One of the reasons I love history is that it forces you to travel backward in time and actually live the events that the historian is writing about. You’re compelled to experience the event from the perspective of someone from that time, that era. What do you believe? What are your prejudices? How would you interact with the characters? What would you see? Whose side would you be on?
A million questions answered differently by each and every one of us. This is especially true when I read about transcendent historical occurrences, those “hinges of history” where events transpire that shape the present and whose effects will be felt far into the future.
“Real” historians don’t give as much weight to individual events, They point to underlying forces and historical trends that one single event rarely impacts. That’s why for the longest time, counterfactual or alternative history was debunked by historians as an intellectual parlor game, a pointless exercise in sophistry.
This attitude on the part of professional historians may be softening a bit thanks in large part to Niall Ferguson’s compilation of scholarly alternative history scenarios in Virtual History. The book is worth reading if only to peruse the first 90 pages where Ferguson gives a history of historiography, or the study of how history has been viewed and written since the time of Homer. It explains a lot about why contemporary historians pooh-pooh the idea of counterfactualism and how a quasi-Marxist or deterministic view has dominated the writing of history for most of the last century.
That being said, I believe there is enormous value to looking at individual historic events and how the decisions made by so few affected the destiny of so many.
Today is the 61st anniversary of the most important single event of the 20th century: D-Day. I’ll get a lot of flack for saying that from some of my readers who have been kind enough to share their love of history with me. Some would point to the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima or the Apollo Moon Landing. Perhaps a hundred years from now some historian will point to another event, a decision made in obscurity which will have consequences that at the moment are hidden from us.
But there are aspects to D-Day that make it one of the true “make or break” moments in the history of man. First and foremost is the fact that if the invasion had failed, if Eisenhower would have been forced to abandon the beachhead, the consequences would have been catastrophic. Stalin, who had been clamoring for two years for the Allies to open a second front against the Germans, could have decided to make a separate peace with Hitler. We know now that he contemplated such a move several times. Whether Hitler would have been smart enough to let him off the hook is another matter. But freeing up 3 million German troops from fighting Russians to manning the defenses of the Western Wall would have made any additional attempt to land in France problematic.
If Stalin didn’t make a separate peace, then surely he would have been in trouble himself. With the prospect of an Allied invasion in France dead for a year, Hitler would have been able to transfer the bulk of his western armies to the east in an attempt to defeat the Red Army. At the very least, the breakout battles fought by the Red Army later that summer may have had a different outcome indeed. The Wehrmacht could have blocked any Russian advances that would have prolonged the war by at least a year, possibly two. Just think of the headaches for Roosevelt and the Americans who were also fighting the Japanese in the Pacific.
Ain’t history fun?
How about the Presidential election of 1944? Would the American people look at the failure of D-Day as Roosevelt’s fault? Or the British parliamentary elections in 1945? Would the British have been willing to turn Churchill out with the war still going on? What would the delay have meant to the post-war British turn to the left? What about the independence of India? Would the British have been so willing to partition India with the Nazi threat still present? What about the mass of supplies that we were sending to Stalin and Chiang Kai Shek in China? If we were going to make another attempt at breaching the Atlantic Wall, wouldn’t our troops need those supplies? Would Chiang have been forced to surrender to the Japanese? Would Stalin have been able to hold on? Would we have used the atom bomb on Germany?
The list of “what if” questions about D-Day are limited only by one’s imagination. And as Stephen Ambrose points out in his must-read history D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II, the success or failure of the invasion depended entirely on a pitifully small number of men, the first waves that hit the beach at dawn on that fateful day. This was especially true at Omaha Beach.
The carnage, the confusion, the terror present on that ridiculously small strip of insignificant French territory became the crucible by which our present was forged. The entire war effort had telescoped down to the actions of less than 8,000 American soldiers who were pinned down by some of the most intense fire ever experienced by American fighting men. The original plan, which called for the American forces to break out from the beach and up several draws to a causeway where ideally, they would link up with Allied forces from other landing sites had fallen by the wayside. The troops hadn’t landed at their designated points on the beach, German obstacles hadn’t been cleared, the tanks that were supposed to land with the troops had sunk into the English Channel, and many, many of the troops officers were dead or wounded.
It was at this point that the ultimate test of civilizations played itself out. Would the sons of democracy be able to defeat the sons of dictatorship? As Ambrose dramatically points out, the answer was a resounding yes. Trained as they were to think on the battlefield and encouraged to improvise if necessary, one by one – first in small groups and then by company – the America’s made their way up the murderous bluffs, through the minefields, and began to silence the German guns. There was no plan to it, no coordination. Just individual American soldiers taking it upon themselves to do the job. In short, for all of Eisenhower’s careful planning, it was the improvisation and sheer courage of the American soldier that won the day and made June 6 a date to remember victory rather than tragic defeat.
