Remembering the Plichta Brothers from Century, PA

Remembering the Plichta Brothers from Century, PA

It was the morning of D-Day June 6, 1944 and Technical Sergeant Johnny Plichta was on a transport ship with the U.S. 1st Infantry Division heading to Omaha Beach. Johnny had already survived two beach landings, one at Oran, Algeria in 1942 and another at Sicily in 1943. According to an interview by the famed World War II author, Cornelius Ryan, Johnny told the assembled group of soldiers, with some bravado, that "the Germans had not made the bullet" that would get him. Unfortunately, they had made the anti-tank shell that would get him: a friend later reported seeing Johnny take a direct hit. His brother Joe served in the 4th Armored Division and was killed on November 9, 1944 near Viviers, France. The two brothers from Century, Pennsylvania, sons of Slovakian immigrants, are buried today, side by side, at the Normandy American Cemetery. On this, the 76th anniversary of D-Day, we remember all who died in that heroic assault. Among our list of 286 sets of brothers (574 individuals) buried or memorialized at American overseas cemeteries, 15 of them died on D-Day. Those include two sets of brothers both killed that day, the Arruda brothers from Taunton, Mass. and the Hoback brothers from a small township in Bedford County, Virginia known as Liberty. #dday
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