June 6, 2026, marks the 82nd anniversary of D-Day, the largest amphibious military exercise in history.
It was a critical step toward ending World War II in Europe with Germany’s unconditional surrender.
D-Day was more than a military success.
It was also a humanitarian success. It led to the liberation of survivors in Nazi concentration camps, where an estimated six million innocent men women and children had already died during what is now remembered as the Holocaust.
Despite many obstacles before and after the June 6, 1944 invasion (some that were expected and some that were not), the exercise was an overwhelming success.
Even before June 6, 1944, Hitler and his military leaders assumed the Allies would eventually launch an amphibious invasion of western France from southern England using the English Channel.
They did not know exactly when or where it would happen—information that was crucial to positioning German forces to repel the invasion.
Hitler and his military leaders expected the invasion to come at Pas-de-Calais in northern France. Their expectation was logical and plausible.
Calais was the shortest crossing point from southern England to western France.
If the landing was successful, it would provide the Allies the most direct route to Germany through France.
Hitler chose Field Marshal Erwin Rommel for the task or preparing a defensive plan for every potential Allied landing site in France.
Rommel was a capable commander, but was constrained by the rigid German military chain of command.
That chain of command began and ended with Hitler, who saw himself as a military genius and expected his orders to be followed without question.
The led to the Allies to develop and execute Operation Bodyguard, an elaborate deception to mislead the Germans and improve the chances of success for an invasion at another location
Concurrently the Allies secretly planed Operation Overlord, an amphibious invasion of western France at Normandy.
Operation Bodyguard had three main goals:
Help Hitler confirm his belief that the Allied invasion target in France was Calais.
Conceal the actual date and time of an invasion at Normandy.
Delay the arrival German reinforcements to Normandy to minimize their success on a sustained counteroffensive.
To achieve the Operation Bodyguard goals, the Allies executed five brilliant tactics:
Create the fictional First United States Army Group (FUSAG).
Create an illusion that FUSAG was preparing for an imminent invasion of France.
Reinforce that illusion with a large number of realistic looking tanks, airplanes barracks and supply depots made mostly from cardboard, rubber, and canvas. The illusion also included a lot of human activity.
Send non secured misleading radio traffic about ongoing preparations to invade at Calais, ensuring these messages it would be intercepted and passed along to Hitler.
Make sure Hitler was made aware that General George S. Patton, widely regarded by the Nazis as one of the Allie’s most aggressive and feared commanders had been assigned to lead FUSAG.
The deception worked exactly as it was intended.
Even after the Normandy landings were well underway, Hitler believed they were only a diversion before a larger assault at Calais.
As a result, he consistently delayed approval of requests from his military commanders to send reinforcements to Normandy that could have made a difference.
When Hitler finally recognized the scale of the Normandy invasion, it was too late to mount an effective counteroffensive.
As a result, the Allies secured a beachhead that allowed them to advance through France and into Germany. That along with Allied troops from Russia that entered Germany from the east was the beginning of the end of World War Two in Europe.
That in turn allowed the Allies to focus more on ending World War Two in the Pacific against Japan. President Harry Truman’s decision to drop two atomic bombs on Japan ultimately avoided any invasion of that country.
The success of the Normandy invasion on June 6, 1944, is still remembered 82 years later. It should never be forgotten.
Nor should it ever be forgotten that there was another invasion that never happened but did help ensure the real D-Day invasion succeed.
5 Responses
Just a reminder what the allies were fighting against in WWII: authoritarianism, aka, fascism/nazism.
Far too many Americans seem to have forgotten the aryan white supremacy that fed the naive German masses into believing in a demagogue and handing him absolute power. This appears to be the direction being taken by the Republican Party. American anti-fascists have now been declared terrorists by the Trump Administration, prisons are springing up nationwide, ICE is arbitrarily detaining law abiding immigrants and now seeks to detain American citizens. President Trump uses his military to kidnap other countries’ leaders and threatens numerous others. Congressional Republicans support all of these American fascist activities starting with authoritarianism at the grassroots level.
Our country is in grave danger of losing the great republican democracy for which all those D-Day veterans and all other veterans sacrificed. The 2026 election may be the final opportunity to head off this clear and present danger by electing US senators and representatives, as well as state and local leaders who will resist this Administration’s authoritarian efforts. That would require electing a majority of Democrats at every level of government, however imperfect it may be.
This is not to say all Republicans are fascists, but there are virtually zero Democrats who support Trump’s brand of authoritarianism while virtually all Republicans support Trump. 2026 is about more than low taxes, safer streets and the economy. Its about nothing less than saving our democracy with votes rather than bullets as those heroes did in WWII.
Well said Mickey!
Will America ever learn from history? We can only hope this time will be an exception.
Thank You!
Perfectly stated. One cannot be a patriot and reject the Bill of Rights as the current crop of so called conservatives are advocating. The things that the GOP are calling “leftist”, “communist”, “socialist”…are things that Eisenhower Republicans supported wholesale. We have demagogues in too close proximity to all the levers of power and you are correct…the vast majority of elected Republicans support Trump and Trumpism….a belief system that is neither patriotic nor making America great.
There was also a faux incursion along the French coast, Dieppe, prior to D-Day. It was to be a probing mission using British troops but the Germans had broken the Allied radio codes by then and they knew as well. Churchill, etal couldn’t cancel the operation because then the Gemans would know we’d broken THEIR code. So, they pulled the Brits and sent in the Canadians instead. It did NOT end well for them. Just sayin’…
“Rommel was a capable commander, but was constrained by the rigid German military chain of command.
That chain of command began and ended with Hitler, who saw himself as a military genius and expected his orders to be followed without question.”
That summons up visions of America’s current commander in chief.