I wonder, would I have had that kind of courage? What would I have done if it were me trapped behind the seawall with mortars and machine guns firing incessantly, casualties all around me, many of my friends killed or wounded, and suffering from the shock and terror associated with battle? Would I have been a leader or a follower? What would I have been thinking?
That’s why I love history. Doesn’t asking questions like that tell you something about yourself? It isn’t important if there are answers, it’s the questions that make you think.
Those beaches at Normandy have been quiet for 61 years now. The men who gave the “last full measure of devotion,” whose young lives were snuffed out in a cause greater than themselves are still being mourned by the ever shrinking number of comrades who survived them. And as we look back and marvel at their sacrifice and courage, we do them honor by asking ourselves if placed in their boots, would we have done as well?
The answer, if there is one, reveals as much about ourselves as it does about them.
Cross Posted at Blogger News Network
8:23 am
Tsar of Uncouth Youth
Today’s dose of NIF - News, Interesting & Funny … Welcome to yet another Monday
8:45 am
D-DAY REMEMBERED
It’s the 61st anniversary of the D-Day invasion. Check out the nice remembrances from Rick Moran and W. Thomas Smith, Jr….
8:51 am
Remembering D-Day
Monday is the day that I get very little time off between classes and today most of that time will be spent studying for a Chem test that will be during lab this afternoon. I didn’t want to miss posting…
9:09 am
Great post, Rick! You’ll get no argument from me as to the significance of the event. IMHO, it was a greater logistical feat than the moon landing. Considering the technology of the time, it is probably the greatest logistical feat that will ever be accomplished.
10:42 am
Day Book, June 6, 2005
Today is the 61st anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy. A number of bloggers have fine observations and commentary: A Little Left of Centrist a photo retrospective from Argghhh! Confederate Yankee Daily Pundit links to Ernie Pyle’s commentary…
1:59 pm
Excellent!
I, like you, put myself into the shoes of those in history. I, like you, ask myself what I would have done. Would I have been brave in facing the Germans on that day 61 years ago?
Keep up the good work!
2:49 pm
D-Day Plus 61 Years
But as always with the Left, you praise something in order to bash something else. World War II was a club with which to bash Vietnam. If the big one was a good war, then Vietnam and Korea were bad wars.
9:43 pm
Remembering D-Day
Rick Moran in “Remembering Why I Love History”, offers some historical perspective and what if scenarios that may have occurred had the results been different. An excellent read!
11:04 pm
Remembering D-Day
Rick Moran in “Remembering Why I Love History”, offers some historical perspective and what if scenarios that may have occurred had the results been different. An excellent read!
11:14 pm
The Greatest Generation
Pictures really are worth a thousand words. . .
And these words aren’t too bad either…
I’ve been checking out the memorials to the 61st anniversary of “The Longest Day”, June 6, 1944 – And I’ve read quite a few. This one is exceptional – Other…
4:07 am
Submitted for Your Approval
First off… any spambots reading this should immediately go here, here, here, and here. Die spambots, die! And now… here are all the links submitted by members of the Watcher’s Council for this week’s vote. Council li…
7:17 pm
Well, I know what our first course at dinner will be tonight: “Was D-Day the most important event of the 20th century”?
I’ll let you know how well it was digested.
7:18 am
A fun intellectual exercise, Rick. Haven’t read Gingrich’s “What If” book on Gettysburg—I sure want to before I go to visit those sacred grounds with my kids.
2:05 am
The Council Has Spoken!
First off… any spambots reading this should immediately go here, here, here, and here. Die spambots, die! And now… the winning entries in the Watcher’s Council vote for this week are Remembering Why I Love History by …
7:18 am
The Council has spoken!
The Watcher’s Council has announced their selections for the posts of the last week most deserving of recognition. The winning Council post was Right Wing Nuthouse’s D-Day reflection, “Remembering Why I Love History”. The winning non-Counci…
7:32 am
THE COUNCIL HAS SPOKEN.
Congratulations to this week’s winners in the Watcher’s Council vote: This week’s council member winner is Right Wing Nut House, with Remembering Why I Love History; and the non-council winner, Winds of Change, with THIS is a Gulag. Congratulations …
8:58 am
Watcher’s Council Results – June 10, 2005
The latest Watcher’s Council results are now available.
In the Council category, Right Wing Nut House won with another thoughtful post, Remembering Why I Love History:
One of the reasons I love history is that it forces you to travel backward …
12:28 am
Outstanding Posts Recognized By The Watcher’s Council
All proper rituals having been observed, the Watcher’s Council has selected this week’s winners. Congratulations to all who were nominated, and most especially to our winners This week’s council member winner is Right Wing Nut House, with Rememberin…
12:23 am
The Coalition of the Willing
As you may or may not already be aware, members of the Watcher’s Council hold a vote every week on what we consider to be the most link-worthy pieces of writing around… though I don’t actually vote unless there happens…
10:54 am
On Debt Relief
So the G7 has embraced the proposal to cancel all foreign debt owed to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund by a select group of 18 mostly African nations. The amount totals some 40 billion dollars immediately, $50…