When it comes to World War II, four dates stand out to me. These are Sept. 1, 1939, Germany’s invasion of Poland; Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor; June 6, 1944, the allied invasion of Normandy; and Aug. 6, 1945, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
Today marks the 70th anniversary of the Normandy invasion, commonly known as D-Day, and in those 70 years, the invasion remains one of the largest global military efforts in history. D-Day was also a major turning point for the Allies in World War II, one of the largest conflicts—and the deadliest—humanity has ever seen.
“You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.”
– Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Letter to Allied Forces
Nazi Germany’s system of coastal fortifications in Western Europe
Operation Overlord was the military designation for the launch of the invasion. More than 2,400 aircraft dropped 23,000 airborne troops over Normandy in the early morning darkness of June 6. Later, nearly 7,000 naval vessels crossed the English Channel, landing 132,000 troops on beach sectors codenamed Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword—designated Operation Neptune, the largest seaborne invasion in history.
By the end of the day 156,000 American, British and Canadian troops were in German-occupied France.
The Normandy invasion was one of the most crucial points of the Allied campaign in World War II. If the invasion failed, the war would have carried on for months, if not years, with unfathomable losses, which is why an overwhelming force and surprise were required for the operation.
To fool the German forces, the Allies required a false objective and decoy force.
The most obvious target was the narrowest part of the English Channel near the French town of Calais, more than 100 miles northeast of the Allies’ intended target. Double agents and the planting of false intelligence were used to persuade the Germans into taking the bait. The placing of mock forces—dummy tanks, camps, troops and other military equipment—in false staging areas ultimately convinced the Germans of an attack elsewhere.
While both the deception plan and Overlord were military successes, Overlord wasn’t without its obstacles on June 6.
The invasion was originally set for June 5, but weather conditions—high winds and rough seas—made launching invasion forces impossible. The invasion was only postponed a day, under the impression the weather would clear up, but weather still presented a problem. Overcast skies prevented C-47s from flying in the required formations, resulting in numerous airborne misdrops throughout Normandy. Some airborne units were dropped miles from their designated landing zones, causing a significant delay in securing specific objectives.
The overcast also forced many aircraft to fly at lower altitudes, exposing them to German anti-air weaponry. Planes were shot down, and some paratroopers were killed from gunfire or impact due to jumping at low altitudes.
The circumstances of the airborne assault adversely affected the seaborne assault. Because of the misdrops and delays, objectives critical to the success of the beach landings—meant to disable German defenses—weren’t completed before seaborne forces arrived. The overcast also made it impossible for Allied military forces to provide air cover during the start of the invasion.
The end of D-Day left 4,413 Allied troops dead, and many more injured, missing or captured. The Germans are estimated to have sustained 4,000-9,000 casualties. Overlord was an overall success, but the Allies failed to complete all their objectives on June 6. Only the Gold and Juno beachheads were linked the first day of the invasion; all five weren’t connected until June 12. The port at Cherbourg was captured by Allies June 26, and the city of Caen secured July 21. The Allies began an invasion of southern France on August 15, and Paris was finally liberated on August 25, bringing Operation Overlord to a close, and opening the road to the end of Nazi Germany.
Saving Private Ryan / Band of Brothers
Many films depict the events of the European and Pacific theaters of World War II. Two of the best depictions of the D-Day invasion I have ever seen are without a doubt found in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan (1998), and HBO’s Band of Brothers (2001)—produced by Spielberg.
SPR shows the invasion from the perspective of seaborne forces, focusing on the fictional character Capt. John Miller, played by Tom Hanks.
In the film’s first half our, the audience is taken to the shores of Omaha Beach on the morning of June 6, 1944. From there, a 24-minute sequence depicts the Allies’ struggle to secure the Omaha beachhead of Normandy, going up against German barricades, artillery and machine-gun fire.
While it is historically inaccurate to depict what took hours as taking only 24 minutes, SPR still has a story to tell, which can be one of compromises that comes with feature films.
Miller, on orders from Gen. George Marshall of the U.S. Army, is sent into German-occupied France with a squad of seven men to find Pfc. James Ryan, a missing paratrooper, so he can be discharged and sent home. The mission is ordered after Ryan’s three brothers are killed in action, and Gen. Marshall expresses his strong feelings about it being unacceptable for a parent to lose all of their children in combat.
With the exception of the D-Day sequence, the events in the film are fictional, but the story is based on the real-life World War II tragedies of the four Borgstrom and three Butehorn brothers, in which two families lost all of their sons.
Behind the mission, Spielberg uses his film to show the mental and emotional struggles of war, all while bringing a new sense of realism to the war genre, the likes of which had never been seen before. At age 10, this film introduced me to the concept of war, as well as World War II, and it was a rather graphic, but honest method of exposure.
To this day, SPR remains one of the best war films I’ve ever seen, and it still escapes me how Shakespeare in Love (1998) won Best Picture over SPR at the 71st Academy Awards.
Now, as much as I love SPR, I think I love Band of Brothers even more.
Based on the 1992 book Band of Brothers, E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne: From Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest by Stephen E. Ambrose, the series follows Easy Company (506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division) from training in the U.S. prior to D-Day to the surrender of the Japanese in 1945. Details from E Company members’ memoirs were also incorporated into the series.
I’ve always considered BoB a spiritual successor to SPR. Spielberg’s production of the series serves as one connection to SPR, but the series also uses a lot of SPR’s cinematography techniques, lighting and pacing, giving that definite feeling the two are blood relatives.
Like SPR, BoB begins with the D-Day invasion of Normandy, but this time from the airborne perspective. The audience gets to see more of the preparations behind D-Day in BoB’s first episode, while SPR drops them straight into the invasion. The invasion commences with the second episode, dropping the viewer from a plane into a barrage of gunfire—Mission Albany.
BoB depicts several major points of the European theater, including the D-Day invasion, Battle of Carentan, Operation Market Garden, Battle of the Bulge, liberation of the Landsberg concentration camp and capturing of the Eagle’s Nest in Berchtesgaden.
The events in BoB are more accurately portrayed historically, and the characters featured are based on real-life soldiers, giving the series a leg up on SPR. Just knowing the events in the series, while dramatized, are based on real events makes the entire experience all the more gripping.
The length of BoB versus SPR, 11 hours versus three, also makes a huge difference regarding character development and the viewer’s attachment to that character.
Both titles are well-made, enriching dramas that bring the spirit of the mid-1940s to life, as well as the spirit of the world’s deadliest war. Outside of documentaries, either is a fitting choice for experiencing some of the horrors of World War II.
As Richard Winters says in Band of Brothers, D-Day was certainly a “Day of Days,” and while costly, its success brought the Allies one step closer to liberating Europe from tyranny.
It’s the millions of people from different parts of the world banding together to stop a single oppressive force that makes this day so memorable in my eyes. Unfortunately, this kind of humanity seems to have disappeared in the years since, and who knows what it’ll take to find it again.
Frame by Frame 