Last December, as you recall, Maureen Flavin died.
Oh, you don’t recall Maureen Flavin?
Maureen Flavin was the postal clerk whose work was so consequential in World War II that you might say she was a critical reason for the Allied success on D-Day. Let me explain.
In his excellent article, reporter Alex Traub writes that in 1942, 19-year-old Maureen Flavin saw a newspaper advertisement for a job at the Blacksod Point post office. This village was located on the northwest coast of Ireland. Strangely enough, part of her work was observing the weather, annotating it, and transmitting her reports. Where those reports went, she had no idea, but she faithfully sent them.
Those reports were valuable. Although Ireland was officially neutral, its citizens assisted the Allied war effort in a way that was under the radar, pun intended. Maureen’s reports were actually going to the strategic planning division of the Allied war leaders. Heading into June of 1944, General Dwight Eisenhower was finalizing plans for a European invasion that would effectively end the war. The invasion was risky because lousy weather could sabotage the shore landing of thousands of landing crafts and the tens of thousands of troops they would deliver. Not to mention the thousands of airplanes that were critical for providing cover and supplies. The critical landing zone was located on the coast of France along a “50-mile stretch” in the region of Normandy. Eisenhower and his war council determined that June 5, 1944, would be the landing date because the weather would be clear and the tides would be low.
The next part of the story is critical. Weather forecasting was a primitive endeavor during the 1940s compared to today. Satellites did not exist, and computer technology was in its infancy. Predicting the weather for an invasion was a dangerous enterprise. Local observers like Maureen were critical to climate intelligence. For this reason, Maureen’s weather reports increased tremendously in 1944. Instead of sending observations every six hours, she and others like her began sending in reports every hour of the day.
On June 3, 1944, Maureen’s 21st birthday, she worked the midnight to 4 a.m. shift. During that time, she noted a rapid drop in barometric pressure. This meant bad weather was probably coming. After triple-checking her figures, her liaison informed General Eisenhower and his staff that the weather did not look good for a June 5 invasion. Furthermore, June 6 appeared very promising. The Allies’ window for the invasion was small. Word leaking to the Nazis (ruining the element of surprise) and other factors meant that the landing had to occur soon.
Of course, we know the rest of the story. The D-Day invasion was a success thanks in no small part to Maureen Flavin. In a later documentary, British D-Day veteran Joe Cattini said, “We owe a lot to Maureen of the west of Ireland, [those of] us who invaded France on D-Day, because if it hadn’t been for her reading of the weather, we would have perished in the storms.”
After the war, Maureen married Ted Sweeney, the local lighthouse keeper. She gave birth to three sons who survived her. She lived a good, long life, one that helped save thousands of others.
Your job may be a small part of the whole endeavor, but that small role could prove critical. As the writer of Ecclesiastes says, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might” (9:10a).
Do your job well.
Mark
For further reading, see Alex Traub, Maureen Flavin Sweeney Dies at 100; Her Weather Report Delayed D-Day https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/02/world/europe/maureen-sweeney-dead.html