In the June 1994 issue, we covered the 50th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy from varied and often lesser-known points of view: historian Stephen E. Ambrose set the stage; we paid tribute to the unsung Coast Guardsmen, the real life savers at Normandy; in an interview, venerable newsman Walter Cronkite recalled watching the invasion unfold from a B-17; and salty tank landing craft skipper H. R. Cluster offered a vivid, first-hand account that won him Naval History’s Author of the Year award. It simply does not seem as though ten years have passed since we were able to crowd so much good material into 64 pages.
To commemorate the 60th anniversary, the Tawani Foundation of Chicago, Illinois, and CEO James N. Pritzker have generously underwritten the cost of publishing eight additional pages for our D-Day coverage. We are grateful not only for this support, but also for the foundation’s agreement to support the U.S. Naval Institute’s oral history program for three years, a partnership that promises to bear fruit in the near future. To illustrate how valuable oral history is, we include in this issue an excerpt from a conversation with Rear Admiral Edmund Moran about his efforts as a Navy captain to lead “Force Mulberry,” the artificial harbors so critical to the success of the Normandy Invasion.
We lead with an article by prolific author Thomas B. Allen. Naval History readers know Tom for his collaborations with our “Historic Aircraft” columnist, Norman Polmar, as well as his extensive work with National Geographic Magazine on a variety of topics, notably underwater expeditions to the sunken ships at Midway. Here, Tom highlights what usually was lost in the D-Day newsreels: the pivotal roles played by the destroyers, which closed to within less than 1,000 yards of the Normandy shoreline in support of troops on the beaches. Following that is our account of the Mulberry operation, written by former CBS radio newsman J. Wandres and accented by the Moran oral history excerpt. Along that line, Ed Ruggero, who came to us recommended highly by the Tawani Foundation and the Pritzker Military Library, pays tribute to all veterans, whom he wishes would recount their experiences for posterity before those memories are lost forever.
Also for this issue, we conducted an interview with historian Douglas Brinkley, not only because he has produced a new oral history book on D-Day, but also because he has written a best-selling account of Senator and presumptive presidential nominee John Kerry’s Navy service in Vietnam and what happened when he returned to the United States. In addition to that volatile topic, Brinkley talks about his craft—“to tell great stories”—and the importance of naval history in the grand scheme.
Finally, we are happy to publish another World War II 60th anniversary article, one that should set the record straight concerning the ship that was first to warn of incoming enemy aircraft at the 19 June 1944 Marianas Turkey Shoot. To the surviving crew of the battleship Alabama, we’re proud to be part of your reunion.
—Fred L. Schultz, Editor-in-Chief