June 6,1944

Every generation knows the horrors of warring enemies. The first territorial conflict in “The Timetable of Wars” records The Battle of Kadesh around 1274 BC. This battle involved Egyptian forces under Rammes II and the Hittite Empire  in battle over the land now known as Syria.

 Time has marched on, but that territory is still a battleground to this very day! Rare are days between Kadesh  and our current days that would be called ‘peaceful’ while  battles  continue and actually overlap somewhere on our planet.

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June 6th marks one of our most recent national conflicts involving American armed service people. Following “The War To End All Wars”, one defeated nation felt humiliated. One surviving soldier believed the politicians lost the war that the soldiers were capable of winning. This ‘one person’ convinced his downtrodden brethren to rise up, recover their pride and lost territory. World War II began. Hitler blasted across western Europe and threatened to conquer Britain.

Nazi German troops were stationed in France and watched for British and American allies to come to the attack. French western beaches looked peaceful in 1944, although under German occupation. Things were about to change.

Normandy Beach, France

 American military plans as well as French, British and representatives from other countries were busily

Ike and  Allied planners

planning an ‘over the channel’ military action to battle the Nazi advances. The weather had been unusually stormy for this spring and finding a time to ferry all needed personnel and supplies was a difficult task. After several meetings, a  Royal Air Force Captain  met with the American general Eisenhower on the evening of 4 June. He and his meteorological team predicted that the weather would improve sufficiently so that the invasion could go ahead on 6 June, 1944. Naval operations for the invasion were described by historian Correlli Barnett as a "never surpassed masterpiece of planning".

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  The intricate planning involved aerial and naval bombardment, an airborne assault, plus the landing of 24,000 British, US, and Canadian airborne troops to be landed shortly after midnight on the coast of France. Due to the very unsettled weather and stormy seas, the Germans, who expected the attack somewhere were convinced that this would not be the time and relaxed their vigilance.

                                                         

But June 6th, 1944 was the time. The code name for the operation was “D-Day”. There apparently is no significance for the term ‘D-Day’ other than the need for secrecy.It was simply code for ’The Day”. The weather cleared for a short time and Operation Overlord was underway. Armored divisions began landing  on the coast of France at 06:30 ( 6:30AM). The men landed under heavy fire from gun emplacements overlooking the French beaches that were mined and covered withstakes, metal tripods, and barbed wire, making the work of  beach clearing teams difficult and dangerous. Casualties were heaviest at “Omaha Beach” with its high cliffs. Several fortified towns had to be cleared in house-to-house fighting, and major gun emplacements  were disabled using specialized tanks as soldiers  attacked their enemy on beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region. Allied infantry were unable to achieve all of their goals on the first day and several villages were heavily defended by German occupiers, causing heavy casualties among allied troops who fought and died in the battle. The beachhead was not cleared from the enemy until  July 21st and the cost of this invasion was high. About 9,000 were reported killed or wounded in this battle that began June 6th, 1944.

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An underground newspaper team in Norway

Europe, as a whole had been  occupied since the Nazi war-machine had overrun country after country, but as the news of D-Day spread around the world, resistance to the Nazi occupiers began to intensify. Armed resistance, in the form of sabotage, commando raids, and other special operations during the occupation continued while being occupied' Armed resistance, in the form of sabotage, commando raids, assassinations and other special operations during the occupation, being discovered often meant death or concentration camp, but civil disobedience and unarmed resistance continued. Norway citizens devised many ways to practice their national pride while aiding downed allied pilots and maintaining  contact with England.

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Milorg fighters parade in public

.The Norwegian resistance to the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany had begun in 1940 , sending information to help the D-Day allied forces before finally  ending in 1945. Norway’s Milorg, or underground fighters maintained approximately eighty concealed radio stations to aid the invasion in June.These forbidden radio stations contributed a key role in the invasion, due to the fact that the majority of Allied forces information came through Norway’s Milorg's radio network.

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A cricket

Countless details were devised to aid the scattered D-Day invaders. Communications among the parachutists had to be established in silence. This was done using a child’s toy that made the sound of a cricket. When pressed twice, the sender waited for an answering sound. Joining together, the soldiers finally were able to reform their units and get underway in the darkness and early morning light. 

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 By late August 1944, all of northern France had been liberated, and by the following spring, the Allies had defeated the Germans.      General Dwight Eisenhower once said “Andrew Higgins  is the man who won the war for us”. 

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Higgins is the man who designed and built LCVPs ( military for landing craft, vehicles, personnel), the

The  LCVP

amphibious vehicles that enabled the Allied forces to cross the channel. Eisenhower is reported to have said, “If Higgins had not designed and built those LCVPs, we never could have landed over an open beach. The whole strategy of the war would have been different.” These motorized wooden boats could carry approximately 39 soldiers and were able to transport them from ship to shore.

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Since this epic battle, the scenes of war have changed. Large concentrations of troops have been discontinued and changed to  that of  smaller attacking stealth groups, resulting in fewer casualties. D-Day resulted in approximately 9,000 men killed or wounded in one day.

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This year is the 71st year in remembrance of D-Day in Europe.

At least six memorial events will be observed in the area of France’s Normandy beach to honor those who gave their lives, recognizing the few still alive veterans, and  to commemorate the event known as            “The beginning of the end” of WWII, June 6, 1944.