaw reservation in Oklahoma and his father always claimed that they had Chickasaw ancestry, he himself does not claim that identity. He is still recorded as being \u201cAmerican Indian\u201d in the database.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"kent-social-links\"><li><a href='http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/2019\/06\/06\/remembering-d-day\/&amp;t=Remembering D-Day' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-facebook' title='Share via Facebook'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='http:\/\/twitter.com\/home?status=Remembering D-Day%20https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/2019\/06\/06\/remembering-d-day\/' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-twitter' title='Share via Twitter'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='https:\/\/plus.google.com\/share?url=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/2019\/06\/06\/remembering-d-day\/' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-google-plus' title='Share via Google Plus'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='http:\/\/linkedin.com\/shareArticle?mini=true&amp;url=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/2019\/06\/06\/remembering-d-day\/&amp;title=Remembering D-Day' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-linkedin' title='Share via Linked In'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='mailto:content=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/2019\/06\/06\/remembering-d-day\/&amp;title=Remembering D-Day' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-email' title='Share via Email'><\/i><\/a><\/li><\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr Kate Rennard (University of Kent) Research Associate, &#8216;Beyond the Spectacle&#8217; For Charles Norman Shay\u00a0(Penobscot), a then 19-year-old medic serving with the 16th Infantry of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/2019\/06\/06\/remembering-d-day\/\">Read&nbsp;more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53579,"featured_media":467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53579"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":471,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466\/revisions\/471"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/bts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}