About a month before the Allied invasion of a 50-mile stretch of beaches in Normandy, France, Leonard Zerlin, then a 20-year-old B-26 turret gunner in the U.S. Army Air Corps, had a sense something major was coming.
Based in Bournemouth, England, he and a crew of five were among a squadron flying 38 planes for the 9th Air Force Bombardment Group, and all communication in or out of the base had been restricted. From atop a control tower he had already spied tons of equipment being amassed: Jeeps, trucks and tanks “as far as the eye could see.”
Leonard “Len” Zerlin, 100, in his home home in Thousand Oaks on Monday, June 3, 2024, a lifelong photographer, is surround by photos he took of his family and his wedding. Zerlin was a turret gunner on a B-26 in World War II. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A photo Leonard “Len” Zerlin in Antwerp, Belgium in Oct. 1945 hangs in his home in Thousand Oaks on Monday, June 3, 2024. Zerlin, 100, who was in the Army Air Corps, was a turret gunner on a B-26 at Normandy. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Leonard “Len” Zerlin, 100, at his home in Thousand Oaks on Monday, June 3, 2024, who was a turret gunner on a B-26 created a mini-museum in his home filled with World War II memorabilia. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Leonard “Len” Zerlin, 100, at his home in Thousand Oaks on Monday, June 3, 2024, displays the medals for the 75th and 80th anniversary of D-Day Normandy invasion. Zerlin, who was a turret gunner on a B-26 with the US Army Air Corps has never attended the anniversary events in France. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A model of the B-26 that Army Air Corps veteran turret gunner Leonard “Len” Zerlin, 100, flew in is on display in his home museum in Thousand Oaks on Monday, June 3, 2024. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A Norden bombsite is on display in the home museum of Army Air Corps veteran Leonard “Len” Zerlin, 100, in Thousand Oaks on Monday, June 3, 2024. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Leonard “Len” Zerlin, 100, at his home in Thousand Oaks on Monday, June 3, 2024, was a US Army Air Corps turret gunner on a B-26 and was the first American to meet French families after the Normandy Beach invasion on June 6, 1944. Zerlin is pictured with his bomber jacket from his B-26 “Flak Bait” and his U.S. Army Air Corps uniform, right. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
This display hanging in the home museum of Leonard “Len” Zerlin museum in Thousand Oaks on Monday, June 3, 2024 commemorates the 322nd Bomb Group 8th Air Force 9th with photos taken in Bury St Edmunds, England in 1944. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Leonard “Len” Zerlin, 100, at his home in Thousand Oaks on Monday, June 3, 2024, was a US Army Air Corps turret gunner on a B-26 and was the first American to meet French families after the Normandy Beach invasion on June 6, 1944. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
World War II memorabilia fills the home museum at the home of Leonard “Len” Zerlin’s in Thousand Oaks on Monday, June 3, 2024. Zerlin, 100, was a turret gunner on a B-26 with the US Air Corps during the Normandy invasion. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Army Air Corps World War II veteran Leonard “Len” Zerlin, 100, looks his Silver Star at his home in Thousand Oaks on Monday, June 3, 2024. Zerlin was awarded the Silver Star after he saved his crew after used a screwdriver to dislodge an armed bomb that was stuck in the bomb bay. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
World War II memorabilia fills the home museum at the home of Leonard “Len” Zerlin’s in Thousand Oaks on Monday, June 3, 2024. Zerlin, 100, was a turret gunner on a B-26 with the US Air Corps during the Normandy invasion. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Army Air Corps World War II veteran Leonard “Len” Zerlin, 100, displays his Silver Star at his home in Thousand Oaks on Monday, June 3, 2024. Zerlin was awarded the Silver Star after he saved his crew after used a screwdriver to dislodge an armed bomb that was stuck in the bomb bay. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Leonard “Len” Zerlin, 100, at his home in Thousand Oaks on Monday, June 3, 2024, was a U.S. Army Air Corps turret gunner on a B-26 and was the first American to meet French families after the Normandy Beach invasion on June 6, 1944. Zerlin is pictured with a photo of himself in flight training school, left, and the bomber jacket from his B-26 “Flak Bait,” right. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
On June 6, 1944, at 2:30 a.m., there was no question, he said, something massive was underway.
“The 1st sergeant comes barreling into our barracks with paint cans,” the 100-year-old veteran from Thousand Oaks recalled this week just days ahead of the 80th anniversary of the Normandy D-Day invasion. “It was like a Hollywood set. The lights were on all of the planes and we were told to paint black and white stripes on the wings, fuselages and tails of each one. Every single plane on D-Day had stripes to reduce the risk of friendly fire.”
