Warwick WWII veteran to receive top French honor

Kelcy Dolan
Posted 7/8/14

It was before dawn on June 6, 1944. Donald McCarthy was offshore from Normandy, France.

With the beach in sight, McCarthy, a member of the 29th Division, 116th Infantry, felt his landing craft hit …

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Warwick WWII veteran to receive top French honor

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It was before dawn on June 6, 1944. Donald McCarthy was offshore from Normandy, France.

With the beach in sight, McCarthy, a member of the 29th Division, 116th Infantry, felt his landing craft hit a sand bar. One wave of many hit the craft so hard that it broached. Sixteen of the 36 surviving soldiers scrambled from the failing craft and headed toward the beach.

McCarthy was one of them. He grabbed a man he swore was talking to him to pull him closer to shore securing him to a hedgehog, a German barricade to block ships from reaching the shore.

When McCarthy could finally feel the ocean floor below him, he took a second to exclaim, “I’m in France. I’m in France!” He then crawled his way onto and up the beach.

Smoke flares caught the beach grass on fire, leaving a haze of smoke just above the American soldiers who were landing on “Dog Red,” shielding them from the watchful Germans who waited for targets.

McCarthy called out to God while he made his way across the beach, praying to survive the day. He promised to live the life God wanted for him. He finally reached Vierville-sur-Mer, a village that the Germans had already abandoned.

He thought he was safe, but McCarthy was directed to return to the beach. He recalls a sergeant telling him, “Don, you have radio experience; go back to the beach; we need one.”

Back on the beach, McCarthy arrived just as the man he was seeking to contact was ripped apart by gunfire. The radio was destroyed. McCarthy took shrapnel in his back left leg.

McCarthy was brought to safety, protected from the rising tides and artillery.

“At the end of the day I sat there and watched the sun, this large golden ball, fall into the western sea of the English Channel, thanking God to have survived,” McCarthy remembered.

Seventy years after D-Day, French President François Hollande will honor McCarthy as a “Chevalier” of the Legion of Honour for his efforts as one of the first people to have landed in Normandy.

Napoleon Bonaparte established the Legion of Honour in 1802. It is the highest French decoration.

“Somebody always has to be first. On that day 70 years ago it was me and my comrades,” McCarthy said.

This will not be the first time McCarthy has returned to Normandy. It will be his 12th visit since World War II.

McCarthy returned to Normandy at the advice of a Marine he met in Vietnam about 25 years later. McCarthy visited Vietnam, not only to learn more about what was going on, but also to assist the Marines in their communication efforts. For 25 years McCarthy had been haunted by his experiences that day, asking himself why he survived when so many others had not.

“You have to go back he had said. And so, I did,” McCarthy said.

His return to Normandy began when he joined the Daily Mail Transatlantic Air Race competition in 1969 that celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first ever airmail from the United States to England. Contestants were to race each other from the top of the Empire State Building to London.

Even though he flew from New York to London and hired motorcyclists to complete the trip, McCarthy lost by 7 minutes. Once in England, he chartered a 26-foot double-keeled sailboat and sailed Normandy. He knew he had returned to the very place by a knoll he remembered on a hill.

He walked ashore and visited the newly established American cemetery and found a number of his fallen comrades.

“To go back did feel good. I had been asking God why he had saved me for 25 years,” he said.

McCarthy continues to visit Normandy and he has helped many students visit as well. He, Martha Smith, a nun from Long Island, and Allen Williams helped to found the Normandy Allies, a not-for-profit organization that takes students to Normandy.

McCarthy said, “We worked hard for young people to have the opportunity to go to Normandy and see firsthand what occurred.”

The visiting Normandy Allies group will be at the ceremony for McCarthy’s award. They will travel back together after the ceremony.

“This is a special honor and I feel extremely privileged. It’s saying, ‘Hey guy, you had to do something, something you didn’t ask for and we recognize your help in liberating France and making way for the new world order and ending the war,’” McCarthy said.

After being injured on D-Day, McCarthy was sent to England to heal but returned to France to continue fighting before blood poisoning caused him to return to England for treatment.

Once home, he married his sweetheart Elaine, whose picture he had carried throughout his war efforts in his helmet. They have four sons.

They moved to Rhode Island after McCarthy, who worked for the New England Telephone Company, was transferred to Rhode Island Naval base to work military communications for President Kennedy. McCarthy and Kennedy’s mothers had been good friends.

McCarthy and his family moved to Warwick in 1974 and have been there ever since. From his four sons, he has 10 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

He is traveling to France toward the end of July and will be receiving the Legion of Honor on July 24. This will be his second visit this year, as he was invited to the ceremony the past June commemorating and honoring those who fought on D-Day.

McCarthy said, “I’m rather excited.”

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