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Home » D-Day, 80 years later

D-Day, 80 years later

The New Neo Posted on by

[NOTE: The following is a slightly-edited version of a previous D-Day post.]

Today is the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the Normandy landings in WWII that led to Western Europe’s liberation.

I wonder how many people under forty, either here or in Europe, now know or care what happened there. The dog barks and the caravan moves on.

The world we now live in seems so vastly different, including the relationship between the US and western Europe. But make no mistake about it; if threatened in a way that finally gets their attention, Europeans would be counting on us again. And although until few years ago I still thought that our armed forces probably would be up to the task, I now have my doubts. Our current government and especially our press would fail us.

About forty-five years ago I visited Omaha Beach, site of the worst of the carnage. A quieter place than that beach and those huge cemeteries, with their lines of crosses set down as though with a ruler, you never did see.

But the scene was quite different back in 1944. The D-day invasion marked the beginning of the end for the Germans.

The weather was a huge factor, and the Allied commanders had to make the decision knowing that the forecast for the day was iffy and the window of opportunity small. For reasons of visibility and navigation (maximum amount of moonlight and deepest water), the invasion needed to occur during a time of full moon and spring tides, and all the invasion forces had already been assembled and were at the ready. To postpone would have been hugely expensive and frustrating, but to go ahead in bad weather would have been suicidal.

This is how bad the weather looked, how difficult the decision was, and how much we owe to the meteorologists, who:

…were challenged to accurately predict a highly unstable and severe weather pattern. As [Eisenhower] indicated in the message to Marshall, “The weather yesterday which was [the] original date selected was impossible all along the target coast.” Eisenhower therefore was forced to make his decision to proceed with a June 6 invasion in the predawn blackness of June 5, while horizontal sheets of rain and gale force winds shuddered through the tent camp.

The initially bad weather ended up being an advantage in other ways, because the Germans were not expecting the invasion to occur yet for that reason:

Some [German] troops stood down, and many senior officers were away for the weekend. General Erwin Rommel, for example, took a few days’ leave to celebrate his wife’s birthday, while dozens of division, regimental, and battalion commanders were away from their posts at war games.

In addition, there was Hitler’s personality and his reluctance to give autonomy to his military commanders:

Hitler reserved to himself the authority to move the divisions in OKW Reserve, or commit them to action. On 6 June, many Panzer division commanders were unable to move because Hitler had not given the necessary authorization, and his staff refused to wake him upon news of the invasion.

.

This didn’t mean that the beaches were not heavily fortified and manned, especially Omaha:

[The Germans] had large bunkers, sometimes intricate concrete ones containing machine guns and high caliber weapons. Their defense also integrated the cliffs and hills overlooking the beach. The defenses were all built and honed over a four year period.

The number of Allied casualties was enormous. Reading about it today makes one appreciate anew what these men faced, and how courageously they pressed on despite enormous difficulties. This is just a small sampler of what occurred on Omaha Beach at the outset; there was much more to come:

Despite these preparations, very little went according to plan. Ten landing craft were lost before they even reached the beach, swamped by the rough seas. Several other craft stayed afloat only because their passengers quickly bailed water with their helmets. Seasickness was also prevalent among the troops waiting offshore. On the 16th RCT front, the landing boats found themselves passing struggling men in life preservers, and on rafts, survivors of the DD tanks which had sunk. Navigation of the assault craft was made more difficult by the smoke and mist obscuring the landmarks they were to use in guiding themselves in, while a heavy current pushed them continually eastward.

As the boats approached within a few hundred yards of the shore, they came under increasingly heavy fire from automatic weapons and artillery. The force discovered only then the ineffectiveness of the pre-landing bombardment. Delayed by the weather, and attempting to avoid the landing craft as they ran in, the bombers had laid their ordnance too far inland, having no real effect on the coastal defenses.

These obstacles and unforeseen circumstances were extraordinarily costly in terms of the human sacrifice that occurred that day. Note that I use the word “obstacles and unforeseen circumstances” rather than “mistakes.” Today, if the same things had occurred (at least, while under the aegis of a Republican administration), they would be labeled unforgivable errors rather than the inevitable difficulties inherent in waging war, in which no battle plan survives contact with the enemy.

Another historical footnote is the following passage from Eisenhower’s message to the Allied Expeditionary Forces: You are about to embark upon the great crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. It’s another sign of how times have changed; the word “crusade” has become verboten.

