D-Day museum awakens tears and terror

Gritty images and memories of soldiers who survived breathe life into a New Orleans museum and its combat film.

By ROBERT N. JENKINS, Times Travel Editor

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 16, 2000

[National D-Day Museum photo] Thousands of American paratroopers were dropped behind German lines in the predawn darkness of D-Day.

NEW ORLEANS -- Heads bow. Index fingers reach to push up eyeglasses and dab at tears. Not all the heads in the theater are white-fringed; surely some of these people must have fought in other wars. And surely the memories brought back by the film do not center on just one day.

But it is the black-and-white combat film from that day, June 6, 1944, of bodies floating in the surf, or sprawled face down in the sand, or being hustled on litters to some haven, that causes so many in the small theater to choke back sobs.

Not just the pictures but the film's narration -- voices of unknown soldiers who managed to live through D-Day -- make those of us lucky enough to have never fought, to have never lost a loved one in war, understand the terror:

"This is what dying is like," one voice recalls. "You have a feeling like, the rest of my life is a free bonus."

Another voice says, "I walked by all the guys who died, all the beautiful, wonderful friends of mine . . ."

More than 9,000 Allied servicemen were killed or wounded on June 6, the day we invaded Hitler's Europe. On a front 45 miles wide, the greatest assault force ever assembled -- more than 5,000 ships, more than 150,000 soldiers, sailors and paratroopers -- attacked.

The National D-Day Museum, which opened just over a month ago in New Orleans, details the buildup of men and materiel, the constantly woven web of lies to fool the German hierarchy about where in France the invaders would land. And of course, the museum's film and displays tell of the assault and the aftermath.

The 48-minute documentary, D-Day Remembered, follows the chronological order of things. For instance, to illustrate the troop buildup before the invasion, there are scenes of Yanks dancing with women in a British ballroom, bumming a match for their cigarettes, strolling past the devastation German bombers wrought on London.

The sheer numbers of American soldiers and airmen gathered for the invasion intimidated some British:

"Bloody Americans are overpaid, oversexed and over here," says one man, repeating a bitter joke. But then a British woman is heard, too:

"There were so many people who met, who loved and parted . . ."

The supreme commander of the Allied forces, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, is seen walking among paratroopers, their faces blackened, on June 5. They took off that night in 822 planes, to be dropped behind German lines early the next morning.

"He laid it on the line," one of these paratroopers says in the film. "He said that some of us were going in there but not coming back. You know when you go to war, some don't come back."

As they left the English countryside to board their ships and planes, one soldier recalls, an officer said: "Look up at the church, the schools, the fields. Take it all in. You'll never see it again."

The rest of the film and two floors of exhibits document the actual assault. A few memories and mementos stand out from among the flickering movies and the display cases holding wristwatches, weapons, uniforms, helmets, ships' pennants and survival gear used then:

• "There were bodies floating around -- no end to them," recalls one serviceman. "You could not put your hand down without touching one."
• Another soldier relates that when his group got to the bedlam of the beach itself and tried to hunker down, "The sarge said, "Get up, g- -- d- -- - it! You're gonna die anyway, so move in!"
• In a display case is a photo of a soldier and a bullet. A card explains that this private had just come off one of the landing craft when he felt a pain in his foot. He ignored that and set about helping wounded soldiers. For his heroism, he received the Bronze Star -- but that was long after this German bullet was removed from his foot.
• Among the dozens of brief oral histories offered in small listening booths, one man recalls scaling the 100-foot cliffs beyond the beach: "You just take it as it comes, do what you were trained to do. We're not heroes -- we're Rangers."

If you go

The National D-Day Museum is housed inside a 19th century warehouse and former brewery in the Warehouse District of New Orleans, an area featuring art and history museums. The first-floor lobby holds captured German vehicles, a couple of airplanes and a newly built landing craft -- a clue to why the museum is located in New Orleans.

As historian Stephen E. Ambrose has disclosed, when he was interviewing then-former President Eisenhower to write his biography, Ike asked whether this New Orleans scholar knew fellow New Orleans resident Andrew Higgins. Ambrose replied no, whereupon the ex-president said:

"That's too bad. You know he is the man who won the war for us."

Eisenhower went on to explain that Higgins, a successful if eccentric businessman who designed and built watercraft for industrial use, had created such a fine craft for landing troops, vehicles and artillery up on a beach that without them, "It would have changed the whole strategy of the war."

That was the impetus for placing the museum here, with Ambrose using his well-received histories to generate interest in the invasion and to found the museum.

An estimated 100 former workers in Higgins' boat company rallied to the cause and built a new one for the museum.

The film D-Day Remembered, finished in time to be shown on the 50th anniversary of the invasion, was partially created to raise funds for the private, non-profit museum. The film is shown several times a day, and it places the event in context, its images emotionally powerful.

The museum holds artifacts, photo murals, models, animated displays and small listening areas for brief oral histories. It has planned but not opened a display on the war in the Pacific.

HOURS, PRICES: Admission is by timed ticket, with just 60 people admitted every 15 minutes. Although the museum is fully accessible, guests stopping to study the wall murals or read their captions often create bottlenecks in corridors leading to the larger display areas.

It is open daily, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with tickets sold only on day of admission. Admission prices are $7 for adults, $6 for those 65 and older, $5 for children 5-17. Children younger than 5 are admitted free, but this is not a museum with appeal to youngsters.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: The museum is at 945 Magazine St., New Orleans, LA 70130. Call (504) 527-6012; the Web site is http://www.ddaymuseum.org.

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