Friday, November 29, 2019

Prelude to War

As Paula reminded me twice, I failed to mention the anniversary of D-Day on Monday.  Since my father was a part of the events that took place that day, I should have made note of it.

As an attempt at amends, I'll post a photo taken in southern England just before the invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe commenced.  It depicts the 101st Airborne Division assembled for review on the parade ground.

The men in the front row are with Division Headquarters Company.  The man fifth from your left in the front row is Staff Sergeant Harold Fuhrman.

Click on the photo to enlarge it.

Two thoughts:

1) By this day, 67 years ago, my father was a prisoner of the Germans, having been captured in the hedgerows near Carentan, France, and would spend the rest of the war in German prison camps.

2) How many of the men in the photo never returned at all?  A haunting thought considering this: At the time of the invasion, the division numbered approximately 6,600.  By the end of the war, it had suffered 1,766 Killed In Action; 6,388 Wounded In Action; and 324 Died of Wounds.  That tabulation not including Missing In Action/POW's.

A simple snapshot.  So much story to be told.

* Sorry about the poor quality photo.  The original looks good but the scan looks bad.  I'm trying again.