Normandy.......

 

George C. Horton, died July 1944 

Plot G Row 2 Grave 25. Normandy American Cemetery Colleville-sur-Mer, France ...

Remembering D-day after 70 years has been done so in good fashion by PBS and now also the regular stations.  Brokaw was on site today of the Normandy Cemetery interviewing one of the survivors who is still alive today. The site of all the American cemeteries in Europe is overwhelming when you see how many troops lost their lives.

As I become older I have a greater awareness of all that happened in World War 2.  I was born afterwards in 1950 so it was less of a reality that it would be if I had lived as a child during the war. I did relive the war with my dad going over to serve in the Battle of the Bulge and he suffered and talked about it my entire life.

The couple John and Iva Horton became like grandparents to me who lived in a humble farm house south of Hopeville, Iowa. They were step relatives to my Grandmother but they were family to us.  I speak of them in other blogs many times as my antique collection source as they gave a lot of things from their past.  They really were more to  me than just getting old things from them.

In a country school near where they lived, many boys who attended there grew up to be drafted into the war.  Four of those boys died during the war, a large proportion out of one country school of maybe 12 boys and girls in southern Iowa.  One of the boys was John and Iva's son, George C. Horton who was injured during the Normandy invasion in 1944.  I remember seeing a map of the cemetery being rolled out by John and Iva showing the cemetery where their son was buried. I can still see the pained look on Iva's face as she stared off in space while talking about it. He apparently died from his wounds later in July but I don't know of what had happened. They didn't want to pay for their 19 year old's body to be returned to the states, Instead  they let him stay at the cemetery where 5,000 or more are buried.

I never knew George but I did get to know well his three brothers.  I keep in contact with Loren Horton who is his younger  brother. I remember George's picture that sat in the living room wearing his uniform.  George had a girlfriend that kept track of John and Iva after he was killed.  She eventually married and had children.  She was so good to stop in and see her boyfriend's parents and they really appreciated it. I am sure it was a bittersweet feeling that they had but it helped the cope. They were happy that she had moved on with her life and that she had children.

I find it strange to think about all the things in my house that George would have used and seen as he was growing up as a young boy.  The table in my kitchen he probably sat at to eat his meals and the oat sprouter was on the back porch where he passed by to go off to war.  I have many toys that he probably played with as a young boy. I really like history and old things give me pleasure to know their past.  I too find it bittersweet to think of the way things that have touched people lives live on when the person and his family are now gone.  The three brothers are still living but they are getting to be up in years.  The youngest brother, a history major and former Iowa Historical Center Administrator, now lives in Iowa City,  He is widowed now and he travels the world a lot. I am sure he visits his brother's grave as often as possible.

I find it ironic that George was in the war at the very beginning and my dad was in the very last battle that concluded the war. The final battle by the Americans was the Battle of the Budge with their invasion into Germany. My dad was in the service a few years earlier but he was shipped into Belgium to enter the battle the last 9 months or more.   In one of my history books I can follow my dad's platoon as they crossed the Rhine River making the way safer for General Patton to later cross to the south of the Remagen Bridge area. I guess as I age I can find time to soak in the history and understand more of what was in the past. I have more questions about the grave of George C. Horton and hope to understand more of what happened to him.

I will go outside and work again today clearing the jungle that is called my yard and garden.  Thanks for stopping by today.