JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Eighty years ago today, the largest sea-to-land invasion in history took place, as Allied troops from Great Britain, the United State, and the governments-in-exile of France and Norway waded through salt water, sand, and a deadly barrage from fortified pillboxes on the cliffs above the beaches of Normandy.
Over 150,000 men were involved in the meticulously planned assault; more than 4,400 died. The carnage was worst on the beach code-named 'Omaha;' the landing crafts missed their marks and were difficult to unload due to the strong wind, while soldiers and engineers struggled to clear the beach's defensive obstacles and mines. Over 5,000 men were dead, missing, or wounded by the time fighters secured a handful of positions past the bluffs that night.
It's almost impossible to imagine any military force today carrying off a daring scheme like Operation Overlord. The planning took almost a full year, with British and American top brass and men and officers from Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and Rhodesia, as well as European soldiers eager to liberate their homelands. Which they did: 336 days after the blood-soaked landing in Normandy, the Allies accepted Germany's unconditional surrender.
It's also hard to fathom the extent of the trickery, misinformation campaigns, misdirection and code-breaking that went into keeping an assault of this scale hidden. Impossible today, but with camouflage netting, papier-mâché tanks and fake secret papers, the British Security Service carried off what is undoubtedly the greatest intelligence coup in history.
Some three months after D-Day, a young Englishman named Victor Wakefield turned eighteen. The need for manpower was so great, he was given his fitness and aptitude tests and inducted into the British Army that same day. His lungs were weak, but his brain was sharp, and he was shuttled into intelligence, where he would serve in England, India and Kenya. Today he lives in Maine with his wife Celia, one of the estimated 1% of WWII veterans still with us.
We all live mostly comfortable lives in the here and now; sacrifice isn't a common concept. Please, dear readers, take a moment today to reflect on the sacrifices that made this day possible eighty year ago: time and treasure and the fountain-gush of young lives pouring themselves out into salt water and sand.
We owe a debt we can never fully repay but, to Victor and all the rest who so bravely fought, thank you for your service, your sacrifice, your courage . . . it is because of you that we remain free.
ReplyDeleteSo true, Joan.
DeleteI am up early watching live the remembrance events on Juno Beach where the Canadians landed on D-Day. Thank you to Victor and every man and woman who fought for the liberty and freedom we enjoy today. May we remember. May we remember. Please, may we remember.
ReplyDeleteFrom Celia: Thank you Amanda, he sleeps peacefully beside me right now.
DeleteWonderful post. Hard to imagine that it has been 80 years. So much committment and courage.
ReplyDeleteI do wonder how it all will be remembered and commemorated when we reach the 2040s and it will have been a century.
DeleteI am also watching the live coverage of the Juno Beach ceremonies on CBC. Their sacrifice and courage should never be forgotten.
ReplyDeleteAmen, Grace.
DeleteFrom Diana: Eloquent essay in honour of D-Day. An eighteen year old would be one of the American soldiers on these landing crafts arriving in Normandy. He went to college on the GI Bill, married a niece of my grandparents, and they had children. Before he got married, he was a translator at the Nuremberg Trials. When I think of the Nuremberg Trials, I think of that black and white movie with Maximillian Schell. Trying to remember who else was in the movie,
ReplyDeleteAnd is Victor’s wife Celia also our Celia who contributes recipes of her yummy goodies to the Jungle Red blog from time to time?
Writing very early in the morning…my headache woke me up. I think I will be okay.
Had a wonderful time yesterday at Book Passage to celebrate Jacqueline Winspear’s last Maisie Dobbs novel - THE COMFORT OF GHOSTS. It was standing room only! I saw Rhys and her daughter Clare, Bill Petrocelli and Cara Black. I met other alumni of the Mystery Writing conferences.
From Celia: blessings and thanks, I’ll watch later.
DeleteThank you for your essay, Julia. It is a mistake to not teach history. We fought that war for all the right reasons, but the sacrifice was unimaginable. How did we get from then to now?
ReplyDeleteAh that is the concerning part. We seem to be repeating history. Only the names have changed but not the personalities.
DeleteI don't know, Judy. Today's dabblings and feints into ethnonationalism and fascism seems like children digging up buried munitions, entranced by the play possibilities and forgetting how deadly they are.
DeleteJulia, Great characterization of the current political environment!
DeleteThank you, Julia, and blessings to Celia's Victor. My introverted intellectual father was trained in Italian and then sent to an intelligence post in the remote mountains of India - they probably could tell he wasn't infantry material.
ReplyDeleteAs Amanda says, may we always remember.
Edith: Your father's story is intriguing. Have you ever wanted to write it or write it into a book of yours?
