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American History

Remembering D-Day & Dick Winters

Today, June 6th, is the anniversary of D-Day. On this date in 1944 Allied forces including Americans, Brits, and Canadians launched the largest amphibious assault in history as three million men stormed the beaches of Northern France to take back Nazi Germany’s stronghold in Europe.

It is an event we should never forget.

Like most people, I first learned about Dick Winters from Band of Brothers, for my money one of the greatest movies/series ever put on film. He was one of many heroes during World War II although he would never call himself that.

Mr. Winters died in 2011. On this day last year he was honored with a statue near the village of Saint-Marie du Mont in France.

CBS This Morning paid tribute to the man last year and featured a couple of other notable individuals including one of the men who served with Winters and a remarkable young man who raised a lot of money to make the statue happen.

If you would like to learn more about Winters and his 101st Airborne Division I really can’t recommend Band of Brothers* enough.

I can also recommend Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memories of Major Dick Winters which I read a couple years ago, shortly before his death.

What these men did was important. You can say without hyperbole that they saved the world, and that deserves our undying recognition.

Do you know anyone who served in Europe during World War II?

*I featured the series in my first ever Hollywood Existential.

 

By Clay Morgan

Clay Morgan is the author of Undead. Say hi on Twitter.