Veteran shares his experience of D-Day

By William K. Alcorn

Bistrica landed on Omaha Beach as a member of C Co. of the 16th Infantry Regimental Combat Team on D-Day.

YOUNGSTOWN — John E. Bistrica, who was in the first infantry wave in the invasion of Europe at Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944, has a chest full of ribbons and medals from war.

But, he says, the most valuable decoration on his Eisenhower “Ike” jacket is an unofficial homemade, knitted red, white and blue patch given to him by a little girl in a small town south of Paris a few weeks after the invasion.

“We were riding on tanks and had stopped. A woman held up her little girl — she couldn’t have been more than 3 or 4 — who handed the patch to me and said in perfect English: ‘Thank you American soldier.’”

“I wanted to get off the tank and kiss the woman, but we moved on before I could,” said Bistrica, who, at 84, still fits into his uniform.

D-Day, four years in the planning and called Operation Overlord, was the Allied invasion of Normandy that marked the beginning of the end of World War II and the eventual fall of Germany and the liberation of Europe. The 64th anniversary of D-Day was Friday.

Among Bistrica’s decorations are the Combat Infantry Badge, Bronze Star Medal, French and Belgian Croix de Guerre, and the French 50th Anniversary and Legion of Honor medals.

Bistrica, who grew up on Fairmont Avenue, is the son of John and Rose Bistrica. He was 20 when he hit the Easy Red section of Omaha Beach as a member of “C” Co. of the 16th Infantry Regimental Combat Team.

“You swore you could touch the shells when they were coming in. We were in neck-deep water and had to inflate our life preservers. The first dead GIs I saw were combat engineers,” he said.

While there was a lot of noise from exploding shells, he does not remember a lot of screaming and yelling, as portrayed in the movies.

But it was chaos.

“When I got to the beach, I hit the ground. Guys were running in every direction trying to keep from getting hit. I was just saving my own rear end just like every other GI. If you said you weren’t scared, you were lying,” he said. “It was a bad day.”

When Bistrica finally got off the beach, he joined up with other members of C Co. They then had to deal with German snipers and troops hiding behind the hedgerows. When D-Day night came, they dug in, fearing a German tank attack that never happened.

The next morning, D-Day plus one, his unit discovered that right across the hedgerow from where it was dug in was a group of German troops. Neither had known about the other.

“We jumped them before they got us, and captured 14 Germans,” he said.

After Normandy, Bistrica’s family was mistakenly told by the Army that he was missing in action. “I don’t know what happened to this day,” he said.

After about four months of fighting, he was near Stohlburg, Germany, when a shell exploded near him, causing a concussion that put him in the hospital in Southhampton, England, and out of the war because of damage to his hearing. He still wears a hearing aid.

He was drafted into the Army in October 1942 and placed on active duty in April 1943. By November 1943, he was on his way to England. His outfit started training for the Normandy invasion right after Christmas 1943, he said.

He came home on the Queen Mary, arriving in the United States on Dec. 19, 1945, when he was discharged as a private first class. He got to Youngstown on Dec. 22, 1945, just in time to celebrate Christmas with his family and friends.

Bistrica said he used 88 of his 90 days of unemployment benefits before going back to work at Commercial Shearing. When he was laid off in the late 1940s, he got a job at General Fireproofing. He was laid off again in 1957, which prompted him to start his own carpentry and cabinet-making business, which he still operates today.

He married his high school sweetheart,Ann Marie Misic,on June 11, 1947. She had become a registered nurse while he was gone, and was working at St. Elizabeth Hospital.

They graduated from high school in 1942, she from Ursuline and he from The Rayen School. They have three children: Roseann Reames of Eastlake, Ohio; Joseph of Boardman; and Michael of Marietta, Ga.; and four grandchildren. A son, John Jr., is deceased.

Bistrica’s living room is filled with memorabilia and pictures reminding him of D-Day and WWII. He is a member of the Army’s 1st Division Big Red One Association, and has attended many of its reunions, and of American Legion Post 15 in Poland. He has returned to France several times, including the 50th anniversary of the invasion.

“Why go back? I can’t seem to forget. But, how can you forget,” said Bistrica, who said he had bad dreams when he first came home.

And, he doesn’t want others to forget, either.

He said he speaks to school classes and other groups about the war, and he finds many don’t know much about it.

Except for veterans, Bistrica said he didn’t start talking to anybody about the war, even family, until after attending the 50th reunion.

“I don’t know what changed me. Maybe it was because people started asking me questions,” he said.

For the most part, he said veterans don’t talk about the blood and guts, they talk about the crazy things that happened.

But one time when there was very little talking, even among veterans, was at the 50th reunion in France when he and others walked on Omaha Beach.

“I don’t think we said two words to each other. We were all wrapped up in our own memories,” he said.

alcorn@vindy.com