D Day 70 Years Later

I grew up listening to my history-crazy father discuss different points in the timeline of the history of  the world.  He loved American history and a particular devotion to the Civil War.  He gave me my love of history and I am forever grateful for the things he brought to my attention and taught me.  But World War II mesmerized me.  Since I was a little girl, I was either reading books or watching movies targeted for that part of our history.  D Day or “Operation Overlord” has always garnered my particular attention.  All those years of training and conditioning, knowing when the call came they were ready to go where needed.  What an impressive fighting force!

There is no greater intimidation than parachuting from a plane hoping the German soldiers and their supply of guns miss their targets so they can make it safely to Terra Firma.  In watching “Band of Brothers”, “The Longest Day” and other movies, they gave me just a glimpse of what their hell was like. As soldiers approached Omaha Beach or Utah Beach  they were weighed down by 60 pounds or more of equipment meant to sustain you for two weeks or longer, you were lucky.   These guys came out of the water even losing their guns or worse, drowning because they so heavy and couldn’t swim away from the landing boats.  How horrible. But then some get out of the water and make it onto the beach where they are a target, their helmets caught in the crossfires of someone hidden on the cliffs above. To survive you hide behind the body of a fallen comrade.  This is a case of survival of the fittest.  They must survive and move on to the cliffs looming in front of you.  The German guns are saturating the beach, and they begin to see Army Rangers climbing up their ladders hoping to get the upper hand finally.  When the beach is finally in American hands you take that look around and suck in a breath and see blood in the ocean waves, bodies strewn on the beach, body parts no longer assembled as bodies.  These men end an ugly journey only to pave the way for the road of the continuing journey for more soldiers needed to secure freedom for the French and all that lies in their way to Berlin. 

I know my respect for these valiant men who answered the call from a nation in crisis to come to their country’s aid knowing there would be the possibility of a bleak future.  At the tender age of 18 and sometimes younger, they take an Oath stating “I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States, etc….”  These men had at the time a modern military with equipment that they hoped would win the war.  Great minds gathered together to give the United States the edge they needed. 

Americans at home sacrificed to give whatever they had to support their military men and women and did it without tears, grumblings or cries of it all being unfair.  They all came together and together they defeated an evil that wanted what they wanted and wanted the ultimate submission with maiming, killing and destroying everything in their way.  War raged on for a total of six years. Americans battled on for 4 years on two continents.  How amazing their strength and fortitude!  God bless the men and women of the Greatest Generation.  These men undertook a task that seemed daunting and unrelenting.

Now we are 70 years since D Day. 70 years since the beginning of the end.  I didn’t have anyone involved in D Day but my uncle died at Anzio in July of 1944. My husband’s uncle died at Monte Cassino around the same time.  Many families have stories to tell of their loved ones and in my personal estimation, they should continue on with those stories.  New stories will be told in time of loved ones in Afghanistan and Iraq.  God Bless them all and maybe there will be a time when there is not one battle being waged in our lifetime.