Sacrifices at Normandy move man, grandsons
Charlie Stitt, an Army veteran and retired AK Steel executive, wanted to take a trip to Normandy to tour the beaches stormed by thousands of courageous GIs on June 6, 1944 during World War II's “Operation Overlord,” better known as D-Day.
So, the Penn Township man made it a family affair.
Stitt, 82, invited his two grandsons, cousins Ethan McCoy and Paul Stitt, both college freshmen, to accompany him on the trip. The trio set off for the sojourn in May 2018.
McCoy, a Butler native, attends Butler County Community College and is a longtime World War I and World War II devotee.
Stitt is a pre-med student at Valparaiso University in Indiana, where he grew up.
Stitt and his grandsons traveled about two hours by train from Paris to Normandy, where they embarked on an extensive tour that included riding in a van for 90 minutes and walking more than four miles.
The group visited Omaha and Utah beaches, the Normandy American Cemetery and other sights related to D-Day, which to this day is the largest seaborne invasion in history.
At least 10,000 casualties resulted from the amphibious attack on the German stronghold, with 4,414 deaths confirmed.“Our soldiers made such great sacrifices, so that our liberty would be preserved,” Charlie Stitt said. “I wanted my grandsons to be given the opportunity to visit the scene of this great event and to view what our soldiers went through to win this great battle.”He said he is sure the young men were greatly affected by the trip.“They had a perception of the difficulty of the invasion from a weather and terrain standpoint,” Stitt said. “They also saw the cliffs some of the soldiers had to climb.”Stitt explained that the mission to storm the beaches under heavy German fire from gun turrets overlooking the scene went off under poor marine and weather conditions, so many of the landing craft carrying soldiers had to disembark in deep water.Weighted down by guns, ammunition and other items, some of the underage soldiers who had lied about their birth dates to enter the war drowned before they could make it to the beach.He said bombers were unable to drop their payloads as planned because of heavy fog, which didn't help the men who fought their way to shore.
The troops met with heavy fire as well as mines and deadly obstacles on the beaches — if they made it that far.“There has never been a military operation remotely approaching the scale and the complexity of D-Day,” Stitt said. “It involved 176,000 troops, more than 12,000 airplanes, almost 10,000 ships, boats, landing craft and other combat vessels — all involved in the surprise attack on the heavily fortified north coast of France, to secure a beachhead in the heart of enemy-held territory.”While all five beaches at Normandy were secure by June 12, the operation was not completed until July 21.The D-Day invasion served as the impetus for the liberation of France and, later, Europe.One facet of D-Day the trio found interesting was the singular sacrifice made by the town of Bedford, Va.Stitt explained that a company of 30 men from the town landed in a sector of Omaha Beach, and only 10 survived.“Bedford made the greatest sacrifice of any community in America,” Stitt said.He said a statue of a soldier dragging a wounded compatriot to the beach was placed at the location where the Bedford men came ashore, and could very well depict two GIs from that company of neighbors.The trio even met two visitors from Bedford on the tour.“They were familiar with the tribute to their town and, obviously, they were very anxious to see the beaches and surroundings,” Stitt said.
He and his grandsons were also moved by the Normandy American Cemetery, where row upon row of simple white crosses denote the final resting places of brave American boys.“To see the graves of more than 9,000 Americans, some of whom were unidentified, that was very impactful,” Stitt said.On the trip home, Stitt asked his grandsons — who were educated on D-Day before their trip — about their impressions on touring the hallowed ground of Normandy.“They were totally unprepared to visualize what our soldiers went through to secure that beachhead,” Stitt said.Although he has studied both world wars extensively in both childhood and adulthood, McCoy called the visit an enlightening experience.“It's one thing reading about the invasion and watching movies of it, but it's another thing being there in the flesh, knowing how many people made the ultimate sacrifice for millions of others they didn't even know,” he said.McCoy said the visit has left a lasting impression on him.“What was once a beach filled with the blood of thousands is now a peaceful sight,” he said, “but we will never forget what those people did there.”
