Greenwich WWII veteran tells the story behind D-Day
GREENWICH — With the 75th anniversary of D-Day on Thursday, the timing could not have been better for the perspective of Bob Wylie, who lived in Greenwich for over five decades.
Wylie, a World War II veteran, addressed the Retired Men’s Association on Wednesday morning and discussed the planning and execution of the vast Allied plan to invade France and open a new front against Germany.
The massive operation — which included extensive bombing runs and the landing of 24,000 U.S., British and Canadian forces on the French coast — changed the course of World War II as well as the course of history.
A nose gunner and toggler for the U.S. Army Air Forces, Wylie dropped the bomb load from the plane in flying his 25 missions. He was not at D-Day — but saw history unfold before him.
“The Allies recognized the
necessity of having a direct confrontation with the German army rather than peripheral operations around the waters of Nazi Germany,” Wylie told a standing-room-only crowd of 150 people at the First Presbyterian Church. “That clearly was the most expedient and least-costly route. And also we wanted to make an impact upon Germany with a decisive defeat for them, which was not the case in 1918 with the Armistice. Germany still felt it won the war even though it lost it.”
Wylie volunteered in 1943 when he was only 17; his father and brothers-inlaw signed up, too. After turning 18 later that year, Wylie was called up and served in England after his training.
Wylie is knowledgeable about the war even beyond his service. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history with honors from Wesleyan University in 1949. After a 40-year career in business, Wylie earned a master’s in history from Western Connecticut State University and an associate’s degree in political science at the New School .
D-Day was necessary, he said, because of the “dire situation on the Eastern Front,” where Germany was bogged down in its invasion of the Soviet Union. Many were concerned that the Soviet Union would fall, allowing the Germans to move huge numbers of soldiers to the Western Front, making an invasion even more difficult.
In breaking down the invasion, Wylie focused on all the planning and luck that went into the operation as well as the factors that made it a success. The invasion of France had originally been scheduled for May 1, then for May 30, then for June 5 — but each time it was called off due to the weather.
“Weather was of extreme importance,” Wylie said. On the actual day of the invasion, the weather was clear enough to strike only for about 15 to 19 hours, and the Allies decided to go for it and caught the Germans by surprise.
“The German submarines throughout the North Atlantic and longrange reconnaissance aircraft knew exactly what the weather patterns were, but they were convinced that 15 to 19 hours were not sufficient so they did not prepare a defense,” Wylie said. “The German high commanders, interestingly enough, most of them were with their mistresses in Paris.”
The Allies had total air and naval dominance, but the Germans were wellfortified along the beaches. While Hitler had falsely claimed to the Germans that he had built a wall along the Atlantic from Norway to the Spanish frontier, he had installed strong fortifications at key points, including beach defenses.
Wylie focused on the Germans’ inability to heed the advice of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, one of its top military leaders, who had argued that seven divisions of German reinforcements for the beach defenses should have been stationed within a half-day of Normandy.
But the reserves were far away and unable to respond quickly. Even still, the Germans had the advantage in equipment, including better machine guns and tanks, he said.
“This is strictly speculation, but if Rommel’s advice had been listened to, the German Panzer Divisions might have prevented our victory,” Wylie said. “They might not have. This is my speculation, but they had this equipment which we did not face at all on D-Day. And the cream of the German army was held off at the invasion, thank God.”
Successful deception was also critical, he said. The Allies had launched a major effort with false intelligence and even placing replicas of tanks and planes to convince the Germans that the invasion would be at Pas de Calais, not Normandy.
“Everything we did for months prior to D-Day was to solidify the Germans’ opinion that we would attack Pas de Calais,” Wylie said.
After the invasion on June 6, the Allies made steady gains and broke the German defense in August of that year.
Wylie’s speech will be posted online at www.greenwichrma.org.
The Greenwich Veterans Council will host a D-Day ceremony at 6 p.m. Thursday in front of Town Hall. Greenwich American Legion Post 29, the Byram Veterans Association and the Greenwich Police Department Honor Guard will take part along with Greenwich resident William Fullilove, a veteran of the British Royal Navy who participated in the D-Day invasion.