Normandy Invasion Army Veteran
By Julie Brough, Our Local Veterans Editor

Delbert Covington, a WW II Normandy Invasion veteran, lives in Hurricane, Utah, with his lovely wife, Cleora.  He was recently interviewed by The Spectrum and a great story written about his experiences.  That story, along with his photos, is presented here.

Not wanting to re-interview him, I called to see if I could possibly get some photos to put on Our Local Veterans website.  He said he had some and that he’d enjoy talking to me.  It seems that just a week before I called him, the photos of his time in Belgium recuperating from his severe injuries had just resurfaced.  He hadn’t known where they were since the war, but his brother, who was also in the same war area, had just cleaned out his photo album and sent Delbert the photos thought to be lost.

The photos are taken in Belgium where he was stationed, which continued to be bombarded by German Buzz Bombs.  Delbert took these pictures himself, and shows that life was still at risk even though he wasn’t on the front lines.

Delbert shared a very unfortunate story about his purple heart.  Sometime after moving to Hurricane, he found that the medal he earned from his shrapnel wounds had been stolen.  Though he was fairly certain he knew who took it, the medal was never recovered.  It is painful for Delbert not to have the symbol of honor he earned.

 

Spectrum Newspaper Article
Written by Tiffany De Masters, The Spectrum News paper
Published July 25, 2010

There was no doubt in anyone's mind that storming the beaches of Normandy would be a pivotal point in ending World War II.

Of the thousands of men who landed on the French coastal town during the D-Day campaign, Cpl. Delbert Covington, Hurricane, was one of them.

Without finishing high school, Covington, now 85, was one of many young men from his hometown of Hurricane, Utah, drafted into the war.

"I was 18 and they said 'Uncle Sam wants ya,'" Covington said. "A whole bus load of us went up."  A lot of the young men who enlisted, Covington said, thought war was going to be a big experience.

"I think they'd seen too many John Wayne movies - war really is a terrible experience," he said.  Still, Covington said he realized then, as he does now, how important it was for him and his friends to serve.

"There was never a time in history where we needed people's cooperation like we did in World War II," he said. "The whole United States was united, I couldn't believe it."
It was a necessary war, Covington said.  "We were fighting for the liberties of the United States," he said.  

Covington landed on Utah Beach with the 90th Infantry Division on D-plus 2. Just before the invasion, they were stationed in a horse racing stadium in England.

"They had us all up in the bleachers two days before we left - we had machine guns up, we knew the invasion was a matter of just hours," Covington said.

Covington said by the time they landed the beach had already been cleared. It was as they moved inland when they started to get resistance from the German forces.

Covington was a machine gunner, carrying 21 pounds of weapons and ammunition with him, he said. He fought for three days.

"At one point the sergeant said we had advanced too far and Germans had surrounded us - the Germans didn't even know it," he said. "So one at a time we walked out of there without a shot being fired."

John Suprin, associate professor of military history at Command and General Staff College, said German forces had swept all of European forces from 1939 to 1940. Afterward, Adolf Hitler turned on Russia. In 1944 the British, Americans and Canadians prepared for windows of opportunity to invade the continent. Their window was Normandy.

"It's a tremendous task in what amounts into an assault landing," Suprin said. "You've got to bring everything you need to resupply what you need."

Suprin said the significance of D-Day was the landing itself.

"Hitler pulled the troops out of Russia and onto the beach to defeat the Allied landing - his intent was to try to fight it one front at a time," he said. "The landing was successful - it was a bloody slog from June 6 to the middle of July. Once they (Allied forces) broke through that the Germans were pretty much done."

Suprin said the American landings on Normandy were at Omaha Beach and Utah Beach.  Of the two, he said Utah Beach was the easier to defend because it had a lot of low-land areas.  "The Germans were defending inland on the causeways," Suprin said.

Covington said while he was there, his company wasn't interested in pushing the Germans anywhere, but were interested in holding them.

Three days into the battle Covington was hit in the back with shrapnel that punctured his lung.  "My sergeant said to me, 'Covington, if you can walk, I'd advise you to get out of here. I can't go with you but I'll send this cook with you,'" he told me.

There was a Jeep on one of the roads and all Covington had to do was get to it.  "I'd walk a little ways then fall down on the ground and pass out, then I'd get up again," he said.

As Covington was trying to make his way to the Jeep, German soldiers continued to fire shells at them. He made it out of there but doctors didn't expect him to survive the night.

"I'd take a breath and I could hear it whistle out of my back," Covington said. "The doctor didn't think I'd make it, but I didn't feel like I was going to die at that point.

Suprin said for the time, medical evacuation was good.  "We invested in the right kind of stuff, supplies and people to enhance the survival of people," he said. "The desire to make sure your buddy survives was huge among the men and most good units have that in spades - they took care of each other."

After Normandy, Covington spent nine months in different hospitals in England. When recovered, they sent him back out to drive a truck, taking supplies to troops on the front line in France and Germany. He didn't go back to active combat.

He returned to the New York harbor January 1946.

"There's something about war that's indelibly imprinted on your mind and you'll never ever forget it's not a good feeling - but it was a good feeling to see the Statue of Liberty (when he came home)," Covington said

By 1944, Suprin said the war was already going poorly for the Germans.

"D-Day was the nail in the coffin. There was no doubt they were going to lose the war - it was ferociously fought," he said.Covington married his high school sweetheart soon after he returned home. They've grown old together and have had children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

"Many-a-time I've looked back and I've
thought if I had been killed the world would
have missed out on my wonderful children,"
he said. "I have a wonderful family."

 

 

 

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