by Kate Messner
Then he walked over to his dog bed. Walt’s damp folded-up paper was there. Ranger picked it up in his teeth, careful not to drool on it. It was already pretty soggy. He nuzzled his blanket aside to reveal his other treasures … the quilt square from the lonely boy named Sam, the funny leaf from Marcus, the broken metal brooch from Helga, the little yellow feather from Lily, and a bigger brown-and-white-striped one from a girl named Sarah. Ranger dropped Walt’s paper onto the pile and pawed at his blanket until everything was tucked safely away.
The first aid kit rested in the corner of Ranger’s dog bed. It was quiet now, and that was good. Somehow, Ranger knew that even though Walt and Leo had more battles and sad days ahead, they would be safe. And when it was all over, they’d both get to go home, too.
Ranger went outside and flopped down on the front porch. He’d never forget the two brave young men he’d met by that faraway ocean. He’d miss Leo’s quiet hand on his back and Walt’s friendly neck scratches. But he was so, so happy to be home.
Walt and Leo are both fictional characters, but their stories are based on the experiences of real people who lived through the dark days of World War II in Europe and the liberation of France that began with the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944.
Like Leo, many Jewish children from Paris were brought to hide with families in the countryside when Nazi soldiers and the French police who cooperated with them began rounding up Jewish people and sending them to concentration camps. These weren’t really camps. They were prisons where Jewish people were forced to work under horrific conditions. They were abused, and millions were killed. The persecution and murder of Jewish people by Nazis and their collaborators was carried out across Nazi-occupied Europe and is now known as the Holocaust. In the early days of the occupation, the Nazis targeted innocent Jewish people based only on who they were, what they looked like, and what they believed. Nazis blamed Jewish people for society’s problems, forced them to register with the government, and required them to wear gold stars to identify themselves wherever they went.
The persecution got worse and worse. On November 9–10, 1938, Nazis attacked Jewish people throughout Germany. The Nazis burned synagogues, vandalized homes and businesses, and murdered dozens of Jewish people. This wave of violence is known as Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass. Many historians mark this night as the beginning of the Holocaust.
In the years that followed, more and more Jewish people were taken from their homes and businesses throughout Nazi-occupied Europe. In July 1942, French police rounded up around 13,000 French Jews and brought them to the Vélodrome d’Hiver, a Paris cycling stadium. Like Leo’s parents and sister, thousands were held for days with little food or water before being sent to a concentration camp. The Shoah Memorial in Paris has a display that bears witness to these awful days. It includes the only known photograph of what’s now known as the Vel’ d’Hiv roundup, showing transport trucks lined up outside the Paris stadium.
The memorial’s display also includes a letter from a French girl whose family was ripped from their homes on the morning of July 16. Leo’s story is partly based on her recollections. Good-bye for Always: The Triumph of the Innocents includes another first-person account of the Vel’ d’Hiv roundup. In it, Cecile Kaufer and Joe Allen tell the story of Cecile’s childhood in Nazi-occupied France. Leo’s escape from the roundup via his mother’s trip to the hospital was inspired by Cecile’s real-life story.
The Vélodrome d’Hiver stadium is gone now, replaced by modern buildings. But nearby, along the banks of the Seine not far from the Eiffel Tower, is a memorial.
More than six million Jewish people were killed during the Holocaust. I understand that at the end of this story, many readers will wonder if Leo is ever reunited with his family. While there are a handful of stories from this time period with happy endings, historical documents tell us that most Jewish families separated during the roundups never saw their loved ones again. In Leo’s case, I’ve left that question for readers to decide.
* * *
In researching this book, I spent a week in France, exploring museums that interpret this dark time period in European history. I’m most appreciative of the wonderful staffs at the Memorial of Caen Museum in Normandy as well as the Army Museum at Les Invalides and the Shoah Memorial in Paris. I also spent several days on the beaches where the Allied invasion began. D-Day guide and scholar Claire Lesourd was an invaluable resource who helped me to trace the steps of the men of the 320th and translated during interviews. (And thanks to Gwen Queguiner, who helped out later by translating sections of the interview that went by too quickly to transcribe on the spot.) I’m also most grateful to Jeannette Legallois, who invited my family to sit at her kitchen table while she shared her memories of the day Allied soldiers came to liberate her town.
