Friday is June 6. Those of a certain vintage will mentally add, "D-Day."
It's not an official holiday; rather a solemn anniversary, like Dec. 7 or Sept. 11 or Jan. 6. One of the momentous events that shaped our world. If you're unfamiliar — and some are — June 6, 1944, was when the Allied Expeditionary Force hit the beaches in Normandy, France, beginning to push the Nazis out of Europe.
Normally I'd put out the flag. But it's been displayed in front of my house since Memorial Day. Some shrink from patriotism, given the hard right turn into darkness our country is taking. Me, I lean into it with the fervor of a fight trainer urging his boxer, flat on his back on the canvas: "C'mon, get up, you mug! Get up!"
So I keep the flag flying. I'll say the pledge and conduct my other little June 6 tradition — posting the opening clip of Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan." The surging ocean and steel tank traps. The little landing craft, motoring up to the beach, bristling with German machine-gun emplacements. The Americans, led by Tom Hanks, chewing tobacco, praying, joking, puking. The raw courage of the moment.
You have to wonder if Americans would hit the beaches today. Why not leave the Nazis controlling Europe? We certainly seem willing to let the Russians have Ukraine.
Were we different people back then? Not really. After the Germans invaded Poland and war broke out — Sept. 1, 1939, to throw another date you — a Gallup Poll showed 88% of Americans were against fighting to free Europe. Two-thirds didn't want to even provide arms to Great Britain, since doing so risked antagonizing Mr. Hitler.
That changed, after the Wehrmacht rolled over France. Belgium. Norway, the Netherlands, Greece — 11 nations in all. We could see where this was headed. Totalitarianism always grasps for more. It never stops until it's stopped.
America is slow to rouse. Two years after World War II broke out, we were happy to sit on our hands. Until Imperial Japan did us, and the world, an enormous favor by bombing Pearl Harbor. Even then, while prodded to declare war on Japan, we didn't include their allies, the Germans. Rather, the Nazis declared war on us. We didn't jump; we were pushed.
Would we wade ashore into a blood red tide at Normandy Beach again? During COVID, millions of Americans rebelled from doing anything for the common good, no matter how small. Sacrifice infringed upon their personal liberties. How could anyone imagined we'd climb ropes up the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc, into the teeth of the German machine guns, when we won't wear a cotton mask?
We grew to hate the Nazis — vicious sheep following a murderous madman, who made these rambling speeches, raging against his enemies — Jews and just about any nationality that wasn't German. They had no freedom of speech, no redress in the courts. The Gestapo showed up and took you away, and you were never heard from again. We didn't want to live in a country where secret police pluck people off the street in broad daylight and drag them off to nightmarish prisons.
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Thank you Neil for reminding us what we are capable of when prodded. Me thinks our current divisions would quickly fade if Adolph reappeared with spear in hand on our domestic shores.
ReplyDeleteSadly, I suspect far too many would embrace the invaders, beginning in the Oval Office.
DeleteI don't think 1942 was so bad, after all, the Navy defeated the Japanese at Midway in June & never stopped defeating them. That fulfilled Yamamoto's prediction that the Japanese could win for six months, but after that, the massive US industrial capacity would overwhelm them. People really need to see Clint Eastwood's second movie about the Battle of Iwo Jima, "Letters from Iwo Jima", much of which he filmed in Japanese, where we see the utter insanity of their leadership & the insane desperation going in in Japan. One scene has the family who own a small bakery, have their iron stove taken from them to melt down for guns, even though that means people who they need as workers in the factories won't have bread to eat. The self defeating stupidity of that is appalling!
ReplyDeleteAs for D-Day, my favorite part of the movie "The Longest Day" is when the German general looks out of his pillbox & out of some fog are hundreds & hundreds of landing craft & ships, so he calls up his superiors at their HQ & tells them & they flat out refuse to believe him, because it's Normandy & they were expecting the landings to be at the Pas de Calais, the shortest point from England to France, plus they tell him, the Allies don't have that many ships & he screams back at them & then the ships start firing their big guns at him! The end credits showed he actually survived & was a consultant on the film.
