‘Nothing less than full victory’
I received an e-mail from a reader last week who scolded bloggers—including this one—for not observing the 64th anniversary of D-Day on their sites.
He was right.
Thursday marked the anniversary of the day—June 6, 1944—when Allied Forces began a six-week invasion of France, by land and by sea, that would ultimately lead to the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi rule and victory in World War II.
In scholarly terms, D-Day was an undertaking of such tremendous—almost incomprehensible, at the time—tactical proportions that it remains impressive even today. In the first two weeks of the invasion, the British and American armies had landed more than 314,500 men—each. In addition, more than 95,000 vehicles and 218,000 tons of supplies that would help break the Nazi grip on Europe had come ashore at Normandy.
But D-Day was more, so much more, than a tactical achievement.
It was the human factor—the thousands of men who disembarked from seaborne vessels into the churning English Channel to secure the beaches, who hurled themselves into space from Allied airplanes behind enemy lines—that made D-Day the unforgettable moment that it is. So many of those men sanctified the day with their blood, spilled out into that channel and onto those beaches and throughout those grounds, making it possible for their brothers—and freedom itself—to advance. These thousands who went willingly into certain death are, individually and collectively, the reason D-Day is so sacred: It is because of their courage and because they fulfilled their mission as given to them by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower on the eve of the invasion—“Nothing less than full victory”—that Europe was liberated and freedom prevailed.
Take a few minutes and browse through these web sites, each of which tell the story of D-Day from a different perspective:
The U.S. Army’s official D-Day home page: Here you can see actual footage of the preparations for and execution of the invasion, view stunning photographs taken on the front lines and hear Gen. Eisenhower’s invasion-eve speech to his troops. Barack Obama has nothing on Eisenhower.
PBS’s “American Experience—D-Day”: Here you can get a feel for the humanity behind D-Day. Read letters written by American soldiers during the invasion; see what paratroopers carried in their 70-pound packs.
A D-Day Fact Sheet from the Kansas Heritage Foundation: Read how close the invasion came to failure—“By mid-morning, initial reports painted such a bleak portrait of beachhead conditions that Lt. Gen. Omar Bradley, United States First Army commander, considered pulling off the beach and landing troops elsewhere along the coast. However, during these dark hours, bravery and initiative came to the fore. As soldiers struggled, one leader told his men that two types of people would stay on the beach—the dead and those going to die—so they’d better get the hell out of there, and they did”—and how that decision to press on provided Allied forces with the “tenuous toehold” they needed to assure the beginning of the end of the Third Reich.
The National D-Day Memorial Foundation: Take a virtual tour of the memorial in Bedford, Va., and learn about the symbolism that permeates it.
The Wikipedia entry for the Invasion of Normandy: The depth and length of this entry will give Generation X and Y readers familiar with the Wiki format an appreciation for the scope and magnitude of the invasion.
Nothing less than full victory. It is what Allied Forces achieved on D-Day and in World War II.
We can learn a lot of valuable lessons from those men and women. But most importantly, we must ask ourselves: Are we living up to the sacrifices they made for our way of life? Does the America of today remember and honor the Americans of yesterday? And are we, as descendents of those who advanced on Normandy, are we willing—are we able?—to answer freedom’s challenge with a similar, determined refrain: “Nothing less than full victory?“
May it ever be!
