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Plywood vs. Concrete
The D Day invasion from a materials perspective.
I knew several family members who survived the D Day invasion. Their story went untold, un-listened. For them D Day was not a story of success, but of loss. D Day was like a foul tasting meal. Why repeat it? Why recall it? As a member of the privileged survivor class walking the earth after D Day, like others, I had to learn how to grapple with the sacrifices of that terrible day, second hand.
The World War II Museum in New Orleans helped. There on a summer Sunday afternoon I wandered and learned about how the invasion was not for conquest but for cause. Perhaps the first and last time an invasion of this kind would take place. For England, ‘D Day’ evoked a frightening memory of Dunkirk, a sea retreat. D Day was to be a sea invasion and an air invasion. The fallen would have watery graves, the cause would need repeating. There would be no land gained or lost. The invasion mission was to liberate.
Plywood, a relative recent invention would play a role. Concrete, a renovated ancient material would play a role. Seen through the lens of material science afforded by the museum visit, I grasped for a moment the meaning of cause, and subsequently, how a war changed the history of occupation, of freedom, and of sacrifice.
