Occasionally I take time out from my usual frivolity to contemplate the events of the day… or in this case to contemplate the historical events of the day. Today it has been 70 years since the D-Day invasion of Normandy. Initially a bit over 150,000 men went ashore that day… all of them knowing that the Germans defending the beaches would try to kill everyone coming ashore.

General Dwight Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander, sent those men into Normandy not knowing if the invasion would succeed. He had even written a speech to apologize to the people of the world that he planned on using if the allied troops were pushed back off the beaches.

Can you imagine what it was like for a soldier sitting in those landing craft heading toward the beaches? I can’t… there’s no way I can even fathom the thoughts in those young men’s minds at the time. They knew that many of them would die before the day was out. Yet… they still went ashore knowing what was waiting for them. Can you say “Heroes”…

I’m proud that my father was among those that went ashore. He was proud too. He was a Ranger… today we might call them “Green Berets”, or “Special Forces”. On D-Day my dad’s mission, as part of the 2nd Ranger Battalion, was to “take out” six 155mm cannon (“gun”) batteries on top of Pointe du Hoc. Point du Hoc was at the center of the American forces landings at Omaha and Utah beaches. These “guns” could/would have been used on our troops landing on the beaches. The Rangers sent to Point du Hoc were critical in keeping the artillery fire of the guns from raining down on the landing forces.

Pointe du Hoc was atop a sheer cliff. The Rangers had to climb the cliff using grappling hooks, ropes and ladders. All the time they were trying to climb the cliffs, the Germans on top were trying to stop them. My dad told me about one trick the Germans would use… they would put a “grenade” in a glass jar so that they could drop them from the top of the cliff without the grenade going off before it reached the American Rangers 300 feet below. When the jar hit, it would break and the grenade would explode a few seconds later.

There were 225 Rangers that “jumped off” for the invasion of Point du Hoc. By the morning of D+1 there were only 90 left that were able to fight. My dad was one of those 90. They were able to capture their objective and disable the artillery. The Germans were “pissed”. They savagely counter-attacked the Rangers and laid siege to their positions for the next two days. By the end of the three days, there were only 50 Rangers that had not been killed or wounded. They were out of nearly out ammunition and supplies. My dad was “hit” on D+3 shortly before relief arrived. (My dad was “evac’ed”, recovered from his wound and returned to the battle a few weeks later.)

As I mentioned earlier, I can’t imagine the bravery it took for those Americans, British, and Canadians (and others) to ride those landing craft (DUKWs – AKA “Ducks”) to the Normandy beaches. Those that rode the “Ducks” on June 6, 1944 changed the world. With the success of the Normandy invasion, over a million soldiers came ashore in a short time after D-Day. The bravery of those soldiers that went in on D-Day began the campaigns that would defeat the Germans and eliminate the Nazi dictatorship of Adolph Hitler.

There aren’t many of those heroes left now. If you are fortunate enough to know one or are able to meet one of them, say thank you to them. They changed the world.

Thank you Daddy