The Endgame

OPENING SCENE

General Dwight Eisenhower spent the night of June 5–6, 1944 at Southwick House near Portsmouth, England, waiting. The original D-Day had been set for June 5. The weather forecast was catastrophic — storms in the Channel, waves too high for landing craft. Eisenhower postponed. The forecast for June 6 was marginally better: a brief window of acceptable conditions before the next storm system arrived. His meteorologist, Group Captain James Stagg, gave him the window.

The decision to go was Eisenhower's alone. He carried a note in his pocket, written the night before, accepting full responsibility in case the invasion failed: "Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air and the navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone."

He never had to use it. But the margin was narrower than the mythology of D-Day suggests. If the weather had been marginally worse, if the German deception counter-measures had been better, if a different commander had held the Normandy sector that morning — the outcome could have been different. The liberation of Western Europe was not inevitable. It was the product of planning, deception, courage, and luck, assembled in roughly equal measure.