D-Day invasion: Sacramento natives’ historic contributions
(FOX40.COM) — June 5, 1944, was a regular day for the Sacramento region, but 5,400 miles away on the Normandy coast, it was already June 6, the day of days, for several capital city natives.
As the first airborne elements of the invasion parachuted into inland France, it was around 3 p.m. on June 5, 1944, in Sacramento.
The weather was a typical early June day in the valley with an average temperature of 75 degrees, highs in the 90s, and lows in the 60s.
It was what Sacramento Public Library Archivist James Scott called a “pedestrian day” in Sacramento as children awaited their summer breaks, people grabbed a late lunch and the capital city’s industries were operating at full.
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At 4:30 p.m. Sacramento time, the first wave of troops with the 101st Airborne Division began dropping behind enemy lines, east of Utah Beach.
Dropping through the skies over German-occupied France were Northern California natives Clarence R. Hester, of Shasta, and Guerdon Walthall, Thomas A. Pinon and Bill Maynard all of Sacramento.
Hester had graduated from Red Bluff High School in 1934 and moved to Sacramento in the same year to attend Sacramento Junior College.
He would enlist in 1942 and join Company E of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, which would lead him to be included in the popular book, “Band of Brothers,” which was later adapted to television.
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As 2nd Lt., Hester served as Easy Company’s first executive officer under the company’s first commander 1st Lt. Herbert Sobel. He was eventually promoted to 1st Battalion’s Commanding Officer.
Potentially standing alongside Hester during D-Day was Sacramento native Bill Maynard, who was also a member of Company E of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment.
Maynard was born in 1921 and raised in Sacramento, where he attended Christian Brothers High School before enlisting to be an Army paratrooper.
According to U.S. Army records, Maynard suffered a bad leg injury on his jump and was pulled under a hedgerow by medics, where he was armed with a .45-caliber pistol.
For three days he fought off approaching enemy soldiers until the medics were able to return for him and eventually bring him to a hospital in England.
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Maynard would go on to be awarded the Purple Heart, as well as the Legion of Honor from France.
Fellow Sacramento natives and 101st members, Guerdon Walthall and Thomas A. Pinon, also made their jumps over Normandy on D-Day.
When my chute popped open, I thought it was torn in half. I felt a wrench at my leg. When I looked down, my leg pack was gone…. All I could see were tracers racing from every corner of every hedgerow and the boom of mortars and 88s on the field below. I saw a tracer go through the fellow below me, and I really started sweating out getting hit before I reached the ground.
Guerdon Walthall
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According to the book, ‘D-Day with the Screaming Eagles,’ by D-Day paratrooper and 101st Airborne Division historian George Koskimaki, Walthall had been shot at least once through each leg by machine gun fire.
At 9:30 p.m. Sacramento time, the main Allied invasion force of American, British and Canadian forces hit the five beachheads at Normandy.
Just as most people were asleep or getting ready for bed on the West Coast, NBC cut into broadcasting for the first announcement of the Allied invasion.
“We interrupt our program to bring you a special broadcast. The German news agency Trans-Ocean said today in a broadcast that an allied invasion had begun,” NBC’s report said. “There has been no allied confirmation. The German broadcast could be one that the Allied expected would be made with the purpose of upsetting patriot plans inside the conquered countries.”
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Sacramentans who did not hear that broadcast interruption would not know of the epic historical event until the following morning.
According to Scott, the region responded with widespread moments of prayer for the nation’s armed forces and others around the world.
The state legislature shut down for prayer service and Pacific Fruit Express in Roseville momentarily shut down as 500 employees took one knee and prayed for their 100 employees taking part in the war, according to Scott.
After D-Day
Due to the severity of his injuries, Maynard was discharged from the Army in 1945 and he returned to Sacramento where he worked as a building inspector for Sacramento County for 30 years, according to The Sacramento Bee.
Hester would remain fighting in Europe and drop into Eindhoven, Holland on Sep. 17, 1944, as part of Operation Market Garden. He would then fight in the Battle of Bastogne where his role would earn him a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.
He would retire from the Army in 1946 with the rank of Lt. Colonel and return to Sacramento where he sold insulation and roofing supplies. He then opened his own business, Hester Roofing Co. at the age of 56.
Walthall would also make it through the war, and left France in August 1945.
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