The D-Day Invasion

In movie The Longest Day, “The Log Sobs Violins in Autumn” was the coded message to the French Resistance. It meant the D-Day invasion was on. The next transmission, “Wound My Heart with a Monotonous Langour” was the command for action. They had work to do. Blow up train tracks, switching points, telephone lines and telegraph wires. They cut trees to fall over roads, removed road signs, and blew up bridges.

D-Day was an incredible feat of planning and synchronization. There were a lot of mistakes and casualties, but in the end, the Allies defeated the Germans.

June 6, 1944 – The Allies Invaded Europe at Normandy

Every D-Day, I wonder at the overwhelming power on June 6, 1944 – The day the allies invaded Europe in Normandy. Every time I see videos or movies of the invasion with the thousands of ships covering the sea and planes blanketing the sky, it boggles my mind.

The courage it took to storm the cliffs at Omaha humbles me as well.  I am so grateful to this generation of heroes who saved the world for freedom.

The Horrors of the Nazis

See my post, D-Day: A Day to Remember, to get a glimpse of the horrors of the Nazis, and what our victory over the Germans accomplished. It was more than a military victory… we delivered millions of Jews from extermination, we eliminated the German occupation of Europe, and prevented the Germans from developing an atomic bomb.

If our president at the time, FDR, did not have the resolve, the will and the toughness to lead the country in that war, we could not have won it.  Unfortunately, we face the same risks today, and we need that kind of leadership.

Today, the nation salutes all those who remain of the Greatest Generation.