This Thursday marks the 75th anniversary of the Normandy Landing Invasion of 1944, better known as D-Day. I’ve written before about Operation Neptune, the official name of the D-Day invasion, so today I want to take a better look at the invasion itself through the eyes of those who were there and the testaments to them that exist in the United States and France.
There is limited actual film of the landing invasion itself, but some of the best, as well as a good showing of the lead-up to June 6th, is featured in this piece from the Smithsonian’s archives. A little propaganda-y to be sure, but that closing shot of the swastika being blown off the roof was pretty amazing. Fuck Nazis.
Of course, the D-Day landing has been recreated multiple times in film and television, with the truest telling being found in the joint Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks productions of Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers.
However, as impressive as the wartime sequences in that film and series are, none can compare to the stories told by the people who lived through it. My grandfather saw nothing of the D-Day invasion, but he served in the Navy in World War II, and for as much as he and I disagree on topics of today and never really connected as much as some of our other relatives have, I am all ears when he speaks about his time in the war. I have many insights into the Vietnam War from what my father told me while he was alive, and I intend to listen to my grandfather’s tales from that era as much as he wishes to speak about it for as long as he’s around. Such is how we can remember our human history’s greatest conflicts to better understand what war is and the effects it has not just on the grand geopolitical scene that we’re taught in school, but on the people we are descended from who experienced it in one way or another.
If you do not have any surviving family or friends from this era, I encourage you to visit the memorials for World War II and prior wars and conflicts in Washington D.C., as well as the actual Smithsonian museums were American and some other World history are excellently presented. I will also recommend Arlington National Cemetery for every one to see in their life to see the respectful final resting places of so many Americans throughout the country’s history, especially from wartime.
Finally, if you are particularly interested in the D-Day invasion, then take a trip to France to see the locations themselves. There are monuments and cemeteries there that I’m sure will evoke the same powerful response to all visitors.
Thanks you for reading and watching. Remember to do what you can to carry on the memory of World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and all wars and conflicts before and after by listening to the stories of the people who lived through those times and were impacted by them at home and abroad.
Always remember,
Alex
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