DeleteNot yet, but it could happen! I have letters he wrote to my mother, whom he had met at a dance her sorority threw for the soldiers at Cal (aka University of California, Berkley, when that was the only campus). They married after he returned from serving.
DeleteI'll be waiting for it, Edith!
DeleteFrom Celia: and back to you Edith.
DeleteFROM JAY
ReplyDeleteWhile I won't be watching any broadcast coverage of the day's remembrance ceremonies, I can pay tribute in my own style. The Swedish power metal band Sabaton has a song (which is also the title of their first studio album) called "Primo Victoria" which is about the Normandy Landings (from the Allied perspective). So I'll play that album/song today.
To be helpful in case anyone wants to look it up, here's the Youtube link to the lyric video of the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVxTJ9Xb9Ec
Thanks for the link, Jay. It's a mini history lesson set to music.
DeleteThanks, Jay. My son, who loves Scandinavian metal, will adore this!
DeleteAmanda, all of Sabaton's songs are like that. The singer Joakim and the bassist Par are history nerds.
DeleteJulia, you'll have to let me know what he thinks.
Thank you, Julia, for reminding us. I did remember as soon as I saw the calendar. Even being bad with numbers, there are still some dates that resonate with me and June 6 is one of them.
ReplyDeleteAnd a huge THANK YOU to Celia's Victor! I wanted to say 'our' Victor but maybe that would be too presumptuous.
From Celia: You’re most welcome Judi, on Victors behalf.
DeleteThank you for your beautiful reflection. I have been thinking a lot about D-Day as this anniversary approaches. And here we are. 80 years! My dad, in Leeds, England, was unfit for combat, but he was in the Home Guard as a payroll sergeant. He shared many memories over the years and became quite the WWII scholar.
ReplyDeleteThe free world owes such a debt of gratitude to that generation and especially to those who participated in Operation Overlord and the ensuing ground war through France and Germany, I remember also the pilots and other servicemen of the Allied air forces that suffered so many losses. A shoutout to the people of Britain who would not back down when facing overwhelming odds during 1940 and 1941. FDR's Lend-Lease policy helped them survive. If they had been conquered, Normandy wouldn't have been possible..
The steely resolve and wide-spread commitment is part of what I can't imagine happening today. The war was "fought" by the whole population of multiple countries, in small measures like Victory Gardens (shout out to Rhys!) and in huge ways like retooling the manufacturing base.
DeleteThinking of Victor and his fellow soldiers today and every day. My dad was on a destroyer in the Pacific on D-Day, but he always said it was the most important day of his life.
ReplyDeleteMargaret, what was your father's rating in the Navy? Where did he serve?
DeleteLTJG James C. Hamilton served on the USS Henry A. Wiley, known as "hammering Hank," a minelayer in the Pacific. They saw action at Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and in the East China Sea.
DeleteSo long as we live, they too, shall live, for they are now a part of us, as we remember them.
ReplyDeleteRabbi Sylvan Kamens and Rabbi Jack Riemer
part of a poem often used in Jewish services
That is lovely, Anon. Thank you.
DeleteWhat a lovely post Julia. And thanks to Victor. They really were the greatest generation.
ReplyDeleteMy father was in WWII along with his 5 brothers. All came home safely. My father continued in the Navy as a career officer after the war.
Goodness, Anon. Imagine your grandmother, waiting at home while all of her sons were in harms way. How she must have felt when the war was over.
DeleteRemember the five Sullivan brothers who served on the same ship and were all killed
DeleteThanks Julia, yes my grandmother received a personal letter of thanks from President Roosevelt. Her youngest son who was 15 at the time wanted to join up too and we down to the recruitment office and lied about his age. The recruiter however, knew his mother (my grandfather, her husband, had died a number of years earlier) and called her and sent him home. He spoke about his disappointment into his adult life.
DeleteTo one Anon from another! I think because of the tragic loss the Sullivan family suffered there were many changes after WWII regarding recruitment and assignments of family members. Such a tragedy.
DeleteOne of my uncles was in a tank which traveled across part of France. His tank caught on fire and his hands were burned in the process. He was evacuated to a hospital in England.
ReplyDeleteHe was 103 when he died a few years ago. He kept in touch and went to reunions with a number of the people he served with and a couple of them came to his 100 birthday party.
That's amazing, Anon. I'm not surprised those who were able to came to his centenary. I've heard the bonds forged in battle are incredibly strong.
DeleteEleanor Beardsley is NPR's on-the-spot reporter for the D-Day ceremonies in France, and she was talking about it yesterday.
ReplyDeleteThank you to Victor, and to all the brave men and women who fought for us so hard, and with so much ingenuity. I worry that, during a time of great potential change right now, we as a society couldn't muster up the same fervor to save our democracy.
I heard the Eleanor Beardsley piece yesterday.
