D-Day June 6, 1944

Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show...(the opening lines of David Copperfield as written by Charles Dickens;inspired by MTM). Or at least this ACCOUNT will, perhaps, have a reflection on whether I'm going to be the hero in my own life.

SELLING A KIDNEY
Forty years after Woodstock,
forty years after combat in Vietnam,
I'm giving serious thought to it~~~
selling a kidney to a sick millionaire
to fund the rest of my life.

Hell, I have two. Why not?
Interesting: Would I sell an arm?
A leg? A testicle? Probably,
if the price was right.

That was the problem with Vietnam.
I sold myself too cheaply.

~~~Tim Bagwell


Does anyone think that freedom is not worth fighting for and even dying for?

There is a cruel calculus of war. It is the number of casualties required to win. Beyond that, it is the consequences of losing.

Sixty-six years ago, on June 6, 1944, the greatest armada of ships and men laid siege to the beaches of Normandy, France, in an invasion that would put an end to the Nazi conquest of Europe.

As the battles raged on, pushing into Germany, some American troops under the Supreme Allied Command of Dwight Eisenhower came upon the Nazi concentration camps. Eisenhower ordered all possible photos to be taken and that Germans from the surrounding villages be required to see the camps and even be made to bury the dead.

In words to this effect, Eisenhower said, “Get it all on record now, get the films, get the witnesses, because somewhere down the road of history, some bastard will get up and say that this never happened.”

War...huh...yeah
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing
Uh ha haa ha
War...huh...yeah
What is it good for?
Absolutley nothing...say it again y'all
War..huh...look out...
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing...listen to me ohhhhh

WAR! I despise,
'cos it means destruction of innocent lives,
War means tears to thousands of mother's eyes,
When their sons gone to fight and lose their lives.

War!?!?!? What is it good for!?!? In the Height, and the Heat, of the Vietnam Conflict, Soul Music singing sensation Edwin Starr releases a song that becomes
iconoclastic for a generation of young adults that will face the reality of
fighting in an armed-conflict for a remote jungle laden area of Southeast Asia where
fronts, friends, and foes are just as confusing as the issues that have this
area mired in the conflict that it finds burdened with.

If one would take into account essays and literature like Tom Brokaw's~~~The Greatest Generation, one would come to understand that sometimes,
there is a righteousness to WAR. Simply put, the Objective of Operation Overlord in the early morning hours of 6 June 1944, was to establish a firm foothold on mainland Europe to sustain an offensive that would ultimately overthrow the oppressive, Third Reich Nazi Germany, and dispose of its maniacal leader, Adolph Hitler. To do that, the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and other allied nations put together this Invasion Force with the objective of getting to Berlin and Hitler, and force the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany. With the German regime so oppressively dictatorial, and its overt intention to be threateningly expansionist, The Free World felt it had to act as one, not just to appease and halt, but to eliminate the threat, altogether. To put together and effect a Landing Force of this magnitude, The Allies were going to have to be just as maniacal. Accounts will verify that both Churchill and Eisenhower knew that there were going to be losses. The challenge was to formulate a plan that would keep the losses to a minimum, but put together as large a force as possible with fluid logistics to maintain a foothold and sustain a drive. What we did not want was another Dunkirk; the story of the Battle of Dunkirk is one of heroic courage amidst untold tragedy. In the year 1940, at a time when World War II was in full rage, Hitler's army was winning against France, despite help from more than 300,000 troops sent by Britain to help them out. The German army had surrounded and trapped most of the allied forces in the northernmost corner of France. Despite severe causalities the British troops could not retreat as their escape routes were all blocked.

The person in charge of troop evacuation, Vice Admiral Bertram Ramsay, who was stationed in the reinforced tunnels, which lay beneath Dover Castle organized a rescue operation called Operation Dynamo. However, the operation was riddled with logistics problems. The troops had to be rescued within a week as the beaches they were crammed on were being mercilessly shelled. An exodus by sea was impossible because of the difficulty in navigating the seas that were full of sunken ships and also because of the constant threat by U-boats. Nearer the beach the water was too shallow for the transport ships and destroyers to get close to the shore. What's more the British troops did not have enough vessels to transport the huge numbers of soldiers that were trapped on the beach.

Despite all the setbacks, meticulous preparations were made and Operation Dynamo was mobilized. Unfortunately they managed to rescue less than 8,000 troops, at which rate rescuing all the troops who were trapped would take about 40 days.

