War is as Necessary Today as it Always has Been

As time ticks on towards the 70th anniversary of the D-Day Landings on June 6th 2014, I wonder how many veterans of that war view events of today? How technology, so important in WW11, has continued to refine and evolve the nature of warfare. Long, long gone are the days of armies facing each other for a deadly and bloody slog to the finish. No. Today’s warfare in its highest form is against an unrecognisable enemy whose adversaries twiddle delicate knobs on sophisticated devices somewhere in Arizona to cause mayhem in a foreign and distant land, and then go home for lunch. A sort of gaming. but with real players and unseen intermediaries.

As always men remain on the ground, and they are our real heros. Days of physically uncomfortable boredom bisected by frenetic, fearful and shocking activity.

Meanwhile touring In the gentle fields of Normandy continues unabated. Pleasant pastures and beaches belie the horror of what went on all those years ago. Our dear French cousins do their best not to commercialise the area. There are no D-Day Theme Parks, Hitler Rides or Eisenhower Burgers to be found anywhere. Disney has not arrived.

Long will it continue. We may defer our visit, but those who rest in the Cemeteries will always be there as an indelible reminder to those who visit of our freedom to do so.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
Edmund Burke, 1729-1797.

True today as it was then.

The Devil’s in the detail. D-Day and The Panama Canal

People may be excused for believing that the business of invading a foreign country from the sea is merely a matter of landing enough soldiers on its seashore to run madly up the beach in the hope of dodging all the enemy has to throw back.  Great tales of heroic action and derring-do (from the winning side) emerge from the blooded victors; heavily endorsed by media.

Sure this is an important part, but it should only be considered in the context of  a much larger operation, namely the form of incredible planning and logistics, to enable a proper appreciation of the effort as a whole.

OK – just how do you land 150,000 men on five separate beaches at more or less the same time?  Before the invention of the Higgins boat the only way to do this would be by rowing boat and by the time the soldiers had floundered over the side (ever tried it?) they would be dead in the water.  Remember the enemy had machine guns that fired 1200 rounds a minute, that’s 20 rounds a second, and speed of landing was imperative.

Also consider keeping those men resupplied with the vast amount of material necessary to remain in combat.  Everything, and I mean everything had to follow on behind them for if they ran out of supplies the enemy would simply shove them back into the sea.  In order to maintain the supply program the Allies needed to capture a port town because they needed the port facilities (pontoons, derricks, cranes, wharves etc.) to enable the ships to offload and transport material ashore.  The two port towns in that area of Normandy which had the required facilities were Cherbourg and Le Havre and both were heavily defended by the enemy; certainly to the extent of not being capable of capture in time for the resupply program to happen.  So, the Allies determined they would need to bring their own port with them – not just one, but two artificial harbours codenamed Mulberry (the famous Mulberry Harbours)  located at Arromanches and Omaha Beach.  Each harbour had to be transported piecemeal, meshed in with the Landing Operation, across the Channel and assembled partly on the seabed but with floating roadways connecting to the shore.  It was a miracle of bold, innovative design and its importance lay with the fact that it enabled the Allies to launch a surprise attack in an area of relatively small likelihood of invasion because the Nazis were convinced it would not be possible to resupply troops across the 90 miles of sea that separated England and France.  So much for failing to think out of the box.

I have just read the history of the building of the Panama Canal.  One imagines the immense project commenced with a Navvy digging a shovelful of dirt.  But no.  Nothing could start until the eradication of the mosquito that through its insidious issue had killed an estimated 22,000 engineers, workers and allsorts connected with the project through the twin diseases of Malaria and Yellow fever before they had been there a month.  AND, at the beginning they did not know what caused those diseases in the first place!

The jewel of success in any project of note is not just in the obvious.  It lies in the foresight of meticulous planning, innovation and preparation for the event – so often overlooked by the battle mongers who make movies these days.  

Video Games. - Entertainment, History Tool or War Pornography?

Video games are crafted by their makers for profit.  This is the trunk of the tree, and its roots and branches spur in many and unpredictable sequences thereafter.

