It Appears The D-Day Invasion Was *Never* About Defeating Hitler

A counterintuitive look at Operation Overlord

The most common military phrase on this day was probably “Charlie-Fox”. If you don’t know what that means, then you’ve never been in the military. (Wikimedia Commons)

Operation Overlord, the landings on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, was the largest amphibious invasion in modern history, epic in every meaning of the word. Most Americans have been taught that this was the beginning of the end for Hitler’s reign of terror across Europe, that we were there to “personally shoot that paper-hanging son of a bitch” as General Patton so pithily promised in his speech before his Third Army.

But the key is the date D-Day took place: June 6th, 1944.

There is no doubt that almost every man and woman among the Allied nations would have heartily agreed with the general’s statement and would happily have bought tickets to watch the spectacle. By then, the decision among the Allies was “unconditional surrender” (which decision may well have prolonged the war). No cease-fire, no treaty, no letup in combat until the defeated surrendered without any promises of leniency or clemency by the victorious. We were going all-out for the blood of our enemies.

And hadn’t America and the United Kingdom moved heaven and earth to bring Nazi Germany to heel? There was the Battle of the Atlantic where we had to overcome Admiral Dönitz’ U-boat wolfpacks from 1942 through the end…