Gratitude Friday 5 30 25 – The Sound of Liberation

There has been nothing ever in human history like D-DAY, June 6 1944. It remains the largest coordinated event of all time. On that day, 156,000 Allied troops were involved in the invasion of Normandy, France. More than 6,939 ships and landing craft were used to transport troops and supplies, while over 11,590 Allied aircraft provided air cover and support. The logistics to make such a process occur are beyond comprehension, it is far too large to be able to see or conceptualize in its entirety. Preparations took years and even included people who swam ashore on moonless nights in the months prior to the event to get samples of the sand to determine the feasibility of landing large vehicles. 

It has really captured my imagination over the years and I have read many books on it from varying perspectives, from the planning, to the accounts of the German defenders, to the building of the Atlantic Wall and how the battle played out in the first few weeks. It was a huge gamble and nearly failed on the factor of weather, which was the one thing entirely out of the control of the planners.

Recently, I read a great book titled Dawn of DDAY of first person accounts of the events from midnight of June 6th to 9 AM on that day. One of the accounts was from a pub owner who served the pilots and crews of all of those aircraft like pub owners in villages sited near airfields all over southern England. At the Stags Head in a place called Chilton Foilat on the evening of June 5th, 1944 instead of a bustling bar, his establishment was empty. Where were the Americans? Just after midnight, as he cleaned up the bar and locked the front doors, he and every other person in hundreds of miles heard a sound like one had ever heard before. It was the sound of thousands of planes taking off, forming into squadrons and flying towards occupied Europe. Everyone knew exactly what it was, it was the sound of liberation. The day had come; the beginning of the end had started. In all the books I have read, no one referenced this facet before. Everyone knew the day was coming. The Germans knew it, the allies knew it. The one key point that was a miracle of secrecy efforts was when it would come and where it would happen. For hundreds of thousands of Brits on that night, the answer was clearly overhead. D-Day had started.

There are many proud moments in American history and this was one of our finest. We led the free world against tyranny and fascism, and we won. Once we did, we did an unthinkable thing. We did not conquer and take over, we freed Europe and then got out of the way so that they could set up their own governance. We were the most powerful military in human history, and we resisted the impulse to rule and instead lived up to our own values.

Over the years I have spoken about walking through the American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France in the year 2000. I saw those long, flat beaches from the very bluffs that machine gun emplacements mowed down the young American men in the ground I walked on in that place. It was life changing for me. I was born 20 years beyond that time, but still believe we owe them a debt to live up to the values they died to support. We should, in our own times still here that sound of liberation 81 short years later. Once I met a pilot who flew that night. It would have been once quite common to have met someone who served on that day. There are a handful left. The oldest DDAY combatant still alive is Charles Rose who turned 110 in December.

When I grew up, the lessons of our own history became part of who we were too. The notion of human freedom and the right of people to self-governance were taught to me by people who lived through and sacrificed dearly for these values. I believe in these things in ways that have become part of my identity, much as is my identity as a person in recovery and my freedom from slavery to addictive drugs.

This coming week, take a moment to think about what the sounds of those planes must have felt like to the people of Southern England and also to the people of occupied Normandy. People who had experienced bombings and oppression. While they must have been quite aware that a lot of really challenging days remained ahead, the could feel in their hearts that the tides had shifted. Those thousands of aircraft overhead was the sound of liberation. It was so loud, few people could sleep, but they lay awake in their beds grateful for what was overhead.

What are you grateful for today?