Spring Hill veteran recalls D-Day invasion

Jun. 7--Tom Harris and his wife Nell spent Thursday morning inside their quiet room at Morning Pointe, an assisted living facility in Spring Hill, preparing for lunch.

Seventy-five years earlier, to the day, Harris was in much less comfortable conditions. He was on a boat in the English channel, where he and his fellow servicemen in the United States Army were dropped into chest-high waters 300 yards off the coast of Normandy Beach in the second wave of the largest seaborne invasion in history.

An anniversary surprise from local supporters recognizing the 98-year-old for his actions in the war reminded the veteran of the time that his service helped shape world history.

At the age of 23, Harris was a technical sergeant, a squad man in charge of a unit of 20 soldiers, all carrying more than 50 pounds of equipment. His unit followed the 16th Infantry Division, which lost more than 90 percent of its soldiers during the landing.

Despite the Allies effort to bombard the the enemy units hidden inside defensive fortifications along the beach, the area where Harris and his men were dispatched remained largely untouched by Allied bombardments.

As his men dispatched to take the beach, Harris said a ship captain pulled his vessel to the water's edge and turned the boat on its side to provide cover for the young soldiers. If it were not for that captain, Harris says he and his soldiers would have perished in the fighting.

"I was lucky though all of it," Harris said. "You just tried to get on. Youth had something to do with it."

There were more than 10,000 Allied casualties lost during the operation. It is estimated that 4,000 to 9,000 soldiers from the opposing force were killed in action.

Despite a barrage of fire from the entrenched German forces, a scratch on his right leg from some barbed wire was the only injury Harris suffered that day.

"I cut it just a little bit," Harris said. "It wasn't even enough to go back to sickbay."

The first night of the invasion, they were still on the beach, only yards from their enemy.

"We could hear them talking, and they could hear us," Harris said. "Most of them could speak English."

After fighting to gain the beach, the fighting then continued inland between hedgerows of the French countryside.

"It took us almost three years to finish it," Harris previously told The Advertiser News. "Each day was the same thing. Get up, go forward. If we didn't get there, we got up and went the next day."

Three quarters of a century later, Harris was recognized by the Spring Hill chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and Maury County Veterans Services for his bravery during the invasion.

As part of the recognition, the Daughters of the American Revolution presented Harris with a cake and a pin from the organization honoring him for his service.

"There are a lot of veterans in the Spring Hill area and we want to recognize them for their service," said Betty Chinery, a DAR member who serves as a liaison between the organization and the region's veterans.

"We try to remember their legacy and do everything we can to support them," Chinery said. "This is our way of saying thank you."

The recognition came as a surprise, said Harris, who shared that he was proud to shake the hands of fellow veteran soldiers who attended the surprise gathering.

Harris was drafted into the US Army at 22 years old when he was working in Detroit, at a machine shop with his brother. The two had moved there from their home near Clarksville to take up the jobs.

After basic training, Harris was deployed to North Africa where he first saw combat. He was then sent to Sicily where he said he encounter tougher forces before traveling to England where he and thousands of other American soldiers trained for the invasions of occupied France.

Upon returning home and with less than $300 in his pocket, Harris met his wife Nell, and the two were married. This year, they are celebrating 73 years of marriage. The couple moved to Tennessee where both became educators in Williamson County.

"I am very proud of the things he has done," she told The Daily Herald.

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