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Special Report
Remembering D-Day With Ike and Reagan
And with Tony Dolan, President Reagan’s great speechwriter.
For me, Memorial Day happens twice within a week. The first, the official holiday at the end of May, is quickly reinforced a week later, every June 6: D-Day.
Of all the wartime anniversaries, none strike me quite like D-Day — the invasion of Normandy, the liberation of France, the final push to defeat Nazi Germany. It was June 6, 1944, a date that sticks like December 7, like July 4, like September 11. The mix of extreme sorrow and triumph has been unforgettably replicated on film by Steven Spielberg in the stunning opening of Saving Private Ryan.
What must it have been like to be among those first waves at the beaches? Indescribable, simply indescribable.
When I think of D-Day, I always think of two presidents, neither of which were president at the time: Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan. What they had to say about the event was profound.
Ike was Supreme Allied Commander during World War II, a long way from humble beginnings as a Kansas farm boy. He gave the final order to send an armada of 5,000 ships, 12,000 aircraft, and 155,000 soldiers — the largest amphibious assault in history. The morning prior, the forecast wasn’t good. Ike asked each of his subordinates what they thought about proceeding.
“Ike wasn’t taking a vote,” recorded Stephen Ambrose, the late WWII historian who was also Ike’s biographer. “Ike asked all 14 men in the room. Seven of them said to postpone and seven of them said to go ahead.” Everyone stared at General Eisenhower for what seemed like forever. Finally, Ike said simply, “Okay, let’s do it.”
Ike then wrote a note to himself: “Our landings… have failed.”
If failure resulted, Ike would take the blame. Of course, failure didn’t result, though a lot of horror came in the process. The men who battled on those beaches sampled their own taste of Armageddon. It was hell on earth.
Ike never forgot those boys. When he visited Omaha beach 20 years later — by then an ex-president as well as an ex-general — he told Walter Cronkite: “You know, Walter, I come here and the thought that overwhelms me is all the joy that Mamie and I get from our grandchildren. I look at these graves out here and I just can’t help but think of all the families in America that don’t have the joy of grandchildren.”
Another 20 years later still, June 6, 1984, another president, Ronald Reagan, visited those beaches, and gave two memorable speeches. The first paid tribute to the men who did return to that beach, and the second acknowledged a man who didn’t return.
The first speech was given at 1:20 PM at the U.S. Ranger Monument at Pointe du Hoc, France, where a group of American veterans of Normandy had re-convened for a special ceremony. Reagan stated:
We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France. The air is soft, but 40 years ago at this moment, the air was dense with smoke and the cries of men, and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon. At dawn, on the morning of the 6th of June, 1944, 225 Rangers jumped off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs….
The Rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers — the edge of the cliffs shooting down at them with machineguns and throwing grenades. And the American Rangers began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up. When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb again. They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe. Two hundred and twenty-five came here. After 2 days of fighting, only 90 could still bear arms.
Behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the Ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs. And before me are the men who put them there.
These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.
About the Author
Paul Kengor is professor of political science and executive director of The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College. He is author of the new book The Communist: Frank Marshall Davis, The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mentor. His other books include The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism and Dupes: How America’s Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (120) | Leave a comment
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dee see| 6.6.11 @ 6:31AM
---Great piece but, alas, a
classic Globalist/Tavistock DIS-traction.
Just as Hollywood and media are forever
recycling and retreading the long finished
WW2 for purposes of crucial distraction
at KEY moments ---SO the American Spectator.
AS every non-hypnotized, non-rectum worshipping American knows ---today's NOT any kind of WW2 hallmark..
NO---SIRRRREEE------------------
As every awake and aware, non POST American
American knows, today is --
the 61st Anniversary of the start of the
KOREAN WAR
61 'EUGENICS friendly' , Globalist TREASON op years later
WE REMEMBER----------------------------
Darin| 6.6.11 @ 6:52AM
The men who invaded France in 1944 showed extreme courage. Eisenhower and Reagan showed great respect and admiration for these men and what they accomplished. You, on the other hand, show the utmost disrepect for their actions.
CB| 6.6.11 @ 6:54AM
Good Grief...do you ever shut up??
Excellent article Mr. Kengor...please ignore the ridiculous musings of dee see.
post*tenebras*lux| 6.6.11 @ 7:12AM
deesee: what is wrong with you?
Alan Brooks| 6.6.11 @ 12:33PM
Clint celebrates the anniversary of September 1st 1939.
Clint| 6.6.11 @ 12:48PM
You're A Slandering Liar, ObamaBoy Israel Firster Brooks.
Alan Brooks| 6.6.11 @ 12:51PM
alright, then, do you instead celebrate the anniversary of April 20th, 1889?
Clint| 6.6.11 @ 1:06PM
I celebrate April 30th, 1945, ObamaBoy Israel Firster Brooks.
But, I don't celebrate August 4th, 1961.
Occam's Tool| 6.6.11 @ 9:42PM
What, the sentencing of Eichmann?
Clint, you are humorous and stupid.
Clint| 6.6.11 @ 10:10PM
Apparently, Israel Firster Neo-Chickenhawk Coward Plastic Mensa Boy, Tool Job can't figure out the dates.
Bill| 6.6.11 @ 4:36PM
North Korea invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950.
The United States joined in the hostilities on June 27, 1950.
Where did you get that 61st anniversary thing from the date (June 6, 1944) of the invasion of Europe?
Bill| 6.6.11 @ 4:37PM
Oh wait, I know, I know: the Tavistock Institute told you.
Brian Mc| 6.6.11 @ 6:53AM
It is a travesty to finish reading an article here and then top it off by noting that the first person to respond drools on himself.
