D-Day remembered
With slight changes, I have decided to repost my D-Day post from last year:
“I am quite positive that the order must be given.”
With those words the plan to liberate Europe was put into motion. On June 4th allied ships set out across the English channel to begin the much waited for offensive scheduled to begin on June 5th. Torrential downpours forced the delay of the mission but the ships could not be turned around unless the invasion was rescheduled. Running the risk of being spotted by the Germans, the ships were to sit there and wait for another opportunity.
June 5th, the allied commanders met to discuss the weather and the future of the invasion while troops were floating in the channel with no place to go and nothing to do but wait for the decision whether the order was a go or whether the invasion would be postponed. The seas were rough and the waves were high, crashing down over the landing crafts, many soldiers were sick and all of them were tired. Physically tired, and mentally tired. They were also tired of waiting, if there was to be an invasion they wanted to get it over with. To the troops waiting was worse than fighting.
The weather reports looked bad and most likely another postponement would be necessary but Dwight D. Eisenhower was waiting for the final weather report of the day before making his decision. A postponement now would mean calling off the plans altogether at this point and beginning again at a much later date. With the final weather report came some good news, it looked like there might be a break in the weather at just the right time and just long enough to begin the invasion.
Ike began to survey the other generals in the room for their opinions. Opinions were split, it appeared to some that it was too risky and that the weather report wasn’t good enough, or certain enough, to carry out the invasion. It still looked too risky.
Ironically it was a general who was known for his deliberate and careful pace on the battlefield, a general who many thought (including Ike himself and General Patton) moved too slow and was too cautious who may have swayed Dwight D Eisenhower; when asked, General Montgomery said, “I would say. GO!”
The fate of Europe hung in the balance.
Ike paced back and forth, the fate of the free world and Nazi Germany weighed on his shoulders. All eyes were upon him as he finally turned to the generals in the room and said, “I am quite positive that the order must be given.” That was his order to go and the largest amphibious landing in history was about to get underway; the first attempt at a cross channel invasion since the 1600’s was put in motion.
Knowing that the weather conditions were not ideal, and because of this there was the very real possibility that the invasion could fail. Ike, also realized this so he sat down and penned the following statement just in case:
“Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.”
He would never have to release that statement.
On the ships the soldiers listened to Dwight D. Eisenhower’s June 6th Order of the Day:
“We will accept nothing less than full victory!”
June 6th, D-Day. The most important day of the twentieth century. Landing crafts followed the paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st Airborne, who were deployed during the night behind enemy lines. The casualties were high, especially on Omaha Beach; many were killed as the doors to the landing craft opened, never even having the chance to leave the landing craft; while many drowned in the waters never having reached the beach. The first to reach the beach faced heavy casualties as the Germans were dug in with fortifications that the slave labor they had captured during the war were forced to build.
They faced a hell that day that is unimaginable to those who were not involved. But through persistence, drive, faith, courage, determination, and a little deception the soldiers of the United States, Great Britain, and Canada kept moving forward, buoyed in the belief that the cause was just and noble. The Germans defended the beaches viciously, but at the end of the day the invasion succeeded, the beaches were taken, and the liberation of a continent had begun.
The Germans knew that the invasion was coming but they did not know where and they did not know when. The Germans thought the invasion would probably be at Pais de Calais because it would provide the shortest path to Germany, but the Germans were also concerned about General Patton, who was actually part of a plan of deception. He was “commanding” a fake army, fully equiped with inflatable tanks, in Britain. The Germans did not think that an invasion of France would take place without America’s best general, they had no idea that General Patton was actually being punished by Ike and would not be participating in the invasion, they assumed from wherever Patton was, the true invasion would come.
Field General Rommel, the Desert Fox, figuring that the tide was wrong for the invasion, and confident that the weather would not allow an invasion, left the battlefield to buy his wife a new pair of shoes for her birthday.
