70 Years Since Normandy

It's been 70 years since the initiation of the invasion of Normandy (aka D-Day aka Operation Neptune). President Obama spoke at Normandy American Cemetery in commemoration of the anniversary of the start of Operation Overlord.

After hearing President Obama's speech along with watching Brian Williams' great TV special, watching all the recreations on video/movies/video games, watching real footage, and listening to the many history lessons, my competence for the historic event is clearly insufficient. There is no way one can fully comprehend what happened in Normandy without having lived that day 70 years ago. One can read and watch as much on the matter but those brave soldiers will be the only people to completely understand (especially with the high number of casualties). Though, we can learn a great deal from history especially from those who lived it. We can learn better appreciation with greater knowledge. One prime example of this is one of my co-workers who is a veteran who has extensive knowledge of wars and their effects on history; I'm quite envious of him.

After watching and reading various information about the invasion, there were so many aspects that could have went wrong but luckily they didn't. U.S. Major General Henry Miller was demoted to lieutenant colonel after having leaked the plan. The less than ideal weather almost delayed the invasion to the next month since they had to have a full moon to light up the sky; but this turned out to be an advantage since the Germans did not expect the Allies to attack. It's amazing how some things just work out just right. But the efforts of the Allies made all the success possible.

And if you don't have time to watch all of President Obama's speech, I recommend skipping to the 17 min mark.