This Is the Way... Seizing a Beachhead for the Kingdom
by Robin Webber
It was a score
of years ago plus one that the "Great Communicator," Ronald Reagan, stood
on the windswept cliffs of Normandy and offered meaning to the long-ago sacrifice
of an aging breed of warriors. June 6, 1984, was the 40th anniversary of the
D-Day landing of World War II.
On that day, the greatest
amphibious assault in history commenced. The Allied forces were to throw all
their might against the Fortress Europe, to seize and secure a beachhead that
would open a hole for the armies of liberty to begin their long march toward
the capital of an evil regime to crush it.
On that day, all was on the
line. They would determine whether millions would begin to taste freedom or
remain enslaved by the Nazi regime.
A story to be told
Now 40 years later a man of
that generation spoke on behalf of its remaining survivors in a speech that
has come to be known as "The Boys of Pointe du Hoc" address in honor of the
2nd Ranger Battalion that volunteered to scale the 100-foot-high cliffs of
Pointe du Hoc and take out the German gunnery. Of the 225 men who began the
arduous task, only 99 would survive. Now, yesterday's boys were old men and
their story was to be told.
President Reagan, with that
famous shock of black hair blowing in the breeze, began: "We're here to mark
that day in history when the allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this
continent to liberty. For four long years, much of Europe had been under a
terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions
cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved, and the world prayed for its
rescue. Here in Normandy the rescue began. Here the allies stood and fought
against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history."
