Saturday, June 6, 2015

D-Day, 71 Years Later

[Note: This is an updating of a post originally written on 6 June 2012.]




Omaha Beach, Normandy, 6 June 1944



Today is the 71st anniversary of D-Day, the Allied amphibious landing of 83,115 men of the British Second Army and some 73,000 men of the American First Army on Sword, Juno, Gold, Utah, and Omaha Beaches in Normandy, whose success proved to be the decisive blow leveled against the forces of Hitler's Third Reich, guaranteeing Germany's ultimate surrender eleven months later.

Operation Neptune, the greatest amphibious assault in the annals of military history, was a tactical tour de force, whose very precarious launching in the face of the always-dicey weather of the English Channel tempts the Calvinist in me to see the directly causal hand of the all-sovereign God.  Its success forever guaranteed the reputations of its Supreme Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, and commander of ground forces, Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery (of El Alamein fame).  More importantly, the success of this operation, as Winston Churchill rightly noted, was crucial to the preservation of Western (he said "Christian," but I digress) civilization against the depredations of a barbarism worthy of the Huns and Visigoths of old.

My own connection with D-Day comes through my late, lamented Uncle Norman Forster, who served in the Royal Navy in one of the more than 1200 war ships that supported the landings that day.  It is one of the things for which I am most proud of him.  For, despite my pacifist tendencies and general anti-war sentiment, I truly believe Churchill was right in this case.  Indeed, it is World War II, more than anything else, that has instilled in me the belief that so-called "just wars" do exist, no matter how rare and subject to unjust prosecution (case[s] in point: the bombings of Dresden and [perhaps] Hiroshima).  The sheer scope of Hitler's power and the worldwide threat he posed render silly — and offensive — putative comparisons with such petty tyrants as Saddam Hussein and terrorist masterminds like Osama bin Laden (of course, the politicians who invoke such comparisons know this as well; if not, they are intellectually unqualified for office).

As the ranks of those who are old enough to remember that day, let alone those who actually served, decrease by the day, the tendency will be to let the memory recede into the mists of time and dry, dusty history textbooks.  But we must never forget, both in honor of the thousands who served and the scores who paid the ultimate price with their lives.  And let us always remember that war, if fought justly, must never be engaged in the service of imperial ambitions or economic hegemony, but as the only viable defense of fundamental human rights and national sovereignty, in the hope of ultimately reintegrating the aggressive parties into the world community, not least for the benefits of their own citizens.



Scottish Piper Bill Millin storming Sword Beach with
the Commandos of 1st Special Service Brigade,
British Second Army, 6 June 1944

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

April in Philadelphia


Pennsylvania Railroad Bridge over the Schuylkill River (1867), 18 April 2015. This bridge may be found in the background of Thomas Eakins's famous "Max Schmitt in a Single Scull" (1871). (photo by author)






Oh, to be in Philadelphia
Now that April's there.

With apologies to Robert Browning for adapting the famous opening lines of his 1845 poem, "Home-Thoughts, from Abroad," and acknowledging my genuine and deep affection for Shakespeare's "Sceptred Isle," there is no better place to be in April than in Billy Penn's City of Brotherly Love.

Philadelphians are infamously pessimistic and wont to put down their hometown at the drop of a hat (think W. C. Fields). Nowhere does this grouchiness rear its ugly head more than in connection with its temperate climate. Summers are, by consensus, too humid; for me they are too hot, though thankfully not in the sense I experienced while living in exile in Texas for 19 years in the '80s and '90s. Winters are, depending on the perspective, either too cold or not cold enough, with the infrequent snow storms too often giving way to sloppy "winter mixes." One thing we can all agree on, however, is that there are two times of year, October through mid- November and April through mid-May, when pleasing temperatures combine with nature's autumn and spring colors to make southeastern PA a very pleasant place to live. Indeed, as I look out my window in Lancaster, some 61 miles (as the crow flies) from Center City, I see yet another picture perfect day: sunny and dry, about 70 degrees, with tulips, forsythias, dogwoods and cherry trees blossoming, and with the song of cardinals, sparrows, and robins, and the pecking of woodpeckers adding to the sensory experience. All that is missing are the familiar sights of my hometown, with its parkland and incomparable architecture providing the perfect backdrop for nature's wonders.

Thankfully I have been able to make my way back to Philly a number of times this month. I leave you here with a number of the photographs I have taken in these perambulations around Fairmount Park and West Philadelphia's University City.


Statue of Alexander von Humboldt
(1871, Frederick Johann Heinrich Drake)
on West River Drive (Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.)
 16 April 2015 (photo by author) 
Robin in a Japanese cherry tree along MLK, Jr. Drive
16 April 2015 (photo by author) 


Boelsen Cottage (1660), MLK, Jr. Drive,  probably the oldest building in Philadelphia
16 April 2015 (photo by author)


16 April 2015 (photo by author)


Belmont Mansion (1755; 3rd storey and porch before 1860)
16 April 2015 (photo by author)


16 April 2015 (photo by author)


Looking across the Schuylkill toward Sweetbriar Mansion (1797)
18 April 2015 (photo by author)


Japanese cherry trees along Kelly Drive
18 April 2015 (photo by author)


18 April 2015 (photo by author)


18 April 2015 (photo by author)


18 April 2015 (photo by author)


18 April 2015 (photo by author)


Lincoln Statue (1871, Randolph Rogers)
18 April 2015 (photo by author)


18 April 2015 (photo by author)


18 April 2015 (photo by author)


18 April 2015 (photo by author)


18 April 2015 (photo by author)


18 April 2015 (photo by author)


18 April 2015 (photo by author)


18 April 2015 (photo by author)


18 April 2015 (photo by author)


18 April 2015 (photo by author)


"Playing Angels" (1950, Carl Milles)
18 April 2015 (photo by author)


18 April 2015 (photo by author)


South side, 3900 block Pine Street
25 April 2015 (photo by author)


North side, 3900 block Pine Street25 April 2015 (photo by author)


25 April 2015 (photo by author)


Woodland Terrace (1861, Samuel Sloan)25 April 2015 (photo by author)


25 April 2015 (photo by author)


25 April 2015 (photo by author)


25 April 2015 (photo by author)


4200 block Pine Street25 April 2015 (photo by author)


25 April 2015 (photo by author)


Woodland Presbyterian Church, 42nd and Pine25 April 2015 (photo by author)


25 April 2015 (photo by author)


42nd Street south of Pine25 April 2015 (photo by author)


Clark Park25 April 2015 (photo by author)


25 April 2015 (photo by author)


25 April 2015 (photo by author)


25 April 2015 (photo by author)


25 April 2015 (photo by author)


St. Francis de Sales Church, 47th and Springfield
25 April 2015 (photo by author)


25 April 2015 (photo by author)


25 April 2015 (photo by author)


25 April 2015 (photo by author)


4700 block Baltimore Ave.
25 April 2015 (photo by author)


25 April 2015 (photo by author)


25 April 2015 (photo by author)


25 April 2015 (photo by author)


25 April 2015 (photo by author)


25 April 2015 (photo by author)