Sixty-five years ago the US and other Allied countries were attempting to regain control of Europe and the Pacific rim from the Axis nations of Japan, Italy and Germany.  This second world war was being prosecuted by the Axis governments of the time on the theory that some people were inherently inferior to others, owing either to nationality, race or other group affiliation and the Axis promoted that belief via military conquest.  Many resisted and counterattacked but by early 1944 not a great deal of progress had been made to reduce the threat to England, which was Europe's last free outpost and a possible staging point for action against North America (via port locations like Cornwall, Iceland and Greenland).

   The Italians and then Germans had been stalemated in North Africa but prior to June of '44 Allied forces had either competently retreated or slowly advanced at great cost upon dug-in adversaries.  Axis gains continued: the Japanese invaded India in March, German troops held onto the Italian promontory of Monte Cassino until mid-May (thus delaying the advance upon Rome), and the Ruhr valley armaments factories were still operational after months of British and US bombing (joined by other Allied air forces operating from south England).  Launching points for the V-1 early cruise missile and the V-2 ballistic missile had not been heavily damaged or even located in many cases; mobile V-2 launchers in fact were never hit.  The German air force had been fielding the first medium jet bomber (Arado 234) and the first jet fighter/bomber (ME 262) for about a year to great success in speed, as both planes were 100mph faster than anything else flying.  And in May near Drvar, Bosnia, German paratroopers invaded the Yugoslavian leader Marshal Tito's headquarters and almost captured him, along with British Major Randolph Churchill, with whom he was in conference.  

   Early June, in American parlance, saw a "new ball game".  June saw over 2.5 million troops ferried over the English Channel into France with another million to come in the following six weeks or so.  German losses during those weeks were such that General von Rundstedt actually advised Berlin to surrender.  He was then replaced by General von Kluge, who was to commit suicide less than two months later.  Persuasive arguments have been advanced that the US should not have entered the Second World War, since most of the nations being attacked were little more individualistic than the invading dictatorships, and thus should have been left to their own devices.  As true as the assessment was, I'm relieved that such nations as Britain and France (which have contributed in various ways to the development of American society) were saved from the designs of Vichy, Third Reich Berlin or elsewhere.

   The D-Day operation of the Second World War is now fading from living memory.  I hope that its political significance (in addition to its technical bravery) will grow in the understanding of the free Western peoples.

5/23/2009