Darin| 6.6.11 @ 7:38AM
Freedom includes freedom to drool like a buffoon. Just treat it like the background noise it is.
Alan Brooks| 6.6.11 @ 12:45PM
dee see was wounded at Juno or Sword- his brain was filled with shrapnel. BTW, notice how he (dee see must be a guy, a woman wouldn't be so crazy, not even Daphne Kenward) is always first on the thread?
Alan Brooks| 6.6.11 @ 12:49PM
or perhaps the rattling of the machine guns on D-Day permanently disoriented dee see?
Bill| 6.6.11 @ 4:38PM
But the big question is: did he/she put his/her boots on, on the wrong feet?
Appleby| 6.6.11 @ 7:04AM
My Daddy missed D-day due to a training accident that shattered his leg; he went on to serve honorably in the War, but he always regretted missing D-Day. We always remember the boys who had everything to lose and yet hurled themselves into the thick of Armageddon because it was what men did.
I pray that such men will always live among us.
Prester John| 6.6.11 @ 7:58AM
My father was a merchant mariner and missed D-Day because he had the mumps. He later made 8 crossings to Utah and Omaha. He said that even weeks after D-Day soldiers working on the beaches were still stepping on mines and setting them off.
ray bob| 6.6.11 @ 9:31AM
They still do Appleby, look to Iraq and Afghanistan and remember they are volunteers, to the man and woman, indeed. Evil will alway lurk in the hearts of some, and freedom can only be savored by those whom understand the bravery and calm of those who choose to fight for this freedom and liberty.
nister| 6.6.11 @ 7:12AM
Four of five German soldiers were fighting Russian soldiers on June 6, 1944. Three of five beaches were won by soldiers who were British and Canadian.
When the author intones that GI Joe won the war I feel the same way as when I listen to Palin talking about Paul Revere.
Darin| 6.6.11 @ 7:37AM
So how does praising what the American troops did belittle the brave deeds of the British or Canadians? And since you didn't mention the Scots, Poles or Free French who played key roles, I guess you don't think much of them either.
chuck| 6.6.11 @ 7:39AM
Yes, but I doubt the first boys/men who hit those beaches that morning, and saw 80% causalities,50% killed took much comfort in that.
You, Sir, are an ass.
Clint| 6.6.11 @ 7:59AM
"The cost of the Normandy campaign had been high for both sides. From D-Day to 21 August, the Allies had landed 2,052,299 men in northern France. There were around 209,672 Allied casualties from 6 June to the end of August, around 10 % of the forces landed in France.
The Anglo-Canadian Army-Group suffered 16,138 killed, 58,594 wounded and 9,093 missing for a total of 83,825 casualties. The American Army-Group suffered 20,838 killed, 94,881 wounded and 10,128 missing for a total of 125,847 casualties. To these casualties it should be added that 4,101 aircraft were lost and 16,714 airmen were killed or missing in direct connection to Operation Overlord. Thus total Allied casualties rises to 226,386 men."
Dad & his troopers fought their way from Normandy to Paris & you didn't, Asshat Ninster.
TR| 6.6.11 @ 6:45PM
Your dad and the others were true patriots and heroes.
Thank you for your post.
Occam's Tool| 6.6.11 @ 9:42PM
Yes, and your dad was much better than you. Of course, Maurice Rose was there, too.
Clint| 6.6.11 @ 10:07PM
Say that to my Dad's face & he'd put his combat boot up your Neo-Chickenhawk Israel Firster Coward Fanatic Asshole, Asshole Tool Job.
albert constantine jr.| 6.6.11 @ 9:31AM
I believe June 6 is the anniversary of the Normandy invasion, which led to the liberation of western Europe. While one of the purposes of the operation was to provide the pressure on the 3rd Reich by opening an additional front and draw troops who were fighting the Russians off of the eastern front, it also marked the beginning of the end for the occupation of France. While it was an Allied effort that defeated the Nazis, those nations east of Germany don't celebrate that victory as a liberation, as it merely marked their trading an oppressive murderous regime symbolized by a swastika with one which used the hammer & sickle for the next 45 years. As such, it is fitting and proper that we memorialize our troops (this is the American Spectator, after all, not the allied or Soviet Spectator) and all that they sacrificed on this anniversary.
W| 6.6.11 @ 10:15AM
nister, you obiously do not like the USA, otherwise why raise the idiotic "points" today on the anniversary of D-Day. This is not a general discussion of WWII, but a commeration of D-Day. But you "feel," not "think" and it upsets you that there is an article about Ike and Reagan. Maybe you prefer an nice article about Stalin. Why don't you write an article about Stalin then?
Aquanomics| 6.6.11 @ 11:44AM
News Flash: Boston Globe reports that Palin's comments are historically accurate, I repeat, historically accurate.
Too many media types (and Nister) suffer from PSEDS, public school education syndrome.
Bill| 6.6.11 @ 4:42PM
Sarah Palin just misspoke. I have no doubt that she intended to say "patriots" or "rebels" instead of "British." She just made a minor flub, and people shouldn't be trying so hard to make it OK.
It was a mistake, no more or less than Barack Obama talking about the "57 states" like they came from the Heinz Company or something.
Pzkfw| 6.6.11 @ 5:56PM
Oh please fool...the woman's an idiot, and if you want her for president, you are too. Just to be clear, I am NOT a liberal or a democrat. But I do have common sense, and that woman is nothing but a media junkie.
Bill| 6.6.11 @ 6:45PM
No, I don't think she has what it takes to be the President, but a mistake is just a mistake, nothing more. Please try to be more civil.
