In Honor of the Anniversary of D-Day: Excerpt From Cold War Memoir

Chapter 27 of my Cold War memoir TALES OF AN AMERICAN OCCUPYING GERMANY begins with a visit to the D-Day beaches of Normandy in April 1972:

Mitch and I stood at the site of the Allied D-Day invasion during World War II — the audacious landing in Normandy that began on June 6, 1944, and eventually led to the end of the war.

We were the only ones here on this windswept French landscape, the five landing beaches spread below us as Mitch explained the invasion to me.

When we reached Pointe du Hoc, a 100-foot cliff with Nazi concrete gun batteries still visible at the top, I gasped.

“To get off the landing boats and face this cliff, they had to know they would die,” I said.

Mitch nodded. “Tremendous casualties here.”

Then he added, “By the time my father landed in France, Normandy was already secured.”

The enormity of this military operation was almost too much to imagine, especially as the surrounding landscape was now so barren.

Equally disquieting was the thought that the success of the invasion did not immediately end the war. The Allied forces had to fight the Nazis for 11 more months after D-Day.

And the ultimate victory was not soon enough to save Anne Frank, whose hiding place in a secret annex Mitch and I had just visited in Amsterdam.

Betrayed by an informer, Anne and the others had been arrested two months after the D-Day invasion, on August 4, 1944. Then Anne died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March 1945, weeks before the British liberated the camp and two months before the Nazi surrender.

Mitch and I turned away from the desolate landscape.

Click here to read the entire Cold War memoir for free on Wattpad now.


Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the 2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award semifinalist MRS. LIEUTENANT and the co-author of the Navy thriller LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS. Phyllis is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company Miller Mosaic LLC, which works with clients to attract more business. Read her book-related posts at www.PhyllisZimblerMiller.com

In 1939 on Sept. 1st Germany Invaded Poland

Ever since I lived in Munich, Germany, from September 1970 to May 1972 as part of the American occupying force to prevent German military aggression, the date of September 1st has been particularly meaningful to me.

It was this day in 1939 that German military forces marched into Poland, plunging much of the “civilized” world into war.

And it is the day that ultimately sealed a death decree against millions and millions and millions of people – including Jews, Gypsies, Poles, homosexuals, Communists, Socialists and pacifists as well as members of the armed forces of numerous countries.

Most Americans have seen countless movies and television shows about World War II. And I suspect there will be new movies and televisions shows about this subject for many decades to come.

It is important, in my opinion, to stop for a few moments once a year, on September 1st, the back-to-school period in America, and contemplate some of the awful events that succeeded that date as well as contemplate the incredible bravery of those people who chose right over wrong.

On this first day of September 2011 let us salute the current and former members of all our U.S. military branches and all our first responders and all the people who put their lives on the line to protect others.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and the eBook novel LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS. Phyllis is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company Miller Mosaic LLC, which works with clients to attract more business. Read her posts at the company's social media marketing blog.

Jerry Yellin Writes About His Iwo Jima Experience

Military Writers Society of America (www.militarywriters.com) member Jerry Yellin has an essay that is a finalist in the society’s People’s Choice Award – “Iwo Jima, August 14, 1945.”

The above video is of Jerry Yellin reading his story – and you can vote for his story on the society's website.

Here’s an email he sent me and gave his permission to include here:

On March 7, 1945, I landed my P-51 on Iwo Jima after the Marines cleared the area around a dirt air strip. For the next month we strafed the island for the Marines.

On April 7, 1945, I was one of 16 pilots of the 78th Fighter Squadron to fly the first VLR -- Very Long Range -- mission over Japan. We escorted B-29s over Tokyo and watched as they dropped incendiary bombs on the city. Not once did it occur to me that there were people on the ground. They were Japs, my enemy, not really human beings.

I made 19 missions over Japan, lost 16 good friends whom I flew with, and carried a hatred for Japan, her people, her culture until March 6, 1988, when I attended the wedding of my youngest son, Robert, to the daughter of a member of the Japanese Imperial Air Force from WW2. Her father, Taro Yamakawa, hated me and I hated him. Now we have three grandchildren ages 20, 18 and 13 who live in Japan.

Last year I attended a ceremony in Japan conducted by Dr. Hiroya Sugano since 1972 honoring the lives of 23 American airmen who were killed over Japan in a mid-air collision of their B-29s. A charred and scarred canteen with the hand print of the American who was holding it is embedded on the canteen. Dr. Sugano uses that canteen in the ceremony.

This is a tape of the 2008 ceremony photographed by American Air Force personnel from Yokota Air Base.

Dr. Sugano has invited me to go to Iwo Jima on March 18, 2010, to use the canteen in a memorial service for those who were killed on Iwo 65 years ago - 7,000 Americans and 21,000 Japanese.

He, like me, has an interest in preserving peace on our planet for the young people in our lives. His daughter is married to a West Point graduate and he has American grandchildren just as I have Japanese grandchildren.

I have written two books about my experience in the war: Of Wars & Weddings and The Blackened Canteen. Yoko Ono has written a beautiful passage on my website about the message contained in The Blackened Canteen -- www.jerryyellin.com/

Both books talk about the healing experience I have undergone. For us old veterans of wars, and for any veterans of a war, my story will strike a deep cord in their hearts.

Note: The Amazon links are affiliate links.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She is also an Internet business consultant and the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show YourMilitaryLife.com.

Phyllis' company provides Internet marketing training as well as social media marketing to promote your business more effectively.