William I. Hitchcock, the Randolph P. Compton Professor at the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs, is the author of " The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s " (Simon and Schuster). The views expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN) Seventy-four years ago this week, 132,000 soldiers stormed the beaches of Normandy, France in the greatest amphibious and air invasion ever attempted in wartime. June 6, 1944 stands out in our collective memory as a day of enormous personal heroism and sacrifice, and it will always be a hallowed date for Americans as well as for the French people, for whom D-Day marked the start of their liberation from Nazi tyranny.
In 2018, however, the D-Day story carries even more power and weight because we live in a political climate that denigrates the very sources of strength that made the D-Day invasion such a dramatic success.
Take Big Government. In today's political parlance, nothing could be worse than the bloated, inefficient federal government. Ronald Reagan built his career using the tag line : "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help." President Trump has mocked government, waging war against law enforcement and calling Washington a " swamp ."
In 1944, government was not the enemy, it was the organizing force that won the war. The United States Armed Forces that fought and won World War II provide an enduring example of what good government can do. During the war, 16 million Americans put on a uniform. Americans paid high income taxes, rationed their food, worked in government-funded industries and sent their sons to die overseas to defend freedom. Being an American in 1944 meant working with fellow citizens, sharing sacrifices, and honoring the nation above individual needs.
That is the spirit of D-Day. The greatest generation could not have done it alone.
President Trump has made it fashionable to deny the value of having allies, but D-Day reminds us that we are at our best when we stand together with our friends. On June 6, 1944, more British Commonwealth troops landed on the Normandy beaches than Americans. The commander of the ground forces that day was a Brit, General Bernard Montgomery, as were the commanders of the naval and air forces on that day. Victory over the Germans in France that summer came only through close partnership with our British and Canadian allies who fought and died alongside American boys to defend freedom.
Finally, on D-Day, we should recall the essence of leadership. Brow-beating, bullying, and sneering at political opponents is no way to motivate men to face the trial of combat. The Supreme Allied Commander, Dwight D. "Ike" Eisenhower, knew this well. He had been sending American men to die in battle since the landings in North Africa in November 1942. But the invasion of France was by the far the biggest and most risky operation the forces under his command had ever attempted. With a single command from him, a gigantic armada of over 6,000 ships would be sent across the churning waters of the English Channel into the teeth of the German defenses and a shoreline strewn with barbed wire, mines and machine gun nests. Eisenhower held the lives of his men in his hands.
Ike spent the hours before the invasion at the Greenham Common airfield in southern England, from which the men of the 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions would mount their planes and fly into the night sky on the way to France. He casually chatted with them, asking them where they were from, talking of fishing, and home.
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Eisenhower knew that the operation could fail. As the Supreme Commander, any failure would be his fault, and his alone. He was prepared to take full responsibility for it. The night before the landings, he jotted down a small note on a slip of paper so it could be ready to hand to the press in case of disaster. "Our landings," he wrote, "have failed. ... The troops, the air, and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone." Ike understood the essence of leadership. It was the job of the leader to accept the blame for failure, and to give praise to the heroism of the common fighting man.
Donald Trump, meanwhile, takes all the credit, personally, for any positive news, such as good employment numbers or the stock market, even when he benefits from the work of his predecessor. But he adamantly refuses to apologize for his numerous gaffes, insults and misstatements.
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D-Day was a day of greatness for America, but its success depended upon certain virtues of a noble people. In World War II, the American government and its leaders brought citizens together in a common enterprise of immense complexity and sacrifice. Americans fought alongside allies, British and Canadians who burned no less fiercely in their desire to defeat Hitler's monstrous Third Reich. And American leaders understood the importance of humility and decency, and offered moral examples to the world. D-Day is not just a date in the history books. It reminds us of who we once were, and could become again.
Troops disembark from the Higgins boat. The photo is from Jerry E. Strahan’s book, “Andrew Jackson Higgins and the Boats That Won World War II.” (Higgins family)
“I have full confidence in your courage and devotion to duty and skill in battle.” – General Dwight D. Eisenhower, in a message to troops before D-Day.
Courage. Devotion. Duty.
They are the words most often used to describe the brave Allied troops who landed on Normandy 74 years ago and helped win World War II.
Not to be forgotten, though, is this word: Technology.
World War II was won not just with courage, devotion and duty, but with American and British technological advances that gave Allied troops the upper hand in many facets of battle.
The most famous and fearsome: the Manhattan Project atomic bombs that led to the surrender of the Japanese in 1945. But there were many others.
Radar helped the Allies know what was coming at them from the enemy.
Bombsights employing complicated gyroscope technology allowed planes to pinpoint bomb attacks. Before World War II, pilots simply dropped bombs by hand and hoped for the best.
Nylon, the synthetic material invented by DuPont for women’s stockings, was used to make parachutes, glider tow ropes, aircraft fuel tanks and flak jackets, according to Smithsonian magazine. Some people dubbed it “the fiber that won the war.”
But one of the most crucial bits of technology, the one that helped the Allies launch the surprise attack on Normandy, was the hull of a boat — the Higgins boat.
You have probably seen pictures of this hulking nautical miracle, the one that carried troops right onto Normandy’s beach.
It was built by a wily, hard-drinking inventor named Andrew Higgins, the man Dwight D. Eisenhower once credited with winning World War II.
