Thursday marks the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the World War II operation that brought together thousands of Allied forces and ultimately led to the Nazis’ defeat.
On June 6, 1944, more than 156,000 men stormed the beaches of Normandy, many of whom were Irish or Irish Americans.
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Approximately 120,000 Irish men served alongside British or American forces during the war, despite Ireland remaining neutral.
One of them was Pearse Edmund Ryan, a Dublin-based US Army Rangers sergeant. Sergeant Ryan was just 20 years old when he arrived on Omaha Beach with the second wave of US Rangers.
Years later, he spoke with author and retired Irish Army Lieutenant Colonel Dan Harvey about his experience working on the book A Bloody Victory: The Irish at War’s End.
He stated, “As soon as we hit the water, the guy beside me had his head blown off.” It was surreal. There was no time for shock, sadness, or contemplation.
“You just ignored the devastation around you, and while I squeezed off the odd random fire from my M1 rifle, I prayed that I wouldn’t draw attention to myself.
“We made a mad sprint to the bottom of the cliff, and there, safe from view and fire, we began to assess the utter havoc we were part of.”
Robert Murphy, sometimes known as Bob, was an Irish American pathfinder with the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment. He was born in Massachusetts and joined the army at the age of 17, becoming one of the first US paratroopers to arrive on D-Day.
Murphy played such an essential role that a little street in Normandy, Rue Robert Murphy, is named for him.
The National WWII Museum states that 90 percent of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment landed on their designated drop zones on D-Day, demonstrating their excellent training.
“Murphy knew that when his aircraft went over the train tracks just past the Merderet River, it would leap. They arrived about one o’clock in the morning.
“By half past four in the morning, they had entered and secured Sainte-Mère-Église, the first town liberated in Occupied Europe by the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment.”
In an interview for the museum’s archives, Murphy described how difficult the landing was. He stated, “We were in an area that looked like a marsh. The army engineers had stated that the area might be moist, but in reality, it was essentially a marsh filled with water.
The river was overflowing, and the Germans had transformed this area into a marsh. It was completely overflowing. However, there were reeds growing through, and the images showed what appeared to be grass. There was no communication about the location, save for the fact that there were Germans present.
Another issue was that heavy German occupation forced a change to the plan, which called for the 505 to drop about ten miles to the west of Sainte-Mère-Église.
Nonetheless, the mission was successful, and Murphy went on to become a highly distinguished army colonel and, later, Massachusetts’ assistant attorney general.
He was well-known for his annual returns to Sainte-Mère-Eglise following the war, where he participated for years in parachute falls into the town in memory of his dead companions.
“They were my closest buddies. “I looked up to them,” he admitted. “Although I was one of them, inside my heart and head, they were my heroes.”
Murphy died in Cape Cod in 2008 at the age of 83.
All of the troops were recognized in France on Thursday as world leaders gathered for what is expected to be one of the last major commemorations for D-Day veterans.
The youngest of the approximately 200 veterans who attended the ceremony was in his 90s. Speaking at the memorial, US President Joe Biden stated, “The men who fought here became heroes—given an audacious assignment with the real possibility of dying.
“But they did it nevertheless, convinced that there are things worth fighting for and dying for. Freedom is worth it. Democracy is worth it.
“What the Allies achieved here 80 years ago far exceeded anything we could have done on our own.” Together, we won the war.”