After painting, the crews were called into a briefing and discussed strategies they had trained on for more than a year. At 6:30 a.m., they were heading across the English Channel toward Omaha and Utah beaches.
Flying low, between 5,000 to 8,000 feet, the small six-man B-26 Marauder bombed the beaches.
“We knew Gen. (Erwin) Rommel was visiting his wife for her birthday, and there wouldn’t be tanks,” Zerlin said, referring to the German general in charge of Germany’s defense of Northern France against the Allies. “We knew every obstacle on the beach.
“We strafed it until the ammo ran out,” he said. “We dropped six bombs, incendiary devices and delayed-action bombs.”
“The Germans had prepared for four years for the invasion,” Zerlin said, adding that they flew across the beaches almost 20 times. “Our job was to let thousands and thousands of troops come ashore.”
The squadron headed back to England to get more ammunition. The plane was so littered with flak shells Zerlin slid on the spent ammo trying to get off.
While crews cleared the planes and replenished the bomb supply, the crews grabbed some food and drink. By 2:30 p.m. they were up and over the channel again, he said, heading back to the beaches.
But the sight of the ocean was different this time.
Ships were scattered across the channel.
And near the shoreline and in the surf break, Zerlin said, “All you saw were bodies.”
“To this day, I see it,” he said, wiping tears of the dead floating in the surf. “It was just horrible.”
This week, about 150 World War II veterans – likely the last large gathering of this generation of heroes – are visiting the beaches of Normandy and participating in several days of festivities marking the historic milestone of what historians call the largest amphibious invasion in military history.
“Without invading Normandy, it would have been very difficult to win the war,” Zerlin said. “If we didn’t invade France, Hitler was ready to invade England.”
During what was codenamed Operation Overlord, more than 150,000 Allied troops landed in France, including 73,000 Americans, 60,000 British and 15,000 Canadians.
More than 4,000 Allies, including 2,500 Americans, died, according to the U.S. National D-Day Memorial Foundation; many thousands more were wounded.
“From a strategic perspective, Operation Overlord was crucial for opening up a second front to rid the Nazi occupation from France and to put massive pressure on Hitler’s Germany from both west and east,” said retired Army Col. Gregory Daddis, director for San Diego State University’s Center for War and Society. “To end the war in Europe, the Allies ultimately had to attack the heart of German aggression, which required a direct invasion of the continent.”
Daddis added that the operation was notable for its massive logistical support, unprecedented coordination among air, naval and ground forces, and cooperation between major allies.
“War certainly brings out the worst in humans, but Overlord demonstrated the capacity for immense achievements when working together,” he said. “As we remember this day, we should not forget the sacrifices that war requires.”
American WWII veteran Bill Wall throws roses into the water during a wreath-laying ceremony at Utah Beach, Wednesday, June 5, 2024 at Utah Beach, Normandy,. World War II veterans from across the United States as well as Britain and Canada are in Normandy this week to mark 80 years since the D-Day landings that helped lead to Hitler’s defeat. (AP Photo/Jeremias Gonzalez)
American WW II veteran Connie Palacioz reacts after collecting sand during a wreath-laying ceremony at Utah Beach, Wednesday, June 5, 2024 at Utah Beach, Normandy,. World War II veterans from across the United States as well as Britain and Canada are in Normandy this week to mark 80 years since the D-Day landings that helped lead to Hitler’s defeat. (AP Photo/Jeremias Gonzalez)
U.S. World War II veteran Warren Morrison is greeted by a little girl during an American Airlines veterans parade in Sainte-Mere-Eglise, Normandy, France, Wednesday, June 5, 2024. World War II veterans from across the United States as well as Britain and Canada are in Normandy this week to mark 80 years since the D-Day landings that helped lead to Hitler’s defeat. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)
Reenactors dance at Sainte-Mere-Eglise town square, Normandy, France, Wednesday, June 5, 2024. World War II veterans from across the United States as well as Britain and Canada are in Normandy this week to mark 80 years since the D-Day landings that helped lead to Hitler’s defeat. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)
People attend a multinational parachute drop as some 400 British, Belgian, Canadian and US paratroopers jump to commemorate the contribution of airborne forces on D-Day. as part of the 80th anniversary of D-Day, in Sannerville, Normandy, France, Wednesday, June 5, 2024. Veterans and world dignitaries gather in Normandy to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the landings. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)
A French Marine National Commandos parachute drops prior an American Airlines veterans parade in Sainte-Mere-Eglise, Normandy, Wednesday, June 5, 2024. World War II veterans from across the United States as well as Britain and Canada are in Normandy this week to mark 80 years since the D-Day landings that helped lead to Hitler’s defeat. (AP Photo/Jeremias Gonzalez)
Now, 80 years later, leaders from the Allied countries will join the veterans on Thursday with a ceremony planned at the Normandy American Cemetery. Among those scheduled to attend are President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and Britain’s Prince William.