DeleteI worry about the same thing, Karen. Imagine the reaction if we asked everyone to recycle metal and tires to help with a war in Europe today...
DeleteOr, heavens above, not to have butter…although the war was still going, my dad returned from India to finish out his service in Tennessee. And he embarassed my mother painfully by asking a waiter for butter as they celebrated his safe return and their reunion with a restaurant meal. Tiny memories like this one will soon disappear. Elisabeth
DeleteThank you, Julia, for being one of the few who have remembered this day. Victor, thank you for your service. The greatest generation. An apt descriptor.
ReplyDeleteThey really were, Kait.
DeleteFrom Flora:
ReplyDeleteJulia, you've moved me to tears! And bless Victor, Celia, that he came home safely. My dad fought in the Pacific, he was drafted, but he was like so many others--they fought with courage and determination to keep the world free. As Anonymous above noted, they truly were the greatest generation.
Ordinary men and women who rose to the moment, and met it magnificently, Flora.
DeleteThank you, Celia!
ReplyDeleteThank you. Julia, for this informative post. My sister’s father-in-law participated in it, and he and my sister-‘s mother-in-law went over for remembrance ceremonies, I think the fortieth and fiftieth. He passed away a number of years ago.
ReplyDeleteI know a lot about the war in the Pacific, where my dad served in the Navy, but I don’t have a lot of knowledge about what happened in Europe. It’s so interesting that you posted this today, because I’ve been thinking that I need to read up on every aspect of WW II. All of us are leading relatively comfortably lives, thanks to our veterans.
DebRo
Amazing heroism from ordinary people who did what they could. Thank you, Julia, for the reminder. May we keep teaching and never forget.
ReplyDeleteThank you Victor!
ReplyDeleteMy grandpa moved from Iowa to Bremerton, Washington during the war to be a civilian welder on the ships in the Navy yard there. Grandma and the 3 girls joined him there once he found a house to rent. My mother, the youngest daughter was 5 years old. After the war, they moved back to Woodbine, Iowa where Grandpa was the town blacksmith and welder until his death in 1994.
I can’t figure out what is going on with my Jungle Reds email. I haven’t received it since Lucy’s blog about the beans. I have checked all the spam and junk folders to no avail. Yesterday I resubscribed. Didn’t receive it today so I will see what happens tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Brenda, for saying this. I, too, have not received my daily JRW email. I’ve been trying to figure out how to fix this problem. I think bringing it to the attention of the Reds is the best approach. — Pat S
DeleteMe too! I have to keep re-entering my email address but even then it might work for a bit and then ... nothing. What I do now is to click onto Google and type in Jungle Red Writers. Then in order to read the comments you have to click on "comments" at the end of the post where it says "posted by julia" and the time and number of comments.
DeleteWhy not just tyoe jungleredwriters.com into your browser? Avoids all the blogger issues.
DeleteThat is what I have been doing once I realized I’m not getting the emails.
DeleteFifty years ago tonight, as I was saying good night to my dad, I commented that it was the 30th anniversary of D-Day. For the first - and only - time, he started talking to me about his experience flying bombers on that day. I wish I had thought to write down what he told me. I do know that he flew bombing missions over Germany and lost many good friends. Like many of his generation, he never spoke of his wartime experiences - at least not to his family.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Julia, for using one of “your” days to honor Victor and all of the men and women who made such a difference in all of our lives.
— Pat S
Amen, Julia! How short are people's memories that we should allow an authoritarian to be nominated for the presidency twice.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is like history repeating itself. It's almost like our adversaries are mounting a coup to destroy us from within.
DeleteMy father served in the Pacific.
ReplyDeleteMy uncle, his brother, was an AP artist. He was flown over the beaches the day before to block in basic details. Then the actual day he flew over to add the up to the minute details.
His wife could see if he was alive by his pictures showing up in the paper the next day. At least he'd been alive the day before!
My goodness, Libby, what a story!
DeleteThank you Victor, and all of those who answered the call and sacrificed for our countries. Dad saw the handwriting on the wall and enlisted
ReplyDeleteSmart move; you can choose your service.
DeleteThank you Julia. It is important to remember. My father was a pay master in a steel mill. My mother taught nursing students at the U of Washington. They spoke of victory gardens and ration cards. My dad never felt his contribution was enough. My mom was silent. Glad thanks and memories are being shared.
ReplyDeleteThe above post was by me. My sister was born in 1943, another reason (plus flat feet) that my Dad was not called up.
DeleteCoralee, my grandparents were all just a little too old to have served, and my parents were born in the thirties, so the only family members I know of in the war were some great-uncles. However, both my grandfathers did war work: the one in NY, a skilled tool-and-die man, was assigned to the Brooklyn Naval yard for the duration, and my Alabama grandfather's paper mill was shifted to 100% military production. Victory gardens and rationing all around, of course.
