D-Day, Antony Beevor
Occasionally it is good to read a book that goes into some detail on historic events that we all “know about”. Reading such a book just cracks open the infinite box of the event and helps us realize that we know essentially nothing about it.
As Einstein said, “The More I Learn, The More I Realize How Much I Don't Know.”
The book gives far more detail than it is possible to absorb, but that is part of the goodness of reading such a book. The effect is more “shock and awe” than knowledge.
I’d read Beevor’s book on Stalingrad in the past, and the horror of war is one of the emotional effects his books leave one with. The “big points” that I take away from this book and a number of others on various wars are:
Logistics, Logistics, Logistics. Like all of life, the details really matter. Moving vast quantities of food, fuel, ammunition, equipment and of course men across water (in this case the English Channel), rivers, hedgerows, etc. — often under fire from air or ground, is a task that often makes or breaks military endeavors.
People don’t get along well. True in all relationships — marriage, family, work, etc. Add the sorts of egos required to hold positions like Churchill, FDR and Stalin on the allied side and couple that with generals like Montgomery, Patton, Eisenhower, Bradley, etc and the road is rocky. For the allies, Montgomery was arrogant and ineffective, Patton was arrogant and very effective. Eisenhower brilliantly dealt with all those personalities, and more in order to achieve the task.
When we think of Hitler, we think of the Holocaust, which is proper. What we often don’t think of is how insane he was at military operations. As Hitler rolled through the Rhineland, Austria, Czechoslovakia, etc to the amazement of his generals, he was seen as an unlikely military genius. As in attacking the USSR, his megalomania killed millions of his own soldiers, adversaries and civilians. We can be thankful he had no concept of what he was up against.
The actual battle never goes as planned. I was amazed at how often the bombardment from battleships was effective … and of course it was also often ineffective. Control of air was critical and the allies had it, but often the fear factor of their bombing and strafing had a greater effect than actual destruction of men and material.
Forget “Geneva Conventions” when your buddy is blown to bits beside you. The initial allied paratroopers had no means to take prisoners, so they didn’t. Yes, the German SS forces were nearly universally brutal, but “murder” is part of war on all sides. Nobody knows what they are capable of having not been there, and even if you ARE a “battle hardened soldier” that has been honorable, some level of sleep deprivation, shell shock, mutilated bodies, the stench and sight of decaying bodies, etc. may make you a different man than you thought you could be.
Nobody knows if they can operate as a soldier. The book makes it clear how few are able to be capable and how often even the strongest apparent “supermen” break under the strain. Shell shock, panic, self inflicted wounds, suicide and all manner of mental breakdown was rampant.
Those are just a few big picture takeaways. The book is full of detailed word pictures of bodies being vaporized, heads blown off, massive blood, detailed guts spilling out, etc.. Our modern age seems to have such a demand for seeing very realistic special effects of such that I’ll just leave it at that. Just watch the opening of “Saving Private Ryan” if you feel short on gore.
I find it easier to get a handle on the logistics;
The US Army was the most mechanized force that the world had ever seen. A single tank consumed 8,000 gallons of fuel a week. The 3rd armored division traveling by road required 60,000 gallons a day. One 3rd armored quartermaster calculated that the entire division moving cross country needed 125,000 gallons to move 100 yards! The division also required 35 tons of rations a day and depending on the fighting intensity, a far greater tonnage of ammunition.
War stories/documentaries are not my top reading pick, but this is a reasonably accurate portrayal of an important battle. I’m afraid that the mass of the “developed world” has forgotten what it is like to have no running water, sewer, power or food and to have weaponry of some sort (drones?) targeting you. It is something that can happen in the blink of an eye.