D-Day: Flat Rock's George Sarros was there and is visiting Normandy for 79th anniversary
On June 6, 1944, the largest amphibious landing in history took place. D-Day was the military operation that began the Allied offensive to take Europe back from Nazi tyranny. Flat Rock resident George Sarros was on the beach at Normandy that day.
Sarros was drafted into the U.S. Navy in June 1943. He served in the engine room on an LST through the war’s end. He was discharged in March 1946.
He tells his story:
“We were supposed to invade France on June 5, but the weather was too bad. We sailed just after midnight on the morning of June 6. Our ship was full of engineers, tanks, and trucks. We didn’t hit the beach until 1 p.m. June 6. When we hit the beach, we had a German fighter come down and try to strafe us. But no sooner did he come down but a P-47 was right on his tail. And just blew him right out of the water.
“Our biggest problem was the German mines that were in the water. When you’re sailing, the props in the water brings those mines up and just blows the tail of the ship apart. We used to eat lunch in the tail and sleep back there, so the skipper told us, 'Move your stuff to the side of the ship.' So now our bunks were on the side.
“We had a blimp attached to our ship and floating above it — a big balloon. When the Germans planes tried to attack us, they’d hit the blimp. It protected us. When we landed on the beach, the German plane was coming down on us, but our bomber was right on his tail and got him — blew him out of the sky.
“On D-Day, we landed and unloaded, and then we took our wounded back. On the tank deck, we could put 400-500 stretchers there. The ambulance trucks would come with the wounded, and our guys would get out and help the wounded onto our ship. We’d take our wounded back to England and get them into hospitals. We took German prisoners too. We kept them in the tank deck; they couldn’t go anywhere else.
“Our planes had gone into Normandy much earlier — about 1 in the morning, dropping the paratroopers. Their job was to knock out German communications and bridges. When we landed, we took a bunch of those paratroopers back to England. Some of them had picked up German lugers and swords and brought them with them.
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“We took quite a few German prisoners. The young German soldiers were determined that they were going to win. The older ones were just glad the war was almost over.”
Sarros served on LST (Landing Ship, Transport) 515, which made 65 channel crossings in the days and weeks after D-Day.
Sarros said: “I remember when we took brand-new soldiers going to the Battle of the Bulge. Their numbers were still on their helmets. They were as young as I was — 18 years old. We were losing the battle over there. That was around Christmas time.
“I was still in England when the war ended — Southampton. We knew the war would be ending soon. We used to get on the train when we got liberty and go into town. I didn’t have enough points to get out of service.”
After the war Sarros said he met his wife, Enrica, in Chicago.
"She was a nurse and I was a bartender," he said. "She went to Hawaii first and worked as a nurse in a hospital. A year later, I followed her there and got a job as a bartender in a country club with a wonderful floor show. We got married. I was 35 years old. We came back to the mainland in 1964. I worked as a postal carrier. We adopted two sons, David and Terry. Enrica and I moved to Flat Rock in 2001. Sadly, she passed away in 2007. I belong to a church, and that keeps me going.”
Sarros attended the 75th anniversary of D-Day in 2019, traveling 10 days from the Netherlands to Belgium and along the coast of France. The June 6 ceremony was held at the American Cemetery in Normandy, attended by Queen Elizabeth II, Presidents Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump and 14 additional heads of state. At this time of this publication, Sarros, 98, is on his second trip to Normandy for the 79th anniversary of D-Day in 2023, courtesy of Best Defense Foundation.
On Dec. 7, 2022, French Consul General Laure-Mare Dèsjonqueres awarded the French Légion de l’honneur medal to Sarros in a ceremony in Brevard in appreciation “for his role in liberating France and Europe from Nazi occupation.”
Sarros’ complete story appears in the book “We Shall Come Home Victorious” by Janis Allen, along with 35 additional first-person stories of WWII veterans. An honor project for The Veterans History Museum of the Carolinas in Brevard, it’s available on Amazon by searching "We Shall Come Home Victorious."
This article originally appeared on Hendersonville Times-News: D-Day 79th anniversary: Flat Rock veteran remembers Normandy
