Today, more than two dozen presidents and prime ministers, including President Joe Biden, President Emmanuel Macron, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, gathered in Normandy to commemorate the successful allied D-Day landing 80 years ago.
Among the guests at the memorial event, the oldest was 107-year-old Reynolds Tomter of Pigeon Falls, Wisconsin. He is the oldest World War II merchant marine veteran in the United States.
Why are we still celebrating a battle eight decades after it happened? Because this was the most complicated single operation ever undertaken by humans. The hinge of history rested on its success or failure.
If the D-Day landing succeeded, the democracies would be ashore and prepared to defeat the Nazi Germans and liberate Western Europe.
If the D-Day landing had failed, it is possible the shock would have been so great that the Anglo-American forces would have refused to try a second time. The war would have been decided between two great totalitarian dictatorships, Nazi German and Communist Russia. Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler might have decided to keep fighting one another. The Soviets ultimately would have likely won (which would have taken two or three more years without the allies liberating France, Belgium and Holland). However, it is also possible that exhaustion might have driven the two dictators to a truce and divided up Europe in permanent totalitarian dictatorship.
Allied commanding Gen. Dwight Eisenhower knew how vital success was. When he was placed in charge of making the operation succeed in January 1944, he insisted on a dramatically bigger and more powerful landing than the planners had devised.
It was called Operation Overlord. Eisenhower was determined to land so many troops on the first day – and back them up with naval and airpower – that the Germans could not push them back into the sea.
Eisenhower felt that he needed an extra insurance policy to help the troops who would be coming ashore over the beaches. So, he insisted on having two American and one British paratrooper divisions land during the night before the invasion over the shore. Some 23,000 men entered France from the air and fought to block German reinforcements from getting to the beaches.
The airborne operation was so important to Eisenhower that he insisted on it. British Air Force generals warned that many paratroopers would be killed before they landed because their planes would be hit by anti-aircraft fire. Yet, Eisenhower insisted that he needed the extra insurance of these highly trained fighters. Given how difficult some of the beaches turned out to be, Eisenhower was almost certainly right.
More than 7,000 ships and 11,600 aircraft were involved in getting an estimated 160,000 troops ashore in Normandy. In addition to 73,000 Americans, there were 83,115 British and Canadian troops landing.
Even with all these forces, the Normandy landing was a close run thing. It was possible for the Germans to repel the allies at the beach. The future of the world would have been vastly different.
One final twist was created by the weather.
The allies had the advantage that weather came from the west. They had meteorological stations in the Atlantic. Eisenhower knew that weather could be decisive in making or breaking the invasion. He had been practicing with meteorologists’ forecasts for months. He studied the forecasts and then gamed out what the weather would do.
Suddenly, with everything finely tuned, the ships were loaded and at sea on June 5, 1944 – the date of the planned invasion. The moon and the tides made that day best for the invasion. The planes were getting ready to load, and Eisenhower was warned that the weather would be too bad to invade. He was faced with bringing all the troops back and waiting another month. Then, at the last minute, the meteorologists said there would be a break in the weather the following day.
In the biggest single decision of World War II, Eisenhower listened to the advice from his admirals and generals – and then said, “we’ll go.” He wrote a brief “in case of failure message” and put it in his pocket. He said:
“Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air and the navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.”
Imagine the moral courage it took to carry the burden of risking the lives of 160,000 men – knowing that you were the one who launched them into battle.
Eisenhower issued a statement that day to the troops that said among other things:
“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 hope and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.”
President Franklin D. Roosevelt went on national radio that night to lead the nation in prayer for the lives of our young men and women in combatant. We recommend listening to his prayer.
Today we honor the courage, bravery, and commitment of those heroic warriors who stormed the beaches of Normandy 80 years ago. Our prayers go with them in gratitude for the freedom they preserved. May we have the resolve to keep that freedom against all future threats.