It is the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Europe. More than 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day’s end on June 6, 1944, the Allies gained a foothold in Normandy. The D-Day cost was high. More than 9,000 Allied Soldiers were killed or wounded — but more than 100,000 Soldiers began the march across Europe to defeat Hitler.
We at KIWA want to thank all the American heroes who have put their lives on the line for our freedom, whether it was on D-Day on the beaches of Normandy or anywhere else. What they did changed the world and made possible the world we live in today.
Iowa Goldstar Museum curator Mike Vogt (Vote) says Iowans participated in many different phases of what is the largest military amphibious landing in history. He says the war was the first time many of them had traveled out of the state, and they were very young with the average age of a World War II soldier being about 21-22 years old. One of the soldiers, John Marshall, wasn’t in the fight long after parachuting into Normandy with the 82nd Airborne Division. Vogt says Marshall landed and looked up and there was a German soldier there. Marshall spent the rest of World War Two in a German prison camp. Vogt says D-Day was a major event in deciding the fate of the world.
The Goldstar Museum at Camp Dodge in Johnston has a special display on the Iowans who participated in D-Day. Vogt says some Iowans were in the very thick of combat.
Another soldier from northeast Iowa took care of the wounded.
Other Iowans were in the air or climbing the cliffs.
The Goldstar Museum is free and open to the public.
