Why Aren’t Our Kids Being Taught about This?

“The sea was red with blood,” said the 80-year old man. He had been a private when he stormed the beach at Normandy 71 years ago on D-Day, June 6, 1944. He was one of the hundreds of thousands who saved the world from tyranny.
 
In the first hour of the invasion, 50% of the troops who landed died. They faced withering fire from the German occupying troops, who fired machine guns and mortars from the cliffs above the beach, and dropped hand grenades on the Allied soldiers. Altogether an estimated 9,000 American, British and Canadian troops died that day. Today, over 7 decades later, bodies are still being unearthed on that fateful stretch of sand.
 
After four years of horrific war there was a very real possibility that Hitler and his Nazis would conquer the world. An extraordinary effort was needed to turn the tide of World War II – and an amazing alliance was assembled such as had never been seen before on this planet.
 
The largest invasion force in world history – 156,000 men – fought their way to shore that day. They were carried by the largest armada ever assembled – 6,939 vessels. And the largest sky train in history supported them – 10,521 combat aircraft flew 15,000 sorties that day. They dropped an astounding 7 million pounds of bombs.
 
They Allies knew they were going into hell. Their planners included 10,000 body bags in the supplies that accompanied the troops. The Germans had had more than a year to prepare, and thousands of workers had fortified the beaches of France. Their defenses included land and water mines, concrete gun emplacements, wooden stakes, barbed wire, anti-tank obstacles, and thousands of booby traps. Over 50,000 German troops lay in wait – and they had the high ground.
 
I encourage you to watch the videos and read the materials listed below – with your children or grandchildren. Because I can guarantee you that the liberal school systems aren’t teaching them about the bravery and patriotism of the D-Day heroes. In fact, their “history” books are full of all the supposed sins of America – and precious little about anything positive concerning their country.
 
Here is an abbreviated timeline of the events leading up to D-Day, the day itself, and the aftermath.
 
December, 1943. Planning for D-Day (code-named “Operation Overlord”) began in earnest when General Dwight (“Ike”) Eisenhower became the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces. Over 3,000 spy missions were flown over potential target areas to determine where defenses were weakest.
 
1943-1944. The Germans expected an invasion, and had been preparing for it for well over a year. The Allies knew this and desperately needed to keep the location of their landing secret. The Germans assumed that the invasion would be launched at the narrowest part of the English Channel (30 miles wide) and that the landing would be at the Pas-de-Calais.
 
So the English encouraged this faulty thinking by building huge fake military encampments near that jumping off point. Tent cities were built to house the phantom troops. Extremely realistic looking tanks and trucks were fabricated out of wood and canvas. Precious fuel was used sending real trucks supposedly laden with troops and supplies in and out of these camps. From the air these camps were extremely realistic. As a result, the Germans positioned the bulk of their forces near Calais, with a much smaller number near Normandy.
 
Secrecy was essential. Only 30 people knew the real story. At one point female military personnel in civilian clothes were sent to the pubs that the planners frequented. They plied them with alcohol and flirtations in an attempt to loosen their lips. Not one let anything pertaining to the invasion slip.
 
Spring, 1944. The Germans had spent billions of Marks fortifying the entire beachfront of France that faced England. Their elaborate system of heavy cement fortifications was called "The Atlantic Wall." In addition they planted a million land mines, strung hundreds of miles of barbed-wire, and placed thousands of jagged underwater obstructions in the shallow water designed to tear holes in the hulls of landing craft.
 
June 5, 1944. Tens of thousands of troops were loaded on thousands of ships and aircraft late at night. They crossed the Channel under cover of darkness in order to reach Normandy at first light. Many were farm boys who had never been on a ship in rough seas, so sea-sickness was rampant. But spirits were high because these men knew that their mission would keep their families and nations safe.
 
Convinced that the bad weather and high seas would prevent any amphibious assault in France, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, whom Hitler had tasked with preventing an Allied invasion, drove to the South of Germany to visit his family. At the same time, most of his top commanders were at a military conference. And the stormy weather had halted all German air and sea reconnaissance of the English Channel. So when the invasion began, the German commanders in the area had no warning, and were unable to reach their High Command for several critical hours.
 
In the middle of the night a deception known as "Operation Titanic" was perpetrated against the Germans by the English and American Air Forces. Hundreds of canvas dummies filled with sand and straw (known as “paradummies”) were parachuted into areas far from where the real troops would land. This created confusion among the Germans, and drew some of the enemy troops away from where the Allied troops would come ashore.
 
A few hours later real American and British paratroopers landed behind German lines and started attacking them from the rear. British glider troops took out key bridges. And the BBC broadcast coded messages to the French underground, which released them to sabotage German communications of all kinds.
 
The Allies knew the big German guns at the top of the cliffs overlooking the beach could have decimated the landing craft even before the troops could disembark. So 225 brave American Rangers landed on the beach and shot grapples to the top of the cliffs, embedding rope ladders there. Then they climbed those ladders 100 feet to take out the gun emplacements. The Germans fired down on the climbing troops and dropped hand grenades on them. Every time a Ranger was shot off the rope ladders, another brave man took his place. They accomplished their mission, but at great cost. By the end of the day only 90 of the 225 were alive and in condition to continue fighting. But the Allies now held the high ground, which meant that thousands of lives were saved.
 
June 6, 1944. Before they landed, this message from General Eisenhower was read to the Allied troops: “You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.”
 