World War II veterans — either involved in the months-long campaign or the actual D-Day invasion — will be there, thanks to several nonprofit groups that are assisting with travel to France.
“This will be the last large gathering of the Greatest Generation,” said Dwight Hansen, a Marine veteran from Irvine who is escorting eight Southern California WWII veterans to Normandy. The group left over the weekend and was expected to participate in several events including the cemetery ceremony.
“This is a culmination of not just the Greatest Generation, but a last final hurrah to those heroes,” Hansen said, adding that the veterans he traveled with had spoken with French school children at a Normandy museum and will also be at an evening celebration on Utah Beach and go aboard the USS Normandy.
Tony Di Lisa, who served in supply with the Navy in England during the invasion, had planned to travel with Hansen. But, at nearly 100, the 10-day trip was too much of an undertaking, he said, both emotionally and physically.
“I’ve been at Normandy, ” the Tustin resident said, reflecting back to a visit marking the 60th anniversary. “My wife and I were on the beach, the quiet was deafening, and you could almost feel like something was going to happen. I had tears in my eyes; it was an emotional experience.”
During that 60th anniversary, Hansen said he met Walter Ehlers, the last surviving Medal of Honor recipient from the D-Day invasion, walking off Omaha Beach.
Ehlers of Buena Park was among those who braved withering fire on the beaches. He died in 2014, ahead of the 70th anniversary.
Ehlers, a 23-year-old Army staff sergeant, led fellow soldiers through the French town of Goville three days after landing at Normandy and knocked out two machine gun emplacements, neutralized a mortar position, and then ultimately drew fire to divert the Germans so that his fellow squad members could withdraw. That heroism earned him the nation’s highest honor for military service.
It was the blue ribbon attached to that medal that Hansen instantly recognized the night 20 years ago on the beach. After that encounter, the two Orange County men stayed in touch and Ehlers got Hansen involved in the Medal of Honor Society.
“Those are some of the most important people in the world,” said Hansen, who went on to found the You Were Worth It Foundation dedicated to preserving the memory of military sacrifice. “They’ll tell you they wear the medal with a heavy burden and will share their stories for those that didn’t return.”
Sharing the stories of what happened on June 6, 1944, and the weeks thereafter is also what’s most important for Zerlin, who, after flying two missions over Normandy, headed deeper into France and, he said, was the first American soldier to meet a French family in Sainte-Mère-Église, the town near Utah beach where he and his squadron had a makeshift base and impromptu airstrip.
“We put out our pup tents and even had our own mess hall,” he said.
FILE – In this June 8, 1944, file photo, under heavy German machine gun fire, American infantrymen wade ashore off the ramp of a Coast Guard landing craft during the invasion of the French coast of Normandy in World War II (U.S. Coast Guard via AP, File)
FILE ** U.S. reinforcements wade through the surf as they land at Normandy in the days following the Allies’ June 6,1944, D-Day invasion of occupied France. (AP Photo/Peter J. Carroll)
Men of the American assault troops of the 16th Infantry Regiment, injured while storming a coastal area code-named Omaha Beach during the Allied invasion of the Normandy, wait by the chalk cliffs at Collville-sur-Mer for evacuation to a field hospital for further treatment, June 6, 1944. (AP Photo)
FILE – U.S. reinforcements wade through the surf from a landing craft in the days following D-Day and the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France at Normandy in June 1944 during World War II. (AP Photo/Bert Brandt, File)
In this photo provided by the U.S. Army Signal Corps, U.S. paratroopers fix their static lines before a jump before dawn over Normandy on D-Day June 6, 1944, in France. The decision to launch the airborne attack in darkness instead of waiting for first light was probably one of the few Allied missteps on June 6, and there was much to criticize both in the training and equipment given to paratroopers and glider-borne troops of the 82nd and 101st airborne divisions. Improvements were called for after the invasion; the hard-won knowledge would be used to advantage later. (AP Photo/U.S. Army Signal Corps)
FILE – This is the scene along a section of Omaha Beach in June 1944, during Operation Overlord, the code name for the Allied invasion at the Normandy coast in France during World War II. The D-Day invasion that helped change the course of World War II was unprecedented in scale and audacity. (AP Photo, File)
Supreme Commander Dwight Eisenhower gives the order of the day “Full victory – Nothing else” to paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division at the Royal Air Force base in Greenham Common, England, three hours before the men board their planes to participate in the first assault wave of the invasion of the continent of Europe, June 5, 1944. (AP Photo)
