INVASION!

Monday, June 6^th marks the anniversary of the largest amphibious assault in military history. When allied forces landed on France that morning, it was the culmination of a plan so complex that many doomed it to failure from the beginning. It is hard to imaging what General Dwight D Eisenhower had to overcome, trying to coordinate the allied leaders into focusing on one goal – the liberation of Europe. Working with the various personalities involved in the planning stages, many with huge, easily bruised egos, must have seemed as daunting a task as the breaching the Atlantic Wall itself.

Once the planning was completed and the time table set in place, the responsibility for the operation’s success passed on to the men and women who would play a part in the invasion itself. From the soldier puking his guts out in a landing craft bouncing on the waves, to the French resistance fighter hanging precariously from a pole while cutting a telegraph line, to the cooks aboard the ships bombarding the coast who made sure the gunners were fed, their actions that day made a difference.

We sometimes get caught up in the overall image of the invasion in all its magnitude and forget that the real story is made up of many small stories – all involving a person striving to do their duty while at the same time, trying to stay alive.

On this anniversary, when we will see the usual images of fleets of ships, waves of aircraft and swarms of men fighting across the beaches, look closely and note the individuals and imagine what is going through that person’s mind as they sail, fly, run across the beach or parachute into the darkness. Are they thinking of their families back home? Hoping they don’t let their comrades down? Perhaps they are just saying a prayer that they make it through this day.

They are probably not wondering if many decades later, ‘Will anyone remember me and the sacrifices I made today?’

On Monday, stop for a moment and honour their memories. They did not fight just to free France or even Europe. They fought for the freedom of men and women everywhere and on the morning of June 6^th, 1944, every single one of them, even those who paid the ultimate price, won that battle.

For information on Canada's roll in the invasion, please visit the Juno Centre by clicking here.

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