Seventy years ago today, in one of the most memorable actions of World War II, a massive armada landed troops on the beaches of Normandy and with that sealed the fate of Nazi Germany. The force was part of a true multinational effort, but in many respects, D-Day was a quintessentially American event.
While a stunning military victory, one that involved incredible courage and countless acts of individual bravery, the Normandy invasion itself was a masterful triumph of organization, intelligence, planning and, above all, logistics.
The actual invasion, D-Day proper, was not the biggest battle of the war or the bloodiest. Those distinctions would fall to the gruesome clashes between the Nazis and the Soviet Union. The Allies lost more than 9,000 killed on D-Day, while total casualties in some other battles exceeded 250,000 and in each of three horrific cases on the Eastern Front added up to more than 1 million.
Nor was D-Day really a turning point. For the Nazis, the tide had turned already with their disastrous losses at Stalingrad and Kursk.
D-Day was the message to the Nazis that World War II was truly lost. It was a reassurance to the Allies that the end was in sight and the outcome, while not yet certain, increasingly looked favorable. And it was a sign to all concerned that the full might of the United States had been brought to bear.
Americans had been fighting the Nazis for more than two years, at sea, in North Africa, in Sicily and Italy. But they also had been fighting in the Pacific, and the country’s economy, recently in full Depression, took time to spool up.
That the Allies were ready, however, was evident on D-Day. The invasion force of 160,000 troops was supported by more than 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircraft. And by day’s end, more than 100,000 soldiers began their drive across Europe.
The invasion itself never was a sure thing. The Allies’ commander, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, drafted two messages to be delivered after the invasion, one announcing success and the other admitting defeat, saying, “Any fault is mine alone.”
But once the beachhead was secure, the Allies could taste victory. There was hard and bloody fighting ahead – in the hedgerows, at Arnhem, in the Battle of the Bulge – but the Allies would only grow stronger, more confident and better equipped.
After D-Day, the end was in sight, and Europe was soon to be free. There was more to that victory than Normandy, but no more emblematic day.