I agree with that moment in the film. It was excellent.
DeleteLike Adm. Yama said-JPN woke up a sleeping tiger.
Delete1942 was, of course, the year that doomed the Axis, because of America's entry into the war. But America didn't know it at the time. After 2 1/2 years of blood and tears, the Allies were still losing WWII in the first half of 1942, it was a bad time.
DeleteGerman U-boats were off our Atlantic and Gulf shores, and sinking ships almost daily.. The Germans were advancing eastward in Russia, toward Stalingrad. Rommel was on the offensive in North Africa. The Japanese were still expanding their Pacific empire. The Aleutians were invaded. It was the year of the Bataan Death March, and the loss of the Philippines.
Ever so slowly, there were hopeful signs. The Doolittle Raid..."Bombs over Tokyo!" as we said as kids in the Fifties. Japanese defeats in the Coral Sea and at Midway. Commando raids in Norway, and a disastrous one on he French coast that taught valuable lessons two years later. Holding the line on Guadalcanal. Daylight bombing in Germany. Victories in Russia and North Africa.
1943 was a hard and bloody year. Island-hopping toward the Philippines and Japan, victories in Africa and Sicily, and the invasion of Italy. Russia on the offensive. Finally, the Axis on the defensive by 1944. Nearly another year of combat in Europe. Saipan, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa were meat grinders. But with American mobilization and industrial might at full strength, and the nukes, the outcome was no longer in doubt.
Look for a book called "D-Day Through German Eyes." by Holger Eckhertz. Almost all accounts of Normandy are from the Allied perspective, but what was it like to be a German soldier in a coastal bunker, and see hundreds of Allied ships and landing craft materializing out of the fog? Stunned by the enormous firepower and manpower facing them, how did they react? How did they survive?
We know a great deal about the clockers.
This is your chance to hear from the clocked.
It's important to remember and commemorate the brave American people that fought against the fascists so that we would have the right to choose fascism for ourselves.
ReplyDeleteLife is not like the movies
Would we? I'm 67 and its unlikely. Would I want my sons, 28, 26 and 25 to serve and die? No. Would you? I'm too lazy to attend a protest
DeleteI'd let these MAGA assholes do the fighting and dying. the armed forces are full of red state red neck dumbasses.
In 1940 United States instituted the first peacetime draft in its history. People didn't want to go. only one third enlisted 2/3 of the military were draftees between the ages of 20 and 45..
DeleteThe penalty for not serving was prison.
The largest ethnic contingency at that time were Italians.
Neil ,I don't think you're suggesting that we would put boots on the ground in Ukraine.
I'm not sure how we can fight against fascism in our own country . Not literally fight like a civil war. And if it came to that as griz has suggested many times we would most surely lose. .
Liberals and progressives don't seem to have the willingness to sacrifice their own comfy lives even in the face of fascism in their own country.
I know I don't I'm in my '60s as well and sadly but honestly my sons seem to lean towards maga.
America first and all that you know who probably fight for us the immigrants that we want to get rid of
Refusal to register for the draft meant prison. So did refusal of induction.
DeleteTen million American men were inducted during WWI, and served.
World War I: (Sept. 1917 – Nov. 1918) 2.8 million inducted
World War II: (Nov. 1940 – Oct. 1946) 10.1 million inducted
Korean War: (June 1950 – June 1953) 1.5 million inducted
Vietnam War: (Aug. 1964 – Feb. 1973) 1.8 million inducted
Other ethnicities outnumbered those of Italian descent. The Germans and, the Irish, who immigrated in the 19th century, and those from Eastern Europe...including Poles and Russians, who came after 1900.
Just curious...what are the reasons you think "we" would lose a civil war? Weapons? Numbers? Willingness to fight? Unwillingness to die? I believe there are many people who have not yet shown their "true colors"...but if a side had to be chosen, they would come out of the closet and back the blue one. I could be very wrong. Maybe I'll be lucky enough not to live to see what finally happens. If push comes to shove, it will not be pretty.
