D-Day Conneaut lands again

Aug. 19—CONNEAUT — The shores of Lake Erie were again transformed into 1940s England and France as D-Day Conneaut kicked off Thursday.

About 1,200 re-enactors are expected to attend the three-day event, and tens of thousands of free tickets have been reserved by attendees.

Betsy Bashore, CEO of D-Day Ohio, said there were no major crises on Thursday, and the re-enactment of the Normandy landings went smoothly and quickly.

About 180 re-enactors landed on the beach at Thursday's event, but those numbers will climb on Friday and Saturday.

In addition to the re-enactors, hundreds of volunteers help put on the event, Bashore said.

"We have a lot of volunteers here, to provide for both the re-enactors and the public, and that takes a lot of resources," she said.

Tickets for today's event are sold out, but there is a very limited supply of tickets at the gates.

David Spencer, who portrayed a British glider soldier, spoke to a crowd on Thursday morning about a successful operation conducted the night before D-Day to capture a pair of bridges, now named Pegasus Bridge, in occupied France.

"It was extremely important, that, because there's Sword Beach, and the river and the canal, you couldn't just walk across them," he said. "They were 27 feet deep, and so wide, that, if you had to cross them, you need a bridge."

Spencer said he was drawn to portraying a British soldier by the movie "A Bridge Too Far."

"When I saw that movie, I was thrilled to see the British, and how tough fighters they were, even against the odds," Spencer said.

This year is Spencer's second time attending D-Day Conneaut.

"It is a great honor to be able to come here," he said. "This is one of the greatest living history events. They bring people to life, they tell the story, and in doing so, history will not be forgotten."

Today, a re-enactment of the Pegasus Bridge engagement is planned for 10 a.m..

Author Jared Frederick was at the event signing copies of his books.

"My first book, which came out in 2019, is called 'Dispatches of D-Day,'" Frederick said. "For all intents and purposes, it is a newspaper history of the Normandy invasion."

Soldiers who survived D-Day wrote letters home, which often ended up in local papers, he said.

"These were really an untapped resource among historians," Frederick said. "With so many newspapers being digitized over the past several years, it's really opened up the doors to all these new insights."

Frederick has also written books about the leaders of the Easy Company featured in the HBO series "Band of Brothers," he said.

"I started coming here in 2010 as a re-enactor, so I think this is my ninth time here," Frederick said.

Jillian Drapala, a member of the South Bend Blue Sox, said this is the team's second year at the event.

The Blue Sox was one of the founding teams of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

A lot of re-enacting is focused on the men's side of things, Drapala said.

"You're kind of looking around, just saying there's got to be something else that women did besides factory working and home front victory gardens, there's nothing wrong with that, it's all commendable," Drapala said. "But there was something else. Life at home did not stop because of the war."

Drapala said she and other employees at a Michigan museum decided to start the team.

"We worked with the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League itself," she said. "They very much support what we do, and we support them back."

The team started at the end of 2019.

"We spent all of quarantine and COVID putting it together," Drapala said. "We were really researching heavily, so we did it right the first time."

Tim Moeller, the organizer of a historical vehicle parade that took place Thursday night, said his group spoke with event leadership and proposed the idea.

"It just seems a waste to just let them sit in camp," he said.

The route included a loop through the Villa on the Lake grounds and photo opportunities at covered bridges and other locations in the area, he said.

"Right now, it looks like we're probably going to have 25 to 30 vehicles," Moeller said.

The parade is purely for fun, and if it works well, it may become an annual event, he said.

"We bring these things out to enjoy them," Moeller said.

The parade was expected to take about two hours.

The event wasn't limited to American or Allied vehicles.

"We all, regardless of which side we're on, we want to bring these out and show them off," Moeller said.