History

2019

June 2019

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U.S. Census Bureau History: World War II's D-Day Invasion

General Dwight D. Eisenhower talks to 1st Lieutenant Wallace C. Strobel, Company E, 502nd Parachute
Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, and fellow "Screaming Eagles" before they left England to
parachute behind German lines in Normandy, France. The outnumbered 502nd succeeded in
destroying bridges and slowing German troops attempting to repulse the D-Day landings.

Photo courtesy of the Library of Commerce.

On the morning of June 6, 1944, soldiers from the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and other Allied nations landed on a 50-mile stretch of fortified beaches in Normandy, France, as part of Operation Overlord. After facing withering fire to defeat the Nazi defenders and establish beachheads, approximately 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel and landed in France by day's end. The success of the D-Day invasion established a foothold in France that allowed soldiers and supplies to begin the task of freeing Western Europe from Nazi Germany's control.

The Allied nations—including Great Britain, Canada, Australia, the United States, Norway, and the French Liberation Army—began planning an airborne and sea invasion of Nazi-occupied France in 1943, with U.S. Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower as commander of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force. The target of the invasion was the coastline of Normandy, France, lying approximately 20–25 miles across the English Channel from England. Planners chose five beaches on the French coast, codenamed: Gold, Sword, Utah, Juno, and Omaha. Each was defended by underwater obstacles, mines, and the Nazi's "Atlantic Wall" of heavily fortified artillery, mortar, and machine gun emplacements. As soldiers approached the landing beaches, airborne troops would strike inland, destroying artillery installations, disrupting communications, and slowing the arrival of German reinforcements attempting to drive the Allied invaders back into the sea.

The assault on Nazi-occupied Europe began late on June 5 and during the early morning hours of June 6, as more than 2,200 Allied bombers peppered beaches and inland targets with high explosives. At the same time, thousands of American and British paratroopers and glider airborne soldiers landed in northern France to disrupt Nazi defenses and communications and ultimately captured Cherbourg, France—a vital link in the invasion's supply line. Scattered parachute drops, lost troop-transporting gliders, and missing equipment did not deter the airborne troops from wreaking havoc as waves of Allied soldiers approached Normandy's coastline. The airborne's success was not without cost. Between D-Day and the capture of Cherbourg on June 30, American airborne casualties totaled approximately 1,000 dead, 2,600 wounded, and 4,500 missing.

As the airborne assault kept the Nazis busy inland, an invasion fleet consisting of more then 1,200 warships off the Normandy coast pounded German positions. American, British, Canadian, Free French, and other Allied soldiers and equipment boarded thousands of landing craft in the English Channel for a stomach-churning trip to the French coast. The first waves of invaders to arrive at the landing beaches at sunrise on June 6 experienced varying levels of resistance. British and Canadian forces quickly silenced Nazi defenses and captured Gold, Juno, and Sword beaches with fewer than 2,800 killed or wounded. On Utah Beach, American troops suffered just 197 casualties to overcome the reluctant defense mounted by non-German draftees. However, American soldiers at Omaha Beach and Point du Hoc faced much fiercer resistance. Approximately 200 U.S. Army Rangers scaled the 100-foot cliffs at Point du Hoc—a rocky peninsula between the Utah and Omaha landing beaches—to destroy coastal gun batteries at the cost of 135 dead and wounded. Americans landing at Omaha Beach, were easy targets for determined Nazi defenders as they waded ashore dodging machine gun and mortar fire. Despite more than 2,400 casualties at "Bloody Omaha," the heroic actions of soldiers from the U.S. Army's 1st and 29th Divisions captured the beach, stormed inland, and began consolidating the Normandy beachheads for the soldiers and supplies pouring into France in the hours and days that followed.

Seventy-five years later, millions worldwide still pause each June 6 to remember the heroism of the men and women who fought and died so that others could be free. Among the dozens of military cemeteries in Europe, nearly 14,000 American graves and the names of more than 2,000 missing at the Normandy American Cemetery in Collefville-sur-Mer and the Brittany American Cemetery in Montjoie Saint Martin, France, are reminders of the sacrifice many made during Operation Overlord and battles that followed in the 10 months prior to the defeat of Nazi Germany.