Bill| 6.6.11 @ 4:40PM
Yeah, but without the Second Front, the Soviets would have suffered for far longer and suffered a far greater number of dead.
Nick| 6.7.11 @ 12:29AM
Nister,
The U.S., and the U.K., were both fighting a two front war. The Soviets were not. On June 6th, this effectively became a three front war: Pacific Theater, Italy, and Normandy.
If you knew anything about Operation Overlord, you would know that on 4 of the 5 beaches there was light to moderate resistance, compared to the fighting on Omaha. And, Omaha was the key, as it exposed Utah's left flank and Gold's right flank to counter-attack.
Highlighting the heroic efforts of the men of Omaha Beach, and remembering the hell that all the men of the Normandy invasion went through, doesn't take anything away from all the other brave men who fought, and died, during all of WWII. Try learning some perspective, okay?
post*tenebras*lux| 6.6.11 @ 7:14AM
I had a great-uncle at the Normandy Invasion. Though I did not see him much through the years, he, like President Reagan always, always as though built into their nature, made you feel like you mattered. (He did this with everyone he met)
nister| 6.6.11 @ 8:20AM
27 million Russian casualties..asshat Clint.
Darin| 6.6.11 @ 8:24AM
This posting is about the invasion of France at Normandy. I don't think there were any Russians involved. Stay on topic or stay silent.
nister| 6.6.11 @ 8:31AM
Nice try, but I'm commenting on the author's assertions. He gives America star billing for beating Germany; America defeated Japan, Russia beat Germany.
Bill| 6.6.11 @ 4:47PM
The Soviet Union got to Berlin from about 500 miles away; the United States and Great Britain got to Berlin from about 4,000 miles and 1,000 miles away. At the same time. With armies a lot smaller than the Red Army.
And the Red Army got to Germany with a hell of a lot of Lend-Lease materiel from the U.S. Airplanes, trucks, jeeps, small arms. I don't recall ever reading about Stalin helping the Western Allies with Zis trucks or Moisin-Nagant rifles.
Pzkfw| 6.6.11 @ 6:21PM
Nonsense...I guess you forgot to check a map and see that Moscow is about 1000 mi from the current German eastern border, where the Russians began beating the Germans west. As for Britain, it is about 200 mi from the German western border. As the for the US, unless the troops walked across the Atlantic ocean, don't bother with a 4000 mile distance "credit".
The reality is that the Russians bled the Germans white and the allies finished the job. The allies may have have supplied the Russians, but so what? Based on that premise, why invade at all? Just keep supplying the Soviets and let them finish the war. It was more about showing up at the end and calling a news conference to take the credit.
No argument that the US defeated the Japanese, but the US and the "Allies" did not defeat the Germans.
Please understand me, the US soldiers who fought during D-Day deserve all my respect. They were and are warriors fighting for their cause and should be acknowledged for their effort.
Bill| 6.6.11 @ 6:57PM
Yes, Moscow, well east of the borders of the Soviet Union, is just over 1,000 miles from Berlin.
But the border of Germany and the border of the USSR were about 500 miles from one another at the time. So yes, I checked map; did you?
Yes, there was an ocean between the United States and Eurooe. It was filled with U-boats from the east coast the United States all the way across to France and to the north, all the way up the Baltic Sea. That lasted from 1940 until about 1943 or early 1944; then there was a little less slaughter.
Just keeping the Soviets supplied and letting them fight the war was consistent with the expressed views of Vice President Harry S. Truman. There were many others who shared that view. Roosevelt allowed himself to be manipulated by Churchill, who was frightened to the bone by the prospect of being invaded by the Third Reich.
I don't think it's quite reflective of the reality of the Second Front to say that they called a press conference to take the credit. After all, the Americans alone lost 400,000 dead in Europe after D-Day alone. It's true that that number pales in comparison to the about 9 million Soviets who were killed in the Red Army, but you must remember that the USSR started out as an ally of Nazi Germany and participated in the invasion of Poland in 1939, and got 1/2 of Poland, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania out of their alliance with the Nazis. The USSR didn't ally itself with the West until the Nazis were at the gates of Moscow in the late summer of 1941. So England fought alone for two years and the USA entered the war just about at the same time that Stalin cast his reluctant fortunes with the Western democracies.
The Germans had plenty of fight for the Western democracies even with the Soviets fighting in the East. It's true that the Soviets were able to keep on throwing cannon fodder their way, and lost 4.5 million men while Stalin dithered about what his buddy Hitler was doing after Barbarossa got under way, and another 4.5 million men driving Hitler back to the borders of the USSR during the following year and a half.
It's also true that the USSR bled Germany thoroughly, but it's also true that Stalin was desperate for the opening of the Second Front, so that he could reconstruct the Red Army. He was royally PO'd when the U.S. interfered with the plan to open the Second Front in 1943.
So yes, even the USSR acknowledged that the Allies won World War II.
Pzkfw| 6.6.11 @ 7:17PM
Great post...thanks for the intelligent dialog...sometimes absent here.
To repeat, I acknowledge the efforts and sacrifice of all warriors believing in their cause. As a postwar German, I recognize that the 3rd Reich needed to be defeated and the world is a better place for its demise.
