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Today is the 68th anniversary of D-Day. The largest amphibious assault ever undertaken on Earth. The scale of the effort is often overshadowed by the sheer bravery and tenacity of the men who fought, but is monumental unto itself.
It has been said that to create an equivalent of D-Day one would need to go to Wisconsin and from three of its largest cities take every; man, woman, child, form of transportation from scooters to airplanes, picking them up and moving them across Lake Michigan and doing it in 24 hours.
So much has been written and said about it, that one could fill hundreds of pages. Instead of doing that, I thought, why not remember the words of Ronald Reagan from the 40th anniversary:
We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For 4 long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved, and the world prayed for its rescue. Here in Normandy the rescue began. Here the Allies stood and fought against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history.
We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France. The air is soft, but 40 years ago at this moment, the air was dense with smoke and the cries of men, and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon. At dawn, on the morning of the 6th of June, 1944, 225 Rangers jumped off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs. Their mission was one of the most difficult and daring of the invasion: to climb these sheer and desolate cliffs and take out the enemy guns. The Allies had been told that some of the mightiest of these guns were here and they would be trained on the beaches to stop the Allied advance.
The Rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers -- the edge of the cliffs shooting down at them with machineguns and throwing grenades. And the American Rangers began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up. When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb again. They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe. Two hundred and twenty-five came here. After 2 days of fighting, only 90 could still bear arms.
...
I think I know what you may be thinking right now -- thinking ``we were just part of a bigger effort; everyone was brave that day.'' Well, everyone was. Do you remember the story of Bill Millin of the 51st Highlanders? Forty years ago today, British troops were pinned down near a bridge, waiting desperately for help. Suddenly, they heard the sound of bagpipes, and some thought they were dreaming. Well, they weren't. They looked up and saw Bill Millin with his bagpipes, leading the reinforcements and ignoring the smack of the bullets into the ground around him.
Lord Lovat was with him -- Lord Lovat of Scotland, who calmly announced when he got to the bridge, ``Sorry I'm a few minutes late,'' as if he'd been delayed by a traffic jam, when in truth he'd just come from the bloody fighting on Sword Beach, which he and his men had just taken.
...
The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next. It was the deep knowledge -- and pray God we have not lost it -- that there is a profound, moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt.
You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One's country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.
All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you.
The Americans who fought here that morning knew word of the invasion was spreading through the darkness back home. They fought -- or felt in their hearts, though they couldn't know in fact, that in Georgia they were filling the churches at 4 a.m., in Kansas they were kneeling on their porches and praying, and in Philadelphia they were ringing the Liberty Bell.
Something else helped the men of D-day: their rockhard belief that Providence would have a great hand in the events that would unfold here; that God was an ally in this great cause. And so, the night before the invasion, when Colonel Wolverton asked his parachute troops to kneel with him in prayer he told them: Do not bow your heads, but look up so you can see God and ask His blessing in what we're about to do. Also that night, General Matthew Ridgway on his cot, listening in the darkness for the promise God made to Joshua: ``I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.''
....
We are bound today by what bound us 40 years ago, the same loyalties, traditions, and beliefs. We're bound by reality.
The strength of America's allies is vital to the United States, and the American security guarantee is essential to the continued freedom of Europe's democracies. We were with you then; we are with you now. Your hopes are our hopes, and your destiny is our destiny.
Here, in this place where the West held together, let us make a vow to our dead. Let us show them by our actions that we understand what they died for. Let our actions say to them the words for which Matthew Ridgway listened: ``I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.''
So, with the tribute out of the way, it would be nice to have a point to all of this, lol. What are some interesting and little known stories of that day. I'll start us off with one from Reagan's speech, "Piper" Bill Millin...
Bill Millin had been selected as the official piper of Lord Lovat commander of a commando detachment of the 51st Highlanders for the invasion that was to press through Sword Beach to relieve the paratroopers at Pegasus Bridge. Millin is the only man to have worn a kilt during the invasion, the same Cameron Highlanders Tartan that his father wore in Flanders during WW1. He was armed only with his pipes and sgian-dubh (knife).
As the British stormed Sword Beach, Lord Lovat ordered him to play. Bill reminded him that British Army regulations forbid the playing of pipes in forward areas. Lord Lovat replied, "Ah, but that’s the English War Office. You and I are both Scottish, and that doesn’t apply." Millin, standing on Sword Beach with carnage all around him began to play "Hielan' Laddie" and "Road to the Isles" inspiring his comrades forward.
Later while speaking to a captured German sharpshooter Millin asked the man why no one shot him. The German reportedly replied, "because we all thought you were crazy".