You can learn more about the D-Day invasion and the soldiers who fought and died to liberate Europe using census data and records. For example:

• The September 27, 1940, signing of the Tripartite Pact formally allied the "Axis Powers" of Germany, Italy, and Japan. In that year, the census reported that 1,237,772 people of German decent lived in the United States. The nation's population also included 126,947 Japanese (including 47,305 who were foreign-born) and 1,623,580 Italians. In total, the United States' foreign-born population was 11,419,138, with the largest number living in New York (2,853,530), Pennsylvania (973,260), and Illinois (969,373).
• Between 1939 (when Germany invaded Poland) and 1960, Germany's population fell from approximately 79.7 million to 72.8 million. In September 2018, Germany's federal statistical office—Statistisches Bundesamt (Destatis)—estimated the nation's population was nearly 83 million.
• French censuses reported that the nation's population fell 3.4 percent from 41,524,000 to 40,125,230 between 1931 and 1946. France's population has grown continuously since 1950. In January 2019, its national statistical agency—Institut national de la statistique et des estudes economiques (Insee)—estimated the country's population was 66,992,699.
• Economists Robert Nathan, Stacy May, and Simon Kuznets delivered The Feasibility Study to President Franklin D. Roosevelt on December 4, 1941. The study's demographic and economic data detailed what the United States needed to defeat the Axis powers and how quickly American manufacturing could convert to war production. It proved so comprehensive that the Allies used the study to develop The Victory Plan that guided their war strategy. The study was so accurate that it predicted the Allies would be ready to invade France in late spring 1944.
• Nearly 160,000 Allied soldiers stormed the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944. Of these soldiers, 12 earned the Medal of Honor—the United States most prestigious military decoration awarded for acts of valor. Recipients included:
  • Private Carlton W. Barrett, who waded into the surf repeatedly to rescue drowning soldiers while under heavy enemy fire. He survived the war and lived in Napa, CA, until his death in 1986.
  • Technician John J. Pinder of McKees Rocks, PA, who refused medical treatment so he could continue retrieving vital communications equipment from the surf. He died on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944—his 32nd birthday.
  • Junction City, KS, native Sergeant Walter D. Ehlers landed on Omaha Beach in the D-Day invasion's second wave on the morning of June 6. (His brother Roland died on Omaha Beach during the D-Day invasion.) While leading his unit 8 miles inland on June 9, Ehlers knocked out mortar and machine gun positions and drew enemy fire so his men could escape from their exposed position. Ignoring his own wounds, he carried his injured comrades to safety under German fire. He survived the war and retired to Long Beach, CA. He was the last surviving Medal of Honor recipient from Normany when he died in 2014.
  • Three days after D-Day, Private Charles N. Deglopper of Grand Island, NY, sacrificed himself to heavy German fire, so his comrades could withdraw to more easily defended positions.
  • First Lieutenant Jimmie W. Monteith, Jr., of Alleghany County, VA, rallied men trapped on the Normandy beaches and later led tanks through a minefield on foot before being killed by German fire. His grave at the Normandy American Cemetery in Collefville-sur-Meris, France, is among other soldiers killed during Operation Overlord.
• Approximately 342,000 American women served in the Armed Forces during World War II, including the Women's Army Corps, Navy Nurse Corps, and Women Airforce Service Pilots. Included among these women was U.S. Census Bureau employee Dorothy Paul Pritzker who joined the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1942, and served in Washington, DC, during the war. Other Census Bureau employees serving in the military during World War II included D-Day and Battle of the Bulge veteran Paul Wirth ; D-Day combat engineer and 1990 and 2000 census supervisor Dr. Martin H. Kiefer; 477th Bombardment Group navigator-bombardier Gordon T. Boyd, Jr.; Army Air Corps navigator Wilbur J. Mathias; and Tranquilino B. Aquino of the U.S. Army Signal Corps.
• Between 1941 and 1945, thousands of American manufacturers mobilized their workforces and retooled assembly lines to support the war effort. Oldsmobile employees in Lansing, MI, built Howitzers and millions of artillery shells; Ford Motor Company employees built B-24 bombers at its Willow Run complex near Ypsilanti, MI; watch workers in Waltham, MA, made rugged wristwatches that survived conditions on land, sea, and in the air; brass manufacturers in and around Waterbury, CT, produced cartridge cases, mortar shells, bullets, and bomb components; and Andrew Jackson Higgins converted his New Orleans, LA, boatyard to manufacture the landing craft that delivered soldiers to the beaches of Normandy, France. Today, thousands of Americans work in industries supplying the U.S. Armed Forces. For example, in 2016, Military Armored Vehicle, Tank, and Tank Component Manufacturing (NAICS 336992) employed 6,302; Small Arms Ammunition Manufacturing (NAICS 332992) employed 11,809; and Small Arms, Ordinance, and Ordinance Accessories Manufacturing (NAICS 332994) employed 17,393.
• In 2017, the American Community Survey 1-year estimates found that the majority of Americans claim ancestral ties to one of World War II's combatant nation, including nearly 43.1 million Germans; 31.5 million Irish; 23.1 million English; 16.7 million Italians; 7.7 million French (except Basque); 4.7 million Chinese (except Taiwanese); 2.6 million Russian; and 1.4 million Japanese.
• The 16.1 million Americans who lived through the Great Depression and served in the Armed Forces during World War II are often referred to as the "Greatest Generation." Members of this "Greatest Generation" born between the early 1900s and 1920s include U.S. presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush; movie stars Jimmy Stewart, Charlton Heston, and Henry Fonda; civil rights activist Medgar Evers; baseball hall-of-famer Yogi Berra; and Olympian Louis Zamperini. In 2017, the American Community Survey estimated that just 953,371 World War II veterans were still living in the United States.
• In 2017, the American Community Survey estimated that approximately 18.9 million Americans age 18 years and older were military veterans. The largest cohort of surviving veterans in 2017—6.8 million—served during the Vietnam era; 3.7 million served during the Gulf War period from August 1990 to August 2001; 3.1 million served during the Gulf War period from August 2001 and later; and nearly 1.8 million were veterans of the Korean War era.
• United States and Europe commemorated the 75th anniversary of the D-Day Invasion on June 6, 2019. Event hosts include the U.S. Army Europe, National World War II Museum, National Museum of the Air Force, American Battle Monuments Commission, and National D-Day Memorial .

