Gardens, sculptures and an arch of triumph honor members of the armed services at the National D-Day Memorial in Virginia.
By MICHAEL SCHUMAN
Published March 28, 2004
[Times map]
BEDFORD, Va. - The arch, standing 44 feet and 6 inches high, commands your attention. Its exact height is no accident but rather an allusion to the date of the D-day invasion of World War II: the sixth day of the sixth month of the year 1944, when about 150,000 servicemen stormed the beaches of Normandy under fierce gunfire.
Designed in the art deco design style so popular between the world wars, this arch of triumph is just one element of the 88-acre National D-Day Memorial here in a town of just 6,300 hard by the Blue Ridge Mountains.
The location of the memorial, about 240 miles southwest of the nation's capital, where most such war monuments are, is no accident, either. Bedford lost a higher percentage of its residents in the D-day landings than any other community in the United States - 19 men, from a population at that time of 3,200. That made Bedford a symbol of the numerous other American towns, big and little, that sent their sons to liberate Europe.
The monument was the idea of D-day vet, and resident of nearby Roanoke, Robert Slaughter. When he retired in the late 1980s, he began reflecting on his wartime experiences at the beaches of Normandy.
Slaughter said in 1987, "We have no gathering place, no meeting hall, no memorial, where our country can collect its memories and the lessons we learned from D-day."
So he embarked on a fundraising campaign to create a small memorial. But after the surge of publicity during the 50th anniversary of D-day, in 1994, the project began to grow.
Slaughter, who served in the 116th infantry, 29th Division, went back to Normandy on June 6, 1994, and met President Clinton. Celebrities Charles Schulz and Steven Spielberg became major benefactors of the proposed Bedford project, which grew bigger and grander in design.
A major effort hit by problems
In 1996, Clinton signed into law the act designating this small town as the official location for the nation's memorial to the Allied forces involved in the D-day landings. The memorial was formally dedicated June 6, 2001.
But shortly after the dedication, the memorial foundation declared bankruptcy. Says foundation spokeswoman April Cheek, "We were in such a rush to complete it on time so the veterans could see it. But it cost more than we anticipated, and we did not have the money to pay the creditors."
Cheek adds that once the news of the bankruptcy was widely reported, "Civic organizations and groups . . . across the country began raising money for us."
However, she said that about $3-million is still needed to pay for the construction already completed and another $8-million is required to build a proposed education center.
The existing works are impressive. The English garden, representing the locales in England where Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill planned for the invasion, is the place to begin a visit here, because there is a chronological order to the memorial's components.
Part of this complex is a patterned garden of stone and flowers designed in the form of the sword-shaped shoulder patch of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force.
Statues recount the brutal effort
From this spot, a visitor sees a sculptural representation of the landing at Normandy. It takes the form of a Higgins Boat, the extraordinary landing craft built by little-known New Orleans shipbuilder Andrew Jackson Higgins.
In this sculpture, the boat's ramp is open and the vessel is grounded on a tidal flat of a faux beach, consisting of a crescent-shaped pool and sand-colored stone and concrete. The landing craft is sandwiched between two "hedgehogs," the military term for the metal beams welded together by the Germans and placed as obstacles to block or scuttle any landing craft.
The statue of a soldier is waist-deep in the water, raising a rifle over his head. On the "beach" are statues of a dead soldier and another sculpture of a G.I. trying to protect his buddy.
These smaller memorials were placed not only to offer a realistic perspective, but also to be tangible manifestations of the invading forces' valor and sacrifice.
Fronting the beach is a four-figure, high-relief titled Scaling the Wall, a depiction of both the courage and the carnage involved in scaling the cliffs the Germans had fortified. One soldier scurries over the wall; another stretches his arm to help boost a colleague; the fourth man grimaces after being hit by enemy fire - you can almost hear his scream of pain.
Visitors should spend a minute studying these metal sculptures: the folds and creases in the soldiers' uniforms and the veins in their hands show the skill of artist Jim Brothers.
D-Day Memorial architect Byron Dickson describes the 62-year-old Brothers of Lawrence, Kan., as "a '60s-style hippie who never grew up." That might make him seem an unlikely choice for this particular commission.
But Brothers explains, "Most of my friends are veterans and like me, (they) think it is immoral to send your kids to a war we can't win. But I have always believed in the soldier and always will. This (World War II) was the last of the "good' wars. We were the ones wearing the white hats."
Before designing his work, Brothers said, he interviewed D-day veterans to help him interpret their experience. For example, the soldier reaching out to help his friend in Scaling the Wall is based on the recollections of a New Jersey veteran, Leonard Lomell.
A few portions of the memorial complex are not Brothers' creation. These include a gift from France - a rather grotesque allegorical sculpture named Le Monument aux Morts (The War Memorial) - and a row of 12 flags representing the member nations of the Allied Expeditionary Force. With the flags are details of the part each nation played, from the most involved, such as the United Kingdom, to the tangential, such as Poland and Czechoslovakia, which despite Nazi occupation managed to lend support from the air and/or sea.
Perhaps the most moving sculpture sits in the shadow of the triumphal arch. Starkly symbolic of the 4,000 members of the Allied Expeditionary Force killed on D-day, Final Tribute is simply a soldier's M-1 rifle stuck in the ground and topped by a helmet. A few paces south is the seal of the National D-Day Memorial Foundation bearing the Latin inscription Ad commemorandum, fortitudinem, fidelitatem, sacrificium corum - "Remembering their valor, fidelity, and sacrifice."
As Brothers said in a recent interview, "Someone asked me how I could do a war memorial. I answered that it's not a memorial to war: It's a memorial to peace. D-day was the beginning of the end. It was a day of hope."
-Michael Schuman is a freelance writer living in Keene, N.H.
If you go
GETTING THERE: Bedford, Va., is about 30 miles east of Roanoke and about 20 minutes off Interstate 81. Several airlines offer connecting service from the Tampa Bay area to Roanoke, where rental cars are available.
TOURING THE SITE: The National D-Day Memorial is open daily, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., but it is closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Because the monument may be closed in winter due to inclement weather or at other times for maintenance, visitors should call before planning their trip.
Admission is $5 per person. A self-guided tour is described in the free brochure. Guided walking tours are an additional $2 per person; guided tours by cart are $3.
Although the memorial is extensive it is not yet complete. For example, plans call for a gazebo and statue of Gen. Eisenhower to be added to the English garden area when funding is available. No target date has been set for the proposed education center.
DONATIONS: Contributions, which are tax-deductible, may be made to the National D-Day Memorial Foundation, P.O. Box 77, Bedford, VA 24523.
STAYING THERE: Among the accommodations in the Bedford area are:
Super 8 Motel, 842 Sword Beach Lane, 540 587-0100; Days Inn, 921 Blue Ridge Ave., (540) 586-8286; Inn on Avenel (a four-room bed and breakfast in a 1915 Greek Revival home), 416 Avenel Ave., (540) 586-5978, www.innonavenel.com
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Call toll-free 1-800-351-3329 or (540) 586-3329, or go to www.dday.org. Another D-day organization, not affiliated with the memorial, is the excellent National D-Day Museum, which opened June 6, 2000, in New Orleans. For more information on that museum, call (504) 527-6012 or go to www.ddaymuseum.org
