Eyewitness to D-Day: El Paso native’s account of historic day
As the world prepares to mark the 70th anniversary of D-Day on Friday, June 6, El Paso Inc. shares a rare first-person account of the Allied invasion that changed the world.
It comes from the late Ellis Mayfield, an El Paso native who was a 29-year-old captain in the U.S. Army that summer of 1944. Two years earlier, as a new lawyer practicing in El Paso, he surprised his family by enlisting in the Army as a private.
By 1944, he was captain in Army intelligence, serving in England as U.S. forces made preparations for a secret mission. When it was over and D-Day had broken the German military, Mayfield was in France when he began writing his account in a letter to family on another auspicious day – July 4, 1944 – although after experiencing firsthand the ferocity of the battle, he wrote, “I will never be impressed by any fireworks display again.”
Mayfield practiced law for 55 years, was active in the community and his church and hardly ever missed a UTEP football or basketball game. He died in 2009 at 94. We thank his family for sharing his account. This excerpt begins in England, as U.S. troops begin their move to the coast.
Read full El Paso Inc. article at http://bit.ly/1kDPgUu
