D Day June 6, 1944 (Re-Visited)

     Okay,..I know every year about this time I post something about the event that happened seventy years ago,..but I think it is the most important date of the twentieth century. Nazi Germany, Italy, and Japan banded together to try and conquer the world. The Germans had better tanks, planes, and small arms than anyone, yet still lost to the industrial might of the United States.
    The invasion of Normandy by the Allies marked the beginning of the end for Germany and that is the jest of this posting.
    I heard a good simile about the invasion that I had never heard before. Transporting 180,000 troops across the English Channel to the invasion site was the equivalent of taking every man, woman, and child in the Wisconsin towns of Green Bay, Racine, and Kenosha and transporting them across Lake Michigan to the eastern bank overnight. It was that big of an operation and all done secretly.
   This is what the map of the channel and the invasion beaches looked like:

       England (top of map) is closest to northern France between the two cities of Dover, England and Calais, France...but that is where the Germans expected the invasion and they placed heavy forces in that area. The invasion site was divided into five beach fronts among the Allies. The countries of the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Belgium, Holland, Australia, Poland, Greece, France, Czechoslovakia, Norway, and New Zealand made up the invasion forces. The beaches were code named Gold, Sword, Juno, Utah, and Omaha. Utah & Omaha would be the responsibility of the United States.
    Most of the world leaders during World War II have died over the years, but one remains.

      Franklin D. Roosevelt led the U.S. through most of the war, Winston Churchill led the British, Joseph Stalin was head of Russia, and all have passed away. Queen Elizabeth was a Princess during the war but joined the Womens Army Corp and worked in the transportation department. Working mostly as a driver, she also was said to have worked on the jeeps and tanks without complaint. She is 88 years old now, but plans to attend the 70th anniversary ceremonies at Normandy. In the above she tours one of the many veteran cemeteries in England.
    One of the more iconic photos of the invasion is this one:

     If you saw the movie 'Saving Private Ryan' you know the intense fire the invasion forces faced the moment the ramp went down on the landing craft. Soldiers were vomiting in their nervousness for the moment. Anyone who said they were not scared is either lying or a complete fool. In the photo the troops are in waist deep water, but others went into the surf over their heads, and they were carrying over eighty pounds of equipment on their backs. Many drowned before they even got to the beach.
     The airborne troopers of the American 101st and 82nd Divisions, along with the English 6th Airborne Division, dropped behind the beaches to cut off any German reinforcement of the beach fortifications. At six-thirty in the morning of June 6, 1944 the Germans awoke to find almost six thousand ships launching invasion forces off the Normandy coastline.

       While the Allies controlled the skies, it was still a nightmare to face German guns that had four years to prepare for this day. Omaha beach was as bad as Dante's Inferno as America lost almost ten thousand soldiers in the first three hours of the invasion...but despite the loss of most tanks and artillery to the choppy seas, the infantry units prevailed and dominated the beachhead. 
    Above you can see how the beaches looked that day in 1944, but what about today?

       This is a recent photo of Gold Beach where the English and Canadian troops came ashore. The sandy beaches are some of the best in Northern France.
     German General Erwin Rommel was in charge of the 'Atlantic Wall' and supervised over one hundred thousand land mines planted along the beach as well as concrete fortifications for artillery and machine guns. He was adamant about stopping the invasion forces on the beach and not allowing them a foothold on Europe.

    This photo was taken on D-Day plus three after the Allies had broken through the wall and more troops were pouring ashore. This is one of the concrete bunkers than housed a 40-millimeter artillery piece that was zeroed in on the invasion beaches..

      This is the same bunker as it looks today... Visitors can check the inside and surrounding 'fields of fire' from the bunker.

      Here an American P-47 Thunderbolt lies among the debris after being shot down by friendly forces, despite the 'Normandy Stripes' painted on the plane. The seawall to the right of the photo saved many men from the intense machine gun fire that raked the beaches that day..

      Here is the same section of the beach as it looks today... The seawall is still there and doing its job.
     The English forces of General Bernard Montgomery were responsible for taking the city of Caen, but it turned out to be more than expected. The Germans had moved two SS divisions to Caen just before the invasion, so the Allies had to bomb the city for almost a month until the Germans pulled back.

   The ancient city was almost leveled by the constant bombing as British Tommies finally are able to take over..  The seventy years since the war have been good for Caen as it has returned to its glorious self. Here is a photo taken from almost the same position.

    Omaha beach was the most intensive of the five fronts, but all had some foreign defenders in the fortifications. Captured Romanian, Hungarian, Russian, and Czech forces had been given the option of fighting for Germany or being killed. They were only too happy to surrender to the Americans at the first opportunity when their German supervisors were killed.

     In the first three days after the invasion over fifty thousand prisoners had been captured by the Allies....and they had to be fed and injuries taken care of by medical personnel. 

    This is the same area where the prisoner compound was built in 1944. Today it is surrounded by orchards on all sides.

       If it had not been for the seawall most experts say the forces at Omaha Beach would probably have been annihilated. The hail of bullets and grenades was so intense that for the first time in the history of conflict, the forces under fire had to run toward the guns instead of away from them to find shelter.

      The seawall is still visible at Omaha Beach today but is starting to crumble.
     America didn't want to be a part of World War II, but was forced into it by the actions of Germany and Japan. Some of the countries of the world have a bad opinion of the U.S. today, but America never set out to conquer any land for territorial gain. We only came to free others from the yoke of tyranny. I believe that would apply to American military forces today. I served in Vietnam, and despite it being a beautiful country, I never ever thought about living there. It is sort of like taking up for the little guy on the playground and facing the bully for him.
God Bless America...and Thanks to all World War II veterans...You truly are the 'Great Generation of Americans.'