Every year on 6 June, called D-Day, there is a celebration of the Allied Forces successfully undertaking the invasion of Normandy in France in 1944, forcing Nazi Germany to give up its occupied areas, beginning the end of the Second World War on the Western Front. It was the largest seaborne military landing in history, with 24,000 troops from America, the UK, and Canada being used in the operation on the 80-kilometre stretch of north-eastern France facing the English Channel, with a connection to the Atlantic Ocean. The ground attacks were supported by air attacks. D-Day began the liberation of France, which was occupied by Nazi Germany, including Paris, which was under occupation from June 1940 till August 1944. D-Day was essential in beginning the freeing of Western Europe from Nazi control and the Allied victory of WWII.

However, at least 10,000 Allied soldiers died in the D-Day attacks, along with an estimated 4,000-9,000 Germans. In addition, many were wounded. Last Sunday, on 6 June, the annual D-Day remembrance events took place, 82 years after 1944. At the age of about 100 years, a few soldiers who survived the gruesome 1944 attacks in Normandy were able to attend, moving the audiences in France and on TV. Alas, this year, the American Secretary of Defence, now termed Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, in his speech, drew inappropriate parallels to Europe now receiving many immigrants from foreign and remote countries, likening this to a new form of occupation. Yet, Hegseth had brought his wife and six of the family’s seven children to vacation on the continent after his official trip to Normandy.

Now then, my article today was not meant to be about Hegseth and his sad remarks, but about much more important issues and actions during WWII and all wars at all times, notably that human beings, especially soldiers, are used to win claims of land, resources and influence by........

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