There were several landing zones, which were divided up among the nations that participated in the assault. The Americans landed at Omaha Beach, and had the worst casualties. A US infantryman remembered, "People were yelling, screaming, dying, running on the beach, equipment was flying everywhere, men were bleeding to death, crawling, lying everywhere, firing coming from all directions. We dropped down behind anything that was the size of a golf ball. Colonel Canham, Lieutenant Cooper, and Sergeant Crawford were screaming at us to get off the beach. I turned to say to Gino Ferrari, 'Let's move up, Gino,' but before I could finish the sentence, something spattered all over the side of my face. He'd been hit in the face and his brains splattered all over my face and my stuff. I moved forward and the tide came on so fast it covered him and I no longer could see him."
 
Gun smoke, blood and the screams of dying men filled the air. Yet the brave troops continued to pour out of the landing craft, fight their way ashore through water that sometimes reached their waists, and walk into the hellish scene on shore. Many had to step over the bodies of fallen comrades to reach their assigned areas. The bravery exhibited that day was nothing short of miraculous.
 
August 25, 1944. The Allied armies liberate France. There were many more battles to come, but this article is about D-Day. Altogether there were over 425,000 casualties on both sides in this “War to End All Wars.”
 
If D-Day had never happened there is a very real chance that the Nazis and the Japanese would have divided the United States, Europe and eventually the rest of the world between themselves. The world would be a very different place, with tyrannical dictators governing every aspect of life.
 
Yet many of our children will never hear about D-Day if it is up to the teachers’ unions. They have been taken over by historical revisionists. The fact that in 24 hours the Allies saved the world on D-Day is ignored. It has been taken out of most school history books, and if it is there, the teachers gloss over it. Instead the emphasis is on the “sins” of America, such as dropping the bombs on Japan that effectively took them out of WWII. No mention is made, of course, about the fact that those two bombs saved millions of lives – both Allied and Japanese.
 
In October, 2014 hundreds of students and teachers walked out in protest of the lies in the history curriculum forced on them in Colorado. Larry Krieger, a retired New Jersey high school teacher who is leading a national fight against the Advanced Placement curriculum, for which students can get college credit. Krieger testified on behalf of Colorado's state board of education. He says the new materials don't mention events like D-Day or key historical characters. "The founders are not discussed," he says. "Ben Franklin: not there. James Madison: not there."

Europe has the same problem. Professor David Abulafia of Cambridge University warns that school textbooks are “papering over” historical differences between European nations to promote further integration. The professor, one of Britain’s leading historians has warned that, “Millions of children are being taught a “distorted” view of European history that deliberately promotes further integration of the European Union.”

He states that the push for further EU integration was most prominent in Germany and France but was starting to “creep in” to teaching in Britain. Thirty of Britain’s top historians this week pledged support to a new campaign, "Historians for Britain," calling for a fundamental redrawing of the UK’s relationship with the European Europe.
 
School textbooks are being issued that attempt to present the history of Europe as a common enterprise,” Professor Abulafia wrote in an essay. “It hardly needs to be said that this has involved a distortion of the past, by assuming that a sense of European identity has existed for centuries, and by assuming a common purpose leading to the ultimate unification of Europe.”
 
Just as in America, Europeans are ignoring the truth for political purposes. In the US it is the “Hate America First” crowd that emphasizes the negative and downplays the positive about our great nation because they feel we are too strong and influential. In Europe the groups that want to break down all national barriers in favor of European citizenship must remove from the discourse anything that shows the truth about the almost continual conflicts between Europeans – including D-Day.
 
Our children deserve to learn history – all history. Only by knowing about all of our history – taught in an unbiased manner – can they guide the future by avoiding the mistakes of the past. Instead we have allowed our textbooks and curricula to reflect dogma that the great majority of Americans would reject – if they only knew about it.
 
Take the time to watch the videos below with your children or grandchildren (particularly Ronald Reagan’s 13-minute speech). Read the articles and books, and watch the movies with them. Not just to keep the memories of the brave men of D-Day alive – but to keep history alive. They won’t appreciate freedom and liberty unless they know its cost. And if they don’t appreciate it, they may well lose it.
 
 
INTERNET RESOURCES:

Protests & Walkouts over History Curriculum; D-Day & Founders Ignored
http://www.npr.org/2014/10/03/353327302/school-board-wants-civil-disorder-deemphasized-students-walk-out
 
European History Books Present a “Distorted View” of European History
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/11432847/Millions-of-children-being-taught-distorted-view-of-European-history-to-push-further-EU-integration.html
 
Actual D-Day Footage (2 minutes)
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/d-day/videos/d-days
 
Ronald Reagan’s Speech at Normandy Commemorating D-Day 40^th Anniversary
https://youtu.be/eEIqdcHbc8I
 
PBS D-Day Documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Qom9HlCW78
 
Playing the Nazis for Dummies
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2438564/Playing-Nazis-dummies-The-army-3ft-tall-paratroopers-dispatched-northern-France-eve-D-Day-caused-chaos.html
 
 
SUGGESTED READING:

D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II, by Stephen Ambrose
 
D-Day – Minute-by-Minute, by Jonathan Mayo
 
 
GREAT D-DAY MOVIES:
 
The Longest Day. A 1962 hit film about the D-Day landings. An older movie, but perhaps the best ever made about D-Day.

Saving Private Ryan. An excellent movie about the search for the sole surviving son of an American couple. Although not the major plot, D-Day figures prominently in the film.