‘Remembering the Horrors of D-Day’ by Victor Davis Hanson

 

This short post is for the purpose of bringing to your attention the magnificent, very short piece by Victor Davis Hanson this morning which is one of the best summations of that event which defies brief descriptions, D-Day, and sadly illuminates the difference between that Greatest Generation and the current “Men Can Give Birth; Women Can Have A Penis” generation of bonzo wierdos.

The piece, titled Remembering the Horrors of D-Day, can be accessed here. For anyone with an interest in seeing that day through the lens of one of the most brilliant writers on the scene today, I cannot recommend a thorough reading too highly. Here is Prof. Hanson, after detailing the many astounding numbers involved in the greatest amphibious assault in history, commenting — very sadly— on why those 160,000 troops of Operation Overlord risked their lives crossing that huge expanse of sand under towering cliffs which is Omaha Beach:

How and why did the Americans on Omaha charge right off their landing craft into a hail of German machine gun and artillery fire, despite being mowed down in droves?

In a word, they “believed” in the United States.

That generation had emerged from the crushing poverty of the Great Depression to face the reality that the Axis powers wanted to destroy their civilization and their country.

They were confident in American know-how. They were convinced they were fighting for the right cause. They were not awed by traveling thousands of miles from home to face German technological wizardry, veterans with years of battle experience, and a ruthless martial code.

The men at Omaha did not believe America had to be perfect to be good — just far better than the alternative.

(Emphasis mine.)

Here are some of those men, who we should remember every single day, not just June 6:

May God Bless each and every one of those brave men for what they did that gruesome day in which 400 of their comrades were killed, wounded or captured every hour of the first day.

We return your salute, men of what was once the greatest fighting force ever known and hopefully will be once again, in your honor.

God Bless America!

Published in General
This post was promoted to the Main Feed by a Ricochet Editor at the recommendation of Ricochet members. Like this post? Want to comment? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.

There are 12 comments.

Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.
  1. God-Loving Woman Coolidge
    God-Loving Woman
    @GodLovingWoman

    Thank you for this. These moments in our history must be remembered. This is who we are. 

    • #1
  2. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    A beautiful tribute, Jim. We can never thank them enough for their courage and determination.

    • #2
  3. Dr. Bastiat Member
    Dr. Bastiat
    @drbastiat

    Thanks for posting this.

    • #3
  4. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    My cousin was cleaning out the attic in her old family house after the death of her mother some years ago.  Among the old pictures, postcards, and school records, she came across a telegram from the War Dept informing the family of the death of their son who had died at Omaha Beach.  The deceased private was her uncle, killed before she was born.  Her younger brother was named after him.  She recalled starting to cry at the sudden realization of how that horrible that must have been for her grandparents and her father–then still only a kid.

    I think Hanson was overstating the belief in America.  Those Americans were simply constructed differently.  Confident, moral, optimistic, and patriotic.  Lots of defiant wise guys but not Twitter-like snark. Even the cynical Rick Blaine (Bogart’s character in Casablanca 1942) deep down was a good guy.  We are building a cynical people who seem to lack a deep-down.

    • #4
  5. Jim George Member
    Jim George
    @JimGeorge

    God-Loving Woman (View Comment):

    Thank you for this. These moments in our history must be remembered. This is who we are.

    Thank you. Especially for reminding us that this is who we are, decidedly not identified by some of the current manias as mentioned in the post. It might be interesting to note that when I started writing this I had a very brief moment of hesitation in which I had a thought something like “maybe this is just old news since it’s been a whole two days since D-Day” (!) and then I thought to myself that sometimes I want to write something, even a brief little note, thanking our Founding Fathers, the Greatest Generation, our great men and women of history, every single day of my life. They deserve, as you note, to be remembered- always- as they are the reason we are here. Thanks again, Jim. 

    • #5
  6. Jim George Member
    Jim George
    @JimGeorge

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    A beautiful tribute, Jim. We can never thank them enough for their courage and determination.

    I totally agree and thank you for this lovely note.

    • #6
  7. Jim George Member
    Jim George
    @JimGeorge

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

    Thanks for posting this.

    Thank you, Sir. 

    • #7
  8. Jim George Member
    Jim George
    @JimGeorge

    Old Bathos (View Comment):

    My cousin was cleaning out the attic in her old family house after the death of her mother some years ago. Among the old pictures, postcards, and school records, she came across a telegram from the War Dept informing the family of the death of their son who had died at Omaha Beach. The deceased private was her uncle, killed before she was born. Her younger brother was named after him. She recalled starting to cry at the sudden realization of how that horrible that must have been for her grandparents and her father–then still only a kid.

    I think Hanson was overstating the belief in America. Those Americans were simply constructed differently. Confident, moral, optimistic, and patriotic. Lots of defiant wise guys but not Twitter-like snark. Even the cynical Rick Blaine (Bogart’s character in Casablanca 1942) deep down was a good guy. We are building a cynical people who seem to lack a deep-down.

