In the wee hours of the dark morning on June 6, 1944 paratrooper soldiers from the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions began dropping behind Utah Beach of Normandy, France. The Allied invasion of Europe had begun. Additional soldiers during those predawn hours came by gliders (Horsas and CG-4As), which attempted to silently land soldiers, jeeps, and other heavy equipment. At approximately the same time, literally thousands of ships were making their way across the English Channel, becoming the largest invading force in combat history. D-Day had begun, and Sergeant Hugh Nibley, age 34, was there to be part of it. In the earliest moments of D-Day there were three times Nibley could have lost his life.
Nothing about Hugh Nibley being in the Army made sense. He seemed completely out of place. His scholarly career was just launching. He had finished his Ph.D in ancient history at U.C. Berkeley in 1938, and he was teaching at Claremont College in California. In 1942 he dropped it all to enlist as a Private in the U.S. Army.
He could have aimed for becoming an officer, since he had several years of R.O.T.C. But, Army rank mattered nothing to him because he knew he could play a role in the waging of world war. He was unmarried and a former LDS missionary to Germany. He spoke fluent German and knew the territory. He also spoke French, Dutch, Russian, and several other languages, both ancient and modern. He also knew the history of European warfare. His skills were needed on the battlefield.
Nibley's expertise was Military Intelligence, the area where he quickly became a Master-Sergeant. Prior to D-Day the training had been intense. Nibley was trained to be among the first wave of invaders using silent but dangerous gliders to land in occupied France. His job was to take a jeep, which was stowed on the glider, and find enemy documents or other sources of information that would reveal current enemy positions.
The proposed mission was dangerous. Fortunately, Nibley's mother was rather oblivious to all the training her son was doing. For example, Nibley received a letter from his mother suggesting that while he was in England that he ought to take the time to visit the British LDS Mission President, Hugh B. Brown. In early May Nibley wrote back to his mother: "To remind me to see, for example, Hugh Brown, is much the same thing as suggesting I drop in at the Mexico City Zoo next Thursday, or borrow the Grand Lama's toothbrush." Nibley loved his mother beyond measure, but his blunt personality was well established, even in those early days.
Nibley had been training to be the "number-two man in the number-one glider," but days before the invasion he was reassigned to take his jeep by sea instead of by air. Nibley's seat on the glider was taken by General Donald F. Pratt. Nibley was supplanted by a General.
On D-day that same glider had a hard landing, and General Pratt died, making him the highest ranking officer to die during that first day of invasion. Did Pratt's late substitution save Nibley's life?
[Footnote: A heavy steel plate had been welded to the floor to protect the General from incoming gun fire. Ironically, the extra weight made the glider hard to control, and ultimately may have been the cause of the General's death. Further information about Pratt can be found at the Arlington National Cemetery website.]
In the meantime, Sergeant Nibley was attempting to get his jeep transferred from the main carrier ship to the much smaller Landing Craft Tank (LCT), which would attempt a beach landing. The jeep had just been lowered into the LCT, and Nibley was in the process of climbing down a rope ladder to board the LCT. Nibley states: "As soon as I got down the rope ladder, the very spot where I should have been waiting on the ship was hit by an 88, and half a dozen tankmen were blown up."
When the LCT arrived at Utah Beach, Nibley's jeep still had to drive through deep water to get to dry land. That jeep was one of the first vehicles to arrive, and enemy artillery shells landed near Nibley's jeep on the front and the back. Somehow that jeep and its occupants survived.
Count them. The story above describes three near misses in the very first moments of D-Day.
To what extent does God intervene and preserve a soldier's life? To what extent does God mold and shape the outcome of war? These are unanswerable questions. Perhaps they are the wrong questions to ask.
What we do know is that Professor Hugh Nibley made a transformative impact during his long lifetime. What we do know is that the first moments of D-Day changed the entire outcome of World War II.
On this coming 65th commemoration of D-Day, let us remember both God and the soldiers who were willing to die for this country. May God bless America.
Reference: Most information and all quotes in this write-up were obtained from: Sergeant Nibley PhD, Shadow Mountain Press (2006).
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3 comments:
I always think about what I heard Neal A. Maxwell say on a commercial on BYU television. In speaking of Hugh Nibley he said that he was thankful that Hugh Nibley was born in our day, and wasn't hidden in the dark ages somewhere. What a blessing to have such a genius to learn from in our day. Hugh Nibley is one of my heros. :)
Makes you wonder how many "Nibley's" died that day and how different a place the world would have been if they would have lived...
Also makes you wonder about other choices one has made in life, like delaying that mission, or breaking up with one's girlfriend. Or to fail to register for a class at BYU because your hair happened to touch your collar and the polite gentleman pulled you aside and told you unless that hair got trimmed you wouldn't be permitted to register even though this was the last possible day to register before class began and you weren't planning to take that many classes anyway and besides this whole thing just wasn't working out with the money situation too.
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