Many of Leo’s stories of life at the farmhouse are based on Jeannette’s recollections. She was fifteen years old in 1944 and shared how difficult her family’s life was under the German occupation. She used to play in the garden while her father listened to the family’s secret crystal radio, ready to warn him if German soldiers approached. She still remembers the sound of the soldiers’ boots on the cobblestones. The Germans demanded five liters of milk each day, and her brother was so angry about this that he really did stick his finger in the milk “to put germs in it.” As farmers, Jeannette’s family had more food than most during the shortages, so she’d sneak meat in her schoolbag to share with people who were hungry.
One of her neighbors’ houses was destroyed by Allied bombs in the days leading up to the invasion. So while her village celebrated the arrival of the Allies, the day was also marked by sadness because so many people had been hurt or killed, and so many buildings had been destroyed. She remembers the never-ending line of American jeeps driving through her village and how the children chased the vehicles with bouquets of flowers, so excited they’d forget to watch for traffic.
Now Jeannette’s family runs a charming farm market not far from her old village. Photographs displayed on the buildings tell the story of the town’s liberation from the Nazis, including the return of the French flag.
Today, the nearby beaches are peaceful. But they are still full of German bunkers and machine gun nests, reminders of that morning in 1944.
The concrete building near the ridge where Leo finds Walt is based on a real German pillbox that still stands near the bluff that leads to the seaside village of Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer. One of the balloons of the 320th can be seen flying over this spot in one of the historical photos displayed at the site.
Like Leo, Walt Burrell is a fictional character, but he was inspired by the real heroes of the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion. Their mission was to raise balloons over the beach to protect Allied soldiers from German bombers. While more than two thousand African-American soldiers participated in the Allied invasion, most were part of support units that transported supplies or took care of vehicles. The 320th was the only African-American combat unit to come ashore on D-Day.
World War II happened before the civil rights movement, when Americans protested to end the practice of segregating people based on race. At the time of the Normandy invasion, the military was still completely segregated. African-American men like Walt were allowed to serve their country and die in battle, but they weren’t allowed to eat in the same mess halls or serve in the same units as white soldiers. The 621 members of the 320th who landed on Omaha Beach suffered heavy casualties. Three of them are buried in the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach — James McLean, Brooks Stith, and Henry J. Harris.
You won’t see members of the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion portrayed in popular D-Day movies. Their country largely ignored them until recently. But in 2009, William Dabney, the only living member of the 320th officials could track down, returned to Omaha Beach and joined President Barack Obama to commemorate the sixty-fifth anniversary of D-Day. The New York Times published an article about Dabney’s trip, and his mission s
ixty-five years earlier: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/06/world/europe/06iht-troops.html.
While Walt’s story is made up, it was inspired by the real-life heroics of Dabney and another member of the 320th named Waverly Woodson. Linda Hervieux’s excellent book Forgotten: The Untold Story of D-Day’s Black Heroes, at Home and at War gives a detailed account of the lives of Dabney, Woodson, and other men of the 320th and was a wonderful resource as well.
I’m also grateful to the family of Waverly Woodson for sharing documents that tell his story online and emailing me about their ongoing efforts to see him honored for his service.
At the time of World War II, African-American soldiers weren’t just discriminated against when it came to separate housing and mess halls. They were also ignored when it came to America’s highest military honors. After World War II, the United States awarded 433 Medals of Honor, its highest honor. None of them went to African-American men. It wasn’t until 1995 that the country took another look at that injustice, and an independent army investigation found that racism was to blame. In 1997, President Bill Clinton awarded the Medal of Honor to seven African American veterans of World War II. Only one of them, Vernon Baker, was still alive to receive the honor himself.
