D-Day Thoughts

 A few years ago, as part of our trip to France, we visited Normandy, where the allies landed 150,000 troops on this day in 1944.   9,000 Americans were slaughtered or wounded on the beaches by the entrenched Germans.  But this hard fought victory was the beginning of  the liberation of Western Europe from German occupying forces.

Standing at the cemetery where so many men were buried under stone white crosses (or stars of David), it was one of those "Holy Cow" moments when you suddenly realize the enormity of the casualties and the sacrifice of so many brave young men.

In 2007, the area around the bunkers up on the cliffs was open to tourists.  Walking around, I was amazed at the elaborate fortifications that have survived.  When I asked one of the guides how the Germans had been able to construct such defenses, he reminded me that they had been an occupying force for over four years by June 6, 1944.

Despite my exposure to history classes in school and subsequent reading about the war, I had forgotten that the French had been hopelessly outgunned at the beginning of the conflict and had conceded defeat after only a few weeks of battle in 1940.

I have tried to imagine how I and my fellow citizens would have reacted to an occupying force.  Would we have capitulated in fear to the conquerors or would we take to the hills and forests like the Resistance?
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I am also reminded of the line in the movie, when Tom Hanks exhorts Private Ryan (Mat Damon)  to
"Earn This!" -- to live a life that would be worthy of the sacrifice that so many men gave their lives for.

By their deeds we must measure our own lives.