"Jaws of Death," by U.S. Coast Guard Chief Photographer's Mate Robert F. Sargent, is one of the most iconic photographs of the D-Day invasion. Shot from one
of the USS Samuel Chase's Coast Guard-piloted landing craft, the image shows soldiers from the U.S. Army's 1st Division, 16th Infantry, Company E wading
toward Omaha Beach on the morning of June 6, 1944.

"Omaha" was the code name for one of five sectors along the French coastline invaded by the Allies on June 6, 1944. The U.S. Army's 1st and 29th Division
suffered approximately 2,400 casualties securing the 6 miles of Omaha Beach. Their sacrifice allowed the Allies to land more than 34,000 troops at Omaha
Beach (and 160,000 among all five landing beaches) by day's end.

Photo Courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard.

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Omaha, NE

U.S. Army General Omar Bradley's headquarters staff may have named one of the five landing beaches in Normandy, France—Omaha, Utah, Sword, Gold, and Juno—after Omaha, NE.

Founded in 1854, Omaha grew from 1,883 in 1860 to 223,844 in 1940.

In 2010, Omaha (nicknamed the "Gateway to the West") was home to 408,958.

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This Month in Census History

On June 23, 1944, the Mason City, IA, Globe-Gazette reported that 63 percent of all women in the United States aged 14 years and older were married—an increase of about 2 million since 1940.

The U.S. Census Bureau suspected the increase was due to "war marriages" between couples "tying the knot" before soldiers left for boot camp or deployed overseas and increased economic asa a result of low unemployment and high wages.

War and post-war marriages contributed to a "baby boom" that saw the nation's population grow by more than 71 million between 1940 and 1970.

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America at War

The United States entered World War II after the Japanese attacked American bases on Wake Island, Guam, Midway Atoll, the Philippines, and Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941. In Pearl Harbor alone, the attack killed more than 2,400 people and damaged or destroyed 19 ships and more than 300 aircraft.

In a December 8 address to Congress, President Franklin D. Roosevelt rallied the stunned nation and urged Americans to prepare for war. Congress passed a formal declaration of war against Japan (Public Law 77-328, 55 STAT 795) soon after.

On December 11, Nazi Germany declared war on the United States.

Over the next 4 years, 16.1 million Americans joined the Allied nations to defeat the Axis powers.

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Visit https://www.census.gov/history every month for the latest Census History Home Page!