Friday, June 6, 2008

D Day


Another June 6th.

June 6, 1944. The Allied invasion of Europe at Normandy.

A lot of young British, Americans and Canadians were dying right about now, 64 years ago. Perhaps you might take 10 seconds to remember them.

The French were mostly speaking German back then. I'll bet there are ceremonies all over France right now, bands playing, children waving British and American flags. Honoring those dead foreigners who gave them back their homeland. On this day in history, when the lights started coming back on in Europe. When France started to become French again.

Right.

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The exact time and date of the invasion was highly secret of course. But so much military equipment and so many soldiers obviously could not be effectively hidden. England was bursting at the seams with the materials of war, and with young men, both foreign and domestic, who were about to stop having birthdays. Then, in the darkness of the wee hours of the morning of June 6, 1944, the largest naval armada ever assembled in the history of the world began oozing into the English Channel, making it's way through the black choppy sea toward France. Toward Normandy. Toward cold, wet, beaches and sheer cliffs. Toward certain death.

Not until the invasion was already a historical fact several hours old, did the military give permission for a statement to be broadcast to the citizens of London. At 8:32 AM, the BBC was allowed to broadcast a simple terse statement, approved by the military command. Those 26 words were:

"Under command of General Eisenhower, Allied naval forces, supported by strong Allied air forces, began landing Allied armies this morning on the northern coast of France."

That's all. Nothing about teenagers being rolled around in open landing craft by the vicious Channel seas, puking with seasickness and abject terror as the last few minutes of their young lives ticked away. Nothing about jumping into the cold water and trying to make their way to the beach in the darkness, as the German guns flashed, and the machine gun bullets whined and twanged off metal, nothing about American teenagers wading through the floating bodies of their late friends, and then joining them in the water. Nothing about the unspeakable horror in their bellies as they crawled with no protection over the wet sand through the hail of the machine guns above them on the cliffs. Nothing about their hot blood running into the cool French sand until everything went black.

"Under command of General Eisenhower, Allied naval forces, supported by strong Allied air forces, began landing Allied armies this morning on the northern coast of France."


That's all.

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The French were mostly speaking German back then. I'll bet there are ceremonies all over France right now, bands playing, children waving British and American flags. Honoring those dead foreigners who gave them back their homeland. On this day in history, when the lights started coming back on in Europe. When France started to become French again.

Right.

6 comments:

  1. Hello.
    Thank you for posting this. I had forgotten that today was in fact D-day.

    Its a well written post by the way :)

    (Seems I am having problems posting comments to your blog again)

    ReplyDelete
  2. D-Day must be like the American's memorial Day then I assume. I admire those willing to fit for their countries, I really do. It's a shame we have to, but the people that do, save it for the rest of us.

    *gives her ten seconds*

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes, is the answer. Across europe people do remember. And I was told by a long-ago girlfriend, german, that when she went travelling in europe, as soon as people figured out that she was german, she was spat upon, refused service, ignored, pushed out of stores etc. She did not know why, at the time. Then she started to learn the history of the war years. In school, german kids learned nothing of the war, it was forbidden in germany to mention nazism, or hitler, books were censored by the allied occupation forces, pages ripped out, books seized and burned. So a generation or two grew up not knowing.
    She returned home looking at her father, grandfather, mother, uncles, neighbours with different eyes. Wondering, what did you really do?
    What are your secret thoughts?
    A year later, she killed herself.
    Oh, Eva-Maria, I wish-
    It was not your fault, not your sin.

    ReplyDelete
  4. @Caroline-Thank you. And I'm sorry you are having trouble again (I sure miss your comments :)

    @Chica-Hello. Hope your day is going fine, Chica. And probably not QUITE the same as our Memorial Day. But we can hope, right?

    ReplyDelete
  5. D-Day isn't at all like Memorial Day. Yes, the D-Day invasions are remmebered, in both the UK and in France - very much in France and we were watching it on TV while on holiday last week. Memorial Day is more like Remembrance Day when we in the UK (and also in France - L'Armistice) remember all our servicemen who have given their lives in service.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Soubriquet. A chilling story. How much should we feel responsible for our forefathers' sins? That's a debate that could go on for ever.

    ReplyDelete

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