In his pocket, Eisenhower also kept another statement, one to activate in case the invasion failed. It read:

Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that Bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.

The note was written in pencil on a simple piece of paper, and is housed in a special vault at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library & Museum in Abilene, Kansas, a bit of thought-provoking fodder for an alternate history that never occurred – fortunately for all of us.

Comments

D-Day, 80 years later — 30 Comments

  1. “no battle plan survives contact with the enemy.”

    Or as Mike Tysan puts it ‘Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.’

  2. Excerpt from the document below on the events depicted in Saving Private Ryan

    OMAHA BEACHHEAD (6 June-13 June 1944)
    American Forces in Action Series
    Historical Division
    War Department
    Facsimile Reprint, 1984
    CMH Pub 100-11

    Center of Military History
    United States Army
    Washington, D.C.

    “Perhaps the worst area on the beach was Dog Green, directly in front of strongpoints guarding the Vierville draw and under heavy flanking fire from emplacements to the west, near Pointe de la Percee. Company A of the 116th was due to land on this sector with Company C of the 2d Rangers on its right flank, and both units came in on their targets. One of the six LCA’s carrying Company A foundered about a thousand yards off shore, and passing Rangers saw men jumping overboard and being dragged down by their loads. At H+6 minutes the remaining craft grounded in water 4 to 6 feet deep, about 30 yards short of the outward band of obstacles. Starting off the craft in three files, center file first and the flank files peeling right and left, the men were enveloped in accurate and intense fire from automatic Weapons. Order was quickly lost as the troops attempted to dive under water or dropped over the sides into surf over their heads. Mortar fire scored four direct hits on one LCA, which “disintegrated.” Casualties were suffered all the way to the sand, but when the survivors got there, some found they could not hold and came back into the water for cover, while others took refuge behind the nearest obstacles.

    Remnants of one boat team on the right flank organized a small firing line on the first yards of sand, in full exposure to the enemy. In short order every officer of the company, including Capt. Taylor N. Fellers, was a casualty, and most of the sergeants were killed or wounded. The leaderless men gave up any attempt to move forward and confined their efforts to saving the wounded, many of whom drowned in the rising tide. Some troops were later able to make the sea wall by staying in the edge of the water and going up the beach with the tide. Fifteen minutes after landing, Company A was out of action for the day. Estimates of its casualties range as high as two-thirds.

    The smaller Ranger company (64 men), carried in two LCA’s, came in at H+15 minutes to the right of Vierville draw. Shells from an antitank gun bracketed Capt. Ralph E. Goranson’s craft, killing a dozen men and shaking up others. An enemy machine gun ranged in on the ramps of the second LCA and hit 15 Rangers as they debarked. Without waiting to organize, survivors of the boat sections set out immediately across 250 yards of sand toward the base of the cliff. Too tired to run, the men took three or four minutes to get there, and more casualties resulted from machine guns and mortars. Wounded men crawled behind them, and a few made it. When the Rangers got to shelter at the base of the cliff, they had lost 35 men.”

  3. As I have mentioned, I have been there several times. I have also been to the War Rooms where Eisenhower and his staff were in the UK. I have been to the room where he made the decision to GO. A very bright Brit Military man saved the huge Map of the Invasion. Amazing.
    I really want to go back again. If any of you want to go, there are good tours (Stephen Ambrose Historical Tours is one). The place to stay is Bayeux, just several miles from the Beaches.

  4. “The D-day invasion marked the beginning of the end for the Germans.”

    while the post was otherwise well written, I think those on bothe sides who fought in Stalingrad and Kursk would beg to differ.

  7. There is a documentary out there somewhere with several interviews with the men who were at Omaha specifically, including German soldiers. The most chilling moment for me was when the interviewer asks a German soldier, now an old man, something about the allies tactics during the invasion. He thinks about it for a moment as if trying to recall, but soon just shakes his head and says, “The only reason the invasion succeeded was that we couldn’t kill them fast enough.”

  8. Definitely worth looking back on D-Day, and also worth looking forward to how different the world is now, a difference that the D-Day operations are largely responsible for.

    The idea that Germany and France would go to war over Alsace, or that Italy and Austria would go to war over South Tirol, is not something that anyone can see happening barring huge changes taking place over decades. Europe is a very different place from what it was in 1945. This could never have happened without D-Day.

