OPINION: D-Day at 80: the Jewish heroes who helped secure victory
Celebrating the Jewish Servicemen and Women who gave so much 80 years ago
80 years ago this morning, the Allied Expeditionary Force began sailing and flying towards northern France. Operation Overlord was underway. Churchill had described victory in North Africa in November 1942 as ‘the end of the beginning’. On 6th June 1944, we finally had the beginning of the end.
The Jewish contribution to the fight against Nazism had already been well out of proportion to our numbers. This was illustrated even more starkly with D-Day. It was the gallantry under fire of Jack Nissenthall, two years earlier during the Dieppe Raid, which led to intelligence vital to the Normandy landings.
In the preceding weeks, dozens of acts of sabotage, which eventually delayed the progress of eight German divisions to the front, were carried out by SOE networks established and supported by hundreds of Jewish agents. Especially female Jewish agents, such as Muriel Byck, Denise Bloch, Sonia Olschanezky and Krystyna Skarbek; all led by Vera Rosenberg.
Ahead of the first wave that morning, was Lt David De Lange, commanding a Royal Navy minesweeper, clearing the way for the invasion fleet. The first Free French pilot into the airspace over France was Tony Murray, born Gaston Kalifa.
Some of the first boots on the sand were those of X-Troop: German and Austrian Jewish refugees whose commando and counterintelligence skills opened up the beaches for the forces following them.
At the end of D-Day, 4,414 allied troops lay dead. But not in vain. By June 30th, over 850,000 comrades, 148,000 vehicles, and 570,000 tons of supplies had landed. By August, the Wehrmacht was in retreat from France.
With the mass of story-telling around World War II, it is easy to think of the eventual allied victory as the inevitable happy ending that we expect our heroes to get.
But there was nothing inevitable about it. Hitler’s Reich may not have lasted a thousand years, but a decades-long one was still foreseeable as allied troops set off on that famous morning.
That in hindsight, there need never have been any doubt, is why they have our undying gratitude and admiration. Then. Today. And always.
The AJEX D-Day 80 Beacon Lighting will take place this evening in honour of the Jewish Servicemen and Women who gave so much, 80 years ago; and as part of the national commemorations across Britain.
- Dan Fox, AJEX JMA National Chair
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