Doubtless we'll see something in the papers the next few days about somebody who was there. It's only been 75 years. So there are centenarians out there who remember it well, or at least remember it. A 19-year-old boy storming the beaches at Normandy wouldn't be 95 yet. Also doubtless, their numbers will continue to abate. As all our numbers will.
Numbers abating was the norm at Normandy. They say that Churchill was nervous. So was Ike. And every other allied trooper. But some libel Churchill and say he was opposed. If he was, he didn't say so at the time. He said history would be kind to him because he intended to write it. And wrote it he did. Which volume of the Second World Catastrophe was Closing the Ring? He wrote so many. But he had saved his correspondence with not only Premier Stalin and his own generals, but his cousin across the sea. Winston Churchill began each missive to FDR with "Former Naval Person to the President." He wasn't as familiar with others.
What he was, was meticulous. There is a record, there are letters, there are minutes. Churchill was nervous about the second front. But not opposed.
The Italian campaign was moving along at a slow pace in mid-1943. And those planning Operation Overlord began taking troops out of that country and transporting them to England to prepare for D-Day the following year. But that didn't seem to bother Churchill, he said, as much as the thought of moving some of the equipment back home, too.
The landing craft made famous on D-Day were called, in military jargon, Landing Ships-Tanks, or LSTs. (We've heard grunts call them Large Slow Targets.) Winston Churchill watched with confusion as the military types began moving the LSTs out of Italy in mid-1943, to be put in storage until the spring of the following year, at least.
Why? he wondered, when the small boats could be used on Italian shores to go around strong lines of enemy defense. Perhaps time after life-saving time. Until the Germans, and what was left of the Italian enemy, had to retreat to the Alps.
He couldn't see the military necessity of moving the LSTs and other craft before they were needed in France, and said so. Repeatedly. Maybe so many times that folks began thinking he was against the Channel crossing.
Or as he put it, "We had invaded Italy in strong force. We had an army there which, if not supported, might be entirely cast away, giving Hitler the greatest triumph he had had since the fall of France. On the other hand, there could be no question of our not making the 'Overlord' attack in 1944 . . . . If some of the landing-craft earmarked for 'Overlord' were allowed to stay in the Mediterranean over the winter, there would be no difficulty in making a success of the Italian campaign."
Why pay for real estate twice? The LSTs wouldn't be needed until 1944. Leave them in Italy until then.
Eventually, the military would get its landing craft. And the Italian campaign would stall. Italy wouldn't fall until Germany did in 1945.
Winston Churchill once told Dwight Eisenhower that all he wanted was compliance with his wishes, after reasonable discussion. And there was a lot of reasonable discussion about these landings.
Ike needed massive bombing to prepare the ground. Commanders up and down the line objected. Especially the free French. So Ike turned to the French-est: He asked for Charles de Gaulle's help. The invasion of Normandy, France, wouldn't succeed, Gen. Eisenhower warned, if his bombing runs aforehand were limited.
Gen. de Gaulle agreed. Bombs away.
Not only could Dwight D. Eisenhower manage a Patton and a Montgomery, he could handle a Churchill and a de Gaulle. ("He thinks he's Joan of Arc. But I can't get my bloody bishops to burn him."--Churchill on his French colleague.)
They say that amateurs talk strategy and generals talk logistics. Ike managed logistics of that month like a pro. No matter what we Americans might see at the movie theaters, the Normandy invasion wasn't just a day, but a long month. The beachheads wouldn't be completely linked until July. The Germans held fast, and did all they could do to push the allies into the sea. And damn near did.
Rommel had prepared the seawall for assault. To prick the Germans out, Ike had to prep 5,000 landing and assault crafts. And with them nearly 300 escort vessels. And almost that many minesweepers. And nearly 160,000 men had to cross the channel on the first day, June 6, 1944. Many others would follow over the next year. Some to get thrown right into combat at Saint-Lo. Others wouldn't make it to Germany until the Russians had Berlin.
But the Russians might not have made it to Berlin if not for the second front. Started 75 years ago this morning.
Reporters ask stupid questions. We remember somebody in 1998 asking a war veteran what he thought of Saving Private Ryan, and was it realistic? No, the old soldier replied, but it could have been if producers would have put snipers in the balcony to shoot at you while you watched.
There was a time when June-6-1944 came out as one word, just as December-7-1941 did. And as Nine-Eleven comes out of our mouths these days. Every year, reporters would write about the anniversary, and never had to explain why. It was obvious.
But nations forget, Americans perhaps most of all. For this is the land of the future, the past is but prologue, etc. We don't talk much about D-Day any more. The television is full of what's called reality programming. Reality, like that day on Omaha Beach, becomes too much for us.
And so we'll go to work today as usual. And come home tonight as usual. And watch some sports on TV and eat with family and get into the usual arguments and ignore our blessings. As usual.
What would the ghosts of Omaha think about that? They might conclude it was just as well. They didn't sacrifice their lives so we would mourn forever, but so we would live. They had reason to know it is the simple joys of life that are the sweetest. Like breathing in and out.
And it is the simplest things that are best. Home. Family. Peace. Freedom. We'll try to remember that--as well as D-Day, the Sixth of June, 1944, the year of our Lord and hellfire with Him.
Editorial on 06/06/2019