Friday, June 6, 2014

My favorite picture of D-Day

My favorite picture of D-Day... after the landing and the battle and the dead and the wounded... soldiers gather on the beach for the Mass...


6 comments:

Matt said...

Hallowed ground, indeed!

Blue Moon Texan said...

God bless our priests!

Anonymous said...

I wonder if that is a Lutheran chaplain? Does the photo identify the pastor?

Carl Vehse said...

The picture is of a communion service officiated by RC Father John McGovern of Boston, Massachusetts, on the French beachhead on June 12, 1944. On the right is a Estey field organ, issued to chaplains during WWII. It had four octaves, weighed 50-60 lbs, and folded into its own case, 30"x12"x22."

Here's a picture of the field organ being played by Lutheran Chaplain (Cpt.) Paul C. Lutz (1905-1983), somewhere in southern Germany in the spring of 1945. Lutz was a Lutheran pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Lime Spring, Iowa, who became a chaplain in WWII, serving U.S. troops through Italy, southern France, and eventually into Germany’s Bavaria.

Carl Vehse said...

Here is a picture of a chaplain conducting a service at the108th Evacuation Hospital grounds in Normandy. Note the Army Nurse Corps member playing the portable field organ in the background.

Here's another picture of a chaplain conducting a service in WWII with hymns accompanied on a Estey field organ. The knee paddles adjusted the volumne, since the feet were used to pump the air pedals.

Nick Koschmann said...

Thanks for all that info, Carl. Pretty interesting and amazing stuff.