Thom| 6.6.11 @ 7:52PM
Bill, the actual Soviet military deaths were around 13 million or half the total. This includes the millions taken prisoner and died in the camps.... The Soviets were blazingly incompetent for most of the war. The German lost around 2 million the on the eastern front despite being overwhelmingly outnumbered by the Soviets. The Soviets built over 100,000 Armored Fighting Vehicles (tanks, assault guns) and only had 12,000 left at the end. The Germans got a lot of bang for the buck given their inferior numbers but it is still true that had the Allies not drawn off German forces in the Med, the Western Fronts when they did and disrupted their production of arms through direct and indirect use of air power, the Russians would have needed another year to get to the eastern Border of Germany. Without our lend lease of vehicles, tanks, aircraft, supplies they would not have achieved parity in 1943 at all or had the means to advance an offensive over the distances involved from where the line was in 1943 to where the Soviets ended up in March of 1945. Contrary to some pundits the Soviets could not withstand the German assault if they had not wasted precious resources in the Battle of Britain, North Africa and helping to save Italy’s arse in the Balkans. The Soviets were their own worst enemy.
Churchill was right, the sooner the Germans were engaged on multiple fronts the less likely they could prevail on any front.
Occam's Tool| 6.6.11 @ 9:44PM
Without American food and trucks, it is doubtful that the Russians could have won. The trucks allowed Russia to have actual logistics.
Reference to Seaton's work.
Clint| 6.6.11 @ 8:58AM
Now, Anti-American Asshat Ninster tries to move the goalposts by counting in Soviet Civilians.
cuban pete| 6.6.11 @ 8:49AM
To all the members of the armed forces who served in any capacity in WWII,thank you.
To their families, your dad or brother are always in my prayers.
The most significant words in WWII-
European Theater-" Ike says, "GO".
6/6/44
Pacific Theater- "North Tinian tower, this is Dimples 8-2 requesting taxi clearance"
Col. Paul Tibbets
8/6/45
Bill| 6.6.11 @ 4:59PM
I always kind of favored General MacArthur's "I have returned." It seemed sort of like a twisting of the Japanese collective nose.
I wish I knew what Curtis LeMay told his fliers when he instructed them to drop incendiaries at 5,000 feet instead of 1,000-pount bombs at 30,000 feet. That was a turning-point moment too.
Pzkfw| 6.6.11 @ 6:49PM
Hmmm...so you want to know how Curtis explained how to kill more non-military people? LaMay's orders sound like genocide to me. Kill every civilian you can...oops, sorry that's usually a German thing..not. just to get ahead of the expected responses, the Germans deserve all the guilt for their pogroms, but they didn't invent the concept, an are not singularly guilty during history. Ask the Russians how many people they killed...bu who cares, they were russian. BTW, millions more than the Germans. Even better, ask the Chinese...we have no clue how many millions those people have killed over the years...but who cares, they were Chinese.
Just asking, U.S...how many American Indians were wiped out during the western expansion...does anyone care?
Bill| 6.6.11 @ 7:05PM
Well, except the well-known civilian work on defense materiel in their homes kind of made the Japanese society one monolithic war machine, don't you think? They didn't have a complete factory system running; they relied on civilian workers at home to participate in manufacture. So when I consider that, and the willingness of the Japanese people to learn how to strap mines to themselves and roll themselves under Allied tank treads, to fight with bamboo spears, and so on ad infinitum, I find it a bit facile for one to think of the Japanese as "civilians" in the "innocent bystander" sense. They wanted as nation and a society to fight, and they got what they wanted.
Bill| 6.6.11 @ 7:12PM
The Germans didn't do pogroms; that was a Russian thing.
I don't know how many American Indians were wiped out during the western expansion; they chose to resist with force or arms the European incursions into the country they occupied. There were wars and they were beaten. Yes, they got treated badly before and after the wars, but they decided to fight, and they fought against people who fought back.
About 40,000,000 Soviet citizens were killed in World War II. About 10 to 12 million of them were in uniform.
The Soviets killed, outside of World War II, about 20,000,000 by various forms of murder aimed at eliminating all resistance to the creation of the New Soviet Man. That's just the Soviets who were murdered; lots of German civilians were murdered, raped, robbed, and otherwise brutalized by Red Army atrocities, but that's just Germans, they were all Nazis, so who cares?
Mao Tse-Tung killed about 45,000,000 Chinese by starvation just between 1958 and 1962.
I keep track of the numbers because I want to know the cost of certain ideas.
Pzkfw| 6.6.11 @ 7:49PM
Again a great response.
Reminds of one of our favorite comedians, Eddie Izzard, who said that if you killed you own people, no one cared...but if you killed the people next door you were genocidal.
chuck| 6.6.11 @ 8:12PM
I recently met an elderly lady, born in 1934 in Czechoslovakia. She lived under both the nazis and the Russians. Her comment to me was " the Germans were bad, but the Russians were animals". She was left alone, she said, because she was very tiny for her age, but her sister and mother were raped by the Russian soldiers.
The Red Army was largely responsible for the defeat of Germany, but then they were invaded, so it was there only fight. We were fighting all over the world, Europe, the Pacific, the Atlantic, Africa, China, Burma, literally everywhere. And supplying Britain and Russia with war supplies. The Red Army traveled in American trucks, delivered by British merchant marines at a high cost.
So I believe we deserve a large share of the credit for the defeat of the Axis powers.
Lawrence D. Cannon| 6.6.11 @ 10:40PM
Sore loser.
TURK| 6.6.11 @ 9:19AM
Unbelievable! Great article to remind us of the day it is and was. Thought I would drift to the "comments" just to have a warm feeling the rest of the day. NOT!
What I got was a bunch of America hating leftists who spend their waking hours trashing our country; its culture and the west, in favor of the evil empires they love.
The russians "beat Germany"? And Alger Hiss was just a cultured innocent who reported to moscow every day. Tell my brother, he of the 34th Division of the U.S. Army, who fought through the hell that was the italian campaign. The garbage that peppered this site today amaze.
