D-Day 2023

Seventy-nine years ago on June 6, 1944 my dad was in California training to go to war. A month later he arrived in Normandy and immediately advanced to the front where he stayed until a mortar blew him out of foxhole (he survived with life lasting wounds). But his first step on French soil was a safe one, secured by the largest amphibious landing in world history and by the blood of many who fell storming the beaches. The more than 160,000 Allied troops (73,000 Americans) who participated in D-Day created a foothold that allowed others like my father to follow and put the Germans in retreat.

The beaches of Normandy became a bloody portal that opened the way to the liberation of Europe from Nazi occupation. In addition to our Yanks, service persons from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Poland, Norway and the Netherlands also put their lives at risk. Most of the heroes of that day are long dead and the youngest of the survivors are in their nineties. Attendance at D-Day unit reunions has fallen into single digits and there will soon be no remaining survivors.
No single event of World War II put so much on the line. It is estimated that the Allies suffered more than 10,000 casualties due to death, wounded or missing in action. D-Day was the culmination of planning, mobilization, manufacturing and secrecy on a scale never before attempted. Everyone knew an invasion was coming, but no one knew exactly when or where. In preparation for the assault, men, equipment and ships had to be collected and staged for the crossing of the English Channel. Involved were almost 7,000 water going vessels and 11,500 aircraft.
There were spies everywhere and yet the veil was not lifted from the operation. Clever counter-espionage created illusions that the entry point would not be where it actually was.

Once the invasion commenced there were thousands of watercraft on the seas, but they were shielded from discovery by bad weather. Had the Germans not been surprised, the landing may have been pushed back into the sea and there would have been a slaughter that would have delayed the conclusion of the war in the European theatre. If the men who fought across the sands had not been so courageous, the cliffs would not have been mounted. If the citizenry of the Allied nations had not been united against Hitler, the ships, tanks and arms would not have been built. It was an undertaking of enormous magnitude. Providence was with us - the enemy was looking elsewhere and thinking that we would delay further, their leadership was on holiday, and until it was too late, there was no urgent rush by the Germans to reinforce the heavily armed but thin line of coastal defenses.

The generation who took back France and quelled fascism came home to an America deeply changed. They had seen and done things which made them different. Most had already been affected by the depression of the 1930’s and the war made them even tougher. They appreciated their country and the opportunities which opened upon their return. They worked hard and prospered and our nation prospered with and because of them. They spoke little of graphic details from the battlefield, speaking instead of friends they had made, places they had seen and of values they had learned. Sometimes they discussed the pain of war, but it was most often about being cold in a trench, an officer who was hated by the platoon or a cook who should have been a mechanic. There was seldom mention of the specific horror of hand to hand combat or a description of a nearby soldier being blown to pieces. These were memories too deep and too personal - and yet these many years later we know that they willingly suffered these experiences in sacrifice for their God, family and country. We still reap the benefits.

We pause on D-Day to honor those who fought their way ashore in Normandy 79 years ago. They did not seek the glory they earned, but they wore it well.