Charles Robbins and His Brothers Were the Lucky Ones. So Are We.
A report from the beaches of Normandy and the final resting place of nearly 9,900 US soldiers who lost their lives in WWII’s Operation Overlord, better known as “D-Day”
Thirty-six year-old Charles H. Robbins was a recently widowed father of several young children - including my then 5 year old future mother - when he received his draft notice in 1942, at the nadir of World War II. He had registered for the draft two years earlier. From the allied perspective, it was the worst year of the war, with the possible exception of 1941. Few victories were won.
It seems odd to many today that a 36 year old widower and father of young children working for the Depression-era Works Progress Administration would be conscripted to fight in a foreign war. America stopped compulsory military service in 1973. And Robbins was well above the average age of newly conscripted soldiers during World War II.
But those were the times. Most of Europe as we know it today was under the control of the German Nazis, as was Norway, whose King Haakon VII and his young family - including grandson and current King Harald - had fled to Washington, DC. German-occupied France was under control of its “Vichy” government; Belgium, Netherlands, and Denmark had all fallen, among many others. And Great Britain was being bombed on a regular basis. It’s former (briefly) King Edward VIII and Duke of Windsor, uncle of current Queen Elizabeth, had given his German friends advice on the best routes to Paris prior to the Nazi invasion. He and his American born duchess’s alleged fondness for the Nazi regime is the subject of several British documentaries.
America’s own future was in doubt. Japan’s empire loomed large in the Pacific. Dark days, indeed.
Robbins probably didn’t realize how often his children would be shuttled among family members after he left for infantry training as a soldier in the “Big Red One,” the First Infantry Division. His brother, Woodrow, was also drafted and would serve as a paratrooper (no relation to another Woodrow Robbins featured in Stephen Ambrose’s superb book, “Band of Brothers,” a famous member of the 101st Airborne Division). Another brother, Carl, was also conscripted. The story is common to thousands of families across the US and Canada.
Their divisions would be incorporated into what was Operation Overlord, which commenced (finally) on June 6th, 1944. American soldiers began loading their Higgins boats, about 36 at a time, from Navy ships between 3 and 4 a.m., local time, for landings at Omaha and Utah beaches, after a sleepless night. The British named their beaches after cars. Shortly thereafter, paratroopers began loading planes that would drop them off behind enemy lines to help disarm Germans guns and bunkers.
Some 150,000 infantry were scheduled to land on the beaches at 0630 hours, not long after naval “big guns” and B-25 bombing raids hopefully took out German fortifications and guns. In some places, like Pont du Hoc, they had some success. At Omaha beach, not so much. Some boats veered off course and arrived late.
Fortunately, thanks in part to a radio transmission intercepted in 1943 by an Army private at a covert Army listening station in Vint Hill, Virginia - an hour west of the Pentagon - they knew where some of the fortifications and gun batteries were located along the Normandy coast. The transmission came from Japan’s ambassador to his home country. Seems Vint Hill - a former dairy farm whose owner was a ham radio operator - was a special geographic zone for capturing all kinds of radio signals. The Army found out by accident and bought the farm, so to speak.
That covert listening station is now a not-so-covert winery by the same name.
Charles, Woodrow, and Carl all made it back. Casualties were high, of course. They almost always are. But most American soldiers made it back. They married, had kids, had grandkids (like me) and lived the American dream.
And they rarely spoke of their experiences. Not voluntarily.
Many of them went on to become Members of Congress and US Senators. Some who faced combat, including John F. Kennedy and George H. W. Bush, both in the Pacific theater, became President. Republicans Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan served as well. And let’s not forget President Dwight David Eisenhower.
Some 10,000 Americans (and thousands more Canadians and British) were not so lucky. They are among the thousands buried in cemeteries near the beaches where they landed, most on the first day of the invasion, and made the ultimate sacrifice. In all, some 1.5 million troops made their way from Normandy over 6 months to begin the final phase of the war. When Antwerp, Belgium was liberated later in 1944, Normandy had served its purpose as an entry point into Europe. Antwerp’s port was closer to the ultimate goal, the subjugation of Germany.
That occurred nearly 11 months to the day after Operation Overlord. Japan would surrender 3 months later after the introduction of the atomic bomb, first in Hiroshima, then Nagasaki a week later. You know the story.
For more than six decades, I have been taught in every imaginable way about D-Day. In school. By my parents and family. Friends and acquaintances who are military veterans and historians, some who have served. Movies. Documentaries. Podcasts. Books. Ancestry.com. And more books that are still being written. Even Facebook has terrific sites contributed to by People Who Know.