On THIS day, how could so many scum be hanging around, spewing their filth???Who ARE you people?? To what (beside the success of the leftist monsters in D.C.) do you aspire??
But, you don't aspire do you? Slither maybe. But aspire? Don't think so.
post*tenebras*lux| 6.6.11 @ 4:44PM
Turk, Do you remember Giblets (robert gibbs) saying he was leaving his press secretary job to work for Obama on the internet smearing the right? Garbage is showing up everywhere.
hardcard| 6.6.11 @ 9:49AM
soros will be proud of you commie bastards and your vile disrespect for men of honor. does georgie pay by the post or the word. ?
nister| 6.6.11 @ 9:54AM
Clint, you poor perisher, why don't you ask a German whether Ivan or Joe did them in? Turk, WTF?
Stormzeye| 6.6.11 @ 11:09AM
Nister,
Stalin slaughtered Ukranians by the 10s of millions, attacked Finland, Poland and the Baltic states, murdered his own general staff, enslaved countless millions in the gulag and committed untold atrocities against so many more, then signed a Non-agression Pact with Hitler all before the war.
He sealed the fate of his country and people. He never would have fought the Nazis and probably would have aided them if Hitler had never attacked. No one has any sympathy for Stalin or his Communist slave-state. For you to trumpet the contributions of those Soviet slaves on this day is to ignore that for which the war was fought: Freedom for those who survived and the generations that followed.
nister| 6.6.11 @ 11:53AM
Why would you have no sympathy for those bound in slavery?
My point is that Russia did more than any other to defeat Russia, contrary to the author's inferences. BTW, your point about Stalin being dragged into the fight is ironic, given that Germany declared war on America, post-Pearl Harbor.
nister| 6.6.11 @ 11:55AM
Defeat Germany, not defeat Russia, sorry.
Stormzeye| 6.6.11 @ 12:51PM
Slavery is a choice.
nister| 6.6.11 @ 1:06PM
Slavery, by definition, is mandatory.
Bill| 6.6.11 @ 4:49PM
I would say rather that the Soviet Union did more than any other to defeat Russia, including the Third Reich. The Nazis only killed a hell of a lot of Russians; the Soviets did a pretty good job of destroying their soul as a nation.
Bill A | 6.6.11 @ 5:23PM
Bill, the Russians may have had the most men in the field of armed combat, but it was a group effort. I know a man where I live, also named Bill. I had known him a long time and he was always pleasant to be around. One day I saw him and he was wearing a Navy hat. It was then that I realized, guessing his age that he had been in the war. When I asked, still modest after all these years, he told me he had made seven trips to Murmansk. I was practically speechless. Having read a good deal about the war, I realized the odds of this man making it through seven trips to Murmansk. When I asked how he did it, his simple reply was " I don't know, we just did it."
Without Americans like Bill the Russians army would not have had enough supplies and that was long before D-day. Without President Roosevelt's commitment to getting badly needed supplies to Russia at extereme expense, and without those young men like Bill, they might be speaking German in Russia today.
Bill| 6.6.11 @ 5:48PM
Woody Guthrie was a Commie, all right, but sometimes he could say something:
Walked to the tail, stood on the stern,
Lookin' at the big brass screw blade turn;
Listened to the sound of the engine pound,
Gained sixteen feet every time it went around.
Gettin' closer and closer, look out, you fascists!
Bill| 6.6.11 @ 4:52PM
Don't forget Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania, Byelorussia, Poland, and the satellite states to the south of Russia.
Clint| 6.6.11 @ 12:19PM
Nister, You Sorry Ass Anti-American Asshat, why don't you ask 435 Germans from The 326th VolksGrenadier Division, that Dad & His Troopers killed at The Battle of The Bulge?
nister| 6.6.11 @ 1:03PM
I think I know what your problem is. You've suffered an episode of self-awareness, and you're trying to ease your misery by taking it out on me.
Clint| 6.6.11 @ 1:17PM
I think I know what your problem is. You've suffered an episode of Fellow traveler Disease, and you're trying to ease your misery by taking it out on Our WWII American Warriors..
Occam's Tool| 6.6.11 @ 9:51PM
Nister, don't argue with Clint. He is a racist scumbag. His father may have been a war hero, but he's a enuretic idiot himself.
The Russians suffered many, many more casualties than we did in WWII. That being said, they started the war by signing the non-aggression pact with their mortal enemy, the majority of their officers were alcoholic scum, and without American logistical support they would have gone NOWHERE.
The Allies took out the Luftwaffe and the German Navy, and their strategic bombing initiative crippled the German war economy. The Russians took on the divisions. But we would have won in 1947b anyway without the Russians, as we would have had the strategic bombing and nuke capability to wipe out the Nazis by then, and there would have been no moral qualms about using it.
The Russians were very brave and very operationally inept. Their leadership was distilled evil.
So, Clint, your dad was unhappy Eichmann got nabbed, too? That makies no sense.
Occam's Tool| 6.6.11 @ 9:51PM
Sorry, "makes"
Clint| 6.6.11 @ 10:15PM
Once again, The Fanatic Israel Firster Neo-Chickenhawk Traitor Bastard Coward, Tool Job makes an ongoing habit of mocking A Highly Decorated American Combat Warrior.
chuck| 6.6.11 @ 11:14PM
The Russians were very brave and very operationally inept. Their leadership was distilled evil.
