“…this great and noble undertaking”
By Mitch Berg
It was sixty-four years ago today that the Allies started taking Western Europe back from the Nazis.
The first, inevitable step was to get past the Westwall – perhaps the most immense set of fortifications ever built, with the intention of making the beaches from Denmark to the Spanish border a bloodbath for any troops trying to cross the beaches.
In places, it worked:
In some places, the troops had to overcome the near-impossible:
And yet by the end of the day, nine allied divisions were ashore, a toehold for a bridgehead that would eventually expand, ten months later, across Western Europe.
There were troops from the US, of course, on the two western beaches…
…and farther east, beaches with Brits…
…and Scots…
And in the middle, linking the two and meeting the worst resistance other than Omaha, the Canadians:
…along with troops-in-exile from elsewhere in occupied Europe; French commandos – some of whom had spent four years in exile, and who spent the next year belying the notion that the French were cowards…:
…and Norwegians, who’d been without a homeland for four years…
…and Poles, who’d been in exile for five years and would, in some cases, remain there for forty-five more:
The world may see nothing like it again.
Anyway – thank a D-Day veteran.
June 6th, 2008 at 8:29 am
There’s about a one in 10 chance that one of those guys in the 5th pic from the top is my grandfather.
June 6th, 2008 at 8:31 am
I remember the story. One of your best posts (after allowing for the complete lack of bacon or poop).
June 6th, 2008 at 8:43 am
I’m headed to DC next week. I hope to have time to visit the WWII memorial.
June 6th, 2008 at 9:17 am
Funny thing about that pic is that it’s posed – just demonstrating for the photographer the way the got up those cliffs.
The first time they went up those ropes / ladders, there were Nazis on top of those cliffs dropping grenades on them.
June 6th, 2008 at 10:01 am
[…] Over at Shot in the Dark, Mitch has a nice post on D-Day, this being June 6. As such, here is my yearly tribute to what was accomplished on that beach. […]
June 6th, 2008 at 10:10 am
Nice tribute-thanks Mitch. And thank you more than can be expressed veterans. I wish the West would come together like that again.
June 6th, 2008 at 10:23 am
One of the stories is that the photographer on Omaha had his film damaged. He actually took many many more photos, but only a few were processed correctly and survived.
June 6th, 2008 at 10:44 am
One of the stories is that the photographer on Omaha had his film damaged.
It was Robert Capa. He sent his film from the beach back to a lab in London, where a technician, amazed at what he was seeing, inadvertently exposed hundreds of negatives, ruining them. As I recall from Capa’s biography, less than a dozen of Capa’s photos – including the fourth from the top – survived.
June 6th, 2008 at 10:51 am
From what I’m seeing here, it doesn’t look like the third pic from the top survived either ;).
June 6th, 2008 at 11:16 am
Yeah, it appeared in some browsers but not in others. It was a great shot of Omaha Beach from the top of Pointe Du Hoc.
I swapped it out. Blah.
June 6th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Great tribute, Mitch. I would, however, like to add this to your opening line:
It was sixty-four years ago today that the Allies started taking Western Europe back from the Nazis and saved it from Soviet domination.
June 6th, 2008 at 11:43 am
The world may see nothing like it again.
God willing.
June 6th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Well done.
In the same spirit: http://thenightwriterblog.powerblogs.com/posts/1211564123.shtml
June 6th, 2010 at 8:07 am
[…] happy with the piece I wrote two years ago on the […]