June 6, 1944 D-Day Invasion

In early June 1944, the Allied armies were making advances in Italy and preparing for D-Day and the Normandy invasion. Dewitt would record both of these in his diary.

The front page of the June 9, 1944 Interlaken Review carried an article headed, “D-DAY.” “D-Day, the long-awaited date for the invasion of the continent of Europe came on Tuesday, June 6, and will go down in history as one of the most momentous of all dates.”

The author continues with two other comments. “Few people learned of the invasion thrust until early Tuesday morning, although by that time landing operations had been going on for several hours.”

“News of the invasion, even though long anticipated and hourly expected, found the country in a quiet mood with few demonstrations of jubilance, most people preferring to seek Divine guidance, both for themselves and for our armed forces, now engaged in a tremendous effort, the likes of which the world have never known.”

On June 5, 1944, Dewitt noted, “Clear and high south wind. Cool today. I am cutting seed potatoes today. Warming up some this afternoon. The American 5^th Army captured Rome and the Germans are retreating into Northern Italy.”

His June 7 entry: “Many thousand glider troops in the invasion. Martin came down to plow field east of woods (1/2) of it. I am going to put beans on it.

Leland was stationed with the Army in Italy. On June 8, Dewitt reported “Martin is plowing for me. I am working on ground for potatoes. Sowing fertilizer on ground. Cool again today. Two letters from Leland today. Americans are going beyond Rome now Germans falling back.”

The war would continue for another year, and it would be November 1945 before Leland would be home.

Dewitt’s Diary, Tuesday June 6

The big invasion is on. Some 4000 ships and 11,000 planes struck from England into France. The radio has nothing on it today only war news. Duane H came up and we cut seed potatoes while listening to the war news. Most reports seem to be favorable.