I think it was less bravery, and more the knowledge that they would be shot by the NKVD if they tried to retreat.
wvcrowcall| 6.6.11 @ 3:41PM
You seem to forget that thousands of American sailors and merchantmen died supplying much needed war materials to the Russians via convoys which were relentlessly attacked by U-Boats and German aircraft. Without that early material, Russia may not have been able to withstand Hitler. This is not to denigrate Russia's role...merely to acknowledge that America contributed to Hitler's defeat on many fronts. Why, sir, are you not proud to be an American?
Bill| 6.6.11 @ 5:53PM
Convoy PQ-17 started out across the Atlantic with about 40 ships. After running the U-boat gauntlet, they arrived in port with something like 17 ships. When we watch TV shows and read the books, the reality of all those men, ships, and cargo spilled into the sea can't possibly hit home.
There hasn't been anything like that, not in the West, for the past 60 years.
Bill| 6.6.11 @ 5:58PM
The USAF made a bombing run against the ball-bearing factory in Schweinfurt with about 300 B-17s. About 60 of those planes were shot down, and another about 140 were damaged. In the one raid the U.S. lost about 500 fliers. We did that raid twice. The bombing raid on the oil refineries at Ploesti was similar.
Bill| 6.6.11 @ 6:06PM
After Guadalcanal, the Central Pacific campaign targeted the group of islands known as Tarawa. Five thousand men of the 2d Marine Division were chosen to invade the island. Poor reconnaissance did not reveal that the tide on the day of invasion would not be high enough for the landing craft to pass over the reef around the main target, Betio Atoll (there was an air field on Betio), so when the first boats, amtracs (tracked landing craft) got over, the non-tracked LCIs (Higgins boats) got hung up on the reef. The Marines in the amtracs (LVTs) got the Marines to shore, but their comrades had to wade 700 to 1000 yards in four-foot-deep water to get ashore. Unfortunately, the elite Japanese troops had every inch of the beach and the lagoon zeroed in, and the Marines lost 2,000 men to machine guns, mortars, and 9-inch naval guns. This is one battle where the question "Where did they get the guts to advance into that?" has particular significance.
And there are Marines (Robert Leckie is one) who say that wasn't the only time they had to do that.
Richard Yates| 6.6.11 @ 11:02AM
Mr Kengor: thanks for your wonderful reminder of the sacrifices that were made so many years ago. Not much is reported by the mainstream press today and that is a shame. The clips of President Reagan brought tears to my eyes.
God bless you for making all remember.
Groad| 6.6.11 @ 11:48AM
Prior to Operation Overlord, Allied forces had landed and expelled Axis forces from N. Africa (Operation Torch began Nov 1942) and then moved to Sicily and Italy in 1943 with susequent landings at Anzio and Salerno. Allied Air Forces flew into Germany and Romania from airfields in S outhern Italy beginning in January 1944. Operation Dragoon occurred Aug 15, 1944 with landings in Southern France that pushed German forces out of that area and moved north to meet up with the allied forces from Normandy invasion. (There were no Russians in any of these operations.)
Bill| 6.6.11 @ 5:34PM
When our leaders asked Stalin for the use of Soviet airbases to aid the Western Allies against the Germans, Stalin refused to allow it.
When one of the Doolittle Raiders landed their bomber (B-24? B-26?) in Vladivostok because they had run out of gas, they were interned for the duration of the war. The crew finally escaped when they found a way to get across the border into Iran.
The Soviets got hold of a U.S. B-29, held on to it, and reverse-engineered it into the first of the Soviet Tupolev intercontinental bombers. That was when the U.S. realized that the USSR wasn't screwing around about attacking the United States with atomic weapons whenever they got them, which of course they also got by stealing the technology from the U.S. and the Brits.
Bill| 6.6.11 @ 5:37PM
The question of whether it was more expedient to make peace with the Germans or to continue as a ally of the Western democracies was always at the forefront of Stalin's mind.
Ned| 6.6.11 @ 12:49PM
I haven't re-read the entire transcript of both speaches, but what strikes me as a stark contrast between these highlighted portions and the tripe we hear from the current "president" is the complete absence of the word "I" (except in quoting someone else)...
Steve A| 6.6.11 @ 1:26PM
Ned, Excellent point. Very difficult for Barak "Id" Obama to go 2 sentences without an I fest.
On a side note I have an observation : Looking ahead to Obama as a 1 term President, I just cringe at the notion that we are never getting rid of hearing this guy blather on & on. I mean look at Carter & Clinton. These guys have no class & do not understand that when the curtain comes down on their time in office, they need to leave the stage & shut up for a few decades or so. In contrast, look at Reagan, Bush Sr. & W. They did their time, left the stage & showed some class. Quite a contrast when you think about it.
nister| 6.6.11 @ 1:34PM
I take it you despise Cheney, then.
Skippy| 6.6.11 @ 3:38PM
I love Dick Cheney.
He is the greatest VP in US history.
You, on the other hand...
cuban pete| 6.6.11 @ 5:05PM
I love Cheney too, but Adams, T.J., T.R. & Silent Cal weren't bad either.
Occam's Tool| 6.6.11 @ 9:52PM
I miss Dick Cheney, a lot.
David T| 6.6.11 @ 2:58PM
Great piece, Mr. Kengor. Thank you.
RAMIII| 6.6.11 @ 4:27PM
Yes! Mr. Reagan and Mr. Eisenhower were both great men! The reason that greatness is not "popularly" known is that it puts us to shame at the time of [their] greatness. This is why the media generally cannot get themselves to honestly, honorably cover these things. They disguise their shame with the anger and vitriol.
Steve A| 6.6.11 @ 2:58PM
I think Cheney should shut it down. Even though I agree with his take on defending the USA against terrorists. Absolutely. Take a break Dick.
