A combat veteran when he landed on Omaha beach on June 6, 1944, Walt Ehlers had made a promise to his mother, which often left him at odds with the morality of a soldier’s duty.

Felice and Lilly’s story is one of contradictions. One a bohemian writer in the Jewish underground; the other wife to an ardent Nazi, a “good German” Hausfrau, and mother of four. The two women fell in love in wartime Berlin.

This column is the last of three D-Day columns written by war correspondent Ernie Pyle describing the Allied invasion of Normandy. 

Thanks to a manuscript Beck wrote while hiding out in France in 1944, we know much of the story of this American fighter pilot.

Hear about four unique items from our Collection that saw action.