73 years ago today, American, British, Canadian and Free French forces waded ashore in Normandy, beginning what overall Commander General Dwight David Eisenhower called "The Great Crusade".
The operation had been called off before. Weather was closing in, and summer storms were coming. Eisenhower had to make a dangerous decision. I have little doubt he didn't sleep the night before making the decision. Finally, he stepped into his briefing room and told the assembled officers: "We Go. "The men got back on the ships they'd been on before and waited. Most were seasick. Many violently so. Yet, when the time came, they got down into those Higgins boats and set off for shore. Many of them would later say they went not because of the Great Crusade against the Nazis, or because they were ordered to, but because their buddies were going. But make no mistake, whatever reason made them go, every last damn one of them were brave men. As someone else once said -- the brave man is the fellow who is scared, knows it, yet bites back his fear and goes anyway. He is brave for maybe a few more minutes than the other guy. On one beach in particular, American soldiers got down into the boats and went. They went into the most vicious, concentrated barrage of rifle, machine-gun, artillery, and mortar fire ever. The Germans knew all about Higgins boats. They knew that you waited until the ramp dropped and then fired a burst of MG-42 fire into the opening. They knew that most of the men so treated did not live to reach the shore. The men in the boats knew all that too. And knowing it, they went anyway.
So, today, June 6th 2017, I write my little memorial to those brave men. All of the ones who waded ashore that grim morning deserve our thanks.
