D-Day: 60Th Anniversary: The Greatest Day

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On D-day, the battle was the hard part. Nothing that followed--not the bloody path to conquest through the Ardennes, not the fits and starts of rebuilding Europe from the ruins, not the forging of the postwar balance of power--surpassed in difficulty or cost the demands of that one day, when luck and fate and genius and nerve worked to give Freedom her victory. As we approach Memorial Day and another significant anniversary, as President Bush takes his turn honoring the memories on those haunted beaches, there's no avoiding the comparisons. To look back on that day from the middle of this new war, to see the Atlantic alliance under historic strain, see the U.S. feared and reviled in countries whose freedom was redeemed at such high cost, to hear embattled American soldiers wonder if they will return home to a parade or a protest, while politicians argue over whether we went in with a plan or just a prayer, is to envy that great generation its gifts: unity, certainty and the chance to inspire all who followed.

Where's the sacrifice? Senator John McCain wants to know in the midst of an argument over cutting taxes during wartime. If you do not live in a military town or have a cousin serving overseas, the Iraq war can feel far away, so long as the TV is off. World War II was much more intimate, and not only because any son could be drafted to serve. Women went without their nylons and saved their bacon grease to make explosives and planted victory gardens. People on the coastlines drove 20 m.p.h. after dark, their headlights partially blacked out, or volunteered as air-raid wardens or donated their rubber raincoats and tires and bathing caps, even though they couldn't be recycled for military use. It had the effect of pulling people together, uniting them behind the cause.

Now that we are tangled in a debate over how much manpower is necessary to achieve victory, it bears remembering that D-day was a day of overwhelming force. German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and his fellow officers had 500,000 men stretched across 800 miles; many were middle-aged or conscripts from Eastern Europe. They would ultimately face 1 million men by July--not just Yanks and Brits but Canadian, French, Polish and Dutch troops swarming across the Channel from southern England, which had turned into a vast base163 new airfields, 2 million tons of supplies, 1,500 tanks, 5,000 boats. The Luftwaffe's 183 fighter planes that day faced 11,000 Allied aircraft.

And yet all that power brought no guarantees. No advocates of war sat comfortably on Sunday morning talk shows promising that the invasion of Europe would be a cakewalk. The plan was not obvious, not safe or certain. And it was a gamble for colossal stakes. However much the Allies had gained since the worst months of 1941, Hitler might yet have survived to cut a deal that left him in charge of most of Europe. After Eisenhower watched the first troop convoys preparing to depart, he scribbled a note to himself, what he would say if the worst happened: "Our landings ... have failed ... The troops, the Air and the Navy did all that Bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone."