Teacher who took students to Normandy: D-Day 1 of 5 most important events of 20th century

When a group of American soldiers found their waterlogged grappling hooks were too heavy to cast, they used knives to climb. The soldiers scaled the Nazi-occupied 115-foot-tall cliff of Pointe du Hoc on D-Day in 1944 and claimed the cliff.

A tour guide told Hickory High School history teacher Drew Daniels and his group the story while they were in France visiting historic sites. Daniels said the trip was in 2019, when he and Hickory High Assistant Principal Nathan Fredericks took 12 high school students on a World War II-themed trip across Europe.

Hickory High School history teacher Drew Daniels holds a copy of “D-Day June 6, 1944: The Climatic Battle of World War II,” by American historian Stephen E. Ambrose as he stands in his classroom. Daniels took 12 students on a World War II-themed trip in 2019, during which they visited Normandy, France.

ROBERT C. REED, RECORD

Pointe du Hoc gave Nazi soldiers a clear view of both beaches as American forces stormed ashore during the invasion of Normandy, which is why a small group of Allied forces was sent to take the cliff, Daniels said.

“My reaction would have been, ‘Well, we tried, boys,’” Daniels said. He said the fact the soldiers climbed the cliff with their knives made him feel proud to be an American.

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Daniels said when visiting Normandy beach, “You can’t separate yourself from the history of it. You’re very conscious of where you’re at … so it felt, not heavy, but I felt a sense of reverence, I guess. That this isn’t just some beach.”

Drew Daniels, an American history teacher at Hickory High School, discusses taking students to Normandy, France in 2019.

ROBERT C. REED, RECORD

Assistant principal Fredericks said, “The feeling of being on the beach (and) being in the area where a lot of servicemen lost their lives … It is almost unspeakable, when you first lay eyes on the beach.”

Daniels said of D-Day, “I think you could argue, and I don’t want to overstate this, but it’s among the top five most important days of the 20th century, if not the most important. That was a crucial moment in world history, and a lot of what we now know was hanging in the balance.”

The group also visited the Normandy American Cemetery, Daniels and Fredericks said. Fredericks said the students researched the names of Catawba County soldiers buried there and placed Catawba County flags on their gravesites.

Two Hickory High School students place a Catawba County flag on the gravesite of a soldier from Catawba County in 2019. The cemetery was in Normandy.

Contributed by Drew Daniels

Daniels recalls seeing students playing in the surf, and said his first reaction was to think it was disrespectful.

“But then I thought about it: I bet those soldiers, I can’t speak for them, but they might be glad to know a bunch of American kids were coming over,” Daniels said. “And it’s not a war zone. It’s a place where they can freely splash about, and that’s the world (the soldiers) helped create or preserve.”

Hickory High School Assistant Principal Nathan Fredericks with a bottle of sand he scooped up at Normandy beach in France during the World War II-themed trip in 2019.

ROBERT C. REED, RECORD

June 6 marks the 79th anniversary of D-Day, which launched the Allied forces invasion of Normandy in World War II. The battle is considered a turning point in the war by many historians, and approximately 29,000 U.S. soldiers were killed during the invasion according to Encyclopedia Britannica. It is estimated that an additional 106,000 U.S. soldiers were wounded or missing.

The students Hickory High School American history teacher Drew Daniels and Assistant Principal Nathan Fredericks took to Europe in 2019 drew “HKY” in the sand on Normandy beach for their group photo.

Contributed by Drew Daniels

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