George Singleton encourages citizens to remember 'D-Day' sacrifices

Landing at Normandy during D-Day invasion. 

(For decades, local historian and paranormal investigator George “Buster” Singleton published a weekly newspaper column called “Somewhere in Time.” The column below, which was titled “Does anyone recall the events of June 6” was originally published in the June 6, 1991 edition of The Monroe Journal in Monroeville, Ala.)

Americans are a forgetful people. We tend to let slip many events that did much to mold our lives and our society. We pay little or no attention, especially as the years begin to grow in number. Today (Thursday, June 6) is one of those almost-forgotten dates.

On June 6, 1944, during the frightful days of World War II, the allied forces launched the largest invasion force the world had ever known in hopes of defeating for all time the evil forces of Adolph Hitler’s army. On June 5, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower set into motion a plan that was to lay the groundwork for the Normandy invasion, to be launched the following day. This day would be recorded in history as “D-Day” throughout the world.

Our news media gives little or no attention to this event that changed the whole world. On June 5, 1944, more than 3,000 American and British bombers, protected by the famed P-51 fighters, dropped thousands of tons of bombs on the Nazi forces on the high cliffs that overlooked the beaches of Normandy.

About 176,000 men

The next day, ships from a hundred ports numbering more than 4,000 began crossing the English Channel to put ashore about 176,000 men in the first wave. In less than three weeks, more than 1 million men and 170,000 vehicles made their way across the bloody sands of Normandy beachhead.

Thousands of young men, many no more than 18 or 19, never reached Normandy beach. Many had no combat experience, except for less than eight weeks’ basic training. Bulldozers were used to push aside the thousands of dead bodies to make room for those who followed, coming ashore, to engage the enemy.

Should you visit the many military cemeteries that dot the landscape throughout Europe and see the thousands of white crosses that mark the graves of our fallen soldiers, you will realize that the price was high.

I had a chance to visit one of these cemeteries in 1986. The rows of snow white crosses in the Luxembourg cemetery gave witness to many thousands who sleep there. As I searched for the grave of a cousin who fell in the invasion, I remembered being told that he had not reached his 19^th birthday prior to his death.

As a student in high school, I remember our principal calling an assembly shortly after school started in September and reading aloud the names of those who had fallen that fateful day on the sixth of June. I remember how he wept when he called the names of six young men from a previous graduating class who had fallen on the beaches of Normandy. This class was to lose a total of 14, in both Europe and the Pacific, before the war’s end.

There are those who say that we should bury the past, we should let bygones be bygones. But I believe that we should remember those brave young men who paid the price. We should honor and hold in high esteem those who died in battle so that we can continue to live in this free country as we do today. We should remember those who fell for the cause without having the chance to grow old with their children and their grandchildren.

We, as a nation, cannot know where we are going unless we know where we have been. We cannot forget those who gave their all for a way of life we take for granted. As we remember these millions from all wars, we should realize that they too wanted to live a full life. They didn’t want their lives to end on the blood-soaked sands of Normandy or on some unknown island in the Pacific. They didn’t want it all to end on some frozen hillside in far off Korea or in the steaming jungles of Vietnam or the parched deserts of the Middle East.

Forgiving people

Americans are a forgiving people. For the want of wealth, we sell our homelands to the very ones who tried so hard to destroy that which we have cherished. We turn a forgetful ear to the cries of the millions slain.

The jingle of money pushes from our minds the cries of the dead who wanted just to live and be a part of our tomorrows. We allow our sacred flag to be burned in public places by those who have contributed nothing to our way of life.

One day we must learn that the freedom we take for granted is not free. Freedom has to be wanted. It has to be cherished, and then there comes a time when it has to be fought for and protected.

So, today, on the sixth of June 1991, 47 years since the sands of Normandy beaches turned red with the blood of our brave young men, we need to stop and remember. It doesn’t take much time. Find a quiet spot and lift your arms to the heavens. You will be heard if you are sincere, and those who sleep beneath the snow-white crosses in those forgotten cemeteries throughout the world will know. I guarantee it.

Nor shall your glory be forgotten
While fame her record keeps,
Or honor points the hallowed spot
Where valor proudly sleeps.

(Singleton, the author of the 1991 book “Of Foxfire and Phantom Soldiers,” passed away at the age of 79 on July 19, 2007. A longtime resident of Monroeville, he was born to Vincent William Singleton and Frances Cornelia Faile Singleton, during a late-night thunderstorm, on Dec. 14, 1927 in Marengo County, graduated from Sweet Water High School in 1946, served as a U.S. Marine paratrooper in the Korean War, worked as a riverboat deckhand, lived for a time among Apache Indians, moved to Monroe County on June 28, 1964 and served as the administrator of the Monroeville National Guard unit from June 28, 1964 to Dec. 14, 1987. He was promoted from the enlisted ranks to warrant officer in May 1972. For years, Singleton’s columns, titled “Monroe County history – Did you know?” and “Somewhere in Time” appeared in The Monroe Journal, and he wrote a lengthy series of articles about Monroe County that appeared in Alabama Life magazine. It’s believed that his first column appeared in the March 25, 1971 edition of The Monroe Journal. He also helped organize the Monroe County Museum and Historical Society and was also a past president of that organization. He is buried in Pineville Cemetery in Monroeville. The column above and all of Singleton’s other columns are available to the public through the microfilm records at the Monroe County Public Library in Monroeville. Singleton’s columns are presented here each week for research and scholarship purposes and as part of an effort to keep his work and memory alive.)