Jumping on the night of D-Day, the 82nd Airborne had to capture the town of Sainte-Mère-Église. Holding the town, however, would have meant little without also holding the roads to and from it. One such route had a bottleneck: the La Fière Bridge a small stone bridge at La Fière manor, 700 yards to the west […]
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Dead Man’s Corner: The 101st Airborne and the Battle for Carentan After D-Day After the Allied landings on D-Day, the mission wasn’t over once the beaches were secured. The hard-fought push inland through the Normandy countryside began immediately. Troops had to capture key crossroads and towns to link up the separate beachheads and expand the
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“Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force: You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you….I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle.” – Order of the Day, 6 June, 1944
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On the morning of June 6, 1944, as the Allied invasion of Normandy unfolded across beaches and fields, a small unit from the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, Easy Company, executed one of the most tactically significant assaults of D-Day—the Brécourt Manor assault. This engagement, though often overshadowed by the larger-scale beach landings, became a textbook
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Nan Wynn was an American big-band singer and actress. Born on May 8, 1915 was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Wheeling, West Virginia, where she attended high school, and sang in the school choir. Nan Wynn recorded with many well-known orchestras, including those of Teddy Wilson, Freddie Rich, Raymond Scott and Hal
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Barbara Bates, a lovely, demure, but very troubled young spirit, began her career at age 19. Groomed in obscure starlet bits, it wasn’t until Warner Bros. signed her up in 1947 and perpetuated an appealing girl-next-door image that things started happening for her.
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Elizabeth Ruth Grable ( Betty Grable) was born on December 18, 1916, in St. Louis, Missouri. Her mother Lillian was a stubborn and materialistic woman who was determined to make her daughter a star. Elizabeth, who later became Betty, was enrolled in Clark’s Dancing School at the age of three. With her mother’s guidance, Betty
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Joan Dixon was born in Norfolk, Virginia on June 6, 1930. She is known for her role in the film noir, “Roadblock” (1951).
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Gene Tierney Gene Tierney was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 19, 1920, to well-to-do parents. Her father was a very successful insurance broker and her mother was a former teacher. Her childhood was lavish indeed. She also lived, at times, with her equally successful grandparents in Connecticut and New York. She was educated
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Born Katherine Elizabeth McLaughlin on June 8, 1921 in Topeka, Kansas, she went to Hollywood in 1939 at the age of 18. She was signed by 20th Century Fox in 1940 and was credited in her early films as Bettie McLaughlin. Adopting the name Sheila Ryan, she starred in “Dressed to Kill” (1941) the following
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