“It is Higgins himself who takes your breath away,” Raymond Moley, a former FDR adviser, wrote in Newsweek in 1943. “Higgins is an authentic master builder, with the kind of will power, brains, drive and daring that characterized the American empire builders of an earlier generation.”
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Higgins grew up in Nebraska, where, at various ages, he was expelled from school for fighting. Higgins’s temperament improved around boats. He built his first vessel in the basement when he was 12. It was so large that a wall had to be torn down to get it out.
He moved South in his early 20s, working in the lumber industry. He hadn’t thought much about boats again until a tract of timber in shallow waters required him to build a special vessel so he could remove the wood. Higgins signed up for a correspondence course in naval architecture, shifting his work from timber to boats.
In the late 1930s, he owned a small shipyard in New Orleans. By then, his special shallow-craft boat had become popular with loggers and oil drillers. They were “tunnel stern boats,” whose magic was in the way the “hull incorporated a recessed tunnel used to protect the propeller from grounding,” according to the Louisiana Historical Association.
Andrew J. Higgins, who made the D-Day invasion of Europe possible, in a photo from Jerry E. Strahan’s book, “Andrew Jackson Higgins and the Boats That Won World War II.” (Higgins family)
Higgins, who died in 1952, called it the “Eureka” boat. The war brought interest by U.S. forces in a similar style vessel to attack unguarded beaches and avoid coming ashore at heavily defended ports. The Marines settled on the Higgins boat, transforming what had been a 50-employee company into one of the world’s largest manufacturers.
[D-Day’s heavy toll on Dwight D. Eisenhower, one of America’s greatest generals]
Though Eisenhower and even Hitler acknowledged the importance of the Higgins boat — military leaders came to call it “the bridge to the beach” — its builder went mostly unmentioned in histories of the war. That is, until 18 years ago, when the World War II Museum opened in New Orleans and recognized Higgins’s life, displaying a reproduction of his boat.
Still, there’s been just one biography written: “Andrew Jackson Higgins and the Boats that Won World War II,” by historian Jerry E. Strahan.
“Without Higgins’s uniquely designed craft, there could not have been a mass landing of troops and matériel on European shores or the beaches of the Pacific islands, at least not without a tremendously higher rate of Allied casualties,” Strahan wrote.
Courage. Radar. The Higgins boat. Victory depended on all of them.
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As we mark the 74th anniversary of D-Day Wednesday – a pivotal day when Allied forces landed in France to begin the liberation of Europe from the Nazis in World War II – I’m reminded how this historical moment wouldn’t have happened without the courageous Americans who responded to the call to serve their country.
It all began with three words: “Remember Pearl Harbor.” These words rallied people to enlist in the military after the Japanese attack on the U.S. Navy base in Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941. The tragic attack pulled America together in a dark time, when war threatened everything we valued — our families, friends and our very freedoms.
Similarly, 60 years later, many people were inspired to unite and enlist in the military to serve their country after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Millions of Americans have entered military service since that day.
Army Sgt. and recruiter Cheri Depenbrock told the American Forces Press Service in 2001 that she had never seen such resolve to defend America as she did after 9/11.
“It was amazing the people walking into (our Cincinnati) office, the ages,” Depenbrock said. “We had so many prior-service folks wanting to come back. I was amazed at how many older people tried … some of them were in their fifties.”
“It was all about the patriotism. They didn’t care about anything else. Money had nothing do with it. I swear, I think half those (younger) kids would have joined if we hadn’t paid them.”
Did these inspiring phenomena happen because our country suddenly became more patriotic in both of these cases of national tragedy? Not necessarily. We were sobered as a country by both attacks. But we were also suddenly and violently made aware of enemies who wanted us dead and threatened our values. And every generation who loved their country and livelihoods enough responded.
Yes, we were sobered. But we were not numbed by any means. We were made aware, we resolved to unite, and we readied ourselves to fight back against darkness, no matter what might try to hold us back.
As Christians, it can be all too easy to go about our daily lives without ever thinking about how we are at war with dark spiritual forces that we can’t always see. But Paul warns us not to be complacent, saying “keep alert with all perseverance” (Ephesians 6:18).
How can you play your part and persevere in this spiritual war?
Your secret weapon is prayer. Prayer might not feel particularly aggressive or militant, but it is by prayer alone that you and I can engage and overcome the enemy of our souls. This kind of prayer could be called “warfare prayer.”
Think of it this way: warfare prayer is a discipline, an attack aimed at the forces of darkness that we must be aware of around us. To engage in warfare prayer is to ask for God’s help to get in on his plan, not to ask him for help with our plans. Warfare prayer worships God for the love he lavishes on us daily. In short, warfare prayer is full of gratitude.
But warfare prayer is also hard work. Paul does not give us any leeway for time off. He tells us again in Ephesians 6:18 to be “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.”
We know how prayer can change our lives and attitudes. But if you have not yet thought of prayer as a powerful weapon, let me encourage you with this: our world needs more believers like you dispelling the darkness as you fight these spiritual battles. Warfare, with God’s help, begins on your knees.
Photos
June 6, 2018, marks the 74th anniversary of the D-Day invasion, also called Operation Overlord, which saw 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces land on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of Normandy region to begin the liberation of France and turn the tide of the war against the Nazis.
(Pictured) Lt. Commander D.W. Pifers, D.S.C., R.C.N., of Halifax, commanding officer of H.M.C.S. Algonquin, one of Canada’s most powerful destroyers, briefs his ship’s company, while on route to the invasion beachhead in 1944.
