Tom Finneran: A Mighty Fleet, a Righteous Cause, an Unbearable Sadness

Friday, June 06, 2014

Tom Finneran, GoLocalWorcester MINDSETTER™

D-Day: The Normandy Invasion (U.S. Army, http://www.army.mil/d-day/)

June 6, 1944, D-Day---seventy years ago today.

Franklin Roosevelt’s memorable phrase about “the arsenal of democracy” was about to arrive, in force, on European soil. The pictures of the invasion fleet are astounding. Hundreds and hundreds of ships, as far and as wide as the eye could see, steamed over the horizon, racing toward the beaches at Normandy, firing a deadly rain of shell, determined to blast a hole in Hitler’s sadistic steel grip.

That arsenal of democracy was overhead too, as thousands of planes pounded German troops and targets with an unrelenting fury. America’s might had arrived.

It’s a good thing that those American factories were able to give the Allied troops such overwhelming material support, for the German soldier was, by most accounts, the most skilled soldier in the world. And General Rommel had prepared many intricate and deadly traps for the Allies’ rookie troops.

Yet as ingenious as Rommel and the German soldiers were at defending their stolen soil, they were up against equally ingenious and implacable foes, fueled by a righteous indignation at the enslavement and murder of millions of innocent people. Those Allied soldiers had actually gained some hard experience in the North African and Italian campaigns and the lessons learned there included the need for mastery of the sea and sky, the need for speed, and the gift of on-the-spot improvisation.

Adolf Hitler was as evil and deranged a man as has ever stalked the earth. That the German people, a truly talented and gifted race, ever fell under his spell is one of life’s terrible mysteries. Hitler’s rise was fueled in part by demagogic politics, helped by ferocious and intimidating criminality. When one’s possible political opponents are conveniently and timely murdered, it helps clear the field for ascent. And Hitler’s early and overwhelming victories against Poland and France created the illusion of genius, submerging any lingering doubts about his leadership. He and the German people were about to pay a hideous price for that illusion…

American domination of the sky over France meant that it was virtually impossible for the Germans to maneuver troops or tanks in reinforcement. The Allies strafed and ambushed everything that moved, counteracting every German tactic. And American mastery of supply logistics provided Allied soldiers with food, water, guns, tanks and special equipment that German soldiers could only dream about. The world was agape at American might.

Allied gliders used “special forces” and Allied planes landed some tough hombres, paratroopers, in midnight runs, determined to make early captures of critical crossroads and key bridges. The literature on D-Day is astounding including the miracles, the screw-ups, the tragedies, the planning, the preparation, the leadership, and the sheer magnificence of the day. And the weather played its part, providing a small window of opportunity, almost as if God was partial to the good guys.

Make no mistake about it. This was a war with good guys and bad guys, a war that carried a moral clarity to its final shot. The undistilled evil of Hitler, the rapacious cunning of Mussolini, and the barbarity of Tojo had to be exterminated. Ironic isn’t it that Japan, Germany, and Italy are such staunch allies of the United States today? How terribly sad that so many millions of lives had to be lost in such vicious struggle.

For unbearable sadness and a staggering sight, visit the American graveyard at Normandy. The gleaming white crosses stand row on row, bearing the name and home state of the soldiers buried there. My wife and I visited Normandy in the dead of winter several years ago. You cannot take a step there without feeling a sense of awe, of reverence, of debt, of grief. The very first cross I read was of a soldier, a boy really, from Massachusetts. I cried like a baby for him, for his parents, and for what might have been…

The ages of the fallen are seared in my mind. Eighteen, nineteen, and twenty-year-old boys became hardened men on the oceans and continents of the world. And of course many never returned. As the war reached its final deadly convulsions in Europe, and Germany writhed under eastern and western Allied assault, the hometowns of America trembled in hope for their youth, the innocent boys of America fighting and dying for freedom. Remember that, and always honor D-Day.

Tom Finneran is the former Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, served as the head the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, and was a longstanding radio voice in Boston radio.