War video games with children as their “target market” are promoted using well-known names of Omaha Beach and Pointe du Hoc.  These names are merely the packaging to maximise the sale of their ersatz-ware, bearing very little relationship to what really happened on those famous battlefield sites.  No doubt the manufacturers would deem otherwise by dishonestly stating that useful history lessons are being conveyed in a manner which can be absorbed by young and enquiring minds.  What dangerous and perverse clap-trap.

Real battlefields are not seen through the eyes of an individual player seeking to score points by killing others.  The real soldier does not regenerate 100 times and whose arms and legs are robotically repaired by “medical packs.”  Enemy do not fall in droves each time the hero fires his inexhaustible weapon.

What really happens in battle is the same for each side.  It is a mayhem of slaughter and only finishes when one side is dead or has surrendered.  There is no glory for the individual locked in battle – he is just desperately afraid.  The odd exception is the true psychopath, but he is very much the exception rather than the rule.  The video game hero is the psychopath who does not have the imagination to consider that what he is dealing out could, in fact, happen to him.

General George S. Patton had a word for this.  L’audace.  Audacity. In his famous speech entitled L’audace, l’audace, toujour l’audace, General Patton reproduces a page from Georges Danton’s book upon how a great leader should always push his men boldly forward into the face of a great challenge.  However, the general is the leader, not the player.

A video game is merely the transformation of this noble concept into the embodiment of an irresponsible hero.  It is the crime without the punishment, the cake with no calories, the rape without consequence.  In other words, entirely make-believe and nothing better than a dangerous toy.

Young and impressionable minds are likely to be corrupted by this war pornography in the same way real pornography can drive men towards unwholesome thought and criminal acts.  It is a dangerous and irresponsible game easily leading impressionable minds to perpetrate horrific events such as the Hungerford Massacre, the Dunblane Massacre and more lately the Cumbrian shootings.

A war video game is the product from a juvenile mind for juvenile minds.  Only in this case the creator is the trunk that spawns many derivatives.  There are those who see it for what it is – a transitory pastime – and those who take it to heart.

One must ask the question – is it worth the price?

When is a War “Right?”

What a difficult question!  Before war commences, the “cause” is the catalyst, and the terrible human death toll is subsequently reckoned upon its conclusion.

The poor soldier, his only qualification of death being his young age, fitness and country of birth.  His fate is decided and determined by the politicians, rulers or monarchy of that country.  This happens on both sides of any conflict and the ordinary soldier has no choice in the matter.  He does what he is told, or faces the consequences.

Looking back, some recent catastrophic wars have proved pointless.  World War One was about nothing at all.  The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo sparked the whole thing off.  In reality, behind it all, lay decades of friction, hostility and conflict between major world powers, including Italy, France, Germany, Russia, and the British Empire, made complex by intertwined alliances and treaties.  It is a story of Militarism, Imperialism and Nationalism.

The cause of the disastrous Vietnam War was to stop the perceived threat held by America of Communism spreading out of North Vietnam into south east Asia.  Seemingly right at the time; but history concludes with the humiliating withdrawal of American forces from Saigon leading eventually to reunification of North and South Vietnam.

Millions upon millions of entirely innocent people lost their lives violently in these conflicts.  The pain and suffering was immense.  In addition was the huge destruction of property, which together with the vast and pointless waste of valuable natural resources leads one to reconsider whether war can ever be “right” or justifiable.

The cause of any war is worthy of deep study.  It is my belief that the cause of World War Two was to stop the power of evil spreading into the world by those countries not yet under its spell.  Proof, if ever required, being adequately demonstrated by the reversal of a nation of sophisticated, intelligent and democratic people into a condition of repression, fear, brutality and prejudice by the murderous Nazi regime.  The whole advance of this gargantuan idealistic cleverly driven by evil, warped propaganda and lies, masterminded by Hitler and his cronies.

