The year was 2002 and I was meeting with Merritt King in Geneva for research on my history of Geneva book with Arcadia Publishing.
He invited me to his beautiful Geneva home and was gracious and a gentleman. Merritt King (1918-2012) had an illustrious career as a Geneva alderman for 28 years, as mayor pro tem, historian emeritus of Geneva History Center, grand marshal of Geneva Swedish Days, and many other honors and awards. In other words, a community champion of stellar deportment.
During our visit he gave me more than a dozen black and white images that he had taken for the U.S. Navy Department while serving in World War II and his week’s article shows one.
From File No. 238359 is shown a small Japanese oiler carrying several hundred oil drums as it starts to sink after being hit by an Avenger torpedo bomber of the Pacific Fleet 15, miles north of Saipan, three days before the first United States troops landed on the island.
Note the man scrambling over the side of the ship and the oil drums floating in the water. White spots in the lower left are members of the ship’s crew already in the water. This photograph was taken from about 500 feet above the sinking ship by Merritt King. Released: July 5, 1944.
On the back of the image is stamped: “Official U.S. Navy Photograph. The Navy Department has no objection to the use of this photograph in commercial advertisements. However, it has no power to waive the privacy rights of the personnel portrayed.”
Some of the other images he gave me include president Franklin Roosevelt working at his stamp collection, prime minister Churchill, Josef Stalin of Russia and Roosevelt at Yalta, Saipan planes downed, Nazi prisoners, U.S. personnel at Scoglitti, Sicily landing at its shore and others. I find these images fascinating. I could do three month’s of articles on these images alone.
In a 2004 TIME magazine article about D-Day, we read “Every war is born with hateful qualities, like the promise of waste and cruelty.” The 150,000 men who landed along a 50-mile front that June dawn carried a copy of General Eisenhower’s “Order of the Day” which declared that they had embarked on “the Great Crusade.”
German troops waiting there numbered 70,000. D-Day, June 6, 1944, came in the 58th month of the war in Europe. We remember the sacrifice of the 1,465 G.Is who died on Normandy Beach and the more than 400,000 other Americans who gave their lives. Brave men. Brave women.
Allied bombers and fighters flew more than 14,000 missions on D-Day pounded German troops along the beaches. Many airborne troops landed in water as the Germans had flooded many inland fields. The 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions landed east of Utah Beach.
My two favorite uncles, Emmett and Barney served in Germany during World War II. Luckily, they could return home. Uncle Emmett gave me some stamps he said he had “liberated” from a German castle. He knew I was a stamp collector.
Why does this history matter?
Because history matters.
It is why proud Americans stand to honor and salute the American flag. We stand to respect this flag that thousands of great heroes died to protect us. The flag is covered in their sweat, their tears and their blood. We stand in salute to honor our Nation’s flag. To do otherwise is injudicious and unpatriotic.