June 6, 2003

Looking Back on Oroville's Heroes

By Stu Shaner

 

These stories are about the men and women who went to war so that we might be free. Bill Connelly and I are Co-Chairmen of the Oroville Veterans Memorial Committee. For more information call 533-8147.

 

ALLIES INVADE FRANCE

NAZI ATTACK DUE SOON, INVASION OF FRANCE GETS OFF TO SUCCESSFUL START

Beachheads Taken in Normandy, Troops Penetrate 10 Miles Inland, Battle Reports Conflict, Paratroopers Catch Germans By Surprise, German Army Near Rome In Serious Plight, Fliers View Huge Armada Invasion Beat, Watch Warships Paste Shore In Preparation, F. R. Pleased by the Progress Made Tells of Losses, Eke Set D-Day and H-Hour, Whole Army Kept Secret of D-Day, On the home front, Baseball off For Invasion, Ridge Route to Bucks Is Open

 

These are some of the headlines in the Oroville Mercury Register, June 6th, 1944.

It amazes me how the news traveled so fast.

 

F. R. TO READ HIS PRAYER OVER RADIO

Washington, President Roosevelt, the White House disclosed today, spent the tense early invasion hours writing a prayer that he will read to the nation over all radio networks tonight (at 7 p.m. coast time). After his "fireside chat" last night, the President went to his bedroom on the second floor of the White House. Between telephone calls from the war department telling of the progress of

the action it was said, the President wrote the prayer in which he wants the country to join tonight.

 

AS HE WALKS THROUGH THE VALLEY!

Must be a strange world out there - landing waist-deep from a Higgins boat ... scrambling up the beach, with machinegun fire raking you, your comrades failing. Out there he walks through the longest valley of its kind ever known to man, with our future in his gun, Above him our planes are driving the Nazis out of the skies. Inland, he knows, they are blowing up the railroad tracks, breaking up the freight yards. He feels that if he can get up to those machinegun nests--those concrete bunkers -- he can win for us, his loved ones at home, But he is walking through the Valley of the Shadow of Death! His name is Smith, Kelly, Wilson, Levine, Olson. He comes from Oroville, Woodland, Chico, Palermo, Quincy, Greenville. He is bigger than anything that can happen to him. He is a farmers mechanic, lawyer, miner, stockman, woodsman and cop. He is body and soul, not an identification tag. He is the Known American Soldier----opening the SECOND FRONT, the most daring and greatest invasion in history. And let's all back him up, be with him, stand as close to his shoulder as we can, as he fights for us, his people. D DAY

This was an Ad taken out by the Openshaw Meat Co. Markets at, Walsh & Ricketts -Tel. 185, 1855 Montgomery-Tel 179 and Kilpatric's - Tel. 85)

 

Some Gave All

EMERY LEDGER DIES IN ACTION AT ANZIO BEACH

Pvt. Emery Guy Ledger, 19, son of Mr. and Mrs. F. H. Earnest of Feather Falls, was killed in action at Anzio Beachhead in Italy, the war department has notified his parents. Ledger, employed by the Feather River Pine Mills, entered the service as a volunteer in April, 1943, through Oroville draft board. Born in Tuolumne, he came to Oroville at the age of 2 years with his parents, and attended Burbank and Bird Street Schools and Oroville High School. He went overseas in December and served in Africa before going to Italy. He is survived by his parents, a sister, Mrs. Levi Hites of Richmond, and two brothers, Corp. Robert W. Ledger of Camp Claiborne, La., and Pete Ledger of Jefferson Street, Oroville.

 

Stu’s notes: Today June 6, 2003, 59 years since D-Day. The world awaited this day in June 1944 for a long time. Our young men had trained over and over for the invasion. My friend Nick Krpan who gave me this paper went through basic training 3 times Yes the war had been going on a long time all over the world. But now our Brave young men were marching to Berlin. Eleven more months and one day of hard fighting lay ahead and the loss of lives of many thousands of our young men. But in the end Hitler and many of his Nazis were no more but a bad memory. Emory's niece is currently an employee of the Oroville Mercury, she works at a desk to the right as you walk in the door. Say Hi.