"All great historical achievements risk fading into obscure past events, reduced to calendar notations or unread Wikipedia entries — unless those moments are kept vivid and meaningful for future generations.
June 6 is one of those imperiled dates.
It’s the 75th anniversary of D-Day, one of the most audacious military actions in American history. On June 6, 1944, about 156,000 troops of the United States and its allies invaded Nazi-occupied France by sea and air, gaining a foothold in northern Europe that would help lead to victory over Germany in World War II within a year.
...Among those books is Rick Atkinson’s “The Guns at Last Light,” excerpted here in italics.
In it he describes the ferocious battle scenes, quotes the participants and honors the dead at Omaha, Utah and the other beaches.
...Mortar rounds killed a trio of soldiers next to (U.S. Gen. Norman) Cota and wounded his radioman; knocked flat but unscratched, the general regained his feet and followed the snaking column toward the hillcrest, past captured Germans spread-eagled on the ground.
Then over the lip of the ridge they ran, past stunted pines and through uncut wheat as Cota yelled, “Now let’s see what you’re made of!”
GIs hauling a captured MG-12 machine gun with ammunition belts draped around their necks poured fire into enemy trenches and at the broken ranks pelting inland.
War is terrible.
Tragic.
D-Day was those things.
It also was heroic and necessary.
Younger generations of Americans won’t understand what happened on June 6, 1944, unless they are inspired to learn it.
If you know the D-Day story, share it, teach it.
Read more: ‘I’d like to volunteer, sir’: Memories of D-Day live on through oral histories »
Read more: Celebrating the 75th anniversary of D-Day, near and far »
June 6 is one of those imperiled dates.
It’s the 75th anniversary of D-Day, one of the most audacious military actions in American history. On June 6, 1944, about 156,000 troops of the United States and its allies invaded Nazi-occupied France by sea and air, gaining a foothold in northern Europe that would help lead to victory over Germany in World War II within a year.
...Among those books is Rick Atkinson’s “The Guns at Last Light,” excerpted here in italics.
In it he describes the ferocious battle scenes, quotes the participants and honors the dead at Omaha, Utah and the other beaches.
Then over the lip of the ridge they ran, past stunted pines and through uncut wheat as Cota yelled, “Now let’s see what you’re made of!”
GIs hauling a captured MG-12 machine gun with ammunition belts draped around their necks poured fire into enemy trenches and at the broken ranks pelting inland.
War is terrible.
Tragic.
D-Day was those things.
It also was heroic and necessary.
Younger generations of Americans won’t understand what happened on June 6, 1944, unless they are inspired to learn it.
If you know the D-Day story, share it, teach it.
Read more: ‘I’d like to volunteer, sir’: Memories of D-Day live on through oral histories »
Read more: Celebrating the 75th anniversary of D-Day, near and far »
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