    Your very touching story reminded me of something I experienced in my childhood. We had just moved into a house in Baton Rouge and starting hearing a wailing sound from the home next door — every day. We learned it was the sound of incessant sobbing and crying coming from the lady next door who had been informed that her son had been killed in action. As I recall, although it’s been ages ago, she cried every single day. Every. Single. Day. While this is sheer speculation, as I do not specifically recall this to be a fact, she very probably died of a broken heart. How many of these stories are there over the year? We may not know exactly, but one thing we do know is that we should honor each and every one of them by the simple act of remembering what they gave for us. 

    • #8
  9. J Climacus Member
    J Climacus
    @JClimacus

    Jim George:

    In a word, they “believed” in the United States.

    That generation had emerged from the crushing poverty of the Great Depression to face the reality that the Axis powers wanted to destroy their civilization and their country.

    They were confident in American know-how. They were convinced they were fighting for the right cause. They were not awed by traveling thousands of miles from home to face German technological wizardry, veterans with years of battle experience, and a ruthless martial code.

    The men at Omaha did not believe America had to be perfect to be good — just far better than the alternative.

    They also had a clear objective and a war-winning strategy: Take Berlin and Tokyo. In the wars since then, victory wasn’t so clearly defined. We like to compare the GI-generation with the Boomers and Millenials (usually to the latter’s detriment), but it was the GI generation that was in charge during Vietnam and couldn’t figure out much else than sending young Boomers to stumble around in jungles tripping booby traps and landmines. The Boomers who went over there (at least in the early years), were also not awed by traveling thousands of miles to face Viet Cong technological wizardry (the clever and insidious VC devices were if anything more demoralizing than German V2s and jet fighters), veterans with years of battle experience and a ruthless martial code.  But they weren’t allowed to take Hanoi the way their fathers took Tokyo. Instead they took the same hill over and over again taking casualties all the time.  They still believed America was better than the alternative, but also wondered how rice farmers in An Loc posed a threat to the U.S. 

    I’m still convinced America is better than the alternatives, but have no confidence in our leadership to deploy our military effectively or for true natural security reasons than than for political purposes.  If “believing in the United States” means  agreeing to hit the beach somewhere because Joe Biden says so – then I don’t believe.

    • #9
  10. Jim George Member
    Jim George
    @JimGeorge

    J Climacus (View Comment):

    Jim George:

    In a word, they “believed” in the United States.

    That generation had emerged from the crushing poverty of the Great Depression to face the reality that the Axis powers wanted to destroy their civilization and their country.

    They were confident in American know-how. They were convinced they were fighting for the right cause. They were not awed by traveling thousands of miles from home to face German technological wizardry, veterans with years of battle experience, and a ruthless martial code.

    The men at Omaha did not believe America had to be perfect to be good — just far better than the alternative.

    They also had a clear objective and a war-winning strategy: Take Berlin and Tokyo. In the wars since then, victory wasn’t so clearly defined. We like to compare the GI-generation with the Boomers and Millenials (usually to the latter’s detriment), but it was the GI generation that was in charge during Vietnam and couldn’t figure out much else than sending young Boomers to stumble around in jungles tripping booby traps and landmines. The Boomers who went over there (at least in the early years), were also not awed by traveling thousands of miles to face Viet Cong technological wizardry (the clever and insidious VC devices were if anything more demoralizing than German V2s and jet fighters), veterans with years of battle experience and a ruthless martial code. But they weren’t allowed to take Hanoi the way their fathers took Tokyo. Instead they took the same hill over and over again taking casualties all the time. They still believed America was better than the alternative, but also wondered how rice farmers in An Loc posed a threat to the U.S.

    I’m still convinced America is better than the alternatives, but have no confidence in our leadership to deploy our military effectively or for true natural security reasons than than for political purposes. If “believing in the United States” means agreeing to hit the beach somewhere because Joe Biden says so – then I don’t believe.

    Excellent observation; your last sentence sums up in a few words the depth of the tragedy the “81 million” have inflicted upon us, the damage from which will not be repaired, at best, for several generations. 

    • #10
  11. Columbo Inactive
    Columbo
    @Columbo

    the Horrors of D-Day

    I always have thought that Spielberg’s depiction in the first 10 minutes of Saving Private Ryan presented it very realistically …

     

     

    • #11
  12. CACrabtree Coolidge
    CACrabtree
    @CACrabtree

    Old Bathos (View Comment):

    My cousin was cleaning out the attic in her old family house after the death of her mother some years ago. Among the old pictures, postcards, and school records, she came across a telegram from the War Dept informing the family of the death of their son who had died at Omaha Beach. The deceased private was her uncle, killed before she was born. Her younger brother was named after him. She recalled starting to cry at the sudden realization of how that horrible that must have been for her grandparents and her father–then still only a kid.

    I think Hanson was overstating the belief in America. Those Americans were simply constructed differently. Confident, moral, optimistic, and patriotic. Lots of defiant wise guys but not Twitter-like snark. Even the cynical Rick Blaine (Bogart’s character in Casablanca 1942) deep down was a good guy. We are building a cynical people who seem to lack a deep-down.

    OB, those last two sentences are very thought-provoking.

    I visited Normandy a few years back and made it a point to go to Omaha Beach (along with the cemetery overlooking the beach) and Pointe du Hoc.  It was low tide so I walked out to water’s edge and slowly walked back.  I could only imagine how those grunts felt when the ramp dropped and they attempted to charge across the beach.

    • #12
Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.