Sacrifice Betrayed: A Reflection on the 81st Anniversary of Operation Overlord
In the early morning hours of June 6, 1944, the Supreme Allied Commander held his breath. He had just ordered 160,000 brave soldiers, sailors, and airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force to finally make a bold move to attack the Nazi regime in the heart of their empire at Normandy in France. Victory was anything but certain. Though the Nazis had suffered great defeats leading up this moment, their forces were still battle hardened, well-trained, and prepared to fight to the very death to defend the Third Reich. The invasion had originally been scheduled for June 5 but had been called off due to storms. The meteorologists were once again calling for bad weather on June 6. American General Dwight Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, did not feel like he could hold this invasion off any further and so ordered the operation to proceed. The Allies must strike this blow against the Nazi regime in occupied France and so show the world, that free peoples were willing to sacrifice it all to defy and defeat tyrants.
His order of the day was simple, no more than a few short paragraphs. It read:
“Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force!
You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hope and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.
Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped, and battle hardened. He will fight savagely.
But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-1941. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man to man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to Victory!
I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory!
Good luck! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking!”
So started Operation Overlord, the first strike to topple the tyranny of Adolf Hitler and his evil Reich and so restore freedom to Europe. Americans fought alongside the British and Canadians. The French seeking to liberate their homeland bled alongside men from Poland and Luxembourg. Greeks, Czechs, Slovaks, Belgians, South Africans, Australians, New Zealanders, the Dutch, and other young men from Allied Nations stormed into the hellfire of Nazi guns on the beaches of Normandy or dropped from the skies into occupied territory.
From June 6 until August 30, 1944, over 2 million Allied Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen would fight in this campaign. 170,000 would suffer wounds fighting and almost 60,000 paid the ultimate price and left their bones in the fields and hedgerows of Normandy. For the past 81 years we have commemorated the sacrifice of those men, who sought not to fight to conquer or obtain riches. No, they fought for something much greater than that: they fought for freedom not for themselves but for men, women, and children they didn’t know. They fought to free them from the slavery and oppression that they had suffered under fascist regimes, and they did so. They asked no reward for themselves but only desired the world to be at peace and to live in freedom.
Americans stood with our Allies that day and throughout that terrible war. Back then we were willing to sacrifice everything so that people we didn’t even know could live in liberty. We asked for nothing in return. We recognized evil for what it was and knew it was our duty to fight to destroy it and bring justice to the oppressed.
Yet now we find ourselves on the wrong side of history. We once fought fascists and now we not only support them, but put them in power. This current administration led by Donald Trump will continue to do everything in their power to oppress innocent men, women, and children here in America and abroad, all to enrich themselves and obtain yet more power. When Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Mertz met with President Trump in the Oval Office, earlier this week to discuss amongst other things the Russian-Ukraine war, Trump had the audacity to tell the chancellor, “that wasn’t a good day for you Germans (June 6) ”. Mertz reminded Trump that June 6, 1994 marked the day that his country began to be liberated from Nazi tyrants and that they would never again fall under the spell of a mad dictator.
Today we find ourselves in the grip of evil and the sacrifices that the Greatest Generation made over 80 years ago, has been betrayed. The blood they shed means nothing to this administration. They would see us all enslaved and so we must speak out. We must fight to restore freedom and justice to all within our borders and all the people of the free world. We must be prepared to sacrifice it all for the greater good of not only the United States, but the people of the world. We owe it to not just those heroes who gave their lives, but to the future generations, that America will stand side by side with free world and destroy tyranny and evil wherever it may be, whether in our heartland or on distant shores.
