Welcome to the D-Day 80th Anniversary Commemoration week here on the blog!

The theme for the week is “Remembering D-Day: Dawn of Legends”. I have been looking forward to this for quite some time, and I hope you have too.

I started out working on this project with all the enthusiasm in my soul. But here is where I have to make a confession to you. I had my moments of discouragement regarding this commemoration, and times when I was so discouraged with it that I couldn’t even bring myself to work on the posts.

This was something that was a bit of a new experience for me in this area. You see, history is a large part of who I am and what I do. There are few things that can dissuade my passion for studying, teaching, and writing about history.

You know then that the discouragement must’ve been pretty serious if it dampened my fervor for commemorating D-Day.

While I prepared for this week, I had the opportunity to speak to people about D-Day and its impact on us today. The thing that discouraged me was the lack of interest by so many with regard to such an immense historical landmark. Half weren’t sure what D-Day was or why it should matter to us today. The others seemed content to simply carry on with their lives, oblivious to the magnitude of this anniversary.

The discouragement didn’t last long though as I started reading accounts of the invasion and all the things that went into it. I listened to D-Day veterans speak about their experiences that day and all that they endured for freedom.

It put things back into perspective for me. You see, I realized that the state of apathy and ignorance in our nation is the very reason we should remember D-Day now more than ever before.

Why was D-Day so important?

Hitler’s Fortress Europe was thought to be impregnable in early 1944. It was a Continent consumed in one of the most heinous military occupations in the history of the world. The blood of innocent lives was crying out for someone to vindicate them. Hitler’s reign of terror had to be stopped.

Prior to America’s entrance into the war, Great Britain had been forced to retreat from France at Dunkirk, leaving it in the hands of the Nazis. Fast forward four years and the time had come to retake it. This time America was spearheading the operation. Under the command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, plans for the invasion began to form.

It would be a shot in the dark. A leap of faith. An impossible task that had to be done.

There were some doubts that the Allies were ready to attempt such a pivotal invasion. It wasn’t likely that there would be a second chance if the invasion failed the first time. No, if it failed, freedom would die with it.

Yet there was no other option. The longer they put off the invasion, the more time Hitler had to build up his defenses. There was also the concern that if England was invaded, there would be no base of operations close enough to Europe to enable an invasion from Allied forces.

Russia was begging England and America to open another front where Germany would have to concentrate some of its forces, thus relieving their own men on the Eastern Front. For all of these reasons, D-Day had to come.

Some have aptly said that D-Day was the beginning of the end. It indeed was. A long, bloody road lay ahead of D-Day, but the end was nearing sight.

This is why D-Day was so immensely important. When our soldiers, sailors, and airmen threw themselves into harm’s way on that fateful day, it created a domino effect of freedom that has echoed down through the generations.

The thing that is so amazing about the men who took part in D-Day is that they didn’t know how important their role was at the time. As they prepared and trained for the invasion, they had no way of knowing that they were standing on the brink of history’s finest hour. As they stormed the beaches, parachuted behind enemy lines, and lobbed mortars at the enemy pillboxes, they didn’t know that they were changing the course of history.

Many of them would tell you that they were simply doing what needed to be done.

“I didn’t know what was happening. I only knew I had to do what I had to do.” 

Robert Fischman (sailor aboard the USS Texas)

They didn’t consider themselves to be heroes, though they most certainly were.

Our generation has the privilege of viewing D-Day through hindsight, which they say is 20/20. If we look close enough, we can see how pivotal this moment was in history. Freedom envelopes us because of what was done that day. Yet we seem unable to understand why it was important.

Where would America and the world be if D-Day had never taken place?

The free world today would be nonexistent if our D-Day heroes hadn’t stepped up and laid it all on the line.

Although there is no way for us to truly know what the world today would look like, it is safe to surmise that freedom would’ve been destroyed. Not only for the nationalities suffering directly under the Nazi regime at the time, but also for America and Great Britain.

Had they not gone, would we be the free nation we are today? Would we have been able to win the war? I’ve contemplated these questions quite a bit, and I think the answer is “no”.

By 1944, we were beginning to severely feel the effects of war. Our strength was split between two different fronts — the European Theatre and the Pacific Theatre. The number of young men available to fight was growing smaller, our people were weary of losing so many of our youth, and our resources were depleting. Great Britain was suffering the same plight. In fact, they had even less men available to fight.

Had we not gone into France when we did, we would’ve been unable to maintain our strength long enough to win the war. Had there not have been thousands of young men willing to charge into the jaws of death, the entire world would still be suffering under the brutal reign of the Axis powers.

---

D-Day started the journey to ending a war that cost millions of lives. It set free a continent enslaved with the hand of evil. If it had never come, our world today would be terribly different.

That’s why remembering D-Day’s heroes is so important. They laid it all on the line for you and I. Let us resolve to honor their sacrifice, remember their service, and immortalize their valor!

How do you plan to remember the sacrifices of our D-Day heroes this week? Let me know in the comments!

A. M. Watson

Hebrews 13:8