D-Day would not have happened without England
or without the Navajo Nation code talkers.
On June 6th, we honor all the courageous young fighters who jumped on a ship from Australia or North America, or walked from North Africa to London to join the group of nearly 160,000 fighters who later landed on the beaches of Normandy in 1944. That was Operation Neptune.
But an operation of this magnitude would have been impossible had England fallen in Germany’s hands four years earlier. And it was very close.
By May 1940, the German boot had stumped all resistance throughout Europe, advancing quite rapidly toward the west, causing an emergency evacuation of 336,000 British soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk, back to England. Alongside the Brits, thousands of Eastern Europeans also decided to join the fight before being caught by the enemy.
Then in early June, the leader of Free French, General De Gaulle, delivered his ever famous speech for all to resist the invader, making London the nucleus of European resistance against Nazi Germany. But England’s military power was suddenly weakened; and Germany knew it.
The immediate retreat forced the British soldiers to abandon their military material. Tanks, guns, anti-aircraft guns, vehicles, all of which consisted of half of the entire country’s military armament! At this point and until the US would replenish it, England became an open wound counting mostly on her pilots of the Royal Air Force (RAF) as defense in the event of an attack. Prophetic thought…
Hitler ordered an immediate and massive plan to invade England by sea: Operation Sea lion. For 76 consecutive days, German aircraft flew over England to reduce the country to rubble, setting London into a fire blaze.
Then on July 19, the German leader offered a conditional peace to Great Britain so long as Germany’s dominance was accepted and England remained neutral.
The grim thought of conditional peace simmered for several weeks over the offices of Harding street.
But at the end of August, Winston Churchill’s response was unequivocal. He bombed Berlin.
News of the retaliation sent a wind of hope throughout a beaten Europe, then becoming the turning point of the war. An infuriated Hitler ordered a massive bombing on English cities – to specifically target civilians for weeks, instead of military facilities. This tragic episode provided time to acquire and train the inexperienced, yet desperately needed RAF fighter pilots who landed from all corners of the world.
Most from Canada, Czechoslovakia and Poland; but also South Africa, India, France and even a few from Jamaica and Barbados.
Their average age was twenty years old.
Of the 2600 aircraft the invincible Luftwaffe sent to dominate England’s sky against the limited 640 British Spitfires and Hurricanes, 1700 were shot down. For every British plane shot down, the Germans lost two.
Despite the confidence England would surrender after a few days, the unexpected 2:1 loss ratio alarmed the Germans.
So in May 1941, Hitler suddenly ordered all planes to divert to the eastern front to satisfy his rattling obsession to invade the USSR.
Hitler’s impulse proved to be a fatal mistake.
There were too few experienced RAF fliers, and too many pilot trainees learning dog fighting on-the-go to the limit of exhaustion, ready to face an armada of German ME109 and Stukas that never seemed to decrease in numbers. But they did.
If only the fuhrer had known how close Churchill came to capitulate…
Three days.
The irreversible damage the RAF pilots inflicted on the German Luftwaffe turned to be a decisive help in the Soviets’ battle against a weakened German war machine on the Eastern front.
It leaves little doubt, had England fallen in 1940, it is unlikely D-day would have occurred; at least not from the English coastline. Yet, had Hitler not attacked England to only focus on the Eastern front instead, he may probably have succeeded in invading the USSR.
“Never was so much owed by so many to so few”
Winston Churchill
As for the Navajos, let us remember that by that time, German and Japanese experts had decrypted all transmission codes used by the Allies. Using native American languages dates back to WWI when a missionary fluent in Navajo language, suggested to use it in the military.
It was later developed in WWII with the Navajo, Sioux and Pawnee languages, among others.
Because these languages were only spoken ones and contain no alphabet, it made it very difficult to decipher.
Natives would simply speak to one another important military instructions straight in their native tongue. Then they eventually developed ‘the code’ that was never deciphered by the enemy and was a crucial element in winning many battles in the Pacific.
Iwo Jima and Okinawa were two of them.
In Europe, the Germans were on high alert to acquire all information the date, times, or positions regarding the upcoming landing in Normandy on D-Day. They were ready and listening, but the Germans had one major problem.
They did not speak Navajo.
The contribution of North American native languages during the war played a major role in the victory of the Allied forces against Germany and Japan and must not be forgotten.
The Navajo language continued to protect military information for 20 years after WWII.
Without the Navajo code talkers, D-Day could not have occurred.
And I would be writing an entirely different story in an entirely different language.
I never had to pick up a weapon to defend my freedom because a group of courageous
young pilots and native American marines did it before me.
AAF
English 
Français
Interesting vision. I never connected the dots between the Navajos and the invasion of England, but it is well explained. Thanks for the history lesson on the importance of the Brit’s resistance.