D-Day (75 Years Later)

On this year, it has been 75 years after D-Day. D-Day was one of the most important parts of World War Two. It not only represented the beginning of the end of the Nazi menace. It showed the unity and the strength of the Allied Powers. The Allies from many nations came together for one purpose. That is to liberation humanity from the Nazi enemy. It took sophisticated planning, military resources, determination, and courage to make D-Day a glorious victory. During this time of 2019, it is also important to remember the people who came upon the shores to defeat the enemy. It is important to understand succinctly that fascism didn’t end in 1945. It continues today not only in Europe, but worldwide. The murderer in New Zealand was a white racist fascist. Fascism is evil, because it denies individual liberty, it is embraced by racists plus xenophobes, and it is antithetical to the democratic freedoms that our ancestors fought for. The democratic freedoms of the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, the right to protest, the right to assemble, the right to religious liberty, and the right to vote are human rights that we cherish. Therefore, the aim of justice remains. By 1944, the Allied Powers were defeating the Axis Powers in Europe and Asia. The Nazis and the Japanese imperial forces were on the run. After decades of time, we have learned many lessons about World War II. One is that genocide is evil and that international collaborations for positive things must be advanced. D-Day was a team effort where multiple people worked together in order to ultimately cause France to be liberation from tyranny. From the five Allied beachheads formed in Normandy to the ultimate freedom of Paris including the rest of France, we finally saw the conclusion of the Second World War. A new era was upon the globe. America, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Czechoslovakia, France, Norway, and Poland all contributed to the Allied effort. D-Day was the largest seaborne invasion of human history. The Western would never be the same. On this time, we express solemn gratitude to the heroes who freed the French people.



D-Day was a long time in the making. In 1943, Stalin wanted Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt to open a new front in France. America and the Soviet issued a joint announcement of wanting a second front in Europe in late May 1942. The reason was the Soviet troops did most of the fighting in Europe during 1943. Stalin wanted the Nazis to be defeated as soon as possible. Roosevelt sympathized with this view, but Winston Churchill was hesitant. One reason was that Churchill just didn’t trust Stalin, since Churchill hated Communism. Also, Churchill knew of the British soldiers being slaughtered during World War I (via trench warfare, etc). He didn’t want a repeat of that. Churchill believed that the German U-Boats would make it difficult for Allied troops to execute an invasion of Normandy. The Tehran Conference took place on November of 1943. Churchill at first refused to have a new front. In Tehran, Iran, this was the first time when Churchill and Roosevelt met with Stalin face to face. Roosevelt again agreed with Stalin to open up a new front in France. So, Churchill reluctantly agreed with this plan. After the Tehran Conference, Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill issued a joint statement to defeat Nazi Germany. Many plans for the invasion were worked out at the Quebec Conference in August of 1943. 

This plan to fight in France was called Operation Overload. Operation Overload involved some of the most experienced generals of the war. American General Dwight D. Eisenhower served as Supreme Commander (or the Supreme headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force leader, SHAEF), and Supreme Commander British General Bernard Montgomery served as commander of the ground forces. General Omar Bradley served as leader of the United States First Army. Operation Overload was a large undertaking. Eisenhower and Montgomery agreed to have five divisions to be involved in the invasion. 21 American divisions, plus 26 British, Canadian, and Polish divisions landed on a 50 mile stretch of beaches in Normandy. This fleet was the largest ever assembled. It was made up of more than 4,400 ships and landing crafts. The Allied Forces used five beaches in Normandy to land the forces. Their names were code-named Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. It involved deception too. The Allied forces formed a fake army under General Patton. The army existed on paper, but the Allies made up a fake headquarters in southeast England across the English Channel (the fake army was at France in Calais). It had wood and cardboard tanks, useless ships, and detectable radio traffic. The Allied forces convinced the Nazis that Calais was would be where an Allied attack would come from (this plan was called Operation Fortitude South). The Nazis sent his top tank division to Calais. Other deception plans were called Operation Fortitude North and Operation Bodyguard.



