I worked with a lot of folks who went through D-Day in the military but only a couple who landed early on. One of my good friends was in the first wave, a Navy Ranger and D-Day survivor. However, that was just barely and was the end of his war. None of the guys who landed early had anything good to say about it. They all were in areas of heavy resistance, and described the lead-up and landings as the terrifying end of a tedious process.

We tend to look back on that time with eyes which know the outcomes, which urge the folks to just hang on, help is on the way. What is often forgotten is that there were no guarantees the landings would be successful, and the people who actually went ashore had no assurances they wouldn't be slaughtered to a man. I've always imagined they felt what troops in WWI felt "going over the top" into the face of machine-gun fire or Civil War troops felt charging into the face of artillery. Somehow it's never seemed appropriate to ask in any detail how they felt. I did ask how they'd handled it, and one gets the equivalent of a shrug. My friend didn't remember much, as he was blown back into the water by an artillery shell which stripped him of everything except his boots and left him hysterically blind. He had been in three other landings in Europe starting at age 17, and was out of the service before he was 21.

(My friend said that people who had never been in landings tried to muscle their way to the back of the landing craft. Those who had been in them worked their way to the front, the idea being to get away before a machine-gun homed in.)

They were from a lot of countries represented. It's an incredible tribute to humanity that troops can be found who will do these things. None of the think of themselves as anything but having been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and they acquitted themselves very well. Had I been there, well, there was just too long to think about it. I can't imagine sitting in England for 18 months waiting and waiting. Wars should be fought entirely by men and women over 50. Not only are we expendable, I suspect we'd revolt against the "no negotiate, no compromise" politicians.

Arf