“The magnitude of it is beyond comprehension.” (Letter to Florence, Barbara, and Nancy, 6/14/1944)

Ellsworth DeWitt Hill

Ellsworth DeWitt Hill in uniform War: World War, 1914-1918; World War, 1939-1945 Branch: Army Unit: Civil Affairs Division; Headquarters Advance Section CZ G4 Service Location: Love Field, Dallas, Texas; also: England; Normandy, France Rank: Major

The success of the Normandy invasion depended on the efforts of soldiers, sailors, Coast Guardsmen—and engineers. As a petroleum engineer, Major Ellsworth Dewitt Hill (known to his family as Dewey) tackled the problem of supplying an overseas invasion of historic size with the necessary amount of gasoline. Arriving in Normandy with the first wave of the advance section, Hill’s letters and military papers convey the effect of D-Day on all who took part, no matter what their role. In a letter to his family dated June 16th, 1944, “What can be said now can hardly do justice to what happened.”