D-Day Research Contribution HERE

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I went to my local library today and started down the path of finding the right newspapers. Here is a link to images of all the papers I was able to collect, as they are all pdfs so I can’t upload them here directly: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1IUgZ9fjyd4Jmbdma2NDrcwUl45KN7PzS?usp=sharing

Something interesting I found for the June 6th paper was that although news of the invasion had arrived by the paper’s printing, only german radio broadcasts were able to be cited. In the article, it says that Eisenhower would only confirm an invasion was taking place, whereas German radio had a lot of information (some accurate and some inaccurate from what I can tell). I included front page and page 15, as page 15 continues the article on page 1. The most interesting tidbits I can find are that according to a 6:30am broadcast, “German naval forces off the coast are engaged in a battle with enemy landing craft”, and that “It is believed that these paratroops have been given the task of capturing airfields to facilitate the landing of further paratroops”. So far that I’m aware, there was an extremely limited and ineffective naval response, and the paratroop objectives were to capture river crossings and not airfields. I think it is interesting how this German propaganda was then reported in the United States as they had no other information.

I also have the articles of June 7th, and I find it interesting that already on June 7th, they had reports of really bad seasickness from the landing troops. It also seems that Allied command had finally talked to the press and they had a lot more information from them, although some information seems to still be coming from German radio broadcasts.

Moving on from directly talking about D-Day newspapers, I had mentioned I was going to look into what I can find on the Bedford Boys. So far, I have found mentions of some of their fates in the Roanoke Times, which are the papers from July in my above link. In one of them, I also found that their regiment was cited for heroism on July 23rd.
I also found more information on who they were and why the tragedy managed to befall the one town in particular. My source for most of this information is from the book “The Bedford Boys” by Alex Kershaw. Most of them were part of Company A of the 116th Infantry in the 29th division which landed in the first wave on Omaha beach which resulted in a high casualty rate. The 116th infantry was a former Virginia National Guard regiment (Bedford is a town in the state of Virginia), and some of the men from Bedford had been a part of that regiment since before the war started.
The town of Bedford itself did not begin to definitively learn of their town’s fallen until July 17th, 1944, although rumors were abound after letters started returning to sender and a few families had seen fallen soldier telegrams in the previous weeks. On this one day, so many telegrams were sent to this town that there was a lack of people to send the telegrams, and the town discovered that the horrible tragedy had happened.
I believe that this story may be an interesting tribute, potentially as part of the On the Homefront series since the news and town’s reaction are well chronicled in the Bedford Boys book. If you need help obtaining a copy, let me know and I can find a way to get one to you.

The only other thing I know I want to do is to get the copies of the Bedford Bulletin (the local newspaper) that I mentioned in my original message was a far distance away. I have put in a request through the Inter-Library loan program here in Virginia, so I hope that I will be able to get access to the microfilm in the coming weeks without the need for the long travel. If there is anything else that you need in relation to the Bedford Boys or anything else in Southwestern Virginia, let me know and I’ll do what I can to find it for you. I live about 45 minutes from the town itself, which has a memorial both to D-Day and a separate memorial for the Bedford Boys themselves. If there is anyone who would have connections for questions that are not easily answered, it would likely be the people who run those two memorials.

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slovenec66

So, besides my first post above from the Radio Vestnik newspaper, I’ve found some other newspapers from other newspapers. What might be most interesting is that Radio Vestnik is an underground newspaper, organized by the Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation (or simply OF for “Osvobodilna Fronta” (Liberation front)), while the other newspapers are controlled by the occupation forces. The differences between them are obvious. Those controlled by Italians and Germans are basically all the same, even containing the same articles and titles across different newspapers. The newspapers published on June 6th don’t mention the invasion at all, but still focus on the capture of Rome. They try to present axis powers in good light, while shoving the guilt for suffering, deaths, etc. on the allies. One such is “Slovenec - političen list za slovenski narod” (The Slovenian (man) - Political paper for the Slovenian nation).

I’ve also found some newspapers of Slovenian settlers in USA. They still used Slovenian language for writing most articles. I’ll link one of them here and you can get back to me if you need something translated.

On the 7th, most “official” papers still don’t report on the invasion. But there are a couple of exceptions. So I’ll separate them in a different response to this post and translate them once I have time.

Keep doing good work. :blush:

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Excellent input Martin, many thanks. It is indeed an interesting angle: the resistance knew much more of the invasion than the official Axis news sources did. And both had their own motivations to share the news. It can create an interesting storyline.

If you have more translations, please post it here.
Best, Wieke

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Info for you on the 320th Anti-Aircraft Barrage Balloon Battalion (VLA) at Omaha Beach. The 320th was the first Black Unit to see combat in World War II and among the first troops to set foot on the Normandy Beachhead. My Uncle was a member. He said that “It seemed like the whole German Army was shooting at me”. He was near by when his Sargent was killed by shrapnel when he looked up from the little cover they had to find a way off the beach.

