Sixty-Six Years Ago Today, The World Held Its Breath
by Logical Lizard on Jun. 06, 2010, under Cinema & TV, History, Musings, TechnologyD-Day, June 6, 1944 was the most critical day of World War Two, probably the Twentieth Century, and possibly all of modern history. The Allied invasion of Europe was superbly chronicled by Cornelius Ryan in his book The Longest Day. The title refers to a comment made by the German high command that the invasion would be, for both the Allies and the Axis, the longest day.
When I was a little boy, my father took me to the Classic Cinema in South London to watch the Darryl F. Zanuck-produced blockbuster of the same name, and my life was never the same again. The Longest Day is the cornerstone of war films, and was also a groundbreaker. Zanuck took an uncredited directorial role, but the bulk of the filming was handled by three others: Ken Annakin for the British segments; Andrew Marton for the American; while Bernhard Wicki oversaw the German scenes. Multi-national actors spoke in their native tongues and Zanuck took the then rather unprecedented step of using extensive subtitles in the film—thereby avoiding the annoying and embarrassing norm of watching English or American actors playing German characters who speak English with fake German accents.
The Longest Day also boasts perhaps the greatest male cast ever assembled in a single film, including Richard Burton, Robert MItchum, John Wayne, Robert Ryan, Sean Connery, Richard Todd, Eddie Albert, Sal Mineo, Henry Fonda, George Segal, Robert Wagner, Rod Steiger and many others. The movie was released in 1962—suprisingly (for the time) and effectively in luminous and striking black and white—and a large number of the action sequences were filmed at the actual invasion locations in Normandy. I have often wondered how the French locals reacted when the gargantuan invasion was recreated in their home towns and villages less than twenty years after the actual events. My father attended the star-studded film premiere in New York City and—even though he is not, in any way, a man impressed by celebrities or status—he was thrilled that one of his heroes, Major General Omar Bradley was present at the screening.
American troops disembark on Omaha Beach under heavy German fire on the morning of June 6, 1944. Photograph by Chief Photographer's Mate Robert F. Sargent, U.S. Coast Guard
My parents took me to visit the Normandy beaches while I was still a child, when only about 25 years had passed since the invasion itself. The beaches of Normandy were, at that time, still littered with monstrous sections of the Mulberry artificial harbors. We found landing craft buried in the sand and a ghostly German 88mm artillery cannon hidden in the woods.
Each year France hosts a D-Day anniversary, and veterans return to those cool, windy beaches where the outcome of World War Ii was irrevocably determined, and each year there are fewer of them. The average age of D-Day veterans is today about 85; the same age as my father. Although he didn’t land on D-Day, he did disembark on the Normandy beaches soon after, and saw heavy action in France, Belgium (during the brutal Battle of the Bulge), and was unofficially one of the very first Americans into Germany—during a scouting mission his jeep inadvertently came up against the Siegfried Line, at which time my father received a piece of Nazi shrapnel in his foot and missed the rest of the war. He told me that he’d wanted to see it all the way through to the end, make it to Berlin and do as much damage as he could. My father is a contemplative and peaceful man, so this revelation surprised me, but then when I reflect that he lost family members in the Nazi death camps it’s no longer quite so surprising.
After six hours of fascinating interviews, I recounted part of my father’s wartime story in the chapter “As We Say in French,” in Duty, Honor and Valor, published by The Society of Southwestern Authors and Wheatmark Press. My original (and far superior) title of Dad’s story was “Command of the French Language,” but that was changed, without my permission, by the editor, and of course that’s sometimes what editors do to writers.
Every year, on the Sixth, my father and I go through an amusing little rituai. One of us calls the other and, in a proper British accent, says: “And now some messages for our friends in occupied Europe . . . Jean has a long mustache. I say again, Jean has a long mustache.” This being a coded radio missive broadcast to French resistance fighters announcing that the invasion was coming the next day.