Millin's unit pressed onto Pegasus Bridge to relieve the 2nd Batallion of the 6th Airborne Division. Millin's unit arrived almost an hour later then their expected time and announced their approach with Millin's bagpipes. Members of the Airborne holding the bridge said that they thought they were dreaming when they heard bagpipes through the fog and smoke on the field, only to see Lord Lovat's commandos emerge with Millin leading the way. After Lord Lovat uttered a quick apology for "being a few minutes late" the counterattack began.
Standing on the bank next to the bridge with bullets landing all around him Millin played as the Highlanders and Airborne stormed the bridge and drove the Germans back.
An aspect of D-Day which I find absorbing is the way that the paratroop arm went so badly wrong, yet wound up being highly effective for reasons not anticipated in the planning.
I think everyone is familiar with how due to fog, navigational errors and premature drops by nervous pilots when encountering flak, the paratroop divisons were scattered and deposited individually or in small groups, all over, and frequently far outside, the planned drop zones. The consequence was that only one out of every six troopers landed near enough to their assigned objectives to even reach it that night, much less secure it.
But.....it was the wide scattering of the troopers which made the night into a paralysis of confusion for the Germans. They kept receiving reports from numerous areas about paratroopers landing, sending out patrols to investigate, finding either nothing or just a couple of Allied soldiers, and then being called to rush to some other sighting..and another and another...all throught he night. German intelligence was never able to develop a picture of what the actual objectives might be, the landings seemed to make no sense at all. Had the operation gone as planned, then from the objectives under attack by the paratroopers, the Germans could have pieced together the Allied follow up...which beaches were going to be hit at first light.
We do not know how effective or successful the paratroopers would have been if things had gone as planned, but we do know that foul ups serendipitously made a good contribution by keeping the Germans in the dark about the true targets.
On this anniversary I join with all others in saluting the paratroopers, the sailors, the airmen, the strategic planners and the men who had to storm ashore. A splendid display of intelligence, skill and courage all around.
D-Day is the largest amphibious landing because we used a mass amount of troops. Plus, England and Canada also assisted in other beach landings in Normandy too.
Not sure if this is true or one of those made-up e-mail stories. but it still made my eyes tear-up when I read it.
Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry on.
"You have been to France before, monsieur?" the customs officer asked sarcastically.
Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously.
"Then you should know enough to have your passport ready."
The American said,"The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it."
"Impossible. Americans always have to show their passports on arrival in France!"
The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he
quietly explained, ''Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in
1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find a single Frenchmen
to show a passport to."
You could have heard a pin drop.
Again, the story might just be an apocryphal illustration but I like the message!
God bless all our Vets, but especially today, those who fought on D-Day.
Wanted to bring up another little known thing, the block-ships or "corn cobs" that were used to create an artificial reef for the beaches to help reduce swells and breakers from inundating the landing areas. Dozens of old ships, many damaged over the course of the war or simply too worn to be of useful service were steamed or towed into position off the Normandy coast.
The ships had been stripped of anything useful and had their AA guns mounted high on the superstuctures. All volunteer crews sailed on them and they were the first ships in range of German guns off the coast. Once in position, demolition charges were used to sink the ships in precise locations approximately 1,000 yards off the beaches. As the ships settled into the sea floor, their superstructures remained visible and their AA guns provided cover for the invasion.
The ships essentially created artificial harbors that then became known as "Gooseberries". The calmer water inside the "harbors" lowered the risk of the invasion boats getting swamped by errant waves and shifting swells. Two of these "Gooseberries" were then used as the basis for what became the "Mulberry" harbors once additional breakwaters, piers and docks were added.
In this aerial photo taken of a "Mulberry" you can clearly see the line of "block ships" that formed the initial breakwater for the invasion boats. In this photo you can also see the later concrete and steel breakwaters that were added to the seaboard side of the ships. In the photo, the top would be the beaches in France and the bottom is the open sea. You can clearly see the difference in the roughness of the water.
When I was 27 (before I had developped any interest in reading World War II history), I got married. It was 1971. My wife (age 19) and I took a two-month honeymoon in Europe and ended up visiting Mont St. Michel in Normandy. Somehow we stumbled upon a German military cemetery in the area. (Remember I knew nothing about the details of the Normandy invasion - just the broadest of broad outlines that any non-history major with a college degree would know). We walked among the graves and I noticed how so many of the German fallen were of the age of my then new bride (19). Some were younger. I ended up with tears in my eyes at the thought of so many who, at such a young age, were sent to the slaughter by their elders. And I am not now, nor was I then, a Nazi sympathizer. Nor am I arguing that the invasion was not necessary. I was simply touched by the sacrifices made; it was an accident that we had located a German cemetery rather than the American one.
I had 3 great uncles (my grandmother's brothers) that fought in WWII. They did not land in Normandy, but I have heard stories over the years about their time in the war living in trenches, etc. 2 of the 3 are still alive, one is 90 the other is 85- I salute my great uncles and to all the veterans and the people of their generation aka "The Greatest Generation-God Bless!
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