Editorial: D-Day: Beginning of the end of World War II

As 1944 dawned, fascism dominated Europe. Hitler’s ground troops had goose-stepped through Poland and Romania to Russia’s doorstep. They had taken France and pushed southward to Greece. From the air, the Luftwaffe decimated cities across western Europe, northern Africa and the Soviet Union.

U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and United Kingdom Prime Minister Winston Churchill knew the only way to stop the Axis powers was to drive back the Germans and retake Europe, piece by blood-soaked piece.

Thus, Operation Overlord.

To plant the allied flag on European soil, liberty’s champions had to start somewhere, and they chose the beaches of Normandy upon which to mount their charge.

Led by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhauer, Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force commander, the Allies devised Operation Neptune.

We call it D-Day.

Eighty years ago — June 6, 1944 — the United States, Britain and Canada launched the largest seaborne invasion in the world’s history. More than 150,000 soldiers and paratroopers and nearly 200,000 naval personnel attacked those beaches — code-named Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword.

Imagine what they faced on that infamous, sullen day.

Buffeted by weather and unreliable communications, paratroopers who were to limit reinforcements by destroying bridges and flank the Germans from behind found themselves spread to the winds. Only a fraction of them were able to mount any offense at all. The aircraft that delivered them, and their crews, littered the French countryside and the English Channel, bombarded by well-prepared anti-aircraft batteries.

The Germans had fortified the coastline with obstacles, and they had dug in machine gun nests on the cliffs above. The 5th Panzer Army stood ready to pummel the invading forces below.

These men — boys, most of them — must have felt like they were at the very gate of Hell as they trudged toward impending doom.

Yet, they stepped off those landing craft and onto those beaches. They gathered themselves and reformed.

Step by deadly step.

Bullet by leaden bullet.

Battle by valorous battle.

Over the days and weeks, the Allies pushed into France. Carentan. Saint-Lo. Caen. Then, on to Germany.

What began at Normandy eventually ended aboard the USS Missouri on Sept. 2, 1945. The Allies had risen as one and defeated the Axis powers.

Unflinching courage, unrivaled fortitude, unrelenting perseverance had propelled freedom-loving peoples to sacrifice all in the name of eradicating evil.

As we reflect on those who took part in D-Day — indeed all those who fought the battles of World War II, from Midway to Iwo Jima, Stalingrad to Berlin, Okinawa to Monte Cassino — we marvel at their resolve and selflessness. They etched their names in the keystone of what became the foundation for global, if not local, peace.

Though we can never repay that debt, we can honor their heroic memory by striving to earn the freedom their devotion, their blood, their lives, bought all of us.