Fort Miles to host D-Day ceremony June 8
To honor the memory of the 40 Delawareans who lost their lives during the Battle of Normandy in 1944, Fort Miles Historical Association will conduct a ceremony at 11 a.m., Saturday, June 8, at the Fort Miles Museum Overlook event venue in Cape Henlopen State Park.
On June 6, 1944, nearly five years after Nazi Germany invaded Poland and World War II began, 156,000 Allied troops stormed beaches in northern France initiating Operation Overlord, later known as the Battle of Normandy. Within a few days of the invasion, approximately 326,000 troops, more than 50,000 vehicles and some 100,000 tons of equipment had landed. The Battle of Normandy concluded in late July 1944 when American forces launched Operation COBRA, aimed at breaking through German lines near St. Lo. With the start of COBRA, the Normandy campaign ended, and Allied forces turned their sights toward clearing northern France of German forces and liberating Paris. During the Battle of Normandy, United States forces suffered over 125,000 casualties that included 21,000 killed in action. Some 40 men from Delaware died while engaged with German forces.
Keynote speaker will be the Rev. Carol Flett, who will also deliver the invocation and benediction. During the ceremony, FMHA volunteers will read the names of each brave soldier, and a ship’s bell will be tolled after each name. The Mason Dixon VFW Post 7234 Honor Guard will provide a rifle salute and play taps after the names are tolled. The ceremony will conclude with bagpiper and Air Force veteran Lani Spahr playing “Amazing Grace.”
Among the soldiers who arrived at Utah Beach June 6, 1944, was Army chaplain Lt. Morris F. Arnold, an ordained Episcopal priest. While he was riding a Jeep off a Landing Ship Tank, it rolled over in the surf, and Arnold fell into the sea. He swam to retrieve his chaplain kit and successfully climbed up the low-lying dunes to safety. As chaplain throughout operation Overlord and COBRA, Arnold ministered to soldiers in Normandy until he was seriously injured and shipped back to the United States in April 1945. Upon his recovery and discharge from the Army, Arnold returned to active parish ministry for 27 years. He was a leader in the national Episcopal Church, and in 1972 he was elected suffragan bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, the Right Rev. Morris F. Arnold, aka “Gentle Ben” to his friends. In retirement, Arnold became a mentor to Flett after she was ordained in 1988. They became close colleagues and Arnold gave her his World War II chaplain kit, which she would bring to provide communion for hospital patients and nursing home residents. Flett was with Arnold when he died in 1992.
Now retired and living in Lewes, Flett serves as an associate priest at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church. Since 2022, the Rev. Morris Arnold’s chaplain kit has been on permanent display at St. Peter’s. Each year at the FMHA D-Day ceremony, Flett and St. Peter’s loan the chaplain kit to Fort Miles for display in the museum.
Following the June 8 ceremony, the museum will be open to the public until 4 p.m.
