National D-Day Memorial

The National D-Day Memorial is a war memorial located in Bedford, Virginia. It serves as the national memorial for American D-Day veterans. However, its scope is international in that it states, "In Tribute to the valor, fidelity and sacrifice of Allied Forces on D-Day, June 6, 1944" and commends all Allied Armed Forces during the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France on June 6, 1944 during World War II.^[1]

National D-Day Memorial pool with Overlord Arch

The memorial borders the Blue Ridge Mountains in southwestern Virginia with an area of over 50 acres (200,000 m²) that overlooks the town of Bedford. It officially opened on June 6, 2001 with 15,000 people present, including President George W. Bush.^[2] About 60,000 people visit the memorial each year, with more than half from outside of Virginia.

The "Bedford Boys" and the location of the memorial

Thirty-four Virginia National Guard soldiers participated in D-Day from Company A, 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division, based in the town of Bedford before the war. Company A was decimated within hours of landing, and 19 of the 34 men were killed during the first day of the invasion. Four more died during the rest of the Normandy campaign, two of them from other 116th companies. The town and the "Bedford Boys" proportionately suffered the greatest losses of any American town during the campaign, thus inspiring the United States Congress to situate the D-Day memorial in Bedford.^[3][4]

The Bedford Boys included three sets of brothers: twins Roy and Ray Stevens, with Ray killed during the landing while Roy survived; Clyde and Jack Powers, with Jack killed and Clyde wounded but surviving; and Bedford and Raymond Hoback, both killed.^[5] The losses by the soldiers from Bedford were chronicled in the best-selling book The Bedford Boys by Alex Kershaw, and helped inspire the movie Saving Private Ryan.^[6] Director Steven Spielberg helped fund the memorial, including funding for the creation of the Arnold M. Spielberg Theater in honor of his father, a World War II veteran.^[7]

The National D-Day Memorial Foundation

National D-Day Memorial pool with landing craft, American soldier, and German beach barrier

The National D-Day Memorial Foundation is a non-profit organization that had its beginnings as a small committee in 1988 with the prospect of building a memorial dedicated to the sacrifices made by the Allied Forces on D-Day. Support for its completion did not exist until 1994, the fiftieth anniversary of the invasion.^[8]

The foundation is headquartered in Bedford. April Cheek-Messier was named the president of The National D-Day Memorial Foundation in May 2013. The memorial lists the name of each of the 4,427 Allied soldiers who died in the invasion, the most complete list of its kind anywhere in the world. The memorial is currently working to compile a list of every service member who participated in Operations Overlord and Neptune. (Overlord was the code name of the actual invasion, whereas Neptune was code for getting the troops across the English Channel for the invasion.)^[9] The organization also involves itself in assisting veterans and their families, such as undertaking the search for family members of soldiers whose personal belongings have been found after years of being lost.^[10]

Fundraising and building the memorial

Detail from the memorial

Fundraising and building the memorial took approximately seven years of planning and approximately $25 million to complete. In 1994, the town of Bedford donated 11 acres (45,000 m²) of land to the memorial. The foundation purchased additional acreage, bringing the total size of the memorial to 50+ acres. In 1997, the foundation received a one million dollar donation from Charles Schulz, who, with his wife, volunteered to head a fundraising campaign for the memorial.^[11]

According to the National D-Day Memorial Foundation, the memorial is a continuum of three distinct plazas which follow on a time line. The first plaza, Reynolds Garden, symbolizes the planning and preparation activities for the invasion through the execution of the order for the invasion. It is in the shape of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force combat patch. The second level, Gray Plaza, reflects the landing and fighting stages of the invasion. It includes what is called the invasion pool with beach obstacles in the water, sculptures of soldiers struggling ashore, and a representation of the Higgins craft used for the invasion. This section includes intermittent jets of water spurting from the pool replicating the sights and sounds of sporadic gunfire. The names of the United States' losses appear on the west necrology wall of the central plaza, the rest of the Allies' losses on the east necrology wall. In the spirit of Dwight D. Eisenhower's one-team command philosophy for the SHAEF, no other distinctions are made.^[1] The last and uppermost plaza, Estes Plaza, celebrates victory and includes the Overlord Arch and the twelve flags of those Allied nations that served in the Allied Expeditionary Force. The Overlord Arch represents the victory of Operation Overlord and bears the invasion date of June 6, 1944 in its height at 44 feet (13 m) and 6 inches (150 mm) tall.^[1]

Statuary

In 2010, the Memorial commissioned sculptor and local resident Richard Pumphrey to design a series of portrait busts honoring the leaders of the Allied Forces during WWII: U.S. Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, British Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee, Chairman of Free France Charles de Gaulle, President of the Republic of China Chiang Kai-shek, and General Secretary of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin.^[12] The inclusion of the latter ignited controversy both locally and nationally, with many considering his recognition at the Memorial as an insult to the legacy and memory of World War II veterans. The public outcry soon prompted the removal of Stalin's bust, and eventually the busts of De Gaulle and Chiang were removed as well, with the intention of emphasizing the Memorial's focus on the leaders and veterans of D-Day itself.^[13]

While the American and British leaders are still honored with busts at the Memorial, the most honor is given to Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force and spearhead of Operation Overlord. He is honored with a larger-than-life statue and is surrounded by portrait busts of the various military leaders under his command: Deputy Supreme Commander Arthur Tedder, Chief of Staff Walter Bedell Smith, Naval Commander Bertram Ramsay, Air Force Commander Trafford Leigh-Mallory, and Ground Force Commanders Bernard Montgomery and Omar Bradley.^[14]

Also included at the Memorial is a portrait bust of John Robert Slaughter, a D-Day veteran who landed at Omaha Beach and founder of what would eventually become the National D-Day Memorial Foundation in 1989.^[15]

Tourism

The memorial is open every day from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. The invasion pool is drained for maintenance during January, February, and part of March. The memorial also hosts events relating to remembering World War II on certain weekends, including Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and D-Day activities that occur annually.^[1]

See also

• Imperial War Museum - London, England
• List of national memorials of the United States
• Marine Corps War Memorial - Arlington County, Virginia
• Museum of La Coupole - German-built V-2 launch site in Pas-de-Calais, France
• Museum of the War of Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression - Beijing, China
• Museum of The History of Ukraine in World War II - Kyiv, Ukraine
• Museum of World War II - Natick, Massachusetts (Closed in September 2019)
• Museum of the Great Patriotic War - Poklonnaya Gora, Moscow, Russia
• Museum of the Second World War - Gdańsk, Poland
• National Museum of the Pacific War- in home of Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz in Fredericksburg, Texas
• National World War I Museum - Kansas City, Missouri
• National World War II Memorial - National Mall, Washington, DC
• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - National Mall, Washington, DC
• American Heritage Museum - Stow, Massachusetts
• The National WWII Museum - New Orleans, Louisiana