"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...I have
full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle."
~ General Dwight D. Eisenhower
Tomorrow at 2:00 am is the 68th anniversary of D-Day, the first of the many
hard, bloody, sweaty, unforgettable days to take France back from the Nazi
army.
The battle started a few months before for the American, British and
Canadian soldiers, in England, with brutally realistic training in preparation
for Operation Overlord. Some of the training included: crawling under 200 yards
of barbed wire that was draped with pig innards, running across an open beach
while being shot at with a machine gun (yes a real machine gun with real ammo),
swimming 100 yards in full uniform with a helmet and rifle, jumping out of a
plane at 13,000 feet, climbing 100 foot tall nets, running two miles in 15
minutes, uphill in full uniform with helmet, gun, ammo, grenades, a 100 lbs.
backpack and water that they were not allowed to drink.
June 5, 1944 was a day of prayer, briefing, loading up, and leaving.
At 2:00 am the next day, the 2,000 ships off the coast of France opened fire
on the shore, hoping to clear the shore of mines, barbed wire, beach
hedge-hogs, and hopefully, the Atlantic Wall, a wall of underground tunnels,
cement bunkers, howitzers, pill boxes, machine gun outposts, barbed wire, land
mines, cement walls, trenches, and other deadly obstacles. The wall stretched
along the whole coast of France.
The night before, the paratroopers landed behind the German lines and made
their way across the country side. Many of them died from either Anti-Aircraft
Gun Flack, machine gun fire or some of them drowned in water that was not more
than six inches deep. Some drifted miles away from their landing zone. Others
were hung up in trees, on roofs and one on a church steeple.
The infantry loaded into LCVPs (Landing Craft Vehicle/Personal) and headed
to shore around 4:00 am. One infantry man said this: "It sounded, from the
landing boats, that the ships were blowing the wall apart and we didn't have
much to do." But when the infantry hit the beach, they found out
differently. The cannons on the ships had only destroyed about 1/10 of the
wall.
Coming ashore, the troops were instantly under machine gun fire, if they
even made it to the shore. Lots of the LCVPs were blown up before they were
able to get to shore. The LCVPs had to stay out from shore about 200 feet so
they wouldn't get caught on the sand. Once to their position, they would drop
the ramp in the landing craft which protected the men inside from machine gun
fire. When the ramp was down, the infantry had to wade through 4 feet deep,
mine infested waters, to the shore. That was if they didn't get shot or pulled
under the water by their equipment. Pushing ashore, the American, British and
Canadian troops had to cross about 200 yards of beach that was riddled with
mines, blown-up trucks and their dead comrades.
I could go on forever about the history behind D-Day, but I won't. The
Allies blew through the German line and freed France from the Nazi powers. Was
it worth it? Loosing almost 75% of the air born units, a quarter of the
infantry and many vehicles? Was France really worth it? Yes, it was! The men
that died on D-Day died for freedom. If we had not beat the Germans, the
world might have been under Nazi oppression, we might have lost our religious
freedom, our right to free speech, our right to bear arms, our families, our
country. The men of D-Day died to protect those things, the things that the
founding fathers fought so hard to give to our country. The soldiers in World
War Two fought to preserve.
In our nation today, our military men and women are fighting in the Middle
East to give to other countries these same rights that we take for granted. We
need to thank those men that died for our freedoms.
We need to thank God for His provision of willing men and women who give up
their lives for our rights. We must praise the
Creator, because He is the One that gives freedom. He is the One that grants
rights. It's not the government, it's not us, it's not even the soldiers, it's
God and ONLY God!
