by Amnon Goldberg (with slight Brit-Am editing)
A recent article, "Jewish soldiers and D-Day" (June 5) reminded us how close a run thing the invasion of Europe really was. It succeeded, but by a margin so close that to this day historians argue about what might have been.
The German defences of the Atlantic Wall were no bluff, as the thousands of Canadians who died at Dieppe (a large-scale raid testing the possibilities of later invasion) in August 1942 could testify. On the eve of the D-Day invasion, General Eisenhower drafted two speeches: one to be broadcast if it was a success, another if the assault on Festung Europa ("Fortress Europe" - German Defecne of their conquests in Europe) turned out to be a disaster. Hitler had 50 divisions on the Western Front and their morale was high. Thanks to Allied deception, Hitler was convinced that the invasion would be at Calais, and he did not unleash his panzers on Normandy until D+3, by when it was too late.
Source of Map: D-Day Facts, Significance & More
Hashgocho protis (Divine Providecne) arranged that on the 6th June Hitler, usually a light sleeper, uncharacteristically overslept and could not be woken: "sleep for the wicked is good for them and good for the world" (Talmud Sanhedrin 72). The tactical genius Feldmarschall Rommel, "the Desert Fox", whose presence on the battlefield could have swayed it, was fortuitously 600 miles away celebrating his wife's 6th June birthday party. Despite this, it took six week of the bitterest fighting against fanatical SS and Hitler Jugend before the Allies could break out of their Normandy bridgehead.
The inclement weather was so touch and go, that the invasion, originally set for 5th June, almost had to be postponed until the 19th June. It would then, by dreadful "coincidence", have run into the worst Channel storm in 40 years: "I have reserved it for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war" (Iyov 38). "We thank the G-d of war that we went when we did" (General Eisenhower).
Had D-Day failed or been postponed, Hitler's jets, rockets, XXI U-boats and atom bomb could yet have won the war for Germany. What if Hitler would have died in the July bomb plot? What if the Russians had ended up on the Channel coast? What if the Battle of the Bulge had succeeded? Mi yomar lo mah ta'aseh - "Who will say to Him `what are You doing'?" (Koheles 8).
Field Marshal Montgomery addressed his troops with the immortal words: "Let us pray that the L-rd, mighty in battle, will go forth with our armies, and that His special providence will aid us in the struggle" - a gentile realised that it is Hashem ba'al milchamos - "The L-rd is the Master of Wars". The invasion was indeed fortuitously named Operation "Over L-rd"!