June 6th, 1944
67 years ago today, "D-Day", actually Operation: Overlord, finally kicked off in Normandy. The front was opened at last in France in World War 2-- when the landings succeeded, it was one step closer to the end for Nazi Germany. It was a day of brilliant successes for the Allies, punctuated with some very harsh and almost disastrous beginnings in some parts of the operation. Allied landings at four out of five beaches went fairly smoothly-- Allied landings at one (Omaha Beach) were almost a failure. Most of the D-Day casualties (the first day ones at any rate) were lost on or around Omaha-- around 2000 U.S. Soldiers killed in action there. We owe a huge debt to the citizen-soldiers of World War 2-- without them and the sacrifices they made, the world would be a much different, much worse place.
On a personal level-- one of the military units I served in (1st Engineer Battalion, 1st Infantry Division) earned a Presidential Unit Citation at Omaha Beach during the Normandy landings. That unit had a good sense of its history and made sure we who served in it wouldn't forget those who'd gone before us. I also visited Normandy in 1994 (spent an extended weekend on an MWR-sponsored tour there while I was stationed in Germany). Seeing the old battle sites was both sobering and impressive. I don't know how many of you have even seen pictures of the Pont 'd'Hoc-- but having looked over those cliffs, the idea that a company of Rangers could *successfully* make an assault up those cliffs against enemy resistance (one of many small-unit actions during the overall battle) is incredible-- yet it happened. For Omaha Beach-- the 1st Infantry Division monument there says it all about the men who took the beach that day (it includes the official division motto: "No mission too difficult, no sacrifice too great-- duty first"). Watch the first half hour of 'Saving Private Ryan' (I have some doubts about the rest of the movie, but the part covering the beach assault is outstanding)-- on the real Omaha Beach, the pill-boxes, German defensive emplacements, etc are long gone (though some remnants of concrete foundations can still be seen) and there's a boardwalk built up there now on the beach where there was none before-- but the cliffs are still the same, and they look VERY VERY much like the cliffs of the beach where they filmed the opening parts of 'Saving Private Ryan'. I saw many other sites of battle in Normandy that were made famous on June 6th, 1944.
I also visited the American Military Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer (overlooking the invasion beaches themselves on the Normandy Coast)-- close to 10,000 American Servicemembers (mostly Army and Army Air Corps, but some Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard as well) are buried there. The tombstones seem to stretch out as far as the eye can see-- visiting there really brings home some sense of the numbers of dead we lost in the Normandy campaign.
On a personal level-- one of the military units I served in (1st Engineer Battalion, 1st Infantry Division) earned a Presidential Unit Citation at Omaha Beach during the Normandy landings. That unit had a good sense of its history and made sure we who served in it wouldn't forget those who'd gone before us. I also visited Normandy in 1994 (spent an extended weekend on an MWR-sponsored tour there while I was stationed in Germany). Seeing the old battle sites was both sobering and impressive. I don't know how many of you have even seen pictures of the Pont 'd'Hoc-- but having looked over those cliffs, the idea that a company of Rangers could *successfully* make an assault up those cliffs against enemy resistance (one of many small-unit actions during the overall battle) is incredible-- yet it happened. For Omaha Beach-- the 1st Infantry Division monument there says it all about the men who took the beach that day (it includes the official division motto: "No mission too difficult, no sacrifice too great-- duty first"). Watch the first half hour of 'Saving Private Ryan' (I have some doubts about the rest of the movie, but the part covering the beach assault is outstanding)-- on the real Omaha Beach, the pill-boxes, German defensive emplacements, etc are long gone (though some remnants of concrete foundations can still be seen) and there's a boardwalk built up there now on the beach where there was none before-- but the cliffs are still the same, and they look VERY VERY much like the cliffs of the beach where they filmed the opening parts of 'Saving Private Ryan'. I saw many other sites of battle in Normandy that were made famous on June 6th, 1944.
I also visited the American Military Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer (overlooking the invasion beaches themselves on the Normandy Coast)-- close to 10,000 American Servicemembers (mostly Army and Army Air Corps, but some Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard as well) are buried there. The tombstones seem to stretch out as far as the eye can see-- visiting there really brings home some sense of the numbers of dead we lost in the Normandy campaign.