In desperation Ramsay made a public call for help and asked anyone who owned any kind of boat to assist in rescuing the troops. He got an overwhelming and instantaneous reaction and managed to organize a temporary flotilla comprising 850 "Little Ships" which was made up of lifeboats, yachts and fishing boats. Civilians joined British sailors in manning the boats across the 35 km crossing and a massive rescue mission was launched, evacuating almost 2,000 troops per hours. Nine days later 338,226 trapped people had been rescued.

Churchill referred to this story of heroism and courage as the 'miracle of deliverance'.

On May 8, 1944, Eisenhower initially targets June 5, 1944 as the D-Day. But torrential downpours on June 4, 1944, forces Eisenhower to bump D-Day over to June 6, 1944.

At about 5AM of 6 June 1944, with a concern for the weather, which was not optimal, Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, decided to effected the Normandy Invasion.

The invasion itself gave prominence to land forces but provided major roles for air and sea components. Allied air forces carried three airborne divisions into battle, protected the force as it crossed the English Channel, and attacked targets throughout the invasion area before and after the landing in support of the assault forces. More than 5,000 ships--from battleships to landing craft--carried, escorted and landed the assault force along the Normandy coast. Once the force was landed, naval gunfire provided critical support for the soldiers as they fought their way across the beaches.

In the invasion's early hours, more than 1,000 transports dropped paratroopers to secure the flanks and beach exits of the assault area. Amphibious craft landed some 130,000 troops on five beaches along 50 miles of Normandy coast between the Cotentin Peninsula and the Orne River while the air forces controlled the skies overhead. In the eastern zone, the British and Canadians landed on GOLD, JUNO and SWORD Beaches. The Americans landed on two beaches in the west--UTAH and OMAHA. As the Allies came ashore, they took the first steps on the final road to victory in Europe.

Omaha Beach
The landing by regiments of the 1st and 29th Infantry divisions and Army Rangers on OMAHA Beach was even more difficult than expected. When the first wave landed at 6:30 a.m., the men found that naval gunfire and pre-landing air bombardments had not softened German defenses or resistance. Along the 7,000 yards of Normandy shore German defenses were as close to that of an Atlantic Wall as any of the beaches. Enemy positions that looked down from bluffs as high as 90-120 feet (or more at low tide), and water and beach obstacles strewn across the narrow strip of beach, stopped the assault at the water's edge for much of the morning of D-Day.

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.

Slowly, as individuals and then in groups, soldiers began to cross the fire-swept beach. Supported by Allied naval gunfire from destroyers steaming dangerously close to shore, the American infantrymen gained the heights and beach exits and drove the enemy inland. By D-Day's end V Corps had a tenuous toehold on the Normandy coast, and the force consolidated to protect its gains and prepare for the next step on the road to Germany.

Utah Beach
In the predawn darkness of June 6, the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions were air dropped behind UTAH Beach to secure four causeways across a flooded area directly behind the beach and to protect the invasion's western flank. Numerous factors caused the paratroopers to miss their drop zones and become scattered across the Norman countryside. However, throughout the night and into the day the airborne troops gathered and organized themselves and went on to accomplish their missions. Ironically, the paratroopers' wide dispersion benefited the invasion. With paratroopers in so many places, the Germans never developed adequate responses to the airborne and amphibious assaults.

The 4th Infantry Division was assigned to take UTAH Beach. In contrast with OMAHA Beach, the 4th Division's landing went smoothly. The first wave landed 2,000 yards south of the planned beach--one of the Allies' more fortuitous opportunities on D-Day. The original beach was heavily defended in comparison to the light resistance and few fixed defenses encountered on the new beach. After a personal reconnaissance, Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr., who accompanied the first wave, decided to exploit the opportunity and altered the original plan. He ordered that landing craft carrying the successive assault waves land reinforcements, equipment and supplies to capitalize on the first wave's success. Within hours, the beachhead was secured and the 4th Division started inland to contact the airborne divisions scattered across its front.

As in the OMAHA zone, at day's end the UTAH Beach forces had not gained all of their planned objectives. However, a lodgement was secured, and, most important, once again the American soldier's resourcefulness and initiative had rescued the operation from floundering along the Normandy coast.

These soldiers took a stand in history that will forever be remembered. Europe was enslaved and the world planned for its rescue, but at a tremendous toll on life, limb, and property; both civilian as well as military. The horrific accounts of what happened at municipalities like Dresden, Germany will bear witness to that.

Was it worth it?!?!? Is war worth it!?!? When life, liberty, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness is on the line~~~yes it is.
--{-=@
Hickok