D-Day, June 6, 1944 -- The Price of Freedom

Today, Europe, America and the world once again pause to remember the unequaled achievement of Operation Overlord -- D-Day -- Le Débarquement. Allied veterans and families of their fallen comrades gathered this morning at the US cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach to mark the 71st anniversary of the D-Day invasion that began the defeat Nazi Germany in World War II. Visitors and cadets from the United States Naval Academy watched as a bagpipe band paraded at the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, amid the thousands of white marble crosses and Stars of David of servicemen and women who lost their lives during the invasion. The Battle of Normandy stretched from D-Day through August, 1944, and resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control. Code-named Operation Overlord, the D-Day battle began on June 6, 1944, when 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region. The invasion was the largest amphibious military assault in history, made possible by 5,000 ships manned by 195,750 personnel. ~~~~~ The invasion began shortly after midnight on June 6, 1944, with a perilous airborne assault operation led by US paratroopers of the "Screaming Eagles" 101st Airborne and the 82nd Airborne divisions. At dawn, thousands of Allied troops leaped out of landing craft to storm the beaches under ferocious German attacks. The initial Allied airborne infantry secured key bridges and crossroads on the flanks of the landing zone. Some of their most important and mythic achievements included the capture of Pegasus Bridge and the town of Sainte-Mère-Eglise. Commandos also attacked key targets ahead of the main landings. One remarkable feat was the attack by US Rangers on Pointe-Du-Hoc, a headland which housed a coastal battery that threatened the landing beaches. The successful assault involved scaling a 30-meter cliff face under German fire. On Omaha Beach, where aerial bombardment had done little to dent German defenses, the Americans met fierce resistance. From cliff-top bunkers, the defenders pummelled US troops with machine gun fire and shells as soon as landing craft ramps were lowered. Those who made it ashore found it impossible to advance across 200 metres of open beach. Amphibious tanks intended to cover the infantry’s advance had sunk in the rough seas. The news from Omaha was so bad that the landings there were almost called off, but eventually small groups of American infantry worked their way around the German defenses, and outflanked and stormed them, allowing the beachhead to be secured. But Omaha cost the Americans more than 2,000 casualties. French resistance units alerted by coded radio messages sent from London took out 30 train locomotives and destroyed railway tracks in 500 places, making German reinforcement more difficult. By June 7, the French had cut Normandy off from its Nazi supply lines. ~~~~~ We celebrate the Normandy victory not because we love war or its inhumane toll in lives and homelands, although the lives and homelands lost are forever held as precious reminders of the freedoms they were sacrficed to maintain. We celebrate the Normandy victory not because we believe that such battles mark human progress, although every defeat of tyrants does just that. Nor do we celebrate the Normandy victory because the American or British people value themselves by their numbers of war dead, although their war dead remind them every day of their sacred duty to honor them by keeping alive the human freedom and brotherhood they fought and died to protect. ~~~~~ This prayer before battle in the early dawn of D-Day sums it all up.. "Men, I am not a religious man and I don’t know your feelings in this matter, but I am going to ask you to pray with me for the success of the mission before us. And while we pray, let us get on our knees and not look down but up with faces raised to the sky so that we can see God and ask his blessing in what we are about to do. 'God almighty, in a few short hours we will be in battle with the enemy. We do not join battle afraid. We do not ask favors or indulgence but ask that, if You will, use us as Your instrument for the right and an aid in returning peace to the world. We do not know or seek what our fate will be. We ask only this, that if die we must, that we die as men would die, without complaining, without pleading and safe in the feeling that we have done our best for what we believed was right. Oh Lord, protect our loved ones and be near us in the fire ahead and with us now as we pray to you.' All were silent for two minutes as the men were left, each with his individual thoughts. Then the Colonel ordered, “Move out.” ___Lieutenant Colonel Robert L. Wolverton, commanding officer of 3rd battalion, 506th PIR. Robert Wolverton was killed by German machine gun fire in an orchard outside St. Come-du-Mont, Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944. ~~~~~ Dear readers, war has changed drastically since June 6, 1944. It is now an engagement of air strikes and rockets and suicide bombers. Its heros are more often alone or in small highly technical units of special operations and intelligence gathering forces, most often dying alone and unknown to all but their brothers in arms and families. There are no Colleville cemeteries to mark their collective sacrifice and to serve as reminders of the cost of freedom. And so we wear tiny flags or red poppies on our hearts. But, those who think that freedom is not a human value, who believe that people will cower and submit to repression of the human spirit, should go to Colleville and walk among the crosses. Look down to the beaches taken at such great cost. The price of freedom was paid there. And it will be paid again by free people everywhere for, in truth, freedom is priceless. President George Washington said : “Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the rest is in the hands of God." May He be forever with the souls of our fallen soldiers and with us as we hold their torch of freedom high.