"Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. 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."
That is the letter handwritten and signed by General Dwight Eisenhower, to be published in the event that the Allied invasion of Normandy failed. And while the airborne landings were scattered and first wave units landing on the beaches suffered terrible losses, by the end of June 6, 1944, the Allies had established a foothold in northwest Europe for the first time since the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940.
I don't really have anything else to add, other than my grateful thanks that they did. So I'll share a few pieces I've read today which I found valuable thought you might do too.
In the Standard, two D-Day veterans from London tell of the role they played 80 years ago today. Bob Gravells, 99, from Woolwich was a Navy gunner while George Simpson, 100, from Croydon served in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. It's only maths but that means they were 19 and 20 years old on that day. Incomprehensible.
Then there's this extraordinary first-person piece by Iain Macleod, who landed on Gold Beach and went on to become editor of The Spectator and then chancellor of the exchequer under Ted Heath. Or for something a bit different, read David Frum in The Atlantic, who covers Charles de Gaulle's (and France's) sometimes complicated relationship with D-Day commemorations, including the line: "To be liberated, first you must be defeated."
If you want to sit back and watch something that hits right, look no further than Ronald Reagan's speech at Pointe du Hoc, for the 40th anniversary of the landings. By the way, Peggy Noonan, Reagan's speechwriter, recalled years later in her memoir that on being assigned to draft the address, she was told: “We’d like it to be like the Gettysburg Address”. Ok, then.
Noonan explained her own motivations for the speech. “I wanted American teenagers to stop chewing their Rice Krispies for a minute and hear about the greatness of those tough kids who are now their grandfathers.” She succeeded.
I also like the fact that the most famous line in the speech, "These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc”, was borrowed from Roger Kahn’s 1972 baseball book about the Brooklyn Dodgers, “The Boys of Summer.” (According to the The Washington Post, Kahn himself stole it from Dylan Thomas.)
And finally, our chief political correspondent Rachael Burford has been diving into the Standard archives and unearthed the paper's front page on June 6, 1944 as well as all the gossip from Londoner's Diary on that day. Even with the future of the world on the line, there was still time to discuss the surprising size of the estate left by Lord Snell (£21,487) and renewed speculation about the chairmanship of the Conservative Party. Plus ça change.
