The Legacies of Battle: Why Duty, Honor, Country Is More Than a Slogan
Whether it is known as Memorial Day, Remembrance Day, or by some other name, most societies have at least one day each year dedicated to the memory of those who fell in battle for the sake of securing victory for that society. During this week which leads up to the sixtieth anniversary of the D-Day landing (invasion is certainly not the word for it - that is what the Germans did to Western Europe in 1940) we look back and ahead to consider what those who enter the realm of combat physically and mentally endure.
Envision yourself in this scene. You are approximately eighteen years old. You are of perhaps American, Australian, British, Canadian, Czech, French, or Polish nationality. It is 1944, and your country has either been directly invaded by, attacked by, or (if the rather vague intelligence reports are to be believed) has a more than substantial risk of attack by the Nazi German forces. You have never seen combat before, but you sense that you are about to take part in one of the most complicated and massive battles known to human warfare.
Your company has spent the last several months training on the South England coast. You do not know the date of the impending battle; nor do you know the place. On 4 June you are told to have your gear together and be ready to leave with your Airborne company at a half hour's notice, or in the alternative, you are boarded onto small ships and amphibious landing craft and told to wait. A few hours later you are told to unload, but you should be prepared to re-board at any time. Twelve hours later you are all re-boarded onto the same boats. The weather is awful; seas are more than heavily choppy; the winds are almost gale force. This is hardly departure conditions for which Infantry soldiers are trained.
You wait, and you wonder what lays ahead. Then as you near the French coast, you are given the first details. Normandy is the landing site. If you are Airborne, you are shown your drop zone only moments before the hook-up-and-jump instruction is given. If you are on the boats, you have a little more time. If you are Airborne, you know you have a good prospect of landing behind enemy lines and finding you are left to your own devices; your only way to distinguish friend from foe is by using a child's clicker toy; two clicks equals friend; no clicks equals foe. Real trouble will await anyone who forgets the "code".
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