Eighty years ago this day, a significant milestone in history – one which, as is inevitable, is fading with time.
With each successive year, less and less witnesses, less participants are left to tell the story firsthand – less people are with us to convey the enormity of what took place off the coast of France on June 6th of 1944 – less people are around to convey the apprehension, the dread, the anxiety that day brought with it.
We’re relying more and more on the filmed accounts, the radio reports and the written words, preserved and available to pore over as a reminder what this day was like 80 years ago in order to get some sense of a war the size and scope of World War 2 and how it affected almost every American and people throughout the world.
As recently as twenty years ago, asking someone who was born well after that milestone day would be hard pressed to tell you anything about it – let alone even know what it represented – it’s the nature of things, to fade with time – perhaps it’s the fault of those who don’t see the need to stress the importance of knowing what happened in the past so as not to repeat it in the future. Could be as simple as “out of sight – out of mind”.
So you ask yourself; will anyone be celebrating and reminding on the 90th Anniversary of D-Day? You wonder.
We’ll have all the materials preserved and waiting – but will anyone be interested in knowing or even want to know? History is strange that way – passage of time and a flood of events from more recent times will no doubt take precedence and all those milestone moments that made such an indelible mark on our lives will be met with a shrugged shoulder.
But for now – as a reminder of D-Day, is a little under two hours from that initial day when apprehension was high, confusion was rife and history was unfolding before our eyes.
It’s mostly not broadcast material, rather closed circuit communications between networks and stations all participating in covering the invasion.
We know how it ended – at the time no one did. 80 years on the moments are frozen and the breathless anticipation is still fresh.
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