Minnesota in World War II
Stories from Minnesota’s World War II Veterans
Episodes
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Minnesota in World War II:
D-Day on Omaha Beach
June 6, 1944: Lieutenant Robert Huch, St. Paul, was leading a company from the Army’s First Infantry Division onto a beach in Normandy, France, for D-Day. There were five beachheads, but they’d got the worst: Omaha, with its unprotected beach and German-occupied cliffs.
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Minnesota in World War II:
Betty Bemir and the Waves at Sugar Camp
1943: Every day, Betty Bemir (Nashwauk, MN) and her sister WAVES—Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service—marched from cottages at Sugar Camp in Ohio to a cash register factory. They weren’t making cash registers but rotors for top-secret decryption devices. Here’s Britt Aamodt.
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Minnesota in World War II:
The Sinking of HMT Rohna
November 26, 1943: Staff Sergeant Arthur Ferschweiler, a 34-year-old from Foley, Minnesota, was aboard the HMT Rohna, headed across the Mediterranean to his next duty station with the construction battalion. Suddenly, German bombers carrying state-of-the-art radio-operated torpedoes appeared. Here’s Britt Aamodt.
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Minnesota in World War II:
Betty Pack and the Vichy Naval Codes
1942: Betty Pack, a Minneapolis-born socialite, had convinced the guard at the Nazi-friendly Vichy Embassy to allow her and her boyfriend to use a room for their “lovemaking.” In reality, the Allied spy was there to steal codebooks that would be used in the invasion of North Africa. Here’s Britt Aamodt.
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Minnesota in World War II:
A Torpedo Bomber Gunner at Midway
June 4, 1942: It was a mad mission. Arnold Theodore Meuers from Osseo, Minnesota, was a rear gunner on one of the six Avenger torpedo bombers hurtling toward what looked like the entire Japanese fleet at the beginning of the Battle of Midway. Here’s Britt Aamodt.
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Minnesota in World War II:
The USS Ward at Pearl Harbor
December 7, 1941: The USS Ward on a routine patrol outside the mouth of Pearl Harbor shot and sank a Japanese sub. The crew, among them over 80 reservists from St. Paul, would be credited with firing the first shots during the Attack on Pearl Harbor. Here’s Britt Aamodt.