Waverly Woodson was a medic with the 320th. He was wounded on D-Day but went on to rescue several other men, pulling soldiers from the water, resuscitating them, and treating the wounded until he finally collapsed himself. Based on his heroic efforts, Woodson was recommended for a Medal of Honor.
Woodson’s family has shared an extensive collection of documents detailing his service, including an Office of War Information memo to the White House about Woodson’s Medal of Honor recommendation. The memo explains, “This is a big enough award so that the President can give it personally, as he has in the case of some white boys.”
Woodson never received his Medal of Honor. He was awarded a Purple Heart, for soldiers injured or killed in service, and a Bronze Star, the country’s fourth-highest honor, instead. What happened? His family has asked, but they’ve never gotten answers.
Waverly Woodson died in 2005, but his widow and other family members are still fighting for the honor they believe he deserves. They’ve launched a petition, requesting that Woodson finally be awarded the Medal of Honor for which he was recommended so long ago.
Waverly Woodson’s family has shared all of the documents they’ve submitted in their request for him to receive the Medal of Honor. The collection includes Woodson’s own recollections of D-Day as well as a handwritten letter to his dad: http://stateside.digitalnewsroom.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Woodson-Waverly-Enclosed-Docs-Sent-to-Army-11.5.15.-No-PR.pdf
Linda Hervieux, the author of Forgotten: The Untold Story of D-Day’s Black Heroes, at Home and at War, has a wonderful website with photographs and information about real-life members of the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, including Waverly Woodson. You can read more and learn how to support his family’s petition here: http://www.lindahervieux.com/the-320th-blog/2015/9/3/waverly-b-woodson-jr. (Be sure to get a parent or guardian’s permission before sharing any information online.)
This Time magazine article takes a closer look at why African American soldiers didn’t receive Medals of Honor after World War II and what’s being done about it now: http://time.com/4064931/wwii-african-american-medal-of-honor-reunited/
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has a comprehensive list of recommended titles that address this period in history, with age range suggestions for each: https://www.ushmm.org/research/research-in-collections/search-the-collections/bibliography/childrens-books
Here are some additional books for readers who would like to learn more about the Holocaust, segregation in the United States, the Battle of Normandy, and working dogs.
The Butterfly by Patricia Polacco (Penguin Books, 2000)
Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins by Carol Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Jerome Lagarrigue (Penguin Books, 2007)
The Greatest Skating Race: A World War II Story from the Netherlands by Louise Borden, illustrated by Niki Daly (Simon & Schuster, 2004)
I Survived the Nazi Invasion, 1944 by Lauren Tarshis (Scholastic, 2014)
Rosa by Nikki Giovanni, illustrated by Bryan Collier (Macmillan, 2005)
The Secret Seder by Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully (Hyperion, 2005)
Sniffer Dogs: How Dogs (and Their Noses) Save the World by Nancy Castaldo (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014)
Terrible Things: An Allegory of the Holocaust by Eve Bunting, illustrated by Stephen Gammell (Harper & Row, 1980)
What Was D-Day? by Patricia Brennan Demuth, illustrated by David Grayson Kenyon (Grosset & Dunlap, 2015)
Wind Flyers by Angela Johnson, illustrated by Loren Long (Simon & Schuster, 2007)
You Can Fly: The Tuskegee Airmen by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Jeffery Boston Weatherford (Simon & Schuster, 2016)
Abrami, Leo Michel. Evading the Nazis: The Story of a Hidden Child in Normandy. Denver, CO: Outskirts Press, 2009.
Ambrose, Stephen E. D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Battle for the Normandy Beaches. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.
American Rescue Dog Association. Search and Rescue Dogs: Training the K-9 Hero. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Publishing, 2002.
Bulanda, Susan. Ready! Training the Search and Rescue Dog. Freehold, NJ: Kennel Club Books, 2010.
