D-Day: Why today's young generation will be just as brave if war comes

Exactly 81 years ago today, at around 6.30 in the early morning light, the first waves of what amounted to some 156,000 Allied soldiers by the end of the day landed on the beaches of Normandy. They had been preceded the night before by roughly 23,400 comrades who landed by parachute and glider.

The long-awaited liberation of Nazi-occupied Europe had begun. It was, and still is, the largest seaborne assault in history, never mind the air landings.

The cost was high. Across the five landing beaches – Omaha, Utah, Sword, Juno, and Gold – and in the air assault, the Allies suffered some 10,000 casualties, 4,414 killed in action.

US soldiers approach Omaha beach in Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. They were among the first wave of troops (Picture: Robert F Sargent, US Coast Guard/Galerie Bilderwelt) | Getty Images

The beginning of the end

The scale of the operation was truly breathtaking. The invasion fleet, drawn from eight different navies, comprised 6,939 vessels, including 1,213 warships and 4,126 landing craft. Most of the fleet was provided by Britain: some 892 warships and 3,261 landing craft.

In the air, around 11,600 Allied aircraft of all types were involved, including 5,656 from the Royal Air Force. They achieved total air supremacy over the entire operation and few German Luftwaffe sorties were flown on the day.

For the young men involved – and they were mainly young men – the experience must have been in turn exhilarating, frightening, and terrifying all at once.

And yet they did it. A combination of meticulous planning, lengthy training, and good junior leadership saw them through. Plus an element of luck of course. Nothing can prevent a random bullet or shell finding its mark if you just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The invasion signalled the beginning of the end of the Second World War in Europe. Although there was almost another year of hard fighting to follow, the combination of assault by the Allies in France and the Soviet armies pressing in the east, plus the non-stop bombing campaign over Germany, meant there could ultimately be only one winner. Nazi Germany and her armies, air force, and naval assets were ground down relentlessly until their final surrender in May 1945.

Members of the Royal Marines land on Juno beach, Normandy, on D-Day (Picture: Hulton Archive) | Getty Images

Fooling the Germans

And yet D-Day hadn’t been without its hiccups. Bad weather had caused the operation to be cancelled the day before when many troops had already embarked on the landing ships, and the rough seas made it doubtful right up to the last few hours whether it could go ahead on June 6.

There was also the fear that the Germans might have known what was coming. Notwithstanding the Allies’ complex and masterful deception plan designed to persuade the Germans that the real invasion would take place across the Pas de Calais, the shortest route across the English Channel, nobody was quite sure that they had been fooled.

On top of this a remarkable series of codewords for the invasion, such as "Utah", "Omaha", "Overlord", and "Mulberry", appeared in the Daily Telegraph crossword in the weeks leading up to D-Day. This raised concerns within the Allied security and intelligence services, as similar coincidences with the Dieppe raid had occurred in 1942. However, further investigation concluded that the crossword compiler, Leonard Dawe, had no knowledge of the invasion and the clues and answers were merely coincidences.

Despite these and other sundry issues and scares, the deception plan was remarkably successful and the Normandy landings took the Germans completely by surprise. It was so successful, in fact, that for several weeks after the troops hit the beaches, the Germans still thought what had taken place was merely a diversionary attack and the main invasion would happen elsewhere. When they were finally persuaded that D-Day was indeed the main event, it was too late.

Piper Bill Millin, seen later, played 'Hielan' Laddie' and 'The Road to the Isles' as British soldiers landed on Sword beach on D-Day (Picture: Galerie Bilderwelt) | Getty Images

An existential threat

A military effort of such a colossal magnitude is, of course, beyond Britain’s Armed Forces today. Our services have atrophied to such an extent since then that we have but a fraction of the assets nowadays, not helped by what is coyly referred to as the ‘Peace Dividend’ after the end of the Cold war and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s.

In fact, a similar military adventure is beyond the powers of the world’s only true superpower, the United States, too. It would now take many years for the former Allies to build up their resources to a similar level. Thankfully, unlike in 1944, we are not facing an existential threat to our national survival and the enemies and potential enemies we face today are few and far away, in conventional military terms at least.

A question that is often asked is whether today’s young men and women would be prepared to fight for the UK and put their lives on the line as did previous generations. Polling tends to be ambivalent on the subject, with some saying yes and others no.

I am reminded that the Oxford University Union held a debate on the very same topic in 1933, the year Hitler rose to power in Germany. The motion was "That this House will under no circumstances fight for its King and country", and it passed with 275 votes for and 153 against. And yet a few years later, many who voted for it were in uniform.

I suspect today’s generation would follow the same pattern. It’s easy to hold an abstract opinion on war when your only experience of it is online or on TV. But if your family home has just been flattened or your brother or uncle torpedoed and sunk at sea, then I think attitudes would rapidly change.

However, thanks to those who landed on the Normandy beaches back in 1944 and fought through to the eventual defeat of the enemy, we do not face a similar dilemma today. Let’s hope it stays that way.

Lt Col Stuart Crawford is a political and defence commentator and former army officer. Sign up for his podcasts and newsletters at www.DefenceReview.uk