American Military | Bloviating Zeppelin

Completely forgotten in all of the US politically-correct, virtue-signaling insanity is what “white people” did on this day — not just for the United States, but for the entire planet. They stepped up. Some had choices. Most didn’t. Some accounted well of themselves. Some cried like babies and, yes, called for their mommies while they died bleeding, missing a leg, an arm, part of their jaw, bits of their brain on the beach covered by the lapping tide. But they still stepped up.

I mention color only because color means everything to Leftists, Demorats and the American Media Maggots these days. Some people require “reminding” about color.

D-Day was the beginning of the end for the Germans in World War II.

Seventy-six years ago today.

Named Operation Overlord, the battle began on June 6, 1944, and was also known as D-Day.

What did D-Day mean?

D for Day, H for Hour means the undetermined (or secret) day and hour for the start of a military operation. Their use permits the entire timetable for the operation to be scheduled in detail and its various steps prepared by subordinate commanders long before a definite day and time for the attack have been set. When the day and time are fixed, subordinates are so informed.

So far as the U.S. Army can determine, the first use of D for Day, H for Hour was in Field Order No. 8, of the First Army, A.E.F., issued on Sept. 7, 1918, which read: “The First Army will attack at H–Hour on D-Day with the object of forcing the evacuation of the St. Mihiel salient.”

More than 160,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast, by Germany, of France’s Normandy region.

Supreme Allied Commander Eisenhower speaks to the troops.

The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in the history of the planet, and required heretofore unthinkable planning. How to coordinate something this large? Amongst numerous nations? Whilst trying to calculate weather and hundreds of other factors?

Churchill and Montgomery calculate the UK portion of D-Day.

Prior to D-Day, the Allies conducted a large-scale deception campaign designed to mislead the Germans about the intended invasion target. By late August 1944, all of northern France had been liberated, and by the following spring the Allies had defeated the Germans. The Normandy landings have been called the beginning of the end of war in Europe. And that is true.

Landscape

Go or no go? That was all up to one man. The Supreme Allied Commander, four-star General Dwight D Eisenhower. At the age of 54, he held the freedom, the fate of the entire planet, in his hands.

As an aside, Eisenhower received his fifth star as General of the Army of December 20th of 1944.

How many 5-star generals have there been in the history of the United States?

That would be five Army and four Navy officers:

George C. Marshall,
Douglas MacArthur,
Dwight D. Eisenhower,
Henry H. (Hap) Arnold,
Omar Bradley,

And then Admirals:

William D. Leahy,
Ernest J. King,
Chester Nimitz, and
William F. Halsey.

Omar Bradley was the last officer to receive the rank, in 1950. The rank has remained dormant ever since.

According to military regulations governing rank, only two US Army officers have ever achieved superior rank to that of five stars, even though they never got that many. They were George Washington and John J. Pershing.

And here is General Eisenhower’s D-Day message.

As per normal, fanciful flights of ephemera shape history and, instead of June 5th, Eisenhower determined to wait a day. That timing — and location of the landings — surprised the Germans, and they failed to reinforce the beachheads.

Upon that, and more, is history built.

Conjecture. Fleet. Fancy. Whimsy. Or just plain hope backed with a modicum of planning.

Do I stay or do I go?