The French girl whose dress saluted American soldiers, as told by Wheaton filmmaker
Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct that Cantigny Park is in Wheaton.
The life-or-death importance of battles fought during wars can grow murky with time.
During the Korean War, more than 1,000 United States troops were killed, wounded or captured taking Pork Chop Hill through a series of bloody attacks and counterattacks. Weeks later, we surrendered that hill, and now it is just another crest in the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea. During the Vietnam War, 400 U.S. troops gave their lives in the battle to take Hamburger Hill, a piece of land that we soon abandoned. Thousands of men and women made sacrifices during countless battles in Iraq and Afghanistan, in wars where victories were hard to claim and harder to maintain.
A 36-year-old woman flying a Black Hawk helicopter over Iraq in 2004 exhibited the same valor, commitment and sacrifice as an 18-year-old man storming the beaches of Normandy in 1944, a G.I. trying to repel the 1968 Tet Offensive in a small Vietnamese village, or a soldier marching on Heartbreak Ridge in Korea in 1951. All are worthy of our admiration and gratitude.
What makes D-Day so special is that 75 years later we still acknowledge that bravery and sacrifice and it's role in changing the history of the world.
"It was the last time the battle line between good and evil was clearly drawn," says Christian Taylor, the Wheaton filmmaker behind "The Girl Who Wore Freedom," a new documentary that captures the emotions and impact of D-Day. "And the right side won the day."
On June 6, 1944, more than 150,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of the coastline of France, where the heavily fortified army of Nazi Germany was waiting for them. More than 9,000 Allies were killed that day, and another 60,000 would die during the 10 weeks it took to drive the Germans, who suffered 240,000 casualties and had another 200,000 captured, out of France. The bodies of 10,000 Americans remain in France, most of them buried in marked cemeteries, and another 14,000 servicemen had their remains returned to the U.S. An estimated 20,000 French civilians were killed, some of them by American bombs and in the mistaken assumption they were German soldiers, during the fighting between the two great enemies.
The horror and pain of those losses are still felt today. But rising above that on the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion is the annual remembrance that celebrates what they accomplished - liberating France and changing the course of World War II.
"D-Day marks the beginning of the end of Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime and its hold on Europe. However, 75 years later it still resonates with many Americans," says Laura Sears, public program coordinator for the First Division Museum at Cantigny Park in Wheaton. "The story of D-Day is a reminder that every single one of us is capable of taking a stand against oppression. From the soldiers storming the beach to the French Resistance, they all chose that day to fight against a vision of the future that was based on racial superiority, dictatorship and genocide."
Watching old men in wheelchairs attend ceremonies here and on the beaches of Normandy makes it hard to envision the bravery and courage on display 75 years ago today. Original Honor Flight Chicago volunteer Read Boeckel of Glen Ellyn remembers one trip when the late volunteer Maureen Doolittle lamented how the old veterans might not be able to visit the monuments in Washington because it was raining.
"Honey," one of the veterans reassured her, "I landed on D-Day."
The skies were cloudy and winds whipped the waves as the 1944 invasion began, but the bullets and mortars raining down on the Americans provided the greatest dangers. The Americans, willing to be maimed and risk their lives to liberate strangers of a foreign nation, made a lasting impact on the people of France, who were mourning their own losses.
"The relationship with the Americans starts to turn their lives around," says Taylor, who shows that bond in her film and on her normandystories.com website. "It's really a love story between these American G.I.s and these French citizens."
Starting on June 6, 1945, and continuing through today, generations of French citizens have gathered to honor the sacrifices of Americans and thank them for liberating their nation after four years of occupation by Nazi Germany. The stories are passed down from parents to children to grandchildren and great-grandchildren. French residents still bring fresh flowers to graves, such as that of Gen. Teddy Roosevelt Jr., the president's son, who survived the invasion but died of a heart attack in July 1944 and was buried in France.
In the tidal wave of so much death and destruction, gratitude immediately rose to the surface among the thankful French, including the mother of 5-year-old Danièle Patrix Boucherie.
"She collected in the fields around Sainte Marie du Mont, taking some red and some white parachutes that she cut into strips to make me a little American flag dress," Boucherie tells Taylor, who directed, wrote and served as executive producer of the film. "At the first commemoration, I was at Utah Beach, and I had the honor of wearing this little dress on June 6, 1945."
That story of "The Girl Who Wore Freedom" embodies "the French spirit of love and gratitude toward Americans and all the Allies that I felt from everyone in Normandy," says Taylor, who is in France showing her documentary. Another Wheaton resident, Bill Ebel, is lead editor for the film. Taylor discovered the story of the girl and her dress when she joined her son, Sgt. Hunter J. Taylor of 101st Airborne Division, during the 2015 D-Day commemoration ceremonies.
"Looking at freedom through the lens of the French gives us a great example of how to treat veterans," Christian Taylor says. An obligatory "Thank you for your service" is different from understanding that sacrifice and dedication, whether the veterans served on D-Day or on any day during the countless wars and skirmishes that followed, she says. War changes the lives of all involved.
D-Day changed our world and still reminds us "of the importance of love, gratitude and freedom," Taylor says. "Values that will have ripple effects for generations to come."