61 years ago, this is the second day of the D-Day landing. by now Sword, Juno, Omaha and Utah are secure and units have consolidated and dug in to repell counterattacks.
The Germans are on their heels, reeling from a titanic blow that hopefully represented the last time good squared off so distinctly against evil to the tune of tens of thousands of lost lives.
Today is the the first day since H-hour on D-Day that most of the men across the beach will catch a few minutes of fitfull sleep in filthy clothes.
These are the guys that went on to become our dads, uncles, grandfathers and the anonymous white stones that puncutate cemetaries from Normandy to Arlington.
Every year I spend a fair amount of time wondering how they did what they did- run down a ramp into freezing water through a hail of bullets. I often wonder what would have happened had the invasion been repelled.
But most of all I can’t imagine how so many men who were previously “average guys” from all of the U.S. and the free world were able to rise to one of the horrific spectacles of human history.
If spend even a few minutes pondering it, it is without parallel.
When I was practicing law in Dallas, I officed next to one of the partners. For years, I sort of overlooked the pictures on his wall. When Saving Private Ryan came out, I took another look at the photos on his wall and they were none other than shots of those metal jacks on the beach at Normandy. Turns out, his father was a photographer who landed with the troops on D-Day. Not only did this guy survive, but his pictures did too. I couldn’t believe it.
“I often wonder what would have happened had the invasion been repelled.”
The definition of intestinal fortitude has to be Ike NOT giving the order to withdraw in the face of some truly disheartening early reports.
“But most of all I can’t imagine how so many men who were previously “average guys” from all of the U.S. and the free world were able to rise to one of the horrific spectacles of human history.”
Have you ever seen the History Channel series called the Gods of War: America’s Five Star Heros? How did we get that group at that time? Makes you go hmmmm.
As someone who lives in the area where the landing craft and crews practiced for D-day I find it fasinating to imagine what that day would have been like. After seeing the (albeit fictional) opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan I realise that we can never comprehend the horrors of that day.
I for one thank those brave men that went through a truly terrible experience for all of us and future generations.
“But most of all I can’t imagine how so many men who were previously “average guys” from all of the U.S. and the free world were able to rise to one of the horrific spectacles of human history.”
Have you ever seen the History Channel series called the Gods of War: America’s Five Star Heros? How did we get that group at that time? Makes you go hmmmm.
I suspect that that generation grew up understanding that there are sacrifices that have to be made by individuals for the good of the country. No such attitude today (remember the official line after 9/11: travel and spend!).
“I suspect that that generation grew up understanding that there are sacrifices that have to be made by individuals for the good of the country. No such attitude today”
Eisenhower had prepared two message in advance of the landings for release to the world press.
One message characterized the landings as a success and credited the parties involved and honoring their sacrifice.
The other message said that the invasion had been repelled and the invasion forces had been withdrawn. Considering the experience at Dunkirk years earlier that was a a significant possibility, especially considering the enormous logistical mistakes and weather problems related to the landings.
When Eisenhower stepped to the microphone to deliver the first official news dispatch both statements were writtne on a piece of note paper in his pocket. Despite the occasiional random cruelty of history and happenstance, he would never have to read one of them aloud.
Maybe not in the public at large, but it is alive and well in the US armed forces.
Spot
I agree completely, and my hat is off to them. I do note that the Army failed by a long shot to meet its recruiting goals for May (even after reducing the goal substantially).
This link goes to a brief article on the D-Day photos of Robert Capa. Capa was a celebrated photojournalist whop capture 11 precious, horrifying images of the D-Day landings.
The images, each one damaged by water during the landings, very accurately depict the event:
It was damaged, confused, slightly blurry. The images are polarized and contrasty, suggesting the struggle of absolute evil against good. They are desperately composed and hastily shot by a frightened, albeit courageous and determined man. No one image is clear focus or relief: They are confused, chaotic and envoke a feeling of unsettled apprehension- as though there is something wrong with them or they are incomplete. These are all features of the landing itself, literally translated to the photos themselves and, as thus, represent a startling visual record of the event.
The one photo that shows the shoulder behind a tank trap, prone, in the water, anonymous in grainy blur of motion, is particularly distressing and vivid. Imagine yourself in his place. Did he live or die? Nothing about the photo is resolved.
We were blessed with some great five stars. General Douglas MacArthur is maybe my personal favorite hero from America’s history and I read every scrap I can to learn more about him. The book “American Caesar” is one of my favorites. I often wonder what the world would have been like if MacArthur won the Republican primary and the presidency instead of his “brightest clerk” - Eisenhower.
Any one of them would have been amazing. And Ike may just have been what the country needed in the final analysis, a cooling off period.
As for what ifs, what if Patton had gotten his way with the Russians? Stalin would certainly not have had the opportunity to kill off 20-30 million russians (including a significant portion of my family) Communisim would have died a quick death. Likely would not have been a Vietnam. The mind boggles.
Oh absolutly. Too bad we missed hanging out when you ran your marathon here, I think we would’ve had fun clinking drinks and doing some drunken revisionist history.
Ike was mostly perfect. I agree he was just what the country needed. I wonder what the mid-east would be like today had he followed England’s push to become active with the Suez Crisis around '53. Egypt would have been positively impacted at the very least, and it would have closed an opening that the Soviet’s were able to exploit.
Korea would have gone much differently too, and we would have won that war. If MacArthur was able to act on his strategery, I have no doubt that there would be a unified, democratic Korea today. There is the possibility he would have gone nuclear with China though if they added a massive amount of Chinees troops accross the Yalu river, although I truly beleive we would have won that war long before that could have happened.
MacArthur begged JFK from his deathbed to stay out of Vietnam.
And Stalin was clearly an evil that should have been acted on when the Russian army (and Stalin by extension) was at it’s weakest. I don’t consider that WWII ever ended until Reagan defeated Communism many years after 1945. The battlegrounds were simply redefined and a different group of people were held to suffer.
Oh, and as long as we are playing this game, how would Patton, Ike or MacArthur have handled Cuba in the 50’s? The Bay of Pigs disaster and the Missile Crisis are unimaginable to me with either of those guys as Commander in Chief. Heck, even’s Castro’s revolution may not have happened without strong supprt from the Soviet’s - and if that was cut off at the neck who knows what would have happened in Cuba?
One of my shops is next door to an Army recruiting office. There is a great bunch of guys working there and we talk often. I have been hearing from them that it has been more difficult for them to meet recruiting goals even after they have upped the incentives. But my first quater for that shop was down too, so we blame the strip we’re in.
As for what ifs, what if Patton had gotten his way with the Russians? Stalin would certainly not have had the opportunity to kill off 20-30 million russians (including a significant portion of my family) Communisim would have died a quick death. Likely would not have been a Vietnam. The mind boggles.
MAD Magazine had a great spoof of the movie Patton (they called it “PUT*ON”), in which Patton wasn’t held back. Among other things, he built the American Canal…across South America. Really, really funny.
My grandfather served under Patton’s 3rd Army as an artilleryman and onto officer as they made there way up from Italy into the heart of Europe. I would sit and listen to his stories for hours fascinated by what he saw and experienced. He said Patton was every bit the prima donna the movie and press made him out to be. He had a mouth as foul as anyone and wouldn’t take no for an answer but every one of the soldiers he lead would follow him into battle and fight for the guy no matter what…
My all time favorite is Marshall. He was truly the architect of victory against fascism and went from defeating the Nazis in battle to putting a plan together to rebuild all of Europe on a scale that to this day has never been matched.
I guess there’s a reason he was the only career soldier who was awarded the Nobel Peace prize.
