'This is the real thing:' Local residents ponder impact, memories of D-Day on 80th anniversary (2024)

Most of the warriors and spectators from 1944's titanic clash in Normandy are gone, but Aiken County still has several residents who remember learning of that critical World War II moment 80 years ago today, when Allied forces crossed the English Channel, overcame fierce Nazi resistance and began their push across France en route to Germany and victory in May 1945.

Wagener native Norflet "Shorty" Caprell, 95, joined the Navy after atomic bombs had rocked Japan and major hostilities had ended, about 14 months after D-Day, which took place on a Tuesday. The Caprell family received the news the next day.

"There was a lot of talk about D-Day," he said, "but we had no electricity in the house and no radios, so we didn't hear a whole lot about it other than in town or in school. We were left in the dark other than the Aiken Standard newspaper, and what news we got was from the newspaper. Whatever was printed, that's what we got."

The main headline on the Aiken Standard and Review's front page fromWednesday, June 7, 1944read "Invasion Army Speeds Onward," leading into a sub-headline announcing, "Aiken People Pray As Invasion of Europe Battle is Raging," followed by "Churches of City Remain Open All Day" and "Special Joint Prayer Services conducted Tuesday Evening."

The article began, "When news was flashed Tuesday morning to Aiken that the allied troops had invaded Europe from England the church bells of the city were tolled and several whistles were blown notifying the community that the long expected invasion was taking place.

"The churches of the city were opened during the day and many Aiken people went to the houses of worship to pray. Tuesday evening at 8:30 joint prayer meeting services were conducted at the Presbyterian Church in which all of the pastors of the community took part. The Rev. A.D. Howard was the speaker."

Caprell,a 1945 graduate of Wagener High School, recalled hoping for less scarcity in daily living. "We had had so many years of rationing that we were glad to hear and see that some of that was going to be lifted, and we were going to be able to find more than a 5-pound sack of sugar," he said, confirming that the weeks leading up to the invasion included plenty of anticipation of an Allied push into mainland Europe.

"There was a lot of gossip in church about the D-Day invasion, but I don't recall any big to-do over it. We were just glad that the war was ending and that rationing was going to be lifted and… we were glad that D-Day was what it was."

Updates came through "the word of mouth and a little bit of newspaper," he said.

Caprell, who now lives in Aiken, went on to own and operate Caprell's Plumbing and Heating and also spent several years as commander of American Legion Post 77, in Graniteville. He shared some thoughts on his chosen military branch.

"I didn't figure as an old country boy, on a farm, I was going to be happy with digging foxholes, so I joined the Navy to keep from having to go through boot camp or basic training and dig foxholes .... They didn't have too many foxholes in the Navy."

North Augusta resident Joe Jordan, 96, lived in the Augusta area at the time of the invasion, and was largely homeless from the ages of 14 to 18 while working as an apprentice mechanic. He said he knew he was extremely likely to be called into military service as he had been judged as "1-A," meaning "you're ready to go."

As for the timing of the invasion, Jordan recalled, "They tried to keep it secret as much as they could."

He learned of D-Day, he said, via a radio broadcast while visiting one of his grandmothers during the period when he would occasionally sleep in a truck. "There were some good people around that helped me out," he recalled, adding that the decades ahead would see him serve in Korea and Vietnam, as well as dealing directly with issues in Israel and in the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Jordan volunteered for the Navy in September 1945. It all added up to eight years in the Navy and 20 years in the reserves, and a career that eventually included 20 years at Kimberly-Clark and 15 years at the Savannah River Plant.

The day of the invasion has wildly different significance for Aiken resident John Strickland, a retiree known to some as a former administrator of Aiken Regional Medical Centers. He was born June 6, 1944.

"I don't remember World War II, because I was a newborn," Strickland said. "It's hard for us to understand what people had to go through from that, for the U.S — a lot of people that gave up a lot, including their lives. The country got back on its feet."

Seneca resident Ed Zeigler, 99, who lived for decades in North Augusta as a businessman, recalled having been drafted into the Army in April 1943 and being in southern France when the fateful morning arrived.

"The colonel came in, as he did every morning, and said, 'Well, men, this is the real thing. We're not playing around today.' That was the beginning of the bombing of France, with… thousands of airplanes going over. They were pulling a glider which had supplies and ammunition and the food and clothing for everything, and it was an exciting time," he said, noting that planes began returning that afternoon — some with substantial damage.

"We did not get to see battle, but if it hadn't been for us, there would have been a lot more killed, because we supplied their needs while they were in service… Everything that they needed was in those gliders or planes, and they were either filled with soldiers or ammunition, tanks, buses, whatever they would need. Trucks."

Zeigler recalled that he got permission from a superior officer to go across the English Channel, into the hot zone, without fear of being charged as absent without leave, so Zeigler could see the damage that was being done. He declined, based on the officer's explanation that "'if you get killed over there, you are AWOL.'"