The Week Before D-Day

Everyone always talks about D-Day and we'll be no exception to that rule, but if you will bear with us as we take a look and postulate on what things might have been in the week leading up to Operation Overlord.It must have been excruciating, the anticipation. Briefings, coupled on top of briefings, the sheer amount of intel that was being shared. Imagine if you will, you're a private and you're either about to jump into Normandy as part of the 82nd, or 101st airborne divisions....maybe you'd be a sergeant in the 1st, 4th, 29th, or 90th infantry divisions, you're in charge of getting your squad, your men off the boat into what you surely know will be withering enemy fire.Maybe you're a veteran of combat in North Africa or Italy...or maybe you're brand spanking new. We're not really sure what would feel better...being a veteran and knowing what awaits you when the ramp drops on Utah, or Omaha beach or being blissfully ignorant of the brutality that awaits you on once you set foot on Hitler's Fortress Europa.Even as a new private, you'd have to know what you're about to do was near madness...an invasion force of over 150,000 was sure to encounter fierce resistance despite all the misdirection and secrecy. As "tough" as the German defenses were, it wasn't before they killed over 4400 Allied troops and wounded 10,000+, that their defenses would falter and prove their construction foolhardy as scores of Allied troops secured the beaches and began the long arduous push to Berlin.Were they nervous? Were they resolute? Were they just hoping to live one more minute? As they attended briefing after briefing and many wrote their last letters home, these men somehow steeled themselves with a steadfast and indomitable will, amidst what was thought to be almost certain doom. They would succeed. They would secure those beaches and land a massive blow to the Nazi war machine.As you go through this week, imagine...preparing yourself to endure what these men endured. Imagine what you'd do with what quite possibly be your last week, and how you'd handle it...make no mistake those men are and forever shall be remembered as valiant heroes.D-Day: June 6th, 1944.