June 6, 1944 is now being remembered once again. The citizens of Normandy, France, and dignitaries from around the world will again gather to pay tribute to the many brave men who lost their lives in freeing France from the Nazis.
My father was one of those G Is who waded ashore. His group of men landed behind the first assault wave, and thus escaped the slaughter of the men landing in the first wave.
So, I have a great interest in the D Day landings.This no doubt led me to what later happened.
I was teaching in a small high school where the superintendent of school believed that all a good teacher needed was a piece of chalk. And that is just all I had to teach a class in Military History. It came about this way. A fellow teacher and football coach, who had once been a 2nd Lt. in the Army, had the bright idea for a class in military history. What he did in his class, I had not a clue. Long story short, he lost football games, and left the school district. That is where I came in. I was told to teach his class. And, remember, I only had a piece of chalk. What was I do do?
I decided that I would have my students thoroughly research the D Day landings, and that we would build a scale model of a section the the landing area.
So it was off to the library every day for some time. Notes were taken. Photographs were Xerox copied. One student managed to find a free 8x10 sheet of plywood.The art department was raided for for paint and brushes. Plaster of Paris came from somewhere. Thin sheets of balsa wood and glue came from a hobby shop. Very small plastic soldiers came from there too.
In time, the English Channel was painted with its dark depths, and the lighter tones as the water became less deep. The water had six foot waves that day, and this was reflected in paint.
Meanwhile some of the other students were building two landing craft, complete with numbers seen in photographs. Other students were working with creating the landscape, and German gun emplacements. The sand beach with all the steel obstacles were built and painted. Many of the plastic soldiers were painted, some cut off short to make it look like they were wading. It was very realistic-looking. Our scale was 1/72, and a tenth of a mile of Utah Beach.
When finished it was a masterpiece. Classes from neighboring buildings were brought over to look at it. One of my student's father worked at Ford. And so, Ford Motor Company donated glass to cover it. And we were informed that our D Day model would be placed in the lobby of the the high school.
When summer was over, and it was time to return to school, I found our D Day model smashed to bits, in the trash room.
That was the first semester of Military History. For the second semester, I decided that much could be learned from a study of the war crimes trials at Nuremburg. Again, nothing but a bit of chalk. Students researched the crimes of the Nazi men on trial. Then role playing became the order of the day. Other classes visited us to witness the trials. I now think that maybe the superintendent was right when he said all a teacher needed was a piece of chalk. The following year the subject was not being offered.
Aloha
Grant
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