DeleteSlow down, blogger. Dad enlisted and trained as a meteorologist as his eye sight wasn't good enough to be a pilot. He spent some of his war in the Aleutians and developed an aversion to Spam. It is alarming how the "old" men plan the wars and the young ones have to fight and sacrifice.
ReplyDeleteSpam! We could do a whole blog just on that, Pat!
DeleteThank you for this post, Julia. My father was one of the infantrymen who made it across the beach safely 80 years ago today. He was 24 years old, and as a member of the Army's First Division, had already survived harrowing battles in North Africa and Sicily. Though he never spoke of it to his children, I know what he experienced on D-Day and on all of the other difficult days of WWII stayed with him his entire life. I honor his memory every year on June 6, and the memory of the others who did not survive that invasion, or were scarred forever by it.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how common it is that men who saw so many horrors simply never spoke of it. It was a different world, I suppose.
DeleteWhen we were in Poland a few weeks ago we went to the Warsaw Rising Museum. I couldn't go through most of it, it was so thoroughly heartbreaking. However, near the exit is a newsreel type movie that shows how the Poles were finally able to defeat the Germans who had occupied and brutalized Warsaw throughout the war.
ReplyDeleteWhile the Poles of Warsaw did not create fake tankers and such, in a united front they made a concerted effort to stockpile as many weapons as they could scrounge, squirrel away precious food and water, just in case, and to plan a coup to turn the tables on their tormentors. Teenage boys took great risks to sneak past the barricades to pass messages back and forth, and a tank was stolen and hidden, then later used to help with the coup. It's another remarkable story of community heroism.
The war was fought and won on many fronts. Defeating the enemy on Omaha Beach made it more possible for the Poles to succeed, partly emboldened by the news of the Germans' weakening forces.
DeleteSo true, Karen. The success of D-Day gave heart to partisans all over Europe.
DeleteWell done, Julia! Thank you for this excellent essay. It was surely an almost incomprehensible undertaking...and I have seen the beaches and also, over the years, watched Longest Day a few times. None of my family was there, but they were in some toher scary places - Battle of the Bulge, Sicily and Italy, and my mothers favorite cousins, a man I knew well, was a pilot in the Canadian Air Force. He told us funny stories about getting lost in London; it was his wife who told my mother about the nightmares. I've been trying to watch Masters of the Air, part 3 of Spielberg's series about the war....and it is hard to watch.
ReplyDeleteAnd Band of Brothers which started at D- Day. Learned a lot.
DeleteThere are some absolutely top notch movies out there about Operation Overlord - I could have done a whole post about them alone!
DeleteCelia, cherish Victor, and maybe not his memories if they are terrible.
ReplyDeleteI am currently reading a WW1 novel (YA apparently) where in this age of political correctness, things are white washed. Half way through, but apparently the soldiers 'pass' on the firing lines. NO! They did not pass into some ethereal lovely whiteness, the DIED. Yes, it was horrible and awful and we need to remember that, as well as the soldiers who survived and came home - sometimes in many ways not whole. Each soldier was some mother's son. War is awful and should be portrayed as such. To Victor and Celia, I hope your memories are ok. So glad that you are with us.
I'm glad they're here as well, Margo!
DeleteThanks, Julia, for a wonderful entry and a reminder of all that we have to be grateful to the men and women who served.
ReplyDeleteBeautifully said, Julia. Thank you, Victor, and all those who serve. We are blessed to have you.
ReplyDeleteThinking of my Dad today too. He was in the Air Corps during WWII. He was stationed in England, and as you know they would do bombing raids at night. One night a friend of my Dad from another crew asked him to fill in for one of their guys who was sick. My Dad went on the mission, and yes, that night they were shot down, captured by the Germans and taken to a POW camp. My Dad never spoke about the war and would change the subject when anyone asked about it. He was there for about 18 months until the war ended. About 25 years ago, when the internet was starting to expand rapidly with info I decided to see what I could find out about Dad and his service in WWII. The info I found was amazing. Actual reports of the events the night the plane was shot down, the POW camp where he was held outside a small town in Northern Germany, and info about the life the POWs endured. I was always proud of my Dad's service in WWII, but the info I found made me realize the sacrifice and bravery of those men and women. My Mom and his family were lucky he came home, very thin from not getting enough to eat, but alive and happy. May we never forget the sacrifice, bravery and strength of The Greatest Generation. Johna
ReplyDeleteAmen to that, Johna, and many thanks to your father for his extraordinary service.
DeleteMy son has one year this July. Grateful every day.
ReplyDeleteI know how you feel, Anon.
Delete