Wars over Happy V-E Day

May 8, 1945 V-E Day

"Wars over!!!"

It was D-Day plus 336, Hitler had been dead for just over a week, and the ink on the instruments of surrender was beginning to dry... It was a day that would bring an end to the suffering much of the Europe had felt since the unprovoked invasion of Poland in 1939. The number of dead would be in the millions with more displaced through the upheaval of Europe through a totalitarian regime that was bent on ruling the world. After the invasion of Poland many believed that giving a little to the Nazi machine would allow Europe to remain in relative peace but one man from England put it so well...

"Appeasement is like feeding the crocodile in hopes that it will eat you last."~~ Sir Winston Churchill
As history has shown time and time again if you give a bully an inch they will try and take a mile. After much of Europe had been overrun by Nazi forces, and an unprovoked attack on the island of Oahu the United States joined the war effort.

When war broke out the United States was not ready to be engaged in a great world conflict, but as Americans have always stepped up an accepted a challenge, this challenge would bring America from the depths of the Great Depression to being the dominate world power. At once the American military machine began to work. As well as assisting in defending Britain from the onslaught of the German air force, the Luftwaffe. General George S. Patton Jr. brought the war to General Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox, in North Africa. And over the next few years slowly the Nazi forces would be pushed back from Africa, and the daily assault on Britain would come to an end. Under the leadership of Eisenhower the allies would begin to turn the tide of war against the Axis powers. Patton would lead his men as he pushed on and he would liberate Italy.

By the spring of 1944 Ike would have devised a plan that would be the start of the end of the Nazi's conquest of Europe. An operation know by the code word OVERLORD. Many in the German military thought that General Patton would be the one to lead such an invasion of Europe. It was decided that early June would be D-Day. After weather setbacks finally the planes taking the 82nd, 101st, and the British 1st airport would leave England for France. Finally the Allies would bring the war to mainland Europe.

 

On June 6, 1944, D-Day, the largest amphibious assault in human history occurred on the Cherbourg peninsula. At least 12,000 men would be lost in the intense fighting as the beaches were stormed. If it had not been for men like Lt. Richard Winters, Easy co. 506 PIR, who lead his men in the assault on Brecourt Manor, where they destroyed the four 105mm cannons were raining shells onto Utah beach, many more men would be lost before the beaches would be secured. After more than a month in France the allies would have control of a deep water port that they could bring in heavy tanks and equipment. The allies would keep advancing and on more than one occasion General Patton would over run drop zones in France. Until finally Paris was freed.

In the fall of 1944 the allies would next liberate Holland, this would be under the command of British Field Marshall Montgomery. The plan would be to drop thousands of airborne soldiers from Eindhoven to Arnhem, all the while running armor up "Hell's Highway" to support the airborne. Although the initial operation was a failure and hundreds of British airborne were captured by the Nazi forces in Arnhem, Holland would be freed.

Right before Christmas 1944 Hitler knew that the war was going bad for Germany so he massed his forces near the Luxembourg and Belgium border in the Ardennes Forest. Ike sent the 101 into the area to defend the town of Bastogne. With little prep time the men of the 101st loaded up into trucks and drove to the front line, Ill prepared and under supplied the men began to move into position to defend the town, Lt George Rice, 10th armored division, hearing that the 101st was entering without much ammo and supplies, jumped into a jeep and he began making runs from an ammo dump to the line until every man had all he could carry. The actions of Lt. Rice and the men he "recruited" for these ammo runs would make the difference in the 101st defense of Bastogne. On Christmas Eve the Germans had surrounded the town of Bastogne. The German commander sent a message to General Anthony McAuliffe calling for the surrender of the American forces. General McAuliffe responded with the greatest answer in American military history, a one word response the puzzled the German commander, "NUTS!" The 101st stayed in Bastogne and fought off everything the Germans threw at them, they stayed and fought, from time to time they would be resupplied by an air drop from the Army Air Corps. Some have said that General Patton rescued the 101st, but no member of the 101st has ever stated they needed rescuing, all Patton did was reopen ground supply lines, thus freeing up the Army Air Corps for other missions.

While the ground forces were fighting in Italy, France and Holland, the Army Air Corps were busy with a fight of their own. The bombers during the Second World War were equipped with gunners but for the most part they were still sitting ducks for the German fighters, which were smaller faster and much more maneuverable. It was up to the fighter escorts to defend the bombers so they could safely fly into and return home from bombing runs over Germany. These men, some of whom were not even 20 years old, were flying airplanes when they did not even have a car back home to drive. For these men the fighting in the air was just as dangerous as the action the men on the ground faced. World War Two also saw the first Africa American fighter squadrons, commonly known as the Red Tails, aside from a spectacular record for defending bombers as they flew missions over Europe they were given countless awards for their bravery and heroism. These men would take the first steps and start paving the way for the desegregation of the United States military, and ultimately the rest of the country.

The soldiers on the ground also came across the greatest horror of the 20th century, the holocaust. The Nazi party came up with the "final solution" to what they saw as problems within the Third Reich. Mostly the Jews of Europe but also the ethnic minorities and Catholics in Germany and other occupied areas of Europe. They also sent anyone who spoke against the Nazi party to these concentration camps. This scar the Nazi party put on the Earth will never be erased, but thank God for the men who helped to end it.

Come the end of April and beginning of May 1945 these men would go from a fighting force to an army of occupation. From the 506th occupation of Berchtesgaden to the American and Russian soldiers shaking hands in Berlin. The war in Europe was over. Millions of men from all over the United States would be returning back home on countless victory ships, while others would start preparing to join the Navy and Marines in the Pacific, fortunately a journey most would never have to take but that is another story. But on that spring day in 1945 Europe would once again be at peace.

In my travels I have met many World War Two vets, I am always honored to meet those men. I always stop what I am doing to shake their hand and say welcome home, or just a quick thank you. I am honed that both of my grandfathers served in the European theater, one as a combat engineer in Simpson's Ninth Army, the other as a Chief Petty Officer, CMM, on a ship from England to Russia before he transferred to the submarine service and finished the war in the pacific. In my fraternity I have met men who left the safety of the college campus to answer the call and volunteer to our great nation, I once told one that he was my hero, he told me he was not a hero; he said the men who never came home were the heroes... I sit back and I know that he is being the humble man that the war made him, but I realized that he is a hero, so is every man and woman who put on a uniform, from the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines who fought, some living and some left buried on the shores of a place they never knew existed before they arrived, to the USO girl handing out coffee and smiling, giving those boys one dance before they left for the hell that awaited them. They are all heroes, and let us never forget the ones who gave of themselves, "the ones who never got to enjoy a world without war."

There's nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer.

~~Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle