They have been called the Greatest Generation, those who came of age during World War II.
Sixty years ago today, on June 6, 1944, thousands of these young men heeded the order to invade Normandy and liberate France from the Germans on D-Day, the largest invasion force ever assembled.
Each of the participants in that operation has a story to tell.
In today’s Peninsula Daily News, four D-Day veterans from the North Olympic Peninsula share their stories.
Here is a portion of one of them:
By Jan Rodak
Sitting at the kitchen table in his Sherwood Village home, Ray Chesnut of Sequim nonchalantly pulls documents and other mementos out of a file he’s kept for 60 years.
With the discovery of a large photo, his mood changes almost instantly.
“Look here. This was my whole unit,” Chesnut said, mixing amusement with nostalgia.
“Isn’t that something?”
The soldiers of the Army’s 183rd Field Artillery Unit, Battery A, were his peers, his comrades on the front lines when the U.S. and its military allies launched an invasion on the shores of Normandy, France.
Pvt. Raymond E. Chesnut Jr.’s role in the Army was communications — setting up transmission outlets between infantry personnel carrying out battle missions.
He was moved to Normandy days before the June 6 assault to establish radio-contact infrastructure.
A 25-year-old with no combat experience and an unmet expectation of returning home, Chesnut found himself preparing for the fight of his life.
“We knew the war was going on, and we knew we were going over there,” he said of the planned invasion.
“We knew it was going to happen. We just didn’t know when.”
He found out during a radio speech delivered to units by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower the night before the attack was to take place.
The next morning, Chesnut became one of 150,000 troops who witnessed history.
“No one could ever believe how bad it really was unless you were there,” Chesnut said.
“They were hauling off bodies by the hundreds. A day or two later I think there were 6,000 killed off.”