Adolf Hitler was asleep, and as the invasion began nobody dared to wake him. The Führer had taken over command of the Panzer tank division and nobody could order the tanks to the invasion site but he. As he slept the Germans lost valuable time. By the time the order came from the Führer for the Panzers to get to the scene for backup it was too late. If Rommel was on the scene during the invasion, and if the Panzers were ordered to the scene in time, perhaps Ike would have had to release the statement that he had written in case the invasion failed.
Adolph Hitler was now thankfully in the last year of his life, as was Field General Rommel; both by their own hand. Rommel after being implicated in an assassination plot against Hitler.
June 6th, 1944, the longest day, and the most important day of the twentieth century, the day that the liberation of a continent began. The day that the destruction of the Nazis and the downfall of Adolph Hitler began. A day that must never be forgotten for these men proved that they were indeed from the greatest generation.
I have included some D-Day tribute videos. In the first one you have the pleasure of listening to Iron Maiden playing “The Longest Day,” set to the opening scene from “Saving Private Ryan.”
I have also included a video (the third video) that was made by an eighth grader for a school project, he said it a hell of allot better than I did.
And lastly there is Ronald Reagan’s speech from Normandy on the 40th anniversary in 1984.
Thank you to not only those who fought and lived and those who fought and died on D-Day, but thank you also to all of those who have ever fought in the name of freedom throughout history. It is because of them that I am able to write this today. I will never forget them and I hope that you do not ever forget them either.
America's Watchtower 
Great post, Steve. What they did that day continues to inspire down through the decades.
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Thanks Matt! When I think about what these 18, 19. and 20 year olds were doing compared to what I was doing at that age, I am embarrassed. These people deserve our utmost respect and gratitude!
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Great D-Day tribute. I saw that Normandy speech by Reagan as it was given. On a side note, my mother named me after Ronny, as she was a big movie fan of his. Of course she didn’t dream at the time that he would become the greatest conservative president of the 20th century. And when you think about it he was very liberal in 1939, but my mother was also—later she saw the light, just as Reagan did.
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Thanks! I didn’t realize you were named after Reagan. We all see the light eventually as we get older, or at least I hope we do!
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Could Obama Be America’s First Defacto President?
Innocent Americans increasingly are sent to prison based on false evidence manufactured by police forensic crime labs. Now President Obama wants the power to incarcerate U.S. Citizens not on evidence, but for what they might do.
Compare: Two days after the 1933 burning of Germany’s Parliament Building, blamed on communists, Hitler responded with a powerful speech before Parliament. Hitler asked Parliament to suspend sections of the Reich Constitution that protected Citizens’ Rights and Civil Liberties. Hitler said the suspension was necessary so government could protect the homeland from being destroyed by communists. Hitler promised Parliament the Constitution would later be restored. After Parliament passed Hitler’s Discriminatory Decrees and Hitler signed it February 28, 1933, Hitler immediately used the news laws to abolished Parliament. See Hitler’s 1933 Discriminatory Laws below:
Obama gave a speech in May 2010, that proposed incarcerating in indefinite prolonged detention without evidence, any person government deemed a “combatant” or likely to engage in a violent act in the future; that would include U.S. Citizens “without evidence of wrongdoing.” With that amount power Obama could like Hitler arrest members of Congress, drag U.S. Citizens off the street and from their homes to be imprisoned indefinitely based only on Government’s claim they are a “combatant” or likely to engage in a violent act in the future.
If Congress approves Obama’s categories of people likely to engage in violent acts, overnight millions of lawful U.S. activists could be subject to Indefinite Prolonged Detention. When you examine Obama’s speech, it appears Obama wants retroactive power to incarcerate anyone government claims (prior) supported violent acts on the premise, that person is likely to engage in violent acts in the future: U.S. activists would be vulnerable because no activist can control what other activists or groups might do illegally they network with domestically or overseas. Government would only have to claim a person; group or organization might commit a violent act in the future to order Preventative Detention of lawful participants with no evidence whatsoever. Americans would be afraid to speak out.