OOPS...left out a Roman numeral...that should be 10 million in WWII.
DeleteWhile my grandfather did not battle on the beach during D-Day, he did fight in the European theater. He arrived in France via Le Havre a few weeks later. His entry onto the contentment paved with the lives of so many Americans, Canadians, British, Australians, and many other Allied Forces. While he would eventually make it to the front, become captured, marched, and eventually freed in the waning months of the European War, I still have a profound connection to D-Day.
ReplyDeleteI was also lucky enough to visit France (including Normandy) with him in 2001; a trip that remains one of the most wonderful things I have ever done.
There are four places every American (and really everyone) should visit in person during their life: Pointe du Hoc, One of the beaches that was a landing area but is now a beach, The museum in Caen, and of course the American Cemetery in Normandy.
Pointe du Hoc, with its cratered landscapes and pock marked pillboxes is hauntingly beautiful. It's sheer cliffs inspire awe which is only shattered by the revelations that young men scaled these escarpments with nothing more than ropes and determination. Gazing across the choppy seemingly endless waters is peaceful and pure.
The American Cemetery is nearly perfect and silent; American's forever standing guard against fascism. Know some history before you go, try and find someone from where you live, where you grew up, or a place you've heard about. I guarantee you will find someone you could connect yourself to personally. We may be a vast nation, but we are still intelligently connected to each other.
And the Beaches...
Some still display the armaments while others are randomly strewn with sunbathers and children laughing in the surf.
Until the day i die, I will never forget my grandfathers words as we stood on the edge of the beach that day in August, tears softly running down his face...
"This is why we fought; this is what we fought for."
And now, after nearly three quarters of a century, we fight again. This time it is on our own beaches. This time we must battle the brute within our own walls. This time we must extinguish the flame that is fascism at home. We must tear it out from its roots. We must be better. There is no "both sides." There is democracy or there is nothing.
Right now, the enemy is the right. The enemy is the GOP, the centrist "democrat," the defenders of ICE. We can succeed in snuffing out our own Nazis, but we must be brave. The bbb must fail. Stephen Miller must fail. Elon Musk must fail. Russell Vought must fail. Techno fascism must fail. Christian nationalism must fail.
There are no buts.
Excellent. The father of one of my friends climbed those cliffs.
DeleteHe showed me one of maps they carried, printed on silk. Wish I had it.
His son didn't seem to care, but I certainly did. I still do.
We owe our days on the beaches...to their days on the beaches.
The Rangers also used ladders borrowed from the London Fire Brigade. I wonder if they returned them.
DeleteA thought provoking column, Mr. S.
ReplyDeleteWe should ALL re-read Neil's final paragraph several times. The message is there for those willing to think.
ReplyDeleteamen
DeleteFrightening difference, individual Americans are now data-mined from childhood and digitally analyzed, tracked in action and thought. The Nazis used a paper-based systems...
ReplyDeleteThanks for this column. Beautifully said. By the way I post anonymously not because I want to hide but because I am a lazy 85 year old too lazy to figure out how to get my name in there so I would appreciate your keeping the option of posting anonymously!
ReplyDeleteI agree, this column was excellent.
DeleteBut, with all due respect, 10:31 Anonymous, if you're capable of writing such a clear and concise comment, it's not that hard to not be anonymous.
Just click on the little arrow next to "Anonymous" in the comment box, then click on "Name / URL" and simply type in whatever name you like where it says "Name." There's no need to fill in anything by "URL." I find it hard to believe that you're any lazier than I am and it seems pretty easy to me! 😉
Neil, pep up! Today's piece is beautifully written as always, and no doubt all your readers commiserate. We get it. This and Memorial Day are big days in my family to remember our loved ones who died in World War II, and we'll never take those lives--and the many others lost--for granted. I'm as anti-Trump as anybody and disgusted with his administration, just like last time. But do I think we're faced with half a nation of Nazis? No, I don't. I know some of that half, I'm related to some of them, and they're not all wild-eyed demons. Voters vote for all kinds of reasons, and Trump's approval ratings began tanking the minute he got into office. That in itself assures me this craziness can't go on forever. I feel like I'd be letting down my Uncle Joe, who died on a beach in Italy in 1944, if I didn't have enough faith in the American people to figure we'll get past this. He had so much faith, he joined the Army to return to Europe and fight Nazis when he hadn't even been here long enough to become fluent in English. We're gonna be OK. Thanks for reminding me to watch Finding Private Ryan later!