    The threats internal to Europe that threaten peace in Europe are due to the populations Europe has imported over the last 40 years. Not sure that the United States can do anything to help with that, especially considering that we have done the very same sort of thing. Increasingly our populations are composed of people for whom the history of WWII has as little emotional significance as the 250-year-long alliance between the Kingdom of France and the Ottoman Empire against the Holy Roman Empire has for us today. This state of affairs threatens to throw away what D-Day gained for us but it may not be too late to halt the decline.

    The threats external to Europe have dwindled, because Europe has grown in wealth and power relative to any power that borders it. This could not have happened without D-Day.

    The largest such power, Russia, has 1/5 of Europe’s economy and 1/3 of its population. Germany alone has a larger GDP than Russia–Russia’s GDP is comparable to California’s. Germany and France alone have a larger population than Russia’s. The EU is roughly the same size and power as the United States, and Russia is comparable in size and power to Mexico, except that Russia’s population is shrinking, older, and aging faster than Mexico’s or the EU’s. It would make no sense for the US to look to Europe to lead its defense against a belligerent Mexico bogged down in Guatemala, and it makes no more sense for Europe to look to the US to lead its defense against a belligerent Russia bogged down in Ukraine. This is a very big difference from the world of 1945. Without D-Day there would be no EU; the Soviet Union would have created something different in its place: evil, poor, miserable and belligerent.

    Other large powers, China and India, are too far away to threaten Europe in the same way Europe was threatened in 1945.

    That D-Day was instrumental in creating the much better world we now inhabit, is not a reason for desiring it ever to need to be repeated. It is long past time for Europe to stand up its own defense and assume equal military partnership with the United States globally, and be the primary leader in keeping the peace on its own continent as we are on ours. Perhaps Russia’s belligerence will give them the impetus they need, there have been promising signs lately. It no longer makes sense to expect the US to do the heavy lifting, we’re too far away for effective help and we have threats from the Pacific to keep us busy.

    Contrary to narrative, the EU spends more on its military, even at a tiny % of GDP, than Russia is capable of spending, simply because the EU is so much richer. I imagine a larger chunk of the EU’s military budget goes for gender transitions, healthcare, and pensions for military personnel than is the case for Russia. But if the EU has been less serious about defending themselves from external threats, this is a situation that the US has encouraged by doing too much for them. They can, and should, put on their big boy pants. The likelihood of needing another D-Day would be vastly lowered by their taking on their rightful share of the responsibility of their own defense which is more in their capabilities than in ours.

  10. Neo, one can hear the UKs Chief Meteorologist explain it himself: That D-Day could at last commence due to a hole between weather systems, and the look of relief on the face of the Supreme Commander after he shared his forecast news is related in the 1973 documentary classic, “The World At War,” Episode 17 (digital transfer from laser disc):https://youtu.be/whtxuGRy0eY?si=hsmpHAMRERXh7CDc

    This has all of the old black and white documentary footage we all saw when we were young, and when the surviving witnesses to this event were still alive to be recorded for posterity.

    Now, if I could only figure out how to get the young to enjoy viewing b&w video….

  11. Not that there’s anything I can say that’ll throw shade on D Day but June. Is also the 80th anniversary of the battle of Saipan. There were other amphibious assaults on the opposite side of the planet and the invasion fleets had to cross the Pacific. Not a channel.

    I recommend Giangreco’s “Hell to Pay”

  13. I was stationed 7;years in Japan. I was always polite and respectful. I played Rugby for a Japanese company. It was only a club team. I learned their language and culture. But I was never shy to tell them, “I’m here because you picked a fight and lost.”

  14. 35 years ago from Reagan’s speech. “These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs.”

  16. In 2019 my wife and I spent 3 days in Normandy. I consider those 3 days some of the best days I have ever spent. St Mere Eglise, Utah, Pointe du Hoc. To walk Omaha beach and then visit the cemetery is to experience some very deep emotions.

    I doubt my kids would have the same response. It was my parents; their grandparents…more removed. But then, maybe it’s just me. I had similar reactions at visiting Civil War battlefields; not as intense certainly. A sense and knowledge of history is needed. Which is why the left works so hard to erase all of it.

  17. A sense and knowledge of history is needed. Which is why the left works so hard to erase all of it.

    Absolutely right.

