In remembrance of the the D-Day invasion seventy-nine years ago, here is General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Order of the Day (from the National Archives).
SUPREME HEADQUARTERS
ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE
Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force!
You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hope and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.
Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.
But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to Victory!
I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory!
Good luck! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.
D-DAY PLUS 79 YEARS
OMAHA BEACH, NORMANDIE, FRANCE – “The beachhead is secure, but the price was high. A U.S. Coast Guard photographer came upon this monument to a dead American soldier somewhere on the shell-blasted shore of Normandy shortly after D-Day.” (U.S Department of War caption, 6 Jun 44)
Nearly eight decades have passed since over 133,000 troops from the United States, the British Commonwealth, and their allies, landed on D-Day. By the end of the first twenty-four hours of battle, these forces would have taken over ten thousand casualties, and 4,414 men would be confirmed dead. A high price to gain a tow-hold into what the Germans call Festung Europa—Fortress Europe—but this battle became the beginning of the end of the Third Reich in Western Europe.
These beaches today appear pristine. The blasted and burnt remnants of the machines of war destroyed there are long gone. The blood of the fallen has long washed away from the sand. Still, even in its clean and unscared appearance, in the silence, one can still feel the weight of the terrible violence of those vicious hours, when the balance of a free Europe hung in the balance.
Nearly all that fought in this battle of the ages have gone to their reward, but our gratitude for their sacrifice is eternal.
On this Sixth Day of June, names like the beaches of Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword, and places like Pointe du Hoc and Sainte-Mère-Église are again mentioned, and in so doing, the memories of their valor and sacrifice is again rekindled, and so it should be.
It is said that “So long as they speak your name, you shall never die,” so let it be true of all those who fought on this day, in this place, seventy-nine years ago today.
Let their valor forever serve as inspiration and a reminder to all of us that freedom, is never free.
© George Navarini – 6 June 2023