I also make time in my busy life to watch The Longest Day, each year, on June 6th. Partly because it is—in my opinion—one of the finest films ever made, and partly out of respect for the literal armies of service men and women who embarked upon that greatest and most hazardous of military adventures.
My father, and millions like him, made sacrifices and endured hardships that we can barely imagine. Because of those sacrifices my generation has been able to enjoy the privileges of blogging, frolicking on Twitter, making television shows, and indulging in other modern pastimes in comparative freedom (although those freedoms continue to erode in a slow and frighteningly Orwellian manner).
There was no doubt in the mind of my father, and his many comrades-in-arms, that the Nazi monster had to be destroyed completely and utterly. In our modern world of smart bombs, biological weapons, September 11, plastic explosives, and religion-crazed terrorists, the battle lines are no longer so clearly drawn. We can only hope that world leaders who determine our path today show a fraction of the resolve, clarity, and brilliance that Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower displayed on the night of June 5th, 1944 when he ordered the invasion to commence.
Follow me on Twitter @geoffnotkin
June 7th, 2010 on 12:30 am
Trying again to post: thanks for the great story Geoff. We were once on a beach in Normandy about the time President Clinton was officially visiting France. There is still lots of evidence of WWII in Europe: the graveyards, memorials, statues, etc.
June 7th, 2010 on 1:06 pm
Hi Carolyn: Nice to hear from you as always, and thank you for reading. I visited the Allied graveyard with my father, and it was a rather sobering experience. As Dad said: “All those young men who never really got to enjoy life.” Well worth a visit for anyone interested in World War II history. Cheers — LL
June 7th, 2010 on 3:42 pm
Well written article! Well done.
The Germans were stupid. We were lucky too. …They actually believed it was a diversion. They believed we were coming in at Calais, later. They had some third level divisions at the beach. They did not keep the best armored and first level units close at hand. And when they tried to move them up or airpower cut them to pieces.
They actually thought there were a lot more of us still in England too. Patton’s mirage army.
It was a close run thing. We also failed to understand the hedgerows. We should have figured they were going to be a defensive barrier.
June 17th, 2010 on 4:33 pm
Hey 007: Yea, the Germans were were stupid. They had Tiger tanks with 88mm guns and we had Shermans with 75mm. They had ME-262 Jets and we had p-51 prop driven planes. They had 1,200 rpm MG-42 machine guns, and we had 600 rpm Brownings. They had V-1 and V-2 rockets that hit London, and we had bazookas that bounced off Tiger tanks. They had MP-43-44 automatic Assault rifles and we had 8-shot semi-auto Garand rifles. Plus air-to-air missiles. And the list goes on.
Ever hear of the Horton 229 Flying wing? Jet powered and over 600 mph.
Yea, yer right, 007. The Krauts were a backward bunch.
June 7th, 2010 on 5:42 pm
When I was with the Army Security Agency, posted to Heilbronn, Germany in the late 1950′s, the father of the girl that I was dating at the time was a Waffen-SS Hauptsturmbanfuhrer (equal to a Capt. and a commander of a recon company) in the 2nd W-SS Panzer Division ‘Das Reich’ which fought round the Normandy area in June, 1944 and after.
He said that the war ended for him in early October, ’44 when he was wounded and captured in a little French village near the Belgian border.
He was a tough old geezer, and you didn’t want to mess with him, SS tattoo in the left armpit and all.
The Agency had an unofficial policy of it’s members not getting too serious with members of either Nazi or SS families at that time, so the word came down that It would look better if I chose another girlfiend.
Which I did. End of romance.
Not wanting to offend the poor peace-loving Germans, instead of calling them Krauts or Huns, we called them Herms. That’s short for ‘Hermann the German.’ That was OK to them . . . and the Army too.
Yer pal, Pvt. Ferrari Bubba, PLO.
Yer pal, Ferrari Bubba
June 8th, 2010 on 3:51 pm
Greetings LL. Nicely written, informative piece.
Thank God Kesselring or Guderian were not running the show, we’d all be speaking Deutsch or Russian.
