Remembering D-Day
To the editor:
This year’s Memorial Day was special because it harkened the 80th anniversary of D-Day, a day to honor the Allied Force’s biggest move to stop Hitler’s Nazi Reich. On Memorial Day, we reflected on the demands of achieving and maintaining freedom and opposing autocracy. Many enjoyed the PBS 35th National Memorial Day Concert which was chock-full of patriotic music and well-told accounts of personal valor and sacrifice in battle. Some of us enjoyed our annual ritual of watching “Band of Brothers,” a compelling account of the battle experiences of Easy Company of the 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne. Easy Company began its battle against Hitler by parachuting behind the German defenses on the Normandy coast on D-Day.
With that in mind and many other accounts, stories, experiences, and memories, we come to the 80th anniversary (2024) of the Allied Assault on Germany’s fortified Europe, June 6, 1944. What were our military forces fighting for? Many were still experiencing the hard times of the Great Depression which devastated families and broke their spirits. However bad their lives were, they imagined they would be worse under advances by Hitler’s forces (as well as those of fascist Italy and imperial Japan). General Eisenhower’s “Message to the Allied Expeditionary Force” in preparation for D-Day included inspiring lines, such as: “The hope and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-inarms 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.”
Adolph Hitler used grievance politics to gain virtual control over Germany as a prelude to imposing his will on other sovereign nations. Nazism and Fascism crushed country after country with aggrieved vengeance.
Generation after generation, citizens living in democratic republics are called on to protect their freedom and serve others in similar cause. We must be thankful for the dedication and sacrifice of those who fought for us in June 1944. Regardless of their individual faith, economic status, ethnicity, and prospects for their futures, our military personnel were Americans. They were resolute, focused on the task at hand, united in purpose and identity, and convinced their sacrifice was for the greater good. They opposed a virulent nationalism that sought to purify Europe and emulate the imperialist achievements of the Roman Empire.