History project honors D-Day

The greatest armada the world has ever known deployed after months of waiting out the worst English Channel storm Europe had seen in 20 years. Sixty-four years ago today, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower finally gave the green light to invade, unleashing 5,333 ships and smaller crafts toward Normandy, France.
“The storm that morning was very bad and the waves were high,” Sgt. George Wilbur Fox, 89, of Waynesboro, said of the 100-mile wide obstacle.
Mary Baldwin College, the Waynesboro Heritage Museum and Waynesboro Historic Commission are doing their part to preserve the stories of World War II soldiers.
Mary Baldwin’s Public History Program includes an upper level course, which this year featured a World War II oral history project. Rick Potter, adjunct assistant professor of history at Mary Baldwin, was approached by the Waynesboro Historical Commission to coordinate a project that would secure personal histories of those who were there that day.
“It was very serendipitous because we were putting together the upper level course and the department had decided it would be on oral history, [and] decided how we were going to focus it,” Potter said. “The timing couldn’t have been more perfect.”
Approximately 156,000 soldiers landed during the Allied invasion of France in an effort to destroy Germany’s hold on Western Europe. Approximately 10,000 men did not return home.
Sgt. Fox served in the 116th infantry, 29th division, M Company – his company was responsible for heavy weapons and artillery support during the D-Day conflict. Now, two months shy of 90 years old, the retired sergeant remembers the climate of the time.
“I just did what I was told,” Fox said.
Fox landed on Omaha Beach, where most Valley soldiers were sent. Of the several sites of entry, Omaha Beach was the principal landing point. The advances achieved at this beach proved the turning point of what has been referred to as “The Longest Day,” most notably in the 1962 Zanuck film by the same name.
“I was hit,” said Fox. “What hit me, I don’t know, I never figured it out. I thought I was dead.”
Fox suffered a concussion, but rejoined forces after receiving medical attention.
Only five years after the end of the Depression, some people in the Valley joined the armed forces for extra income, paltry as it was. Fox was paid just $21 a month for his service.
“[We must have] respect for those who did serve,” said Shirley Bridgeforth, of the Waynesboro Heritage Museum. “There’s not a draft anymore, so I just don’t think it’s right there in the young people’s minds that they have to get involved. It’s information and education, to see what’s involved in fighting a war, so you may know those heroes who got us where we are today.”
A class of six women conducted 25 interviews with Waynesboro World War II veterans, those who served on the home front and women who supported the war. The Waynesboro Heritage Museum hopes to help the interviews on their way the Library of Congress.
“I think that’s one of the things that the oral history project did show … that history is literally in everyone’s backyards,” Potter said. “You never know that that older gentleman or lady who lives across the street from you may have an amazing story. And the problem is, too often, no one bothers to ask.”