D DAY Through German Eyes - The Hidden Story of June 6th 1944

by Holger Eckhertz

On a wider scale, now that we have time to look back and reflect on it, it seems to me that the whole situation in Normandy was really the fault of our regime in the Reich for involving the Americans in the European war at all. What I mean is that I remember after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, the American declaration of war was purely against Japan, not against their ally Germany. This made sense, of course – Germany did not bomb Pearl Harbour. We all said at the time, ‘This is good, the Americans will not be involved in our war, they will keep their distance from the English in Europe.’ But then, I think it was the next day or forty-eight hours later, Adolf Hitler took everyone by surprise when he went on the radio and declared war on the USA! Why he did such an insane thing, I cannot begin to understand, even today. But that act made the Normandy invasion inevitable, because the English and Canadians could never have invaded alone, and we in the Reich could have focussed our efforts purely on the war against Russia. If we could imagine how our lives would have been if Hitler had not done that – well, the destinies of so many people would have developed in completely different ways and forms.