D-Day +82: Lest we forget

June 6th, 1944

June 6th, 1944….

Today is D-Day +82, perhaps not a round number, but it is the year when the 18-year-olds, who were there will turn 100. There are very few veterans of D-Day still with us. Those who lived through one of the most significant days in modern history.

I say a day, because for me it is a day. A short day. A single day. For those who were there, it must have felt like an age. Hidden away in England for weeks of training and preparation, only to be delayed, again and again. Then finally setting off in hundreds and hundreds of craft, be they boats, or aircraft, during a brief gap in a series of storms over the channel.

[Søren Harbel: Omaha Beach, Normandy, June 6th]

General Eisenhower, who was in charge of the D-Day landings, put out a daily order to be read to all. It reads in part:

Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force!

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 hope and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you…

They were seasick, they were high on adrenaline. They were shit scared. The fate of democracy and freedom is a heavy burden. For the individual soldier, it was about that feeling of duty, but equally about controlling fear, and simply surviving the day.

Few would later speak about that day. The ones who survived fought their inner demons in their nightmares. They don’t understand why they survived when so many of their mates, their fellow soldiers, sailors, and airmen, did not. There is guilt. Survivor’s guilt. There is anguish. There is loss. Most of it, too painful to speak about.

[Søren Harbel: Canadian cemetery, Beny-sur-Mer, Normandy, June 6th]

I bookmarked a movie on the BBC, which I wanted to watch. I viewed it last night. It is Glenda Jackson’s final movie, and also Michael Caine’s, made before he announced his retirement. Caine was 89, when he made the film. It is about a veteran living in Brighton, who steals away from his retirement home to find his own way to the beaches of Normandy. Based on a true story, the movie is set on D-Day +70. In 2014. It is touching, and while it has some great comedic elements, it is more than anything about survivor’s guilt. If you can find it: The Great Escaper is worth watching. It is a quiet gem.

As we now sit in the middle of perhaps the highest level of global tension since the end of WWII, it is notable that we do so, as those who witnessed WWII have all but disappeared. With no direct memory to guide us…. the eternal question lingers: Will we ever learn?

[Søren Harbel: US cemetery, Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, June 6th]

I bow my head in respect and thanks. I close my eyes for a few moments in gratitude to those who’s sacrifices have allowed me to live my life in a free and democratic society. I am forever grateful.

[Søren Harbel: Always Remembered]

Take a minute….