After the storm of D-Day comes the peace

Too many things on my mind made me totally forget that on this day in June 1944, Allied forces comprising British, American, Canadian and many others took part in the great push that was potentially, make or break for winning or losing the war.

I have stood in the circular cinema in Arromanches and watched the newsreel footage, so dramatic, so terrible and, at the same time, a wonderful tribute to human sacrifice.

I cannot imagine what it must have been like to leap off a landing craft into an uncertain depth of water and then face the machine gun and shell fusillade from the German held cliff tops.

Thousands did and lived to tell the tale while thousands more fell before they even reached the beaches.

We owe them all a great debt and this clip is refreshing inasmuch that it features the beaches of Normandy as they are today........empty of troops but littered with remnants and memorabilia of the fight and, above all, peaceful.

If D-Day had failed where would we be today?

06.30 hours 6th June 1944 and allied troops began landing on the flat, sandy Normandy beaches. Many were to die that day, mown down by machine gun fire from the German clifftop positions and pillboxes.
Many did not even set foot on dry land before they were hit or drowned in the cold waters.

American troops landing on D-Day

I once heard a young Frenchman state derogatively that "The British and Americans invaded France" - I pointed out to him the difference between invasion and liberation but, it has to be said that the significance of this recent and dramatic event in the Second World War is rapidly being eroded. It was, for the allies, the beginning of the turning point in the war, if we had failed, it is highly likely that many of us would not be here today. Great Britain would be an island colony of slave workers producing food and goods for the Fatherland. There would be no immigrant populations, no NHS and, probably no religion other than the totalitarian Nazi ideology.

North America would, I guess, have withdrawn within its borders and the combined US and Canadian forces, kept the Nazis at bay. Who knows?

What is certain is the fact that we owe a very great debt to those young US, Canadian and other allied troops who gave their lives for a cause that many did not fully comprehend - 'For their tomorrow we gave our today' are words writ large over the many cemeteries of Normandy.

         PRAYER BEFORE A BATTLE

More than ever I feel the need of having Thee close to me. At any moment I may find myself in battle. However rigorous the task that awaits me, may I fulfill my duty with courage. If death should overtake me on this field, grant that I die in the state of grace, forgive me all my sins, those I have forgotten and those I recall now: grant me the grace of perfect contrition.