Seventy-three years ago today began the fateful D-Day landings on the heavily fortified French beaches in Normandy that would herald the costly grind to liberate Occupied Europe from the deadly grasp of fascism.
"Soldiers, sailors and airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force!" confidently rang out on June 6, 1944 the now famous words of Dwight D. Eisenhower that were broadcast on radios that remained free.
"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 hopes 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."
Although the success of the daring and largest amphibious invasion in military history was initially far from certain ó none of the U.S., British or Canadian divisions reached their planned objectives on D-Day ó the logistically mind-numbing mission would eventually prove to irreversibly turn the tides of power against Germany and reshape the course of modern history. For the Third Reich, it was the beginning of an inevitable end.
We often hear stories of the heroism and sacrifices made by the rank and file, many of whom were young men who had never even shaved or been legally allowed to buy a beer. Of course their tales of courage under withering enemy fire should be remembered ó their monumental efforts cannot be overstated, and the sweat, tears and blood they shed and spilled certainly should never be forgotten.
However, we do not always hear as much ó if at all, for that matter ó about the free fighting French and the resistance that desperately fought against all odds a technologically superior tyrannical oppressor.
"The French Resistance undertook nearly 1,000 acts of sabotage in the hours after the Normandy invasion began, and the damage they inflicted on railroads and other communications played a crucial role in preventing German reinforcements from arriving quickly in Northern France," Charles Kaiser wrote in a 2015 CNN column titled What Americans Forget About French Resistance.
"And every time a German troop train was sabotaged, a nearby French village was likely to suffer horrendous retaliation ó like the town of Tulle, where 100 men were seized at random and massacred three days after the Normandy invasion, or the village of Oradour-sur-Glane, where 642 citizens, including 205 children, were killed the day after that. The men were shot; the women and children were burned to death in a church."
Eisenhower himself praised the selfless efforts of the Resistance, which engaged heavily in subterfuge to facilitate the Allied Expeditionary Force's progress despite the brutally ruthless Nazi reprisals that slaughtered innocent civilians in retaliation.
"We were depending on considerable assistance from the insurrectionists in France," Eisenhower remembered. "Throughout France, the Free French had been of inestimable value in the campaignÖWithout their great assistance, the liberation of France and the defeat of the enemy in Western Europe would have consumed a much longer time and meant greater losses to ourselves."
So as we take a somber moment of reflection to honour the soldiers who gave up their lives in the name of freedom, also worth keeping in our thoughts are the everyday citizens who made the ultimate sacrifice. After all, they remind us that anyone can stand up against the face of injustice.
ó Simon Ducatel, Round Up editor
