June 1944: More Than Fight on D-Day Beaches

In June 1944 a celestial observer in low orbit would have marveled at the immense breadth and variety of violence on Planet Earth. It was a watershed period in World War II, and not only Operation Overlord in Normandy on June 6. That month truly defined the phrase “world war.”

On June 4, Allied forces entered Rome, liberating the Eternal City after nine months of muddy, bloody slogging up the Italian boot. The U.S. Fifth Army received the credit, but the victory also belonged to Britons, New Zealanders, South Africans, Frenchmen, Poles, Indians and Gurkhas; even some Brazilians. But at the end of the war in May 1945, enemy forces still owned northern Italy. In fact, the Axis — outnumbered six to one and out-produced beyond computing — tied the rest of the world in knots for six years, including America, the British Empire, China, and the Soviet Union.

Also in Italy, the frequently forgotten U.S. Fifteenth Air Force — responsible for destroying Hitler’s oil supply — flew its first shuttle mission to Russia. Between June 2 and 11, nearly 200 bombers and fighters attacked German targets in Romania while staging out of Soviet bases.

Meanwhile on the Eurasian landmass, Russia prepared a massive blow. Along the Donets the Wehrmacht still occupied land several hundred miles east of Kiev. Four Soviet army groups — 124 divisions with 1.2 million men — were poised to strike, a cocked fist with an armored avalanche of 5,200 tanks and massive artillery on a scale that only Russians have ever managed. Half a million Germans awaited the blow on Army Group Center.

In northeastern India, British imperial forces shot it out with determined Japanese attackers (the only kind the emperor had) at Imphal, which controlled the only all-weather highway on the Burmese frontier. In that soggy jungle, soldiers on both sides watched their uniforms mold and weapons rust almost before their eyes. Tokyo’s hope of seizing the jewel in Britain’s crown died in the rot and decay of Manipur Province.

Meanwhile, American power also projected westward that June. On the opposite side of the globe, Operation Forager smashed Japanese defenses in the strategic Mariana Islands, 1,500 miles south of Tokyo. The conquest of Saipan, Guam, and Tinian entailed the greatest aircraft carrier battle of all time and put B-29 bombers within range of the Japanese home islands. Eighty percent of the ships in the Fifth Fleet had been commissioned in the two and a half years since Pearl Harbor.

Federal spending reached $91.3 billion in 1944, raising the national debt to $204 billion. But unemployment was at 1.2 percent, and more than a few servicemen reckoned that at least 1 percent of the population was unemployable.

Like every other operation, Overlord turned on logistics. The vital aspect of D-Day that’s usually overlooked was the tremendous task of moving men and materiel from the New World to the Old. The U.S., British, and Canadian navies’ elimination of the U-boats by May 1943 cleared a transatlantic path to Omaha and Utah beaches.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt already had proclaimed America the arsenal of democracy, and however undemocratic some of FDR’s allies proved, the U.S. became a global Vulcan’s forge. Consequently, the supply war was fought and won at home, in factories and on farms. Among other things, America manufactured 79,000 landing craft, 297,000 airplanes, 2.5 million trucks, 12.8 million rifles, and 190 million pair of boots and shoes.

For American servicemen one of the greatest events that month was passage of the GI Bill of Rights. It provided for postwar education loans plus additional discharge pay, unemployment benefits, and social security credit for time in uniform.

So when you think of the WWII veteran, don’t default to the traditional recruiting-poster image. The vet may have wielded a bazooka, flown a bomber, operated a bulldozer, or worked at a typewriter. Additionally he (or she) may have joined steel plates in Norfolk or welded airframes in Seattle. But Rosie the Riveter and GI Joe formed an unbeatable team. Between them, they helped win the war. And in doing so, they shaped our world.