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June 2011
June 6 — D-Day Observance to Feature Surviving Veterans
Submitted By Phyllis Hodges At 10 a.m. on June 6, 67 years to the day since D-Day, Sun City Center is honoring WWII veterans at the SCC Community Hall as part of the community’s 50th Anniversary Celebration. Korean War veteran Bob Black, who organized the event, will moderate the panel of five speakers. Four survivors who fought by land, sea and air will tell what it was like when our troops stormed the shores of Fortress Europe on June 6, 1944. Bill Boyd, an infantryman and member of a Ranger Battalion went ashore on Omaha Beach; Harry Powers, a Navy officer and frogman (now known as SEALs) crept onto land the day before D-Day on the threatening Pont du Hoc; Bill Eisenhart, a B-17 pilot was flying over Europe keeping German reinforcements from moving around; and Arch Bush, a Navy Hospital Corpsman on an LST, was on a team that cared for wounded being taken from the beaches to hospitals in England.” Eisenhart lives in St. Petersburg; the others are Sun City Center residents. The fifth member of the panel is Dr. Nick Steneck, chair of the history department at Florida Southern College in Lakeland, whose major area of study and research has been World War II and Europe after the war. He will outline what the invasion of Europe—D-Day—meant then and means to this very day. Members of “The Greatest Generation,” as Tom Brokaw named them, are fast taking their last salutes as most are in their high 80s or low 90s today. Sun City Center is proud to honor these brave men who fought for our country. Contact: Bob Black 813.633.1101.
Supreme Commander Dwight Eisenhower gives the order of the day “Full victory - Nothing else” to paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division at the Royal Air Force base in Greenham Common, England.
More Pictures on Page 3
Paratroopers get final instructions before leaving for Normandy.
American paratroopers, heavily armed, sit inside a military plane as they soar over the English Channel en route to the Normandy French coast for the Allied D-Day invasion.
An Interview with a D-Day Survivor Adam Porter with John H. MacPhee John H. MacPhee lives in Kings Point. But, in the early hours of June 6th, 1944, he was in England, preparing to take part in the largest military invasion in modern history. Operation Overlord had begun; and 20-year-old MacPhee, a soldier in the 16th infantry of the 1st Division (the Big Red One), was in the first
wave to land on Omaha Beach. “I joined the First Division at the end of the Sicilian Campaign. We deployed to England for amphibious training. This was something new, the techniques we were learning had never been done before. Even the training was brutal…a lot of guys were killed in training maneuvers. The hardship was unreal. Those months in England during ’43 and ’44 were exhausting.”
And even with the plan in place and the training complete, there was still much outside the control of the Allies. “We were set to invade on June 5th, but the weather was terrible.” John’s ship was 12 miles out when the invasion was postponed. “It was like getting a 24-hour reprieve from the electric chair.” On June 6th, as John recalls, the weather was not much better. But, Eisenhower and
Bradley said it was time to go. That was fine by John and his fellow soldiers. “We were ready. Past ready. We just wanted to get this over with.” The soldiers of the Big Red 1 were issued 3 K-rations, one canteen and limited ammunition. They were told they were an invasion force, not an occupying force. That reinforcements and supplies could not come ashore if they were not successful. Continued on Page 3
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