Thousands of miles away this morning, across the Atlantic Ocean, in a cemetery on a bluff that looks down upon the beaches of Normandy in France, Mathieu Guillemant ensures 2nd Lt. John Howard Wheeler is not forgotten.
So, too, he remembers and honors Navy Motor Machinist’s Mate 3rd Class Frederick U. Snowman.
And Army Pvt. Arthur R. Burrill.
And Army 2nd Lt. Murray C. Freedman.
These “boys” from Springfield were among the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who participated in what was at the time the greatest amphibious military operation ever undertaken. The enormity of it all can be gleaned from the numbers: 5,000 ships, backed by thousands more smaller craft; 11,000 aircraft; more than 150,000 servicemen.
The Allies’ D-Day invasion of France on June 6, 1944, turned the tide of World War II in Europe, intent on reclaiming the continent from the clutches of the Nazi regime of Adolph Hitler.
It was long before Guillemant, now in his mid-30s, was even born, and he has no familial link to the invasion. A lover of history, though, over the past five years, he has pursued a passion to learn more and document the personal histories of men from Springfield who are among those laid to rest in the Normandy American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, France. He’s expanded his work now to include those lost from Hampden County.
Guillemant has, since 2018, been among those in France who participate the “Les Fleurs de la Memoire,” Flowers of Memory, program. They adopt the graves of the thousands of American soldiers killed during the Battle of Normandy who are buried at Colleville-sur-Mer as well as at the St. James cemetery.
It was Burrill’s grave to which Guillemant was first assigned. It sparked his interest in Springfield, Massachusetts, and learning more about not only Burrill but others who shared a common history from Western Massachusetts. Burrill, a graduate of Technical High School, was 21 when he went ashore with the Army 29th Division’s 175th Infantry Regiment on June 7, 1944, and was killed in action 11 days later, one of 60 who perished on Hill 108, nicknamed “Purple Heart Hill,” amid the hedgerows north of St. Lo.
Guillemant’s research and writing continued unabated amid the past year’s pandemic, and he tells me he is far from done.
In an email last week, Guillemant shared that he would like to document all those from Greater Springfield who died in Europe during the war. “It is a long project, but I am confident with this. I get a list of around 400 men,” his email explains. “I already wrote 30 stories, and more than 50 will be ready very soon. I hope to get 100 stories at the end of August.”
Like all of us all around the globe, Guillemant’s life was upended by the pandemic. The hotel where he works has only just reopened after having been shuttered for more than six months, he says.
“We are very busy on the weekend with the Parisian people traveling to Normandy,” Guillemant writes. “but we are very quiet during the week.”
“The French government helped us, giving us money to stay at home, and saving our jobs,” Guillemant explains. Both the COVID-19 PCR testing, as well as hospital care, are free in France, he notes.
Guillemant, who expects to be vaccinated in the coming weeks, is optimistic, he says, that tourism to the region will return more fully in the coming year.
During the pandemic, he joined a new organization, Stories Behind the Stars, a project founded by a Utah man, Don Milne, to establish a national database chronicling the stories of the more than 400,000 American men and women killed in the war, leaving behind them Gold Star families. Thus, the reference to the “stars.”
Guillemant is among a small army of volunteer writers who research and write these stories. More writers are welcome. His work on the “boys from Springfield” is among what he’s already shared on the website, storiesbehindthestars.org.
In his brief biography on the website, Guillemant wrote, “I would like to give fallen soldiers a second life…sharing who they were and what they did far from their home.”
Mathieu Guillemant gives me hope this 77th anniversary of D-Day, hope that the events of that impactful day in world history more than a generation ago will not soon be forgotten, lost to the ages. As I age and look towards retirement, I am concerned about who will continue to chronicle and urge readers to remember our “Greatest Generation.”
I do what I do for veterans by helping preserve their stories in honor of my late father, Master Sgt. Robert Donald Simison, who also served with the 29th Division’s 175th Infantry Regiment and went ashore at Omaha Beach on the very same day as Arthur Burrill. One of my dad’s childhood acquaintances from our hometown of Northampton, Lawrence E. Cave, was also with the 175th regiment that landed on D-plus-1. Cave would be dead on July 9, killed in action during the Battle of St. Lo. I will forever be grateful to so many that my father did come home. I will always remember D-Day, the 6th of June.
Cynthia G. Simison is executive editor of The Republican. She may be reached by email to [email protected].