TH ANNIVERSARY D-Day


Greatest Military Operation in


History 2 million men embark on “a crusade” to liberate


A GREAT CRUSADE Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower briefed soldiers on the eve of D-Day as more than 2 million troops prepared for the historic and perilous landing on the coast of France 80 years ago this month.


True, the U.S. military was


in dire straits before WWII. The peacetime Army of the 1930s was a hollow shell of a force, with little funding for training or equip- ment. In fact, Dwight D. Eisenhower


was still a lieutenant colonel in March 1941 and was speedily pro- moted all the way to a four-star general by February 1943 to help fight the Nazi threat. Today, our force is better fund-


ed than our 1930s-era counter- parts, but does it possess the mor- al compass and national unity of yesteryear? America’s breakdown of mor-


als, the political divide, and lack of spirituality are some of the leading national security con- cerns today. Based on recent military strat-


egy training tests, we would fail miserably in a major regional or global war with China. The U.S. Army War College


has written extensively about this, most recently in March: “Wargames indicate the Unit-


ed States will lose significant combat power quickly. “U.S. military forces are too


small, their supply lines are too vulnerable, and America’s de- fense industrial capacity is far too eroded to keep up with the mate- riel demands of a high-intensity conflict. “Another critical factor under-


mining U.S. capacity to sustain a war is that Americans lack the resilience to fight a sustained, brutal conflict. A war with China would require far greater num- bers of Americans to serve in the military or to support it directly in some manner — something they are increasingly unwilling to do. “Current recruiting challenges emphasize this growing national security problem.” Meanwhile, in a recent article for RealClearDefense.com titled,


Europe from Nazis. BY JERRY OPPENHEIMER


T


he Allied invasion of Nazi-held Europe, 80 years ago this month, remains the biggest air, land, and


sea operation ever executed. It was the beginning of the end of the Third Reich,


and Adolf Hitler’s tyrannical regime. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower oversaw a force of


156,000 GIs, British, and Canadian troops, 11,000 warplanes, and 7,000 ships. More than 2 million soldiers — pilots, sailors,


medics from 12 Allied countries — were involved in Operation Overlord, the oficial name for D-Day, that was launched on June 6, 1944. A massive disinformation campaign was begun


by Allied intelligence services to keep the invasion and its location a top secret. Fake army camps with mock inflatable tanks


and trucks misled the Germans, along with dummy warships, and on D-Day the Allies filled the airwaves with fake ship and airplane signals. British intelligence disinformation was said to


have the Germans convinced of an impending invasion in Calais, not Normandy, some four hours away. Next to the development of the atomic bomb,


D-Day is considered the best-kept military secret of the Second World War. From the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, Eisenhower issued a heartfelt letter to the “Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen” participating in the action, declaring: “You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade . . . The eyes of the world are upon you . . . Your task


JUNE 2024 | NEWSMAX 55


COMMANDERS/JAMES JARCHE/POPPERFOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES / WOUNDED SOLDIERS/ TAYLOR/US ARMY/GETTY IMAGES / U.S. SOLDIERS LANDING/BETTMANN/GETTY IAMGES EISENHOWER/UNDERWOOD ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES / U.S. AIR FORCE/GLASSHOUSE VINTAGE/UNIVERSAL HISTORY ARCHIVE/UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP VIA GETTY IMAGES


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100