ReplyDeleteI'm a fan of your blog and writing, Cate, so I'm sorry to disagree with you.
Delete"But do I think we're faced with half a nation of Nazis?" No, as you say, "voters vote for all kinds of reasons." But, whether they were motivated by being anti-abortion, supporters of tax cuts for the rich, against having a trans person on the "wrong" team, in favor of having an orange king rather than a president, or whatever else, 77 million of them found it acceptable to elevate a misogynistic, xenophobic, racist, fascist demagogue to the presidency. It was clear that his agenda would be in support of Christian nationalism and his interest would be to dismantle as much of the social progress that has been painstakingly achieved in this country as he could. Sadly, "the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing."
I wish I could be as optimistic as you are. But I tried to "have enough faith in the American people" that they wouldn't vote for this incompetent charlatan in 2016, let alone after he should have been convicted when impeached for January 6 and then still ran as a convicted criminal in 2024. Uh, that faith was misplaced.
"this craziness can't go on forever." Pretty to think so. The only reason the Nazis were stopped is because much of the "free world," along with the Soviet Union, banded together to stop them. Nobody will be coming to save the U.S.A., alas.
While I surely hope that you're right, "We're gonna be OK." assumes a lot of facts not in evidence.
I don't blame you Jakash! I suppose there are many days when I feel just as you and Neil do today. Maybe D-Day gives me a boost? I worry more about AI than Trump, to tell you the truth. But then I worry about AI a lot.
DeleteShoot I meant "Saving Private Ryan."
ReplyDeleteScottish Grandad was in the D Day landings aged 50. I am indebted to every single person from America, Canada, GB or anywhere else who fought against German tyranny (twice in less than 50 years). Of Scottish & Irish parentage I vouch Your role(s) counted. Thank You from the bottom of my heart, and, my soul. - A lass in England
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post. There were no DDay movies or documentaries on TV. How soon we forget and how sad.
ReplyDeleteStory tv on cable had DDay docum. earlier this week and there's been some films on the Movies channel-surp PBS didn't do any
DeleteIt's not forgetting, it's just the way anniversaries are. The big ones are always the anniversaries that end in a zero (20, 40, 50, 60, etc.) or a five (25th, 35th, 45th, 75th). Last year was the 80th, so the 81st (or the 82nd) isn't gonna be a big TV day. Last year, 2024, may have been the last major Normandy commemoration. Very few invaders (or defenders) are still around to be celebrated.
DeleteI can't remember a more fitting description of the battles we face today and what it means to defeat those who are trampling on our freedom. In this age of digital technology, we are fighting a totally different kind of war. Neil's closing comment is spot on: We did it once before. Maybe we can do it again."
ReplyDeleteThe major difference I see between May 6, 1944 and May 6, 2025 is that greed and stupidity rather than human ideals and freedom are the forces that threaten us. The enemy we now face is internal rather than external. This war will not be fought on beaches or battlefields but at the ballot box. I'm with Neil, we cannot and will not give up. And we must prevail.
I still have no idea how Trump beat Hillary in 2016, but I'm quite sure how he won in 2024; it was a great job of acting. He took that moment, however that moment came to be, when with his ear bleeding, apparently wounded, he struggled to his feet and raised his fists in defiance, he was for a few seconds the hero that every adolescent boy yearns to become, and the twenty-year-old adolescents and the sixty-year-old adolescents all voted for him on that basis. And he continues to play that role over and over again. They love it...so far.
ReplyDeletejohn
His ear was never bleeding, I believe he had a squib they use in the movies & in pro wrestling to fake the blood, as the assassination attempt was a fake he knew about in advance. Just look at his ear now, no evidence of a scar!
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