On June 6, 1944, the Allies hit German forces. More than 11,000 planes prepared the way. They wanted to destroy German communication and transportation networks. They wanted to soften Nazi beach defenses. On the morning of D-Day, General Eisenhower gave the following message to Allied troops: “You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward while we have striven these many months…You will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.” Nazi Germany had at its disposal fifty divisions in France and the Low Countries, with another eighteen stationed in Denmark and Norway. Fifteen divisions were in the process of formation in Germany. The bombing of Normandy started by midnight when more than 2,200 British, Canadian, and US bombers attacking targets along the coast and further inland. The coastal bombing attack was largely ineffective at Omaha, because low cloud cover made the assigned targets difficult to see. Concerned about inflicting casualties on their own troops, many bombers delayed their attacks too long and failed to hit the beach defenses. The Germans had 570 aircraft stationed in Normandy and the Low Countries on D-Day, and another 964 in Germany. At 6:30 am, after the rough crossing on the English Channel, the first troops landed. On the four of the beaches, the landings were only lightened opposed. Casualties were low. Yet, at Omaha, one of the two beaches, assigned to American forces, the Nazis showed stiff resistance. On the cliffs overlooking the beach, the Germans had dug trenches and built small concrete pillbox structures from which heavy artillery could be fired. It was a warzone. The Nazis mined the beaches too. When the first American soldiers arrived, they stepped out of their landing crafts into a rainstorm of bullets. Some were victims of shells and died. Some crafts dumped their occupants too far from the beaches. Soldiers with heavy packs sometimes drowned. Omaha, the most heavily defended beach, was assigned to the 1st Infantry Division and 29th Infantry Division.

Pointe du Hoc, a prominent headland situated between Utah and Omaha, was assigned to two hundred men of 2nd Ranger Battalion, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel James Rudder. Their task was to scale the 30m (100ft) cliffs with grappling hooks, ropes, and ladders to destroy the coastal gun battery located at the top. The cliffs were defended by the German 352nd Infantry Division and French collaborators firing from above. Allied destroyers Satterlee and Talybont provided fire support. After scaling the cliffs, the Rangers discovered that the guns had already been withdrawn. They located the weapons, unguarded but ready to use, in an orchard some 550 meters (600 yd.) south of the point, and disabled them with explosives.  The now-isolated Rangers fended off numerous counter-attacks from the German 914th Grenadier Regiment. The men at the point became isolated and some were captured. By dawn on D+1, Rudder had only 90 men able to fight. Relief did not arrive until D+2, when members of the 743rd Tank Battalion and others arrived. By then, Rudder's men had run out of ammunition and were using captured German weapons. Several men were killed as a result, because the German weapons made a distinctive noise, and the men were mistaken for the enemy. By the end of the battle, the Rangers casualties were 135 dead and wounded, while German casualties were 50 killed and 40 captured. An unknown number of French collaborators were executed.

Yes, many African Americans were involved in D-Day. There was an African American combat unit at D-Day. They experienced brutal fire on June 6, 1944. They were part of 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion. It had infantry troops abroad metal boats. They came on the Normandy coast. Some came by 9 am. Some of the men’s names are George Davison, Wilson Monk, and others. They sent balloons filled with bombs to attack the Nazis. Also, these black soldiers dug trenches, rounded up German prisoners, and fought for their lives literally. Many of them prayed. Overall, more than one million African Americans were in uniform during World War II. Black soldiers fought for freedom and democracy not only overseas. They were fighting for these things in America too as America back then was filled with Jim Crow, lynching, racism, discrimination, and other nefarious evils. This is why black people advanced the Double V movement, which wanted freedom overseas and at home in America. The Armed Forces was segregated until after World War II. Many of these African American soldiers were trained at Wales, UK. By the end of the day of June 6, 1944, about 2,000 black Americans landed in Normandy. They were gunners, engineers, and stevedores. They saved lives.  Waverly Bernard "Woody" Woodson, Jr. was of the 320th (he was born in Philadelphia), and he saved dozens of lives.  Waverly Woodson Jr. lived from 1922-2005). General Dwight D. Eisenhower praised the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion for doing an excellent job in their mission. The author Linda Hervieux wrote a recent book entitled, “Forgotten: The Untold Story of D-Day’s Black Heroes, at Home and at War” which documents the story of the only African American combat unit to land on D-Day. This book shows the heroism of black Americans and all freedom loving people. The battalion served 140 days in France. In late July 1944, Battery A of the 320th moved from Omaha Beach to the port city of Cherbourg. The remaining three batteries stayed on Omaha and Utah Beaches until early October, when deteriorating weather prevented ships from landing. The battalion’s service in France came to and end on 24 October, when the men boarded ships bound for England. By the end of October 1944, the 320th VLA Battalion was on its way back to Camp Stewart, Georgia, to train for service in the Pacific Theater. They eventually made it as far as Hawaii before the war ended." Corporal William G. Dabney was one of the last surviving members of this unit, and received the French Legion of Honor in 2009 for his participation in the Invasion of Normandy. He passed away in December 2018.

