Woodman Family »
June 6, 1944
June 5, 2014 | 3 Comments | Betsy Woodman
June 6 is the anniversary of D-Day, the beginning of the invasion of Normandy. My dad was a young naval lieutenant in that historic battle, serving on a Landing Craft Infantry (LCI) that carried special forces and led the way for other such craft.
Everett Woodman in naval uniform
He was very proud to have participated, but the experience scarred him more than he even realized. In 2004, at the age of eighty-eight, he was having flashbacks of scenes he had not remembered for sixty years. He would grow suddenly pale and start shaking at the memory of a tank exploding on the beach in front of him, or of a man’s head being shot off his body and flying up into the air.
He had a box of little black and white photographs of the invasion and its aftermath. For years, I didn’t find those pictures very interesting, but I do now. He devoted many months to organizing his papers and photographs for the Colby-Sawyer College archives, and the amount of time he spent down in the college library basement became something of a family joke.
However, when I look at the account that he contributed to the Andover (NH) Beacon and the captions he wrote for those cracked, curling pictures, I see a man, decades later, struggling to make sense of a cataclysmic event. The newspaper story is downloadable here: Everett Woodman Memories of D-Day
Some of the pictures are bleak, others cheerful; none were taken during the fighting. The faded grays of the photos make the weather seem uniformly cold and gray, which it wasn’t. The pictures are silent and can’t evoke the terrifying din that accompanied the landing of the troops.
Here’s a selection:
The storm that delayed the invasion by a day and caused a nerve-wracking return to England
The young men who couldn’t imagine what they were getting into
The ships deliberately sunk in order to form a breakwater
The devastation caused by bombing
The fresh graves, now in a manicured green cemetery, then in a rough, desolate stretch of land
The rainbow he took to be a good omen
The local couple and their daughter who gave him a warm welcome
The buddies who remained friends for life
Grateful thanks to Colby-Sawyer College for the use of these pictures.
I wrote up the story of his trip to Normandy for the 60th anniversary ceremonies.
View All Events
B: Thanks. War inevitably scars everyone, sometimes physically, sometimes mentally, always emotionally. It just does, even when there may be good, just reasons for going to war.
Dear Betsy,
I’m sorry if my English is not as good as I would like (I’m a 49 years old Frenchman) but I have a little story to tell you.
The 4th of June 2004, I was in Saint-Lazare railroad station in Paris, France.
I was crossing the station when I saw an old couple with friends. The man was a WW2 veteran.
They were looking for the train to Caen. So I helped them (not a great help for sure).
The old man explained me he was on Omaha beach. He told me his name: Everett Woodman.
I asked him if I could shake his hand, just to thank him and all his fallen comrades in Normandy.
He agreed, and for me, this is my most important shake hand in my life.
My eyes were wet after this short but intense encounter.
In this particular day (6/6/2014), my thoughts were turned to this short encounter.
I searched a little and found your blog, so I just wanted to share my very little story.
I think it was your father, your mother and you. And if not, it changes nothing.
I’m sad to hear that your father and mother are no longer with us.
But this is life, and I will remember all my life this particular moment.
Thank you Everett !
Best regards from France
Dominic
So appreciate that you wrote about this today, Betsy. I just read an account of an 89 year old Oregon reporter who landed in Normandy on 6/6/1944. Like you, I had not previously had much interest in this, but as I get older I want to fill in the blanks in my knowledge of 20th century events. I’m moved by all I’ve learned and by the terrible sacrifices made.