Hammond, Shirley M. Training the Disaster Search Dog. Wenatchee, WA: Dogwise Publishing, 2006.
Hervieux, Linda. Forgotten: The Untold Story of D-Day’s Black Heroes, at Home and at War. New York: HarperCollins, 2015.
Kaufer, Cecile, and Joe Allen. Good-bye for Always: The Triumph of the Innocents. Tomkins Cove, NY: Hudson Cove Publishing, 1997.
Quellien, Jean. Normandy 44. Bayeux, France: OREP Editions, 2011.
Kate Messner is the author of The Seventh Wish; All the Answers; The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z., recipient of the E. B. White Read Aloud Award for Older Readers; Capture the Flag, a Crystal Kite Award winner; Over and Under the Snow, a New York Times Notable Children’s Book; and the Ranger in Time and Marty McGuire chapter book series. A former middle-school English teacher, Kate lives on Lake Champlain with her family and loves reading, walking in the woods, and traveling. Visit her online at www.katemessner.com.
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D-Day: Battle on the Beach
Ranger arrives in New Orleans and meets Clare Porter, who is searching for her grandmother as Hurricane Katrina approaches. Ranger helps Clare find Nana and takes shelter with them at their home in the Lower Ninth Ward, waiting for Clare’s father to return. But there’s no sign of him as hours pass and the weather gets worse. Can Ranger lead Clare and Nana through the flooded city to safety? Keep reading for a sneak peek!
When Clare Porter’s dad dropped her off to volunteer at the SPCA on Saturday morning, the neighborhood hummed with activity. Traffic helicopters buzzed overhead. Neighbors hammered plywood over windows, getting ready for the storm. Two big trucks were parked outside the animal shelter.
“What’s going on?” Clare asked James, one of the older volunteers.
“We’re moving the animals to Houston,” James told her. “Katrina is a Category Three hurricane now. Procedure says we have to evacuate the shelter. I’m working on ID collars. We also need to take photos of all the dogs and cats before they’re loaded onto the truck.” He handed Clare a camera, and she set to work.
“Smile, Bugsy!” she told a grumpy bulldog mix. She’d met him on her first day volunteering at the shelter last fall, right after she’d turned eleven.
“Your family leaving?” James asked Clare as he fastened a collar on a squirmy orange cat.
“Mom and my little brothers have been visiting Aunt Celeste in Houston
. They’re going to stay a few extra days,” Clare said. “Daddy and I are staying here with my grandmother to ride out the storm unless it gets real bad.”
James raised his eyebrows. “Already starting to look like a big one.”
“We’ll be careful.” Clare looked at the pale, quiet sky. It was hard to imagine a monster hurricane just two days away. Aside from getting their houses ready, most of her neighbors in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans were going about their business. Dad had taken Nana to basketball practice right after he’d dropped Clare off to work at the shelter. Nana used to be one of the star players on the Silver Slammers, her basketball team for women sixty years and older. But Nana was eighty now, and last year, she started forgetting things. She couldn’t remember the rules. She couldn’t really play in games anymore, but she still went to practice to shoot baskets. Practice had gone on today, just like always.
But by the time Clare’s father picked her up, more and more neighbors were packing their cars.
“We’ve got time,” Dad said. He scooped some of Nana’s red beans and rice into a bowl for dinner and limped over to the table. His knee still bothered him from when he got hurt in the Army a long time ago.
“I still think the storm will turn,” Dad said. “We’ll wait and see.”
Later, after she was in bed, Clare heard him on the phone with her mother. “I know. But evacuation would be mandatory if they thought the storm was going to hit that hard … Okay … Love you, too.”
* * *
On Sunday morning, Clare woke to the sound of the news on TV.
“Devastating damage is expected, rivaling the intensity of Hurricane Camille of 1969 …”
Clare shivered. Dad had told her stories about Camille. Back then the flooding was so bad that he and Grandpa had to break out of their attic with an axe and wait on the roof to be rescued.
