This day in history - June 6, 1944: The Allied invasion of Normandy

By Richard K. Barry

Having been born just over a decade after the end of WWII, I grew up hearing stories about the war and watching documentaries like The World at War and Victory at Sea. I suspect that few of my generation would be unable to identify June 6, 1944 as the day of the Allied invasion of Normandy, which began and essential part of the bloody process of defeating the Nazis on Continental Europe.

The declaration of war in Europe, the bombing of Pearl Harbour, VE-Day, and VJ-Day all occurred on dates many of us still recall.

As I've remarked before, WWII has been called the last good war and it does seem to have been the last war about which so many of us took any significant interest in learning the history.

I don't exactly know what it means that so few of us have taken the time to learn much about our current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Are there likely to be remembered dates and battles that will be significant to people in 10, 20, 50 years? (Aside, of course, from 9/11, which is different).

It's not my intention to glorify war, it's only that the costs are so high that if we paid more attention we'd be in a better position to judge if the sacrifices are worth it. It is surely not something we should take for granted.

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)

This day in history - May 8, 1945: Victory in Europe Day

By Richard K. Barry

Here's that famous picture again. When I sat down today to do the little bit of research required to post the "This day in history" feature I realized pretty quickly that this was Victory in Europe Day, known as VE-Day. I was thinking that somebody, once upon a time, branded WWII as "the last good war." I guess.

I was part of the generation whose parents were formed first by The Great Depression and then by WWII. I grew up listening to the stories particularly from my father and uncles who were in the service after Pearl Harbor was bombed. Lucky for my father, he was stationed in Hawaii after the attack and never saw any real action because it was never attacked again, although no one knew that would be the case at the time.

I had uncles who marched with Patton's Third Army across Europe.

Many years ago when all of my uncles were still alive and one evening were regaling us with stories about their wartime experiences, one of my cousins, with wide eyes, excitedly said that he wished he could have been there. Every one of the uncles answered, almost in unison, "no you don't."

So much for the glory of war.

(Cross-posted to Lippmann's Ghost.)