4th ID played critical role on D-Day

One of the most important components in the D-Day invasion of 1944 has a Colorado Springs connection.

The 4th Infantry Division was the tip of the spear on that day 75 years ago, the first to set foot on Utah Beach, and continued to play a large role in subsequent milestones in World War 2.

The division’s amphibious assault training for the invasion began almost a full year earlier.

Fort Carson and 4th ID Museum Director Joe Berg says the training took place in Florida, then England.

“They worked on embarking and disembarking from landing craft at sea, and what it would be like to land on an enemy beach, with full equipment and full gear,” said Berg.

That gear weighed roughly a hundred pounds, and much of it is now preserved in display cases at the museum.

With preparation for the invasion beginning so early, it was likely that the Germans would know an attack was coming, so Berg says the military used a number of deceptive tactics to leave the Germans guessing on where the first troops would arrive.

Berg says it worked.

“It did. In fact, Hitler held back several of his best armored divisions from being committed to Normandy against the beach heads, because he was expecting the main invasion to come later on in a different place,” he said.

Technically, the Utah Beach landing spot was about mile from where it was supposed to be, but rather than relocate, 4th ID Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr. famously said, “We’ll start the war from right here.”

By the end of day, more than 23,000 soldiers with the 4th ID had come ashore.

197 died that day, with thousands more injured to the point they could no longer fight.

D-Day, however, was just the beginning.

Retired General James Thurman, a former division commander, recalled, “The division fought for 199 days of straight combat. From the time it hit Utah Beach, all the way through the Siegfried Line and got into the Hurtgen Forest. 199 days of straight combat.”

From Utah Beach, the 4th ID soldiers then moved northwest to secure the rest of the peninsula and take the critical port city of Cherbourg.

Then they headed east to help liberate the city of Paris, before being the first American soldiers to cross the border into Germany.

By the time all the bloody battles to retake various cities in France and Germany were over, more than 4,000 soldiers from the division were dead.

When Berg thinks about D-Day, he remembers it for not only the strategic path it opened up, but the variety of paths that brought so many soldiers that beach in the first place.

“They came from every walk of life, they came from every state in the union. The division was being lead by the eldest son of a former president. So every class was of America was represented there on that beach that day. This was truly a national effort where America pulled together in order to combat the greatest evil the world has ever known,” he said.

Following the eventual victory in Germany, the 4th ID soldiers began training to attack Japan, but before that campaign began, the war had ended.

Today, the 4th ID has its own museum and memorial at Normandy.

Berg, who has visited the region, says in addition to the museum, a number of area businesses have adopted the division’s ivy logo as a way to recognize the men who liberated their country in 1944.