World War Two was a war that was “Right”.  The tenet of any religion anywhere in the world is about the power of Good overcoming the power of evil.  World War Two, despite the heavy cost in terms of lives, property and resources was fundamentally justifiable.

The headstones to be found in Military Cemeteries throughout the world are representative of the cost of young lives.  The segregated war Cemeteries, from the American Military Cemetery at Colleville sur Mer above Omaha Beach, the British Military Cemetery at Bayeux, the Canadian Military Cemetery at Beny and the German Military Cemetery at LaCambe all depict the same indescribably sorrowful story of the deaths of men aged 18 to 25 who had their lives ripped from them.  In reality they were all the same, except they spoke different languages and had a particular country of birth.

D-Day, June 6^th 1944, Normandy, marked the beginning of the end of World War Two.  We all know the individual stories of what happened at Omaha Beach, Pointe du Hoc, Ste Mere Eglise, Pegasus Bridge and the battle for Caen.  The testament of the great numbers of pilgrims into Normandy today sparked by historical interest and media creations such as “Saving Private Ryan” and “Band of Brothers” pay tribute to those who served in that battle.

Young men are the true heroes of international conflict and we must always carry gratitude in our hearts for what they did.  For regardless of the rights or wrongs of a conflict, these men each fought with no less courage and conviction for their own side than any other soldier.  Fortunately, without the strife of those fighting under their banner of “Good” we can only imagine how we may be living our lives, if at all, today.

The Lesson, Tragedy and Cost of War

So many stories are to be told and so many lessons are to be learned at the German Military Cemeteries in Normandy if only people would take the time to pay a visit and have the patience to listen.

I have lost count of the number of times clients tell me they have no wish to go to the largest of the German cemeteries at La Cambe. Somehow they seem, understandably, to feel that in doing so a kind of homage is being paid to the evil regime that put them there. Yet nothing could be further from the truth.

The truth is that these young men (80% under the age of 20) were all mother’s sons with two arms and legs, and had the same desires and aspirations of life as any other young man on this earth. Except that they had been born in Germany.

Every soldier on all sides fought with equal conviction for his own country. Every mother cried at the loss of a son. So what was the difference between them?

The difference was that Germany had elected a madman to power. Hitler and his Nazi party were regarded even by level headed Germans as saving Germany from depression, want and hunger. The tragic seeds of its destitution had been sown by the Treaty of Versailles which in 1919 had so impoverished Germany through demands of financial and territorial restitution towards the Allies that a return to a normal economic standard of living for German citizens was unattainable.

Then Hitler appeared and was regarded Germany’s saviour. He instituted work programs to motivate the economy and achieved a standard of living previously undreamed of. Then his sinister side emerged – an obsession with racial purity and the creation of a civilisation which would rule for a thousand years. Something in the German culture exacted the ordinary person to believe in Hitler’s successes and his evil doings were neither realised nor condoned except by a small minority. The Gestapo made sure of that.

The average German soldier fought fanatically for his country - what he believed was right and moreover had been ordered to do so. The Allied soldier the same. What individual would not fight for his country?

Returning to those unfortunate souls in the German Cemetery who paid the ultimate price for the ideology of a madman. My clients often hate them, chastise them and even spit on their graves for what they did. Does this hurt the dead? No. It only hurts the perpetrator. Like a miscreant child kicking and protesting against a parent, he only hurts himself. However the pain and resentment is entirely real.

The cure lies in understanding what those soldiers did and why they did it. From understanding comes compassion. From compassion comes forgiveness, and from forgiveness the seeds of peace, healing and reconciliation are sown as a powerful message to the world not to do it again.

As human beings those buried in the British, Canadian, American and German cemeteries were all the same. It is governments that incite, enable and condone wars, but it is also true that the people who elected them must also bear some share of responsibility.

It is that share of responsibility for which so many paid the ultimate price.

Serendipity

The start of the new season of 2010 is bitterly cold on the Normandy Beaches. The lengthening days are in full sun from morning to dusk but a bitter, biting wind blows from the north – straight from Siberia. I wear several layers to combat the cold, and I do not mind admitting to wearing a pair of long-johns which keep my legs insulated as much as possible.

