By Attorney Rees Lloyd
June 6, 2024
June 6, 2024 is the 80th anniversary of a day which should live in history and in the minds of all generations of Americans as a true milestone of liberty: D-Day, June 6, 1944.
On D-Day in World War II, in the largest amphibious landing in history, some 156,00 soldiers, sailors, marines, air corps and coast guard members of primarily America, Great Britain, Canada, and also some forces of free France, Poland, and other nations, participated in the allied invasion at Normandy, France, to defeat the totalitarian tyranny of the National Socialist German Workers Party (NAZI) of Adolf Hitler, who had conquered all of Europe.
Those who fought at Normandy on D-Day to preserve freedom from defeat by Hitler’s national socialist fascists paid a terrible sacrifice. The beaches at Normandy, with NAZI artillery and machine guns established in cross-fire patterns, were, indeed, “killing fields,” prepared for slaughter. The sea and sands ran red with blood.
The beaches designated Omaha, Utah, and Gold were covered by the wounded and dying. Over 4,000 of them, including 2,500 Americans, were killed in action that single day alone.
In the month long Normandy invasion fighting which began on D-Day, more than 29,000 Americans were killed in action, and more than 100,000 were wounded. Altogether, more than 400,000 Americans would sacrifice their lives in WWII.
But by their bravery and sacrifice, they turned the tide of war in what the late famed historian Stephen Ambrose called “the climatic battle of WWII,” in his classic book, “D-Day: June 6, 1944.”
Hitler was convinced — and had convinced most of the western world — that his Fortress Europe could turn back and defeat any attempt to invade occupied Europe by sea. So confident were the NAZI socialists, that their top generals were elsewhere—including Erwin Rommel, the “Desert Fox,” Hitler’s best fighting general who had gained fame in the Africa campaign. Rommel was on leave in Germany and caught by surprise when the invasion was launched from Great Britain for Normandy — and not for Calais, which the Nazi’s thought would be the point of invasion if one were made.
Hitler was confident his Fortress Europe would defeat any invasion, anywhere, because Rommel, himself, had overseen the NAZI’s military arrangement of massive armaments all along the coast from Spain to Norway, creating Fortress Europe.
In contrast, on D-Day, June 6, 1944, there was great doubt among the allies that the invasion could succeed. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, and later President of the United States, actually paused to write a statement, in his own hand, to be released publicly should the D-Day invasion be lost.
Gen. Eisenhower wrote that if the invasion failed, it was entirely his fault, and his alone. He made no excuses. He emphasized that failure was not the fault of his subordinate officers or the soldiers who fought it, and did not blame any of the allied nations’ governments, military officers or troops. He, alone, took responsibility for defeat.
After writing that note, Gen. Eisenhower issued a simple order: “OK, let’s go!” American and allied soldiers went on D-Day, June 6, 1944. They fought. They were wounded and killed in the thousands, on that day, and in all the days of WWII. But, they conquered. They saved the freedom of America, and the world, from the tyranny of Hitler’s national socialist fascists.
How many of us Americans will remember, and have a sense of thankfulness, on this D-Day 2024, that we are the heirs of freedom purchased for us by the blood of the thousands of killed and wounded in the D-Day invasion and all the days of WWII which followed?
Who were those Americans of the WWII generation who fought the NAZI’s on D-Day and thereafter through Europe, while other Americans fought in the Pacific against the Japanese imperialists, more than 400,000 sacrificing their lives?
They were children of the Great Depression. As children, they knew “want,” not wealth. They went from the poverty of the Depression in their childhood, to the horrors of war in their young adulthood. Many were in their teens. The average educational level of those who saved freedom in WWII was only the “Eighth Grade.” They, too, had their dreams of life. But they went to war to defend American freedom when our country called them to service.
Ultimately, more than 16-million Americans would serve in WWII. They fought. They were wounded—physically, mentally, emotionally. They were killed. They preserved our freedom by their sacrifice.
What were the beliefs, the values of those who served on D-Day and the duration of WWII? The late author Michael Novak, in his important book entitled, “On Two Wings—Humble Faith And Common Sense At the Founding Of America,” cites a study done in the late 1950’s on the values of Americans.
What the study found was that the Americans whose values were closest to the Founding Fathers’ values were the American families whose loved ones had served in WWII. Think deeply of the implications of that fact, especially in considering the dominant values of America now.
We Americans of this era owe a debt to those Americans who came before us and preserved our freedom. We pay that debt by what we do to preserve the freedom of those Americans who will come after us.
Therefore, a question we Americans must ask ourselves on D-Day 2024, is: If the values of the First Generation and of the WWII Generation no longer abide in America, will we Americans of this era —if necessary — be willing to preserve freedom with our lives as did the Americans on D-Day 1944 and all the days of WWII that followed?
May God bless and keep all those Americans who served on D-Day, June 6, 1944, and the entirety of WWII, as “all gave some, and some gave all,” that we might be free.
May we, as Americans of this era, still have the courage, and the values of love of God and Country of the WWII Generation, that led them to fight and die for our freedom.
FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY—NEVER!
© 2024 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved
E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com