Many Americans saw their last day on Earth during D-Day. Some survived. By the end of the day, the Allies gained a foothold in France. By the end of the month, more than one million Allied troops had landed in Normandy. Victory was clear. 



D-Day was one of the greatest Allied victories of World War II. D-Day resulted in almost 5,000 landing and assault craft, 289 escort vessels, and 277 minesweepers participating. Nearly 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel on D-Day with 875,000 people disembarking by the end of June 1944. Thousands of people died. The victory at Normandy existed because of numerous reasons. The Nazis didn’t finish the Atlantic Wall. Deceptions existed via Operation Fortitude that worked to confuse the German forces. The Allies created air supremacy in the battle. The Nazis couldn’t stop the Allied bomber attacks either. Later, the Allied forces pursued all the way into Berlin to end the Nazi enemy once and for all. The aftermath of D-Day also included the ultimate liberation of France. Belgium was liberated as well. The Soviets was coming to Berlin from the east. The Soviets made the Nazis retreat from Latvia, Romania, Slovakia, and Hungary. The Nazis lost battles. The Allied forces in the West liberated Paris on August of 1944. Hitler ordered his generals to destroy Paris, but they refused in their retreat. The people of Paris celebrated the Allied victory. The Americans defeated the Nazis again in the bloody Battle of the Budge. Ultimately, the Nazis surrendered by May 7, 1945 in the VE Day event (or Victory in Europe). The end of World War II existed by September 2, 1945 after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (by 2 atomic weapons. I fundamental disagree with the bombings of those 2 cities in Japan). With World War II ending, the world changed in having more technological developments and a fundamental international transformation on how the world operated.
 

There are numerous war memorials and remembrances of what took place on D-Day. At Omaha Beach, many parts of the Mulberry harbor are still visible. Some of the beach obstacles still remain. A memorial to the U.S. National Guard is located at a former German strong point. Pointe du Hoc is little changed from 1944, with the terrain covered with bomb craters and most of the concrete bunkers still in place. The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial is nearby, in Colleville-sur-Mer. A museum about the Utah landings is located at Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, and there is one dedicated to the activities of the US airmen at Sainte-Mère-Église. Pegasus Bridge, a target of the British 6th Airborne, was the site of some of the earliest action of the Normandy landings. The bridge was replaced in 1994 by one similar in appearance, and the original is now housed on the grounds of a nearby museum complex. Sections of Mulberry Harbor B still sit in the sea at Arromanches, and the well-preserved Longues-sur-Mer battery is nearby. The Juno Beach Center, opened in 2003, was funded by the Canadian federal and provincial governments, France, and Canadian veterans. President Ronald Reagan gave his famous speech about the sacrifice of Allied soldiers on the 40th anniversary of D-Day. He spoke in front of an audience of D-Day veterans and world leaders. He was at the site of the U.S. Ranger Monument at Pointe du Hoc. Other heads of state and government officials on that day in 1984 included: Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands, King Olav V of Norway, King Baudouin I of Belgium, Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg, and Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau of Canada. This took place in 1984. The speech was written by Peggy Noonan. Reagan introduced his speech in the following words: “…We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For 4 long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved, and the world prayed for its rescue. Here in Normandy the rescue began. Here the Allies stood and fought against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history…” Other Presidents gave tribute to the heroic sacrifices of Allies troops at D-Day as well. Now, we remember the sacrifice of heroes in order to be further inspired to advocate for freedom in our generation.


By Timothy