Carnuccio: Heroes Among Us
Free Market Friday: Heroes among us
By Michael C. Carnuccio, Guest Columnist
Three score and nine years ago, those from America’s greatest generation were clearing the beachheads from the recently secured Normandy, France, on their way to their second objective. In the previous 24 hours, 156,000 Allied troops from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Free France and Norway had landed on five beaches of occupied territory, taking the fight for freedom directly to the full brunt of German firepower: Sword, Juno, Gold, Omaha and Utah – where one of my heroes first set foot on French soil.
Charles H. Bell was a 19-year-old Irish boy from south Philadelphia who would receive enough battlefield promotions to return home and retire as sergeant after spending most of his time commanding a tank in the 87th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, code named Jeopard. The 87th became known throughout the European Theater of Operation as Bushmasters for its rapid, accurate artillery fire.
In the year following D-Day, Bell would help capture the important northern French town of Carentan – twice, the Battle of the Bulge; liberate one of the largest concentration camps in Europe; and spend the week after German surrender on May 8, 1945, as lone guard for 100 German SS officers held prisoner on the second floor of an abandoned grammar school.