Editor’s note: As the 82nd anniversary of D-Day approaches on June 6, The Sun Times News is honored to share a remarkable series of stories about Chelsea-area veterans whose lives were forever shaped by World War II. Drawn from extensive interviews, letters, photographs, and local history research by Cynthia Furlong Reynolds, these accounts preserve the voices of men who witnessed some of the war’s most defining moments, from Omaha Beach to the skies over Normandy.
Author’s note: As soon as the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, George Winans (1922-2016) hurried to Detroit to enlist in the Army Air Corps. After training on a B-26 in Texas and Utah, he joined a multi-ethnic crew that landed in Britain three months before D-Day. In subsequent months, two of his planes were shot down. He ended up a POW in neutral Sweden, sharing accommodations with Nazi pilots who were also POWs.
George Winans
“Nothing can compare to those thrills.
“War is terrible, no question. Yet it proved to be the salvation of my family’s jewelry business, as well as the salvation of many families in Chelsea who had been struggling during the Depression years. When I graduated from Chelsea High in 1940, there wasn’t much doing in town, so I went to Ann Arbor and got a job in a drug store. On Sunday, December 7, 1941, Dad and I were decorating our store in Chelsea for Christmas and listening to the radio when the President came on to announce the bombing of Pearl Harbor…