Yet there is no great teacher than visiting the beaches and the cemeteries. In person. You really do have to be here. The emotion runs skin deep and erupts occasionally as one finds him or herself fighting back tears. Being here helps you vividly imagine what it was like to confront the most extreme forms of violence, knowing what you must do, and realizing it might be your last day.
And how young these heroes were.
Allied forces would win that day and begin the end of a horrible war. The nations involved have done magnificent work to preserve and share the history of that battle, one of the world’s greatest and most consequential. It is there for you to learn and experience, from the massive artillery divots to well-preserved German bunkers.
How they kept the planning for D-Day a secret for all that time is unimaginable today - the Germans knew they would be attacked eventually, but didn’t know when. The small band of mostly older Nazi veterans of the eastern front were dispatched to the “static” zone around Normandy to “recover” from their fights against Russia. The Germans did everything they could to deter an invasion, but the sheer mass of force (over 150,000 troops, hundreds of planes, and scores of naval guns proved way too much. That was the idea.
But Eisenhower and, much later, boxing legend Mike Tyson made the same observation: Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.
But Supreme Allied Commander and US General Dwight Eisenhower knew the risks. The invasion had already been delayed one month, and then a day due to inclement weather on the perpetually unpredictable coast. The invasion had to be carefully planned to the tides and the unpredictable weather. Another delay would cause the invasion to be delayed by weeks, if not another month. Who knew what would have happened then.
Eisenhower had his doubts, and many of the Marines, when briefed about the plans, saw it as a suicide mission. He worried how he would supply his troops. Every soldier invading the shores that day carried 80 pound packs with enough rations for three days. As Napoleon famously said, “An Army marches on its stomach.” Wars are won with logistics, if not more so, than weapons, including things like ammunition, fuel, and even good tires. Just ask the Ukrainians. Maybe the Russians.
“We’re going to land at low tide and run 300 yards along an open beach and climb 100 foot cliffs in front of German machine guns,” they probably asked each other? General Eisenhower drafted a note, in the event the mission was not successful, to take full responsibility. It became a historical side note. Visiting the American cemetery in 1964, he commented on parents who not only forfeited sons, but the opportunity for grandchildren. When we ask that much of a sacrifice, a historian friend remembers, it had better be in pursuit of nothing less than the survival of a nation. Eisenhower discussed the challenges inherent in making sure no future President would be put in such a position to demand such sacrifice.
Obviously, President Lyndon Johnson didn’t heed those wise words. My friend, Dr. William Hamilton, a military historian and decorated Vietnam veteran superbly documented the unlearned lessons that led to that war’s tragic outcome and legacy in his tour de force, War During Peace.
In a couple of months - June 6 - we’re going to commemorate that tremendous battle and honor the sacrifices made. Lives were changed. The world changed. And much of that “world order” still exists, but is changing. As it always does.
But what must never change is our thirst for history and its lessons, good and bad. We must remember and honor the courage and sacrifice, and learn from it, including visiting the battlefields where they happened, and the cemeteries where the warriors rest. The generation that won World War II is practically gone and now lives on in 80 and 90-year-old children who share their own memories of the time. Capture their stories! We must also remember the awful forces that contribute to such conflicts, so they cannot, must not, be repeated. Are we not seeing that played out in Ukraine right now?
We must always raise up and support our next generation of warriors. I’m proud to be the father of a platoon leader who wears a Normandy ribbon from his regiment’s service - 29th Infantry Division, 116th regiment, Virginia National Guard. At Omaha Beach. That regiment’s history goes back to the First Battle of Manassas in the Civil War. Except the “Stonewall Brigade” won that battle. You can look it up. I know, different army. But it was absorbed and its proud legacy lives on.
War is an unfortunately, horrible reality. It will always be with us. Humans are flawed, and totalitarian impulses and arrogance are unfortunate, horrible consequences. History is too often forgotten, and miscalculations are a scourge. Talk of World War III is being bandied around a bit too cavalierly by observers who know nothing of war, honor, sacrifice, and courage. Most so-called journalists don’t even know how to cover a real war, on the ground, in person. They can’t even find their way west of the Hudson River or Washington’s beltway. It is too easy for too many to hide behind their keyboards as they fish for clicks. That’s not journalism.
They would do us all a favor and spend time at Normandy to see what it really looks like, and not just to sample wine and Camembert cheese. Or the battlefield of any war. There are plenty of battlefields closer than you think. As a Virginian, I would know. Sixty percent of the Civil War was fought in Virginia.
I’m glad I visited Normandy on Tuesday. Make a plan to visit. Bring your children. Teach them that what George Washington said was true: the best way to preserve peace is to be prepared for war.
It is also true that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Outstanding!
Recommended to my readers of PostAfterThoughts, Kelly. Thanks for sharing!