Thursday, June 06, 2019

First Wave at Omaha Beach

Thu, Jun 6, 2019 9:39 a.m.

A colleague writes,

An article well worth reading on this day of remembrance.

First Wave at Omaha Beach

An account of the "epic human tragedy" that unfolded when Allied troops landed on the shores of Normandy on D-Day

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1960/11/first-wave-at-omaha-beach/303365/



2 comments:

Boils said...

Thank you NS for all your D-Day postings.

Anonymous said...

'First Wave at Omaha Beach - An account of the “epic human tragedy” that unfolded when Allied troops landed on the shores of Normandy on D-Day': S. L. A. MARSHALL NOVEMBER 1960'

Because the article has been reformatted into the current digital Atlantic online template, people clicking the link for the story are likely not to quickly catch the date: Nov 1960.
It is very unlikely that had this article been authored today, that The Atlantic would have bothered to publish it - given the the seismic shift the nation has undergone since that date, the wreckage of which is cited daily in this blog.
That publication would never consider the deaths of 405K servicemen - the vast majority white - as an 'epic human tragedy' today.
Slavery - today - would still be considered the 'epic human tragedy' for them.
World War II - the carnage and sacrifice - are irrelevant to the current 'professional' generation.
Their superstar 'staff writer' - Ta Nehisi Coates - described ridiculously as 'among the most influential intellectuals and writers in the United States' - would certainly concur, and the spineless sycophants running that rag today would certainly fall into line.
After ten years of driving the editors there nuts with his incoherent nonsense, he no longer 'writes' for the Atlantic - after making millions, he announced he was leaving last year.
Maybe he has chosen to concentrate on his first love: comic books.

"Samuel Lyman Atwood Marshall (July 18, 1900 – December 17, 1977) was a chief U.S. Army combat historian during World War II and the Korean War. Known professionally as S. L. A. Marshall, and nicknamed "Slam" (the combination of all four of his initials), he authored some 30 books about warfare, including Pork Chop Hill: The American Fighting Man in Action, which was made into a film of the same name." - from his Wiki.