PS: I never said I despise Clinton or Carter. Carter, especially, is an utter fool & continues to embarrass himself. Clinton is just a serial media tramp who is continually less & less relevant. Obama could not manage his economic way out of a wet paper bag. I would not put him in charge of a car wash, much less the US Economy.
Bill| 6.6.11 @ 5:05PM
I despise Carter and Clinton. I despised Nixon too.
Uli Kunkel| 6.6.11 @ 3:59PM
After reading and listening to/watching the affairs of the 40th anniversary of the D-Day ceremonies, I come to the conclusion that our present situation, a situation dominated by the most despicable and incompetent man to ever be POTUS, urgently necessitates his resignation, voluntary or otherwise!!!
I can't imagine King Shamrack Shoebox Shebebe -- The Wonderful Jive Jazzy Barack Hussein Obonehead giving those speeches, no sir, could not happen... Who would he thank with conviction, near tears and would it be believable??? Not a chance!!!
Al Adab| 6.6.11 @ 4:09PM
All the revisionists cannot change the fact that the territory America conquered in WWII was returned to the people and nations to whom it belonged --- save for the space required to bury our dead.
RAMIII| 6.6.11 @ 4:29PM
Brilliant Observation! This is exactly right. Thank you Al Adab for setting our perspectives to rights.
Bill| 6.6.11 @ 5:04PM
Speaking of the space required to bury our dead, there's a story that President DeGaulle was bitching about the U.S. military bases on French soil in the 1950s, and the U.S. ambassador to France asked him if his wish for American servicemen to get out of France included the American dead who liberated France.
DeGaulle didn't need anyone to remind him what the real state of affairs was when General LeClerc led the French troops into Paris in August 1944 at the head of the victory parade, and that is was the U.S. 26th Infantry Division that marched right through the Arc de Triomphe and on out of the city to close with the Wehrmacht in order to keep on killing them while the French soldiers got the wine and the women.
Occam's Tool| 6.6.11 @ 9:54PM
Bill,
correct. De Gaulle was a pompous ass.
RCV| 6.6.11 @ 5:18PM
Well said, Al Adab.
nister| 6.6.11 @ 6:20PM
I give you the exceptions of Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Philippines [for many a year]..and the garrisoning of many other conquests.
Why do you suppose Japan acquired a navy modern and powerful enough to pull off a Pearl Harbor? Two generations earlier, it watched in dismay as the neighboring Philippines were annexed by America. Japan determined that, no matter the cost, it needed a deterrent.
As to the territory Russia kept..perhaps if America suffered a commensurate amount, it might have done the same.
Bill| 6.6.11 @ 6:30PM
Well...sort of. The Philippines were a Spanish colony that were ceded to the U.S. when the U.S. won the Spanish-American War. The Japanese did indeed determine at that time that they must become an imperial nation in order to become wealthy.
When the Portland Conference of 1922, attended by the nations that had won World War I demanded that Japan be the "2" in the "3-3-2" ratio of warships, Japan was incensed. They found empathy among the Germans after Hitler took power. That's why Japan joined the Axis. Hitler acted sympathetic and the West acted imperialistic.
In the end, Japan decided to colonize China and they invaded in 1933 and again in 1937. It was then that the Pacific theater of World War II began to take shape. Japan was, of course, particularly brutal to those they conquered and that aided the West in siding up against the Japanese imperialists.
Bill| 6.6.11 @ 6:32PM
But we mustn't forget that Japan had imperial ambitions long before World War I. After all, Korea and the Kuril Islands fell into Japan's ambit after the Russo-Japanese War and the sneak attack at Port Arthur that resulted in Japanese victory in that war.
Bill| 6.6.11 @ 6:43PM
Sorry, it was the Washington Conference, and Japan was expected to take the "3" in a warship ratio of 5-5-3. Please forgive the errors.
Occam's Tool| 6.6.11 @ 9:56PM
Nister---I seem to remember a powerful Japanese navy in the oughts of the last Century, a Russian naval defeat, and a (deserved) Nobel peace prize won by the most belligerent President in US history.
Japanese naval buildup preceded American concerns. Check ou why Yamamoto was nicknamed "80 sen."
Occam's Tool| 6.6.11 @ 9:58PM
"out."
Great discussion, ruined, as usual, by Clint and his references to being sorry that Eichmann got nabbed.
Clint| 6.6.11 @ 10:32PM
The Fanatic Israel Firster Neo-Chickenhawk Coward Traitor Bastard Tool Job is all Atwitter & PMS'y over my references to my WWII American Combat Warrior Dad & thinks his Eichmann references trump the date Hitler killed himself.
Clint| 6.6.11 @ 10:36PM
Aaaand, You're a Slandering Liar, Israel Firster Fanatic Neo-Chickenhawk Coward Traitor Bastard ,Tool Job.
Occam's Tool| 6.6.11 @ 9:53PM
Exactly, Al. Exactly.
Al Adab| 6.6.11 @ 6:23PM
Gentlemen:
As Marcus Aurelius said, "Do not waste time bantering words with Philistines and barbarians."
In the vernacular I think it translates to, "Don't feed the trolls".
dee see beyond| 6.6.11 @ 6:35PM
--"And one day, I guarantee you, KOREA
(---and NOT WW2) will be recognized as the
most far reaching and pivotal moment of the
20th century and far, far beyond."
----WHO said that?
GUESS -----------------and GOOD-BYE
Bill| 6.6.11 @ 7:24PM
Why guess if you're gonna be out of here?
