Cliff Buchan
News EditorNormandy is today for many a reference in history books and a battle that kids study in school.
But Normandy is much more for many area men today who are in their late 70s, 80s and 90s. On June 6, 1944 the Allied invasion of France would commence the drive to topple Hitlerís Nazi empire and history books would be written.
It was a campaign that saw contributions from many men from the Forest Lake area and current and former residents of the area.
Jerome Saunders, Don Grant, Bob Elmstrom, Ed Grabowski, Tony Heisler, Roland Dufresne, Ray Bergerson and Carryl Banta are all local men or former residents of the area with ties to Normandy and those important days of 1944 and the defeat of Hitler on May 8, 1945.
Saundersí story
Jerome Saunders is 79 today and a Forest Lake resident for three years. He was 19 and a machinist second class with Naval special forces charged with bringing in troops and equipment at Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944.
Saunders remembers that morning as if it was yesterday. It was 6:30 a.m. when his LCT landing craft carrying four Sherman tanks and a jeep made its final two-mile run for shore while under a heavy artillery fire from German shore battery units that pounded American forces coming in.
The crew on Saundersí LCT watched in horror as many of the tanks failed to maneuver in the water and sank. Not willing to risk the loss of its cargo, Saundersí LCT advanced to the beach under fire and got its tanks in safely.
ìWe were on the beach all morning,î Saunders recalled. ìWe couldnít get off.î
The morning of hell proved costly to the LCT crew. Seven of the 13 crew members were killed. ìItís amazing how some of us survived,î Saunders said.
Saunders was 18 and a kid from St. Paul when he was drafted by the Navy. He was one of three brothers to go into the Navy. He made a harrowing one-month crossing of the Atlantic Ocean on a large slow-moving LST that dodged German U-boats before arriving safely in England to begin training for D-Day.
He spent six months on the coast of France bringing in troops, equipment and material for the war effort.
Grantís story
Linwood Township resident Don Grant, a retired Forest Lake Postmaster, was also a crew member on a Naval LCT that was part of the early assault on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944.
Grant, 83, today, never made it to shore with the cargo of troops and equipment.
Grantís LCT hit a floating mine that killed most of the 55 soldiers and crew members. He was in the stern of the boat and blown in the water when the LCT exploded.
Grant was in the cold water for 12 hours with a compound spinal fracture before being rescued. Sixty years removed from Normandy, Grant continues to feel the pain of his war injuries during his retirement years.
Elmstromís story
Bob Elmstrom was another young man from the Forest Lake area who found himself off the coast of France on June 6, 1944.
Elmstrom, 80, had graduated from high school here in 1942 and enlisted in the Coast Guard. He trained as a weatherman and found himself in England by mid-1943.
On June 6, 1944, Elmstrom was on the U.S.S. Bayfield, the flagship for the U.S. landing at Utah Beach. He was charged with delivering daily weather forecasts and making sure ship weather instruments were working correctly.
ìI never got on the beach but I got close,î Elmstrom said in a 1994 interview on the 50th anniversary of D-Day. ìI picked people out of the water. I never carried a gun, but I carried casualties.î
Grabowskiís story
Ed Grabowski, 82, a Forest Lake resident from 1986 to 2001, was 21 and a sergeant in the 467th Anti-Aircraft Battalion, 1st Army Division, that went ashore at Omaha Beach at 9 a.m., June 6, 1944.
He was a machine gunner on a halftrack. Eleven of the 16 halftracks in Grabowskiís unit were lost in the landing.
ìMost of us made it in, but we had a couple of guys wounded and a couple of guys got killed,î Grabowski said from his home in Oakdale. ìI was one of the lucky ones ó I prayed all the time.î
Once on Omaha Beach, Grabowskiís halftrack was one of the five still operational. His unit attacked with its four 50 caliber guns and destroyed a German pill box that was delivering deadly fire to American landing forces.
Grabowski has seen the movie ìSaving Pvt. Ryanî and other war stories, but says the full experience of what troops met on the beaches of France can never be fully explained.
ìItís hard to explain,î he says. ìYou canít explain it.î
Grabowskiís unit took part in all the major campaigns of the fight in Europe, including the Battle of the Bulge when Hitlerís last bold attempt to stop the offensive failed. He made it through the fighting without a scratch.
ìLike I said, I was one of the lucky ones.î
Banta, Heisler
Carryl A. Banta and Tony Heisler were two Wyoming area men who went into the service together in 1942 when they were drafted into the Army.
Banta, 97, of Chisago City, was 35 when he received his induction notice and left his dairy business here to serve. Banta and Heisler went through basic training together but went to different companies for the invasion of France.
Banta and Heislerís unit, the 743rd Tank Battalion, landed in France on June 9, D-Day Plus 3.
Heisler was a tank driver with A Company in the 743rd and was in action near Bantaís company in France when he was killed in fighting at Hebecrevon, France in July of 1944. Banta still remembers the events.
ìI talked to him (Heisler) just a day before,î Banta said. ìHis tank took a direct hit from a German tank.î
Bantaís tank battalion landing at Omaha was held up two days by bad weather, but once in France, the battalion took part in all major campaigns and drove within 60 miles of Berlin before the war came to an end.
Bergerson reunions
Ray Bergerson, 91, of Forest Lake, had one reunion with a Forest Lake man in Belgium and came close to meeting his friend Heisler in France.
Bergerson served with the 23rd Armored Engineer Battalion with the Armyís 3rd Armored Division. During a stop near St. Lo, Bergerson met a soldier from Heislerís tank company and was told that Heisler, his friend from home, had only recently been killed in action.
ìThatís how I found out he had been killed,î Bergerson said.
Bergerson said American forces in Europe would always seek out Minnesota boys when they would meet other units. That was the case when he met the soldier from Heislerís unit.
It was in Belgium when Bergerson had another chance meeting with a soldier from home.
His halftrack was advancing to a recently secured area when he met a man in civilian clothes who was looking for a cigarette and friends from home. The man was Roland Dufresne, a Columbus Township farm kid with the Army Air Corps.
Dufresneís fighter plane had been shot down in late 1943 over German-held territory. He managed to avoid capture and was protected by the French Underground for 7‡ months until Allied troops arrived.
ìWe talked for about 30 minutes,î Bergerson said of his meeting with Dufresne. Although both were from the Forest Lake area, they did not know each other well prior to their meeting in Europe.
ìHe had two girls on his arms,î Bergerson said. ìHe spoke some French so that was helpful.î
Dufresne was twice shot down in missions over Europe. He made the military a career. In 1963, while stationed in Japan, he lost his life when his military plane crashed.
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