The assaults at Omaha and Utah were meatgrinders.
Those guys were the finest, in a not so fine situation, as were all the heroes of all nations involved that fateful day.
June 9th, 2010 on 10:15 am
Hey Radmax: Speaking of ’meatgrinders,’ I just got through reading a book on the history of the machine gun.
On the first day of the Battle of the Somme in WW1, held on July, 1, 1915, the Brits lost 57,000 troops to the massed Hun Maxim machine guns, including over 19,800 KIAs on the field, all within the space of 7 hours. The bodies were stacked 5 and 6 deep for kilometers.
All this after a massive 36-hour British bombardment which was supposed to knock out the Hun defenses.
The Shelling Stopped 10 minutes before the Brits climbed out of their trenches, and marched, as if on parade, straight into the barrels of the German machine guns, which had 10 minutes to prepare for the attack in stone silence.
It was, and still is, the bloodiest day in British military mistory. You’d think thay they would have learned from past events, as they did the same thing, albiet to a much smaller scale, to Shaka and his Zulu Impi in South Africa only 30 years earlier with American made Gatlings.
That hot summer day in France changed the face of warfare forever.
Yer pal, Ferrari Bubba
June 9th, 2010 on 12:23 pm
Hey FB! Man, the irony of the Maxim was that the guy who invented it was an American born Brit.
He offered it to the Brits first and after being rebuffed, sold the patent to the bloody huns, resulting in Central Powers superiority is every early battle. They damn near won the war!
At least they had the french POS equivalent, the Chauchat(show-shau)…(worked great if 100% dirt free, try that in trench warfare) it jammed incessantly.
When the doughboys entered the conflict, the brass in their eminent wisdom would not let our troops use the Browning BAR…afraid it would fall into enemy hands and be copied.
Talk about going into battle with one hand tied behind your back.
Ps-sorry LL, about off topic meanderings. I’m somewhat of a history buff…couldn’t resist.
…and FB, what’s the name of that book? Sounds verrrry interesting.
‘boer convinced’…? ironical, ain’t it?
June 9th, 2010 on 4:35 pm
Hey Rad: Machine Gun. by Anthony Smith. St. Martin’s Paperbacks.
Yer pal, Ferrari Bubba
June 9th, 2010 on 6:39 pm
Thanks FB. Definitely put it on my list.
June 29th, 2010 on 2:27 pm
I meant tghat they were stupid with their tactics at Normandy.
Their equipment was 20 years in advance to ours in some cases. Yes they had the Me -262. Great plane in all areas. BUT. They didnt build them early enough when they could have, not enough fuel, not enough pilots because they didnt train them nearly as fast as us. And yes the ME-262 was great and the P-51 was great too, we just put our P-51′s over their airfields when the ME-262 had to come home to land because they could not stay up that long. And Hitler wanted it as a bomber.
Yes they built the Horten 229 flying wing. great design. Just one problem. And this is true of all weapon systems. Ahh… how many flying wings did they build and fly. And how many flew in combat? I think they flew one, maybe two. Stupid…no. Not by any means. Its one thing to list a bunch of interesting weapons but a country has to actually build a lot of them and put them into the field. The Russians knew this. KV tank chassis and the great T-34 tanks. Their airplanes were the same, many of a good design. The Germans just didnt build enough.
June 30th, 2010 on 5:38 pm
Hey 007: If any one of the 17 known planned attempts on Hitler’s life was sucessful early enough, we still might be speaking German.
The First, a bomb, placed in the Munich Burgerbrau Beer hall on Nov. o9, 1939, killed 8 and injured 65 during a speech by der Fuhrer, including Ava Braun’s brother, but Hitler had left already.
(Note: I had a few beers there myself, back in the ’50s when I was with ASA, but it was torn down in 1979 for a new Munich Hilton Hotel.
Paris, you bitch!)
The Generals lot, on July 20, 1944, IMHO, came too late to have any real effect on the outcome of the war.
our take?
Yer pal, Ferrari Bubba