Marc Jeric| 6.7.11 @ 2:58AM
I visited those Normandie beaches back in 1985. The thought of debarking and running up those beaches while under machine gun fire made me gulp. Looking up those crumbling cliffs and imagining those Texas rangers climbing up toward the German bunkers - impossible to imagine. Visiting the graveyard with 9,000+ crosses and stars of David, reading the names and ages of those boys - from Georgia, Oklahoma, Wyoming...and then thinking about those far-left, superior French intellectuals discussing the stupidity of primitivism of Americans in those Boulevard St. Germain cafes - made me puke.
Bill| 6.7.11 @ 6:04PM
Not Texas rangers, Rudder's Rangers, the 2d Ranger Battalion. Then-Colonel Rudder, later General Rudder, was legendary.
TURK| 6.7.11 @ 11:06AM
Stop Stop Stop. Debating these anti-american filth who worship Stalin. Mao, Che, Castro et al et al--is a waste of time. Apparently they cluster at this site in case an article appears that is positive in re the U.S.A. Leave them to the hell that awaits them!
Richard Baker| 6.7.11 @ 8:48PM
I'm named for my Uncle Richard who was killed in August 1942 at the cruiser Battle of Savo Island when his ship the USS Quincy CA-39 was sunk. He'd be 90 this year and, in the vein of what President Ike mentioned, he would have enjoyed having kids and grandkids. I was born in 1952 and would love to have been able for him to survive and get to know him. We can never repay these folks for their sacrifice but keep them in our hearts and pass it on.
Mutch Moore | 6.7.11 @ 11:14PM
Winston Churchill plunged Britain and its empire into a war with disastrous outcome for all concerned. Churchill blundered in backing of Poland's hold on Danzig even though Britain could do nothing to defend Poland, Czechoslovakia or Yugoslavia from Hitler's push to repatriate million of Germans stranded in these new nations by the onerous Versailles Treaty. Britain's declaration of war on Germany over Poland led to a general European war. After suffering 5.6 million dead, Poland ended up occupied by the Soviet Union. Western democracies should have let Hitler expand his Reich eastward until it inevitably went to war with the even more dangerous Soviet Union. Once attrition had led these despots to exhaust themselves, the Western democracies would have been left dominating Europe. The lives of millions of Western civilians and soldiers would have been spared. This, according to Pat Buchanan's book, 'Churchill, Hitler and the Unnecessary War. Buchanan's book should be required reading for all Americans. I wish he had authored it before the Viet Nam war, even though it probably would have made no difference. 60,000+ dead U.S. soldiers in Viet Nam alone for the stated reason of stopping some "domino theory" of spreading communism. Flash forward, and Bill Clinton designated communist China as America's "most favored nation trading partner" in his heavy promotion of Pacific Rim "free trade" agreements. Now look what was become of Clinton's promise of expanding new markets for America's goods. But I digress, look what is accomplished invading Iraq? ... and for the current perpetuation of all military conflicts in the region? President Obama has egregiously betrayed his constituent voters by committing resources and funding to perpetuate these conflicts with bizarre rationale. The president has flip flopped. America's vital interests are not being served. Say what one will about Pat Buchanan, but the bold genius of truth in the premise of his book cannot be denied.
C Smith| 6.8.11 @ 1:00AM
Where it all Began
That’s my father on the right with a string on his finger. On the left his younger brother David on leave from the Navy. Together again with their sister on that all so familiar Missouri farm late in November. The “Dust Bowl Days” were past and “Great Depression” over. It had been a wonderful time, that Thanksgiving of 1941. And it was after 2 AM as my father gently triggered the camera shutter. A few hours later, David was gone.
The U.S.S. Oglala, bucking the waves under full power, urgently propelled toward its Pacific destination. It had to arrive at the appointed time. However, fatigue eventually had its toll on the minelayer, a WW1 converted passenger steamer. Silently adrift, it summoned assistance. After a tow cable was attached and the feverish pace resumed, David commented to his superior: “If we go any faster that cable is ‘gona’ snap.” And “snap” it did!
The U.S.S. Oglala entered Pearl Harbor during the early morning hours of December 7, the last to arrive. It moored “side by side” with the U.S.S. Helena, completing the formation of "Battleship Row."
And as the sun rose on “December 7, 1941,” most of the Oglala crew, including her commanding officer, was still “out on the town.” However, the men in the boiler room, the cook, the second in command, and a few others including David were at their stations. When the sound of revving planes and whistling bombs punctuated the morning tranquility, General Quarters was sounded. The second in command screamed, “Man the Guns”! David screamed back: “What guns”! Someone found the keys, unlocked the magazine, and after some fumbling a 3"/50 cal. A.A. gun and three .30 cal. machine guns were manned and returning fire.
Then as several enemy planes strafed the deck, David remembered one flying low and amidships. Then a torpedo and its contrail as it converged on the Oglala. It would soon be over! The Oglala lifted out of the water, but he was still alive! The submerged munition had gone under the Oglala and struck the Helena on the other side.
They continued firing, reporting some “definite hits.” However, the Oglala’s hull had ruptured and was flooding rapidly. For an hour and a half the meager crew was uninterrupted in returning fire as the Oglala continued to list to her port side. 5°, 10°, 15°, 20°. Then as the commanding officer finally returned, the Oglala listed to its side, and those who could swam away.
Back on a farm in Missouri, a family had but one thought: “Was he alive.” The phone was never unattended. A speaker in the kitchen was connected remotely to the wireless in the library. And as hours turned to days, a mother listened and waited. And during the days before Christmas, sleep was haunted by the thought of “tapping” sailors trapped in the hulls of sunken ships….
Today I learned that the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (San Francisco) is entertaining arguments to remove from our corporate psyche and soul the words: "In God We Trust."
http://popularapostasy.blogspo.....untry.html