Over the years working in Normandy I have come to realise that there is a greater power at work, perhaps even a spiritual force which endeavours me as a Normandy tour guide of the D-Day Beaches to do what I must.

One of my ritual questions to clients upon their arrival in Bayeux, Normandy is to ask whether there is any family connection to the D-Day Landings? If so, I ask them to be aware of coincidences, particularly in the area of Omaha Beach and the Normandy American Cemetery at Colleville sur Mer above Omaha Beach. There is nothing sinister in this, and any coincidences are always benign, but powerful. Like the discovery of new information about a relative from the Interpretive Centre at the Normandy American Cemetery, or even your own name and State on a headstone. I keep a catalogue and too many coincidences occur for it to be a coincidence.

Little did I realise that one day it would happen to me.

In early March, 2010 I went to London to visit the Imperial War Museum as I have always wanted to return since last having been there in 1967. I found myself gawping at the same diary that had been penetrated by an enemy bullet, thus saving the soldier's life that I remembered so well from the first time. But, of course, the museum has changed greatly since that time with a huge number of new exhibits including tanks and a V1 and V2 rocket. Fascinating. Then I went into the museum cafe for a much needed cuppa and gazed idly around the walls at the wartime exhibits of food frugality and my eyes rested on a blown up wall photo immediately above where I was sitting of a group of five cooks from the Army Catering Corps being trained in Aldershot in 1939, and heaven help me, but one of them was my dad!!

The photo of my father, aged 26, was previously unknown in the family and we are all agreed upon close examination that it is indeed him. It is one of 10 million photos held by the IWM.

So, what does this mean? What am I, or anyone, supposed to deduce by these coincidences?

Some say there are no such things as coincidences, but I may be forgiven for thinking that I do not know what that means either.

What is for sure is that it is the same guiding hand at work that inspired, empowered and encouraged me to take on my role as a tour guide of the D-Day Landing Beaches. There can be no greater reward than the fulfilment of a life’s dream in doing what you want to do, and be fortunate enough to secure sufficient income to live from it.

I am indeed very grateful.

Michael Phillips.

Normandy, March 2010.

Another paradox. La Pointe du Hoc, Normandy

Here we have a wonderful example of how priorities can change and indeed become completely reversed. La Pointe du Hoc, the memorable location in Normandy where the 225 men of Companies C D and E of the 2nd Rangers Battalion led by Col. James Earl Rudder stormed and climbed the cliffs at La Pointe du Hoc to attack and destroy a German battery which threatened the D-Day Landings further along the coast in both directions at Utah Beach and Omaha Beach.

The story is well known. Rudder’s Rangers successfully climbed the formidable cliffs at La Pointe du Hoc using London Fire Brigade ladders and rocket propelled grappling hooks that had rope ladders attached to engage the enemy and destroy the guns. Except, after all the effort, there were no guns there to destroy. In the face of heavy and accurate aerial bombardment (because the geographical shape of the Pointe made it an easy target) the Germans, fearing the valuable guns would be destroyed, had moved them to the rear for safety.

Sergeant Lomell found the guns in a field a couple of kilometres distant from the site and destroyed them using thermite grenades.

The fire control bunker at La Pointe du Hoc has been closed for many years because of cliff erosion which threatens its stability. Many superb memorial tablets are contained therein and it has been a considerable time since I last saw them. It was clear something needed to be done, and urgently, if the bunker was to be saved. 2010 has seen the arrival of a huge crane, a concrete mixing plant and material and many workers to stabilise the bunker, shutting off a huge chunk of access to La Pointe du Hoc in the process.

Undoubtedly the project will cost millions of Dollars of US tax payers money and there is no question as to the validity of the project. But the irony, the superb paradox is that of the fact that what the US spent millions of Dollars trying to destroy in 1944, is now the subject of spending a fortune in trying to restore.

It is so ironical as to be almost hypocritical.