Passage to Normandy: Voyages of the SS Thomas Wolfe‪.‬

On 12 April 1944 the weather observatory at Belvedere Castle in Central Park reported a mean temperature of 47.5, with no rain. On this agreeable early spring day, 71 ships of Convoy HX 287 left New York Harbor headed for British ports of call. Of these "great boats ... putting out to sea," (1) one was named the Thomas Wolfe, a ship that would play a vital role in the D-Day invasion of Europe. In a March 1938 letter to the editor of the Nation, Thomas Wolfe expressed his belief that "democracy is valuable enough to be saved, and is worth fighting for.... Facism is a creature that thrives but is not appeased by compromise." (2) Nearly six years after his death, Asheville's son went to war.