June 6th, 1944

SUPREME HEADQUARTERS ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCES

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 hopes 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 I944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of I940-41. 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 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 Al-mighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

Dwight Eisenhower

Good day all. Today is the 68^th anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy France that began the liberation of Europe from Adolph Hitler and Nazi Germany. Today, in hindsight, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that we would win, but in 1944 there was significant doubt. As it was, it was a very near thing.

Very little went as planned during the landing at Omaha Beach. Difficulties in navigation caused the majority of landing craft to miss their targets throughout the day. The defenses were unexpectedly strong, and inflicted heavy casualties on landing US troops. Under heavy fire, the engineers struggled to clear the beach obstacles; later landings bunched up around the few channels that were cleared. Weakened by the casualties taken just in landing, the surviving assault troops could not clear the heavily defended exits off the beach. This caused further problems and consequent delays for later landings. Small penetrations were eventually achieved by groups of survivors making improvised assaults, scaling the bluffs between the most heavily defended points. By the end of the day, two small isolated footholds had been won, which were subsequently exploited against weaker defenses further inland, thus achieving the original D-Day objectives over the following days ((Wikipedia, Omaha Beach)).

General Eisenhower was so concerned about what could happen, that the night before the landings he wrote a letter that took the responsibility for a defeat on D-Day. Below is the text of the letter:

“Our landings have failed 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 could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.” ((From Doing History Project))

If the invasion had failed, not only would Eisenhower have been cashiered, the next step would have been the Manhattan Project ((The Manhattan Project)). Sometime in 1945, Germany would have been hit by nuclear weapons.

The Red Army probably would have been held somewhere in Eastern Europe since the Nazi’s would have the resources to reinforce their defenses. They would be available if the invasion failed because it would be at least another year before the Allies would have the resources to try again. There would also be a lot of pressure on Roosevelt to switch our priorities to Japan. This would presuppose that Roosevelt either ran for reelection in 1944 and if so, won the election.

I don’t think I need to mention what would have happened to the surviving Jews in Europe. Since the death camps ((Extermination camp)) weren’t going to be overrun by the Allies, they would have continued on with the “Final Solution.” ((Hitler’s Final Solution)) The world would be a very different place today.

I have a personal stake. No, my father did not land on D-Day. He crossed the Channel a few weeks later. I had an uncle on my mothers side who was with the 1^st Infantry Division. ((The Big Red One)) He never talked about it and I didn’t find out that he had landed at Normandy until after he had passed away.

One of the things we’re beginning to see as the veterans from the Greatest Generation ((The Greatest Generation)) pass away is just how few people really know and understand what happened, what it meant and how close to failure we came. We need to think back, reflect and never ever let an enemy such as Nazi Germany come into being again.

That is all

~The Angry Webmaster~