The first GI in Europe in WWII

In honor of Memorial Day, here’s the story of Milburn Henke of Hutchinson, Minnesota, who was picked out of a hat to be the first GI to disembark in Europe—namely Belfast, Northern Ireland—during World War II. And here is the story about a coming reunion between British Navy sailors and the U.S. Merchant Marine sailor who spotted their lifeboat in the south Atlantic in November 1941, three days after their ship had been sunk by a German U-boat. Seventy-two men were pulled from the water, though hundreds more had died both in the sinking of the ship and during their three days adrift in the shark-infested waters. The American found the Englishmen again, 64 years later, via Google.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at May 30, 2005 11:28 AM | Send