  18. My wife and I visited Omaha Beach as part of a river cruise in 2019. It was sobering for us looking down the embankment to the beach to see the hundreds of yards of open sand with no cover for our troops. I don’t know how any survived.

    The tour started with opening remarks by a local young man who expressed his gratitude for what our troops did. As we drove around the area each lamp post had a banner with the photo and name of an American soldier who died on the beach.

    However, the most moving part came at the end of our tour. As we were walking back to our tour bus an older local man was walking next to me. He looked at me and asked, “American?” I said I was, not knowing what was going to happen next. The gentleman stuck out his hand so that we could shake hands. Something I’ll never forget.

  19. It is interesting, the timing… Over dinner lately, I’ve been reading the D’Este biography of Eisenhower. I read the D-Day-related chapters last week and am reaching the Market-Garden part of the narrative at the moment. The way he tells it, it was on the one hand an incredible undertaking, on the other a bunch of absolute craziness that had no right to work out as well as it apparently did.

  20. Re: “Saving Private Ryan” vs “The Longest Day”

    “Saving Private Ryan” was absolutely stunning in conveying the visceral impact of D-Day and later. My friend and I emerged from the theater that night unable to speak.

    Still, give me “The Longest Day.” I saw it when I was 12 and it became my education into what D-Day was about. Sure, it was Hollywoodized, but D-Day was complicated while being truly heroic and larger-than-life.

    We need “The Longest Day” even more so today.

    Plus the black-and-white was great!

  21. One thing that bugs me about the Longest Day is no matter what bagpipe music the Brit officer (Lord Lovat/Peter Lawford IIRC) calls for the score is the same like we wouldn’t notice.

  22. My first cousin was on the first wave on Omaha beach I was born in 1945 he was 18 at the time. You talk about toxic masculinity he was the man. By the time I was 12 he was my idol. As he grew older the memories began to over take him. His drinking became his passion he died before the age of 60.He is the reason I enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1963. I am now 79 I have so many medical problems from 22 years of active duty cannot list them all thanks to a loving wife of 61 years she keeps me going. The reason for this post is to say I don’t regret one moment of my service. I love this country,my family, my fellow Americans. It pains me to hear these young Americans to cuss this United States.

  23. both longest day and bridge too far, were based on cornelius ryans work, we found out recently, that market garden was not merely because of British incompetence, but that one agent in their midst, if memory serves me, Anthony Blunt, the Soviet agent that served longest in the shadow of the crown

    in the long run did it matter, no but it tells you of the callousness, of Koba, to sacrifice the supposedly Allied forces, but then again he purged the top of his officer corps, based on some phony pretext, he subscribed to Lenin’s maxim the worse the better,

  24. • Visited Normandy the summer after 2nd grade.

    • My memories – even at that young age – are very similar to what others have shared; especially the impact of the rows & rows of headstones and what that represented.

    • As I have grown older, my respect for the Greatest Generation – which was already significant – has only increased.

  25. Jarhead, it pains me too. I think I sometimes come across too full of myself. I’m not. I have a pretty accurate opinion of myself. It’s necessary, yes? It’s unforgivable for a braggart to put the troops lives at risk

  26. War is a young man’s game. And it’s not a game. I trained hard but in my 60s I can’t keep up the pace

  28. Seventeen days after D-Day the Red Army on June 23, 1944 launched an offensive against the German Army Group Center in Belarus called “Operation Bagration” that was so massive that it ripped the guts out of the Nazis that 28 out of 34 German Divisions were utterly destroyed (Army Group Center was more powerful that the German forces in the West). On July 17, 1944 the Red Army paraded 57,000 German prisoners through the streets of Moscow (called the March of the Vanquished) to emphasize the magnitude of the Nazi defeat. D-Day combined with Operation Bagration (as well as the failed assassination attempt on Hitler’s life of July 20, 1944) symbolized more than ever that the Third Reich was doomed to utter destruction. Too many people never heard about “Bagration” but it was Germany’s greatest defeat of World War II even more than Stalingrad was.

  29. Born in 45 to an Infantry soldier. Three Purple Hearts and a Silver Star.
    Grew up in a post-war subdivision.
    Pretty much, every one of my friends and acquaintances had a vet for a father.
    And the Scout leaders, and the school janitors and bus drivers. Gym teachers. Coaches.
    Didn’t get the privilege of growing up among such men.

  30. I’m not impressed by medals. Sometimes the deserving get them. Sometimes the merely connected.

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