{"id":61705,"date":"2017-05-16T07:14:07","date_gmt":"2017-05-16T06:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=61705"},"modified":"2025-11-07T02:34:05","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T01:34:05","slug":"from-galicia-to-normandy-this-is-the-place-where-the-only-spaniard-who-fought-on-d-day-died","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2017\/05\/16\/from-galicia-to-normandy-this-is-the-place-where-the-only-spaniard-who-fought-on-d-day-died\/","title":{"rendered":"From Galicia to Normandy: this is the place where the only Spaniard who fought on D-Day died"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>June 6, 1944, has gone down in history as the day of the Normandy landings. Among the soldiers who died that day <strong>was a Spaniard: Manuel Otero, born in Outes (La Coru\u00f1a)<\/strong>.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2017\/08\/30\/the-myth-of-polish-cavalry-charges-against-tanks-in-september-1939\/\">The myth of Polish cavalry charges against tanks in September 1939<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2017\/06\/16\/janis-pinups-a-latvian-soldier-for-whom-the-second-world-war-finished-in-1995\/\">J\u0101nis P\u012bnups: a Latvian soldier for whom the Second World War finished in 1995<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p><strong>Born on April 27, 1916, Manuel emigrated to the United States after the Spanish Civil War<\/strong> \u2014he had fought on the Republican side, which left a mark on him in his hometown\u2014and there he enlisted as a volunteer in the American Army on March 19, 1943, receiving the tag number 32,868,826. <strong>On D-Day, Manuel Otero was 28 years old, and he wore on his arm the Private First Class (PFC) stripe and the emblem of the Big Red One<\/strong>, the nickname given in the US Army to the 1st Infantry Division. Specifically, Manuel was assigned to <strong>Company A of the 1st Battalion of the 16th Infantry Regiment<\/strong>. This regiment crossed the Channel embarked on two American ships (the USS Samuel Chase and the USS Henrico) and one British ship (the HMS Empire Anvil). This unit <strong>landed in Normandy at 7:40 a.m. on D-Day.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On May 1st, <a href=\"http:\/\/tropaguripa.com\">Tropa Guripa<\/a> dedicated a first video to him, in which he spoke with Manuel Arenas, bookseller from La Coru\u00f1a and president of the <a href=\"http:\/\/royalgreenjackets.blogspot.com.es\">Historical-Cultural Association \"The Royal Green Jackets\"<\/a>, to whom we owe the recovery of the story of this Spaniard who fell in combat in Normandy:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QzpwA2_HuOQ?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Yesterday, Tropa Guripa released a second video dedicated to Manuel Otero<\/strong>, this time retracing the route his unit took from landing in the \"Easy Red\" subsector of Omaha Beach until <strong>he died while crossing a minefield,<\/strong> shortly before reaching a German anti-tank ditch. The video shows the approximate location where he met his death.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WxA51998OzQ?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0?ecver=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Last year, Librer\u00eda Arenas published a book by Antonio Osende titled <strong><em>\"Normand\u00eda D\u00eda D. Manuel Otero Mart\u00ednez: Un gallego en Omaha Beach\"<\/em><\/strong> (Normandy D-Day: Manuel Otero Mart\u00ednez: A Galician on Omaha Beach). The book is an excellent compilation of the documents and testimonies we have about Manuel. I bought it last year at the Ariete reenactment event in A Coru\u00f1a, and I also had the opportunity to chat with the author for a while. You can buy the book at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.libreriaarenas.com\">Librer\u00eda Arenas<\/a> in La Coru\u00f1a (at Cant\u00f3n Peque\u00f1o, 25) and also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.es\/Manuel-otero-martinez-gallego-omaha\/dp\/8495100657\">on Amazon<\/a>. As a Spaniard and as a Galician, <strong>I thank Antonio Osende, Manuel Arenas, the Royal Green Jackets, \u00d3scar Galansky and Tropa Guripa for all the work they have done to rescue from oblivion this compatriot<\/strong> who fought and died in the Battle of Normandy.<\/p>\n<p>By the way: if you don't already know it, <strong>I encourage you to follow the website<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/tropaguripa.com\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">tropaguripa.com<\/a> <strong>and subscribe to<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCfV2Sb2Uxotvez3rtrYyl7Q\">their YouTube channel<\/a>, as well as follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TropaGuripa\/\"their Facebook page<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TropaGuripa\">Twitter account<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/tropaguripa\/\">Instagram profile<\/a>. \u00d3scar Galansky, the creator of this project, is doing an excellent job in this third season of this series about military history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>June 6, 1944, has gone down in history as the day of the Normandy landings. Among the soldiers who died that day was a Spaniard: Manuel Otero, born in Outes (La Coru\u00f1a).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[11549],"tags":[7625,5607,1805,10633,12733,6867,318,10389],"class_list":["post-61705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-military-history","tag-1st-infantry-division-big-red-one","tag-asociacion-historico-cultural-the-royal-green-jackets","tag-galicia","tag-manuel-otero-martinez","tag-normandy-landings","tag-tropa-guripa","tag-us-army","tag-world-war-ii"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-11 21:25:26","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61705\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}