Jolley: 80 years later … Thank you, Yogi Berra, Bobby Jones and other D-Day Heroes

With World War II well underway in 1943, a young Yankee catching prospect was working on improving his game playing for the Class B Piedmont League Norfolk Tars. Upon turning 18-years-old, Larry “Yogi” Berra changed uniforms by joining the United States Navy.

He volunteered to join the “amphibs” and was assigned to serve as a gunner on a small landing craft support rocket boat designed to provide machine gun coverage for troops landing on shore as well as smoke screen protection to limit the enemy’s visibility.

Think it’s hard work to toil behind home plate on hot summer days wearing full catcher’s gear and diving in the dirt to catch errant pitches? Berra admitted that was easy after being part of the Allied invasion of France on D-Day, June 6, 1944, the largest seaborne invasion in history credited with moving the Allied Forces onward to victory.

Berra was among the first to see action when his boat neared the shoreline, attacked enemy machine gun nests, and provided cover for combat troops. Even in the midst of battle, Yogi remained focused on doing his job, although he was in awe of the sheer size and scope of the D-Day invasion.

“I never saw so many planes in my life,” Berra remembered. “It was like a black cloud.”

Berra and his fellow crew members stayed on the water for ten long days.

Wounded in his left hand during the invasion, he declined to complete the paperwork for the Purple Heart because he didn’t want his mother, at home in St. Louis, to hear the news and worry about him. Berra was decorated with the World War II Victory Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, and the Medale de Jubile, presented by the citizens of Normandy, France, on the 50th anniversary of D-Day.

The winner of a record 13 World Series rings, Yogi Berra was famous around the globe. Then, there were also other, lesser-known heroes such as Forrest “Lefty” Brewer who was signed by the Washington Senators and destined for pitching glory. He pitched three seasons in the minor leagues, including a 25-win season in 1938 with the St. Augustine Saints in the Florida State League, but never got the chance to become a major league pitcher.

Brewer threw a no-hitter for St. Augustine over Orlando on June 6, 1938, was inducted into the U.S. Army in March of 1941, and volunteered for duty as a paratrooper. He was

assigned to the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division and stationed in Nottingham, England early in 1944.

Eight days before D-Day, and at the request of the local townspeople, the 508th played a baseball game against the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment. It was Brewer’s last opportunity to shine on the baseball field and he pitched the 508th to an 18-0 win.

It was a different story when the paratroopers landed in France on D-Day and found themselves in an intense battle with German tanks and infantry. Sadly, Brewer was hit with enemy machine gun fire and killed on the sixth anniversary of his no-hitter.

Morris Webster Martin was one of the lucky ones who survived D-Day, as well as other battles, and played major league baseball after the war. Martin pitched ten seasons in the majors from 1949 to 1959 for the Philadelphia Athletics, Chicago White Sox, St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, and Baltimore Orioles. He had a pedestrian career record of 38 wins and 34 losses with a 4.29 earned run average, but was fortunate to have a long baseball career.

A combat engineer, Martin was among the first to land on Utah Beach in Normandy at the break of dawn on D-Day. He was hit by shrapnel, including on his left, pitching hand index finger and later claimed the injury improved his curve ball. He was later trapped in the basement of a bombed-out building, served at the Battle of the Bulge, and earned his second Purple Heart when he was shot in the leg on March 23, 1945.

Morris was in danger of losing the leg, but a nurse discovered he was a baseball player and disallowed the amputation. Instead, he was treated with a new drug, penicillin, and his leg was intact when he completed his service on October 31, 1945.

Herb “Briefcase” Simpson played in the Negro Leagues and also three seasons in the minor leagues. He and his fellow members of the 2057th Quartermaster Truck Company were in line to cross the English Channel on D-Day. By that time, though, the Americans established the beachhead, so the 2057th didn’t arrive in France until three days later. The unit remained in Europe following Germany’s surrender and provided logistical support in Munich, Frankfurt, and Nuremberg.

Golfer Bobby Jones, founder of the Augusta National Golf Club in 1933 and co-founder of the Master’s Tournament in 1934, landed in Normandy soon after D-Day on June 7, 1944, and spent two months interrogating German prisoners of war before being discharged in August. Lieutenant colonel Jones previously made a name for himself as perhaps the world’s best national and international amateur golfer, winning the U.S. Open in 1923, 1926, 1929, and 1930; the Open Championship in 1926, 1927, and 1930; the U.S. Amateur in 1924, 1925, 1927, 1928, and 1930; and the British Amateur in 1930.

More than 5,000 Allied forces were wounded on D-Day and 4,414 were killed, including 2,501 Americans. Another 73,000 Allied forces were killed, 153,000 wounded, and 20,000 French civilians killed in the ensuing Battle of Normandy.

Eighty years later, we honor all who served and those who died for our freedom. It’s a debt we can never totally repay, but remembering and thanking these heroes is a good start.