D-Day, WWII, and Truth

Reflections on our Past

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D-Day

June 6 is commemorated each year to mark the anniversary of D-Day, the 1944 Allied invasion across the English Channel into Normandy during World Way Two (WWII). Though Operation OVERLORD, as the channel crossing and subsequent penetration into German-occupied France became known, occurred nearly a year before ‘Victory in Europe’ Day, it brought about the beginning of the end for Germany.[1]

When it comes to D-Day, there is certainly a lot to commemorate. In recognizing the date, we are not just calling attention to the bravery and sacrifice of the men who participated in the operation, or in the strategic effects it produced, but also celebrating everything that had to occur just to bring it to fruition at all. While remembering those who perished is paramount in importance, it is also awe-inspiring to reflect on Operation OVERLORD’s sheer scale.

Operation OVERLORD

It is a fantastic operation for historians or military planners to research. As a student in the U.S. Army’s School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS), we studied some of the planning process that yielded OVERLORD. I had an instructor at SAMS who referred to it as the “most complex operation ever conceived.” In this opinion, he agreed with Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin who shared similar views on its vast scope.[2] As Stephen Ambrose describes in his book D-Day, OVERLORD consisted of the following: “In one night and day, 175,000 fighting men…including 50,000 vehicles…were transported across sixty to a hundred miles of open water…They were either carried by or supported by 5,333 ships and craft….and almost 11,000 airplanes.”[3] Ambrose uses a Midwest geographical analogy: “It was as if the cities of Green Bay, Racine, and Kenosha, Wisconsin were picked up and moved—every man, woman, and child, every automobile and truck—to the east side of Lake Michigan, in one night.”[4]

This same SAMS instructor also mentioned that the study of OVERLORD as an operation is perhaps only eclipsed by Gettysburg. The D-Day invasion is the single most recognized endeavor within WWII, itself often viewed as the supreme struggle between good and evil.[5] D-Day, therefore, at least for the western Allies, has become emblematic of the entire war. In the U.S., the telling of the D-Day story has assumed mythic grandeur, not necessarily because of any lack of truth in the narrative, but because of its significance as part of the American Tale (after all, America sees itself as a war nation: born of war, forged in war, and refined in war).

As with any mythic tale, there must be heroes. The brave souls that fought in WWII and their contemporaries became known collectively as the “greatest generation, ” rugged individuals steeled through the hardships of growing up during the Great Depression to then be thrust into the furnace of war against what many have come to regard as truly evil, dark forces.

This mythic grandeur is evident in the depictions we see in culture, as presented in works such as The Longest Day, a Cornelius Ryan book that was also made into a movie.[6] And what viewer can claim to have not been moved by the presentations of the Normandy invasions in Saving Private Ryan? Those scenes, though horrific, are not only qualitatively accurate (by all known accounts) but also quantitatively illustrative. Estimates range between 10,000 and 12,000 for American, British, and Canadian casualties on D-Day.[7]

D-Day wasn't actually even planned for June 6. It had been planned for June 5, but bad weather forced General Eisenhower to shift the operation to a day later to take advantage of a narrow window of conditions that, while not optimal, would perhaps be favorable enough to support the operation.[8] Had OVERLORD not occurred on June 6, the Allies would have needed to wait several weeks, and by then, the entire endeavor might have been prohibitively costly given the change in operational conditions by that point.[9]

Any military operation is larger than just its execution. To carry out something as massive as D-Day, the planning and preparation portions of the process were enormous. In the case of what eventually became OVERLORD, discussions between senior American and British leaders had been ongoing for two years about the feasibility and potential gain from a cross-Channel penetration into German-occupied territory.[10]

COSSAC

An enormous amount of the credit for OVERLORD goes to a British officer whose name is not well known to the general public. In the spring of 1943, Sir Frederick Morgan, a British lieutenant general, was given the task of leading a staff for planning the operation that would eventually become OVERLORD. He was given a stack of previous planning efforts involving cross-Channel incursions and began work on cobbling together a British and American staff to begin planning for a potential 1944 cross-Channel invasion.[11] Morgan decided to call himself and his staff COSSAC (Chief of Staff, Supreme Allied Commander).[12] Interestingly, at the time Morgan proclaimed himself COSSAC, there was no named Supreme Allied Commander to whom he might serve as Chief of Staff. Therefore, he acted “as both manger and leader, ambassador and advocate. He was speaking on behalf of and guarding the prerogatives of a commander whose name no one knew” until General Eisenhower was selected for the role in December 1943.[13]

D-Day’s Impact

As an American, I’m inspired by the stories of bravery that occurred on that fateful day. As a former military officer and commander, I can’t help but think about the command and control challenges inherent in leading such a complex operation amid such massive chaos. As a former SAMS student, I’m also impressed by the massive effort that would have been needed to even produce a workable plan. The SAMS instructor that I mentioned before was a great fan of the work performed by COSSAC and had studied their staff extensively. He admired their analysis of the problem they faced, and the balance they achieved in planning amid the information they knew and what they didn’t know. He even once told us that some of the products from COSSAC were the finest military staff work he had ever seen. At some point, he even used the word “brilliant” to describe one of their staff products. (He never used the word “brilliant” to describe any coursework we produced…).

It is sobering to think of those who had to endure the hell of D-Day. It’s also mind boggling to reflect on the millions and millions of man-hours of planning and preparation conducted for the operation to occur.

Questioning Historical Narratives

D-Day truly is a day to be remembered, commemorated, and honored.

However, as Americans, we need an accurate rendering of our history. That includes taking an honest look at who we are as a people and what we as a country stand for.

Whenever I approach a topic in this way, it's never in a spirit of denigration toward the great acts of courageous men and women. In this specific case, I would never diminish the valor or resolve of those who fought in WWII or supported the war effort from the homeland. However, I reject the notion that asking questions about our government's motives somehow spoils the sanctity of the memory of those who fought and died in wars, the stated objectives of which might be shrouded in lies, double speak, or other attempts at obfuscation.

If we truly believe that we fought supreme evil during WWII, then why did we fight so hard to defeat that evil only to then import that same evil back home? Why did we sacrifice tens of thousands of lives through four long years of war to then bring stateside those who most embodied the evil we had just fought?

Operation Paperclip

How come so few Americans know about Operation Paperclip? For those few who even recognize the name, they probably know very little of what it entailed.

What was Operation Paperclip?

Annie Jacobsen answers that question openly and directly in the prologue of her book titled Operation Paperclip, a book which she describes as being “about Nazi scientists and American government secrets.”[14] According to her, “Operation Paperclip was a postwar U.S. intelligence program that brought German scientists to America under secret military contracts.”[15]