JUNE 6, 1944: On this day, 78 years ago, the Allies (as the troops of all those countries which joined forces during World War II (1939-1945) to defeat Nazi Germany and its Axis colleagues were called), landed on the beaches of Normandy in German-occupied France, only to come face-to-face with the dreaded Atlantic Wall.

To back up a bit, The Atlantic Wall, then under command of the notorious Desert Fox, as German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was known, was an extensive and elaborate system of coastal defences and fortifications built by Nazi Germany between 1942 and 1944 along the coast of continental Europe and Scandinavia as a defence against an anticipated Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II.

Code-named D-Day by the military high-command that set it in motion, the military offensive at reference was spurred by a chain of occurrences in Eastern Europe that not only sent shivers down the spines of the leaders of the 12 nations involved in it, but also had to do with Russia.

You see, it all began when Russia surprised her western allies on July 14, 1943, by starting what would go down in history as the greatest Tank Battle of all at Kursk, in western Russia. Led by General Pavel Rotmistrov, the Russian 5th Guards Tank Army descended on Nazi Field Marshal Heinz Guderian’s heavier and much more efficient Panther and Tiger tanks, defeated them, and made the bravery of the Russians and the T34 Tank military history. That defeat, better known in military circles as the Battle of Kursk, caused many Germans in the field to conclude that it was the beginning of the end for their beloved Fatherland, and the Allies to quickly deduce that the Russians were making good ground with no significant German resistance to speak of to deter their advance.

Soon enough, the Russians would be at the gates of Konigsberg, in east Prussia, and the decisive battle that would ensue (October 1944 – April 1945) make them seem in the eyes of every western European as liberators. Thus began the inevitable invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe.

NEW AWARENESS
What do these events have to do with us here in Guyana? They succeeded in bringing new awareness into focus; a challenge to the once subtle and outward colonial supremacist racism. And while this awareness didn’t change anything immediately, it did garner the ‘anti-racist concept’ some new, fervent allies, and produced a platform for arguments long debated but scoffed at. Hitler, who was regarded in some quarters as ‘the necessary evil’, had brought these arguments naked to the forefront of human consciousness, where now only a high and low ground enveloped the Trials of Nuremberg in 1945. Nazism would take the blame for all colonial acts of racism for the moment, but this did not, however, include the atrocities committed by the Japanese in Asia and the Pacific, though films and books did manage to raise some semblance of awareness on the matter.

The Age of Isms had emerged; anti-colonialism and socialism versus capitalism, including human rights versus racism, all directly and indirectly waved their slogans and arguments. The world was slowly being divided between America and Russia, but it was a world that now had the ‘Atom Bomb’. Then there was the ‘Nuclear Bomb’ as well as Apartheid, which both had their governments, and managed to remain an impetus to anti-colonialism and a code of sympathy towards socialism. Also, events in Asia, Africa, and in Africa’s so-called Middle East continued to complicate the post-WWII world scene.

The new radical approach of then newly- Independent colonies like Guyana imposed a magnetic array of world situations that distracted many from asking and analysing the pertinent questions at home. Possibly, the first anti-colonial confrontation occurred in Indochina, and repelled a French reassertion of the colony. Led by Ho Chi Minh, leader of the Viet Minh who later became the president of Vietnam, the French were defeated at an abandoned airstrip at Dien Bien Phu. Then there was the Korean War, the Cuban standoff, Vietnam, India and Pakistan, Nigeria-Biafra, Congo, Border Disputes, Guyana’s included, the devastating Oil Crisis, the attack on OPEC, and combat against Apartheid South Africa. The constant mayhem that followed WWII enveloped the world of new small nations, distracting them on every level from assessing the threat of their own issues, from an anthropological perspective, on what was necessary to be done to fully address issues among their own populations and their needs, based on the available skills, cultures and talents. Colonial structures of ‘favouritism’, that asserted class and caste systems would have to be restructured. This led to disgruntlement and serious resentment, and accusations within. Caught in the predicament of having to choose one ‘Ism’ over the other, Socialism appeared to be the popular attraction.

NON-ALIGNED MOVEMENT
However, in 1976, the ‘Non-Aligned Movement’ was formally launched, providing a philosophical way out, in principle, for many Cold War-era small states, but not an immediate economic stimulus. Non-Alignment was not effective as a trading platform; these countries were still perceived as prey, and not seen as fit enough to be treated as equal partners. In the context of Guyana, efforts were made to expand the economy, but the technology to produce export-quality goods, in some cases properly done, was not cost-effective. In some areas, standards fell short, because in-house issues (as with some agri-products) were not addressed, while other areas, like the Cultural Industries were overlooked.
In retrospect, World War II was not merely about Europe at war; it encompassed an important era that brings clarity to our Independent national beginnings. These cannot be ignored as the second frontier of conflict, or as the pains of growing up; of reconciling with self. Every accusation; every merit of failings and awakenings that we leave untold to another generation, is an accusation that will be pointed by our young at us, for not recording and telling ‘Our-Their -Timeline’ as a record to build upon.