Jun. 5—FARGO — You could say Bill Hayes was front and center at D-Day with a face covered in cocoa powder.
Odd but true.
Hayes is featured in the center of one of the most famous photos taken during World War II. Hayes can be seen just above Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s hand — his face darkened and disguised with cooking oil and cocoa powder.
It was taken just hours before the largest amphibious assault in military history, involving 150,000 troops from 12 countries. History books have captioned the photo taken in England with, “Allied Supreme Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower is giving last minute instruction and encouragement to American paratroopers prior to the invasion.”
Only those in the photo, including Hayes, truly know the personal conversation that was happening. Before the shutter clicked, the future president was engaging with Hayes about his job at Sears, Roebuck and Co.
Hayes told The Forum in 1994 that Gen. Eisenhower then turned to a man to the right of Hayes, Lt. Wallace Strobel (who has the number 23 hanging from his neck) and mentioned his recent visit with a paratrooper in another unit.
“He said, ‘You know, I just talked to a guy who makes ladies’ hats and now he’s in a unit like this.’ I think he found that somewhat ironic.”
It wasn’t that ironic, as millions of Americans, including the one-time Fargo store manager, left their everyday lives to enlist and serve during World War II.
Hayes was born on Jan. 9, 1918, in Wausau, Wisconsin, where he grew up and graduated from high school. He worked at Sears in Wausau when he left for boot camp and training with an armored division.
During the 50th anniversary of D-Day in 1994, Hayes told The Forum he was working with the tank unit in 1942 at Camp Bowie in Brownswood, Texas, when he noticed “men falling from the sky.”
Hayes told The Forum, “That’s what I wanted to do.” However, his commanding officer said Hayes, at 5’9″ and just 160 pounds, was too small to be a paratrooper, but the war was heating up, and airborne units needed bodies. So Cpl. Hayes’ wish came true. He began training with the 101st Airborne Division, 2nd Battalion, 502nd Parachute Regiment, Company B.
Fast forward two years and 15 training jumps later, and Hayes is standing next to Eisenhower at a defining moment in history and what would be his first combat jump.
Hayes said he was scared at the time of the photo, and so were the other guys. They were in a staging area near the airstrip at Greenham Common Airfield in England just two hours before takeoff.
Hayes told The Forum he was looking down, trying to figure out how he would attach 70 pounds of equipment and ammo to his body.
“I was mentally putting all of this equipment on — thinking about what was going to happen in two hours — and somebody said, ‘Well, are you ready?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I guess so.’ I looked up and there’s Eisenhower.”
Hayes said the general didn’t come out and ask whether they were scared, but that’s what he was getting at.
That’s when the conversation turned to his job at Sears and the other paratrooper who made ladies’ hats.
The photo was picked up by wire services and appeared in newspapers worldwide. It was later published in magazines and books and was even used on a 25-cent Eisenhower stamp.
Hayes later said the photo and Eisenhower’s visit were “morale boosters.”
“But we were thinking mostly about being shot at. Just look at the expressions on the faces of those men,” he said.
The 101st was leading the American wing of the invasion with a parachute assault just inland from the Normandy coast. Hayes told The Forum his company’s objective was to take out three German coastal guns to make it safer for infantry troops to land in the morning.
He said he remembered how many men got sick as the C-47 rocked back and forth as the pilot tried to evade enemy gunfire. Once he jumped, just past midnight, he soon found himself in a hedgerow with his canopy caught in a tree.
He said he couldn’t reach the knife in his boot to cut himself free. He hung there for 10 long minutes before breaking free. For the next hour, he crawled on his belly in a road ditch. Then he heard voices. Fortunately, they spoke English — fellow Americans, but not from his company. The ragtag bunch of eight soldiers formed a makeshift unit periodically engaging in minor skirmishes and firefights with German soldiers.
“Then you saw your first dead GIs. That was an emotional thing,” he said.
That conversation with Eisenhower about Sears and ladies’ hats seemed like a lifetime ago.
According to the U.S. Army while many of the immediate strategic objectives of the landings were not achieved, including the failure to capture any of the key towns, D-Day was still a huge success. More than 160,000 Allied troops and 6,000 vehicles had crossed the Channel, establishing a foothold in France.
Hayes’ unit continued fighting in France until the middle of July.
He would go on to fight in the Battle of the Bulge in the Belgium forest at Ardennes.
The 101st was surrounded in the town of Bastogne in that battle. Hayes was hit in the legs and shipped home.
He was discharged in 1945 as a staff sergeant with a number of battle decorations.
After the war, he resumed his job at Sears and transferred to Fargo in 1966. He later worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture at North Dakota State University and retired in 1983.
He died on Dec. 18, 2006, at the age of 88.
He told The Forum in 1994, that throughout his life, he never gave much thought to the famous image. But as he got older, he realized how historic his moment with Eisenhower really was.
“I never really made much of a fuss about it,” he said. “Hell, I volunteered. I don’t know how famous I am, but that picture is famous.”
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