D-DAY DOLDRUMS

The 6th of June is nearly upon us again, and you know what that means - yes, a flood of cliches and platitudes to remind the us that we won World World Two single-handedly in one action by running up some beach somewhere in a scene that would make a great movie someday. 

Everyone who took part on our side was a hero, so they tell us - which must therefore also include those who murdered unarmed prisoners, raped civilians, or just shat their pants and tried to hide, and don’t forget Benny Hill who drove a truck in on the third day. 

They all did their duty for King and Country. If only we could go back to those times when people were a different, superhuman breed. You could leave your doors unlocked in those days, blah blah blah…

Now, I grew up hearing about D-Day ad nauseum - my father regaled me with stories of seeing the sky thick with planes on that day, and bought me picture books with sheets of transfers of our brave soldiers to be placed in heroic poses on to the artist’s representations of the beaches.

But these days I’m just sick of it. I trained as a historian, so I fully understand the importance of remembering World War Two, especially now. But let’s focus on the catastrophic nature of that entire conflict, not turn one event into a nationalistic myth devoid of wider context. 

Let’s remember that between 70,000,000 and 85,000,000 people died in World War Two, the vast majority civilians, mostly not in Western Europe, as well as the untold millions more who were mentally and physically damaged, made refugees or forced to continue existing in the bombed-out ruins. Let’s teach people how this happened, and what political mistakes enabled it, rather than glorify a single action.

D-Day wasn’t even the decisive event in the final defeat of the Nazis - that would be Operation Bagration, the Soviet offensive that started a couple of weekends after the Normandy landings. This unleashed on the Germans a defeat even worse than Stalingrad, smashing a huge gap in the Eastern Front and leaving the way to Berlin open. 

But we’re not going to hear about that because it was the Rooskies, and they weren’t heroes like our boys, right? Also, Operation Bagration is hard to pronounce and not as catchy as D-Day.

Joking aside, every country presents its own biased version of history to its citizens, but we should remember the one thing that nearly all veterans mention : not glory or heroism, but that war is a vile, dehumanising and disgusting thing.