Hervieux, Linda (2015). Forgotten: The Untold Story of D-Day’s Black Heroes, At Home and at War. United States: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-231379-9.

Protecting the Beaches with Balloons: D-Day and the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion

Here are some of the 320th. Unfortunately my Uncle Jame’s [James Preston Brown] name is switched with Scott’s(?) in the caption. He kept a framed copy of the same photo (minus the names) in his living room in Darlington, S. C.

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Have several links for you, but as I am a new user, I am not allowed to post them to you! I will post them as I am allowed :slight_smile:

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My Father (Tuskegee Airman), his two brothers (Navy SeaBee and 320 VLA Barrage Balloon), & my Mom’s brother (Tuskegee Airman) were all anti-fascists. Uncle James’ 320th VLA Barrage Balloon unit that was the only Black unit at Omaha Beach on #DDay. #DDay76

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Huzzah! I did discuss the Tuskegee Airmen briefly in the second post or so here (a critique of a TimeGhost video):

Also, welcome to the forum, Mr. Brown. :slight_smile:

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I saw it and really appreciated the episode. I noticed some of the little mistakes/pronunciations, etc. I’ll check out your critique in a bit!

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Waverly Woodson & 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion – Keeping The Beachhead Safe From The Luftwaffe

D-Day, and the Very Low Altitude Barrage Balloon Battalion, a story

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Excellent. Though I’m pretty sure some folks will disagree with my analysis, because it’s not the stuff they were taught in schools.

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No worries. There are lots of different views of the times and events and lots of different motivations. My Uncles thought that fighting fascism there would help them fight it here, but my Father was less optimistic about that given what happened after WWI. He joined the Air Corps, he told me, because infantry slept on the ground whereas airmen got a cot, and he was not the kind of person that sleeps on the ground! :laughing:

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The All Black 320th Anti-Aircraft Barrage Balloon Battalion, VLA
They Landed on D-Day
Bill Davison’s Letter to the HistoryNet
https://lestweforget.hamptonu.edu/page.cfm?uuid=9FEC3327-B2FB-E987-04E6361B4835AFA5

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All-black balloon unit served with distinction on D-Day
By Ben Sherman, Fort SillMay 1, 2014

Henry Parham, last survivor of Black unit on D-Day, dead at 99

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Thanks for Sharing this wonderful information brbrowniii801. So they were supposed to land and 630AM in the first waves to put up barrage balloons which sounds like an incredibly dangerous assignment. All the respect for them.

It also reminded me of one of my old school sources, Dr. Quintard Taylor which taught me a lot of new stuff, this is on D-Day:

You searched for D-Day • (blackpast.org)

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Another thanks for the posts!!! And I would not use the word “forgotten”- you can’t forget something that nobody knows about- the contributions are not identified. Based on the pictures, the barrage balloons were there, but I’ve never seen who put them there. Thanks for filling in that missing piece.

The December following D-Day, I’m interested in seeing coverage of Bastonge, too- as reading some books clearly ID’s an African American artillery unit right along with the 101st Airborne. But it’s hard to find any info, and shows like Band of Brothers suggest they were the only ones there (which is worse, because I also hear there were some tanks there) . But that’s for a completely different thread.

To all the other posters- from just a reader and supporter, this is going to be really interesting!!!

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By my knowledge Anne Frank died in Bergen-Belsen from starvation and exhaustion

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Indeed I stand corrected, thanks for the correction, she was deported to Auschwitz and then deported 700+ kilometers to Bergen-Belsen to die there. I knew that earlier but apologies for the mistake and many thanks for the correction!

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Also, @martin00 , would you have more information the Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation? I read that they had underground theaters, but also a radio program. Would be very interested to see if somehow transcripts of these recordings still exist.

Also general information on how news was spread by the Slovene resistance would be interesting to read.

Many thanks,
Wieke

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No problem, just remembered differently in school.

Giving some more thought to it though, I think it is important to keep stressing this. Not all jews from the west died in Auschwitz. There was a whole system of concentration camps, which of course many of us know, but not every average Joe. As she is such an ‘iconic’ figure in the Holocaust (for better or worse), it will keep being important to stress her specific fate, because it emphasizes the entire system of terror set up to starve, exhaust and eventually kill the jews.

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I remember my girlfriend telling me her granddad kept diaries from that period. I will ask her and see if there is anything relevant in there. He lived in the south of the Netherlands at the time (Brabant). There is probably more about operation Market Garden a bit later as that is when the American airborne troops walked through their village.

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