U.S. Army medical personnel administer a plasma transfusion to a wounded comrade, who survived when his landing craft went down off the coast of Normandy, France, in the early days of the Allied landing operations in June 1944. (AP Photo)
Under the cover of naval shell fire, American infantrymen wade ashore from their landing craft during the initial Normandy landing operations in France, June 6, 1944. (AP Photo/Peter Carroll)
A U.S. Coast Guard LCI, heavily listing to port, moves alongside a transport ship to evacuate her troops, during the initial Normandy landing operations in France, on June 6, 1944. Moments later the craft will capsize and sink. Note that helmeted infantrymen, with full packs, are all standing to starboard side of the ship. (AP Photo)
FILE – U.S. infantrymen wade through the surf as they land at Normandy in the days following the Allies’ June 1944, D-Day invasion of occupied France. (AP Photo/Bert Brandt, File)
Men and assault vehicles storm the beach as Allied landing craft reach their destination during the initial Normandy landing operations in France, on June 6, 1944. (AP Photo)
Landing craft of all types head thru a choppy sea for the invasion beachhead along the coast of Normandy on June 10, 1944, during the early hours of the Allied landings. (AP Photo/ACME)
Allied forces camp out in fox holes, caves and tents on this hillside overlooking the beach at Normandy, France, during the D-Day invasion in World War II. (AP Photo/Bede Irvin)
Members of an American landing unit help their exhausted comrades ashore during the Normandy invasion, June 6, 1944. The men reached the zone code-named Utah Beach, near Sainte Mere Eglise, on a life raft after their landing craft was hit and sunk by German coastal defenses. (AP Photo/INP Pool/Louis Weintraub)
U.S doughboys are brought ashore on the Northern Coast of France following the D-Day invasion of Normandy in World War II on June 13, 1944. The exhausted soldiers on the rubber life raft are being pulled by a group of comrades. AP Photo/U.S. Army Signal Corps)
Ducks (amphibious trucks) and a half-track follow foot troops ashore during the World War II opening invasion of France on a 100-mile front along the Normandy coast by Allied forces on June 6, 1944. (AP Photo/U.S. Coast Guard)
Carrying full equipment, American assault troops move onto a beachhead code-named Omaha Beach, on the northern coast of France on June 6, 1944, during the Allied invasion of the Normandy coast. (AP Photo)
“Right after our first landing after D-Day, the C.O. came to me and told me to go find some food,” Zerlin said, so he had a Jeep loaded up with ration boxes, cigarettes, chocolates, coffee and sugar to have something to trade with.
“I got to the first farmhouse, and it was the first time anybody ever saw an Army Jeep,” he said. “Here’s a little Jewish guy from Brooklyn and I have all these rations in exchange for vino, bread and eggs.
“They expected to see Germans and here they see this strange guy in American clothes and I was opening up freedom,” he added. “I was their hero, they loved me.”
Zerlin said the entire town later came to the airstrip and he was given an honorary Sainte-Mère-Église medal.
“All the French people hugged and kissed me,” he added, his eyes smiling.
Zerlin flew 35 missions over Germany, Holland and France. He was discharged on Nov. 11, 1945, as a staff sergeant. He received a Silver Star and several campaign ribbons during his service.
After the war, Zerlin married, had two children and worked for numerous aerospace companies after moving to Thousand Oaks from the East Coast. He mostly kept his fighting experiences to himself, he said, but spent time building a collection of wartime memorabilia, which he’s turned into a museum of sorts in his home, which he’s had since 1961.
Around the 50th anniversary of D-Day, his granddaughter – involved in a school project – started asking more about all the photos he had and about his experiences during the war. And so he told her.
It was a letter to the mayor of Sainte-Mère-Église from his daughter that also reconnected Zerlin with a moment during his service.
The 80th Normandy anniversary medal is on display in the home museum of Army Air Corps veteran Leonard “Len” Zerlin, 100, at his home in Thousand Oaks on Monday, June 3, 2024. Zerlin was a turret gunner on a B-26. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
He said the woman who opened the letter recognized that she was the niece of the two French teen girls he had first met at the farmhouse the day he had come looking for food.
“It’s almost unbelievable,” he said. “But it’s true.”
Following that experience, he spent 20 more years sharing his stories with local civic groups and schoolchildren. He authored a book and continues to write.
Zerlin remains in contact with the French family, but chose not to travel for the 80th anniversary. Instead, he proudly showed a commemorative 80th anniversary coin that was recently sent to him.
“I did my job and now I’m here,” he said.
“I still cry in my bed because I think of all my friends I can’t talk to,” he said. “They couldn’t marry, get an education or a job. They’re all in Normandy now.”