It is foreseeable any “individual” who writes on the Internet or verbally express an opinion against or entity of U.S. Government or its coalition partners could be deemed a “Combatant” or likely to engage in or cause violent acts: government too easily could claim an author’s writings inspired people in the past and will in the future to commit violent acts. It is problematic that indefinitely detained U.S. Citizens not involved in terrorism or hostile activities, not given Miranda Warnings or allowed legal counsel; interrogated, will be prosecuted for ordinary crimes because of their alleged admissions while held in indefinite “Prolonged Detention.”
Obama wants the power to override the U.S. Constitution. Obama wants the power to detain indefinitely without probable cause or evidence, any U.S. Citizen based on conjecture someone might do something violent in the future.
Obama similar to Hitler is centralizing power in the federal Government by getting passed legislation that U.S. government potentially could use to intimidate and threaten businesses and corporations among others. Hitler got similar laws passed shortly before the burning of the German Parliament building blamed on the communists. Immediately after the fire, Hitler used his new laws to coerce corporations and others to support passage of fascist legislation that suspended provisions of the German Constitution that protected Citizens’ freedoms and civil liberties. Obama is now approaching a position where he can use similar new laws, including the Patriot Act and 200 asset forfeiture laws to seize any corporation or individual’s assets, force corporations and other institutions to support legislation that threatens or curtails the rights of Americans. This President not only intends to void the U.S. Constitution he is numb to the Majority Will of the American People.
DECREE OF THE REICH PRESIDENT FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE PEOPLE AND STATE
Note: Based on translations by State Department, National Socialism, 1942 PP. 215-17, and Pollak, J.K., and Heneman, H.J., The Hitler Decrees, (1934), pp. 10-11.7
In virtue of Section 48 (2) of the German Constitution, the following is decreed as a defensive measure against Communist acts of Violence, endangering the state:
Section 1
Sections 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124, and 153 of the Constitution of the German Reich are suspended until further notice. Thus, restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press, on the right of assembly and the right of association, and violations of the privacy of postal, telegraphic, and telephonic communications, and warrants for house-searches, orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed.
Section 2
If in a state the measures necessary for the restoration of public security and order are not taken, the Reich Government may temporarily take over the powers of the highest state authority.
Section 4
Whoever provokes, or appeals for or incites to the disobedience of the orders given out by the supreme state authorities or the authorities subject to then for the execution of this decree, or the orders given by the Reich Government according to Section 2, is punishable—insofar as the deed, is not covered by the decree with more severe punishment and with imprisonment of not less that one month, or with a fine from 150 up to 15,000 Reichsmarks.
Whoever endangers human life by violating Section 1, is to be punished by sentence to a penitentiary, under mitigating circumstances with imprisonment of not less than six months and, when violation causes the death of a person, with death, under mitigating circumstances with a penitentiary sentence of not less that two years. In addition the sentence my include confiscation of property.
Whoever provokes an inciter to or act contrary to public welfare is to be punished with a penitentiary sentence, under mitigating circumstances, with imprisonment of not less than three months.
Section 5
The crimes which under the Criminal Code are punishable with penitentiary for life are to be punished with death: i.e., in Sections 81 (high treason), 229 (poisoning), 306 (arson), 311 (explosion), 312 (floods), 315, paragraph 2 (damage to railroad properties, 324 (general poisoning).
Insofar as a more severe punishment has not been previously provided for, the following are punishable with death or with life imprisonment or with imprisonment not to exceed 15 years:
1. Anyone who undertakes to kill the Reich President or a member or a commissioner of the Reich Government or of a state government, or provokes to such a killing, or agrees to commit it, or accepts such an offer, or conspires with another for such a murder;
2. Anyone who under Section 115 (2) of the Criminal Code (serious rioting) or of Section 125 (2) of the Criminal Code (serious disturbance of the peace) commits the act with arms or cooperates consciously and intentionally with an armed person;
3. Anyone who commits a kidnapping under Section 239 of the Criminal with the intention of making use of the kidnapped person as a hostage in the political struggle.
Section 6
This decree enters in force on the day of its promulgation.
Reich President
Reich Chancellor
Reich Minister of the Interior
Reich Minister of Justice
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