Troops of Company A, 16th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division (the Big Red One) wading onto the Fox Green section of Omaha Beach on the morning of June 6, 1944.
Photo: Chief Photographer’s Mate Robert F. Sargent via Wikipedia
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June 6, 2025 marks the 81st anniversary of the Allied landings on Normandy beach in northern France during World War II. It marked the beginning of the end of World War II. In honor of that historic event, we publish the following excerpt from the June 1944 issue of the Locomotive Engineers Journal, which highlights the contributions of locomotive engineers and other railroad workers to the American war effort:
“With the Allied armies poised for the invasion of Hitler’s European fortress… American workers can well be proud of their magnificent contribution to the enormous military machine which shall eventually save the world from the yoke of Nazism.
“This world conflict has brought home to us the necessity of huge production and widespread transportation facilities for hauling great traffic as offered only by the railroads. Railroad workers have assumed this huge task and set new records undreamed of a decade ago.
“Men in the engine cabs of the railroads of this continent know full well the tremendous amount of effort required to produce the enormous masses of munitions and war material that is being constantly stock-piled abroad for convenient use by the military in the ‘Big Push.’ For months on end, locomotive engineers and other railroaders have sweated and toiled to maintain continually increasing traffic.
“Though he may wear denim overalls and a cap instead of the trim military uniform, the highly skilled locomotive engineer is making his contribution to the invasion of Hitler’s fortress.”