I’ve got one under the category of “or otherwise” that may be appropriate for our Independence Day. I’m seeing what I call a “Rewriting of History” concerning the US contribution to winning WWII. I’ve never thought of it as the Mandela Effect, but I suppose this example may count as such.
My old memories of the Normandy invasion are based upon the stories I heard as a boy (Including the brief utterances of an uncle who landed on Utah Beach), the many documentaries of the 1950’s, and statements made by Stephen E. Ambrose, an eminent historian of WWII. Lately, I’m finding those memories are significantly different from what I’m now reading, and seeing on TV.
Being a student of history, and having had the opportunity to visit the Normandy beachheads with “Uncle François” (extended family) as a guide, my memories of all of this are quite clear and vivid.
When we visited The Mémorial de Caen, I was surprised to learn that Americans had been, pretty much, allowed to tag along with the British during their great victories at the Normandy beachheads. And although I was irritated, I wrote it off as the French catering to the large numbers of British tourists visiting the museum, versus the paltry number of Americans that manage to find there way into Caen. (We had visited the Normandy beachheads, museums, and cemeteries during one of the invasion anniversaries, and still only a small handful of Americans were there.)
Anyway, now I’m reading, and seeing on TV, that we Americans had totally misjudged the difficulty in fighting our way through the famous Normandy hedgerows, and that’s why it took Americans so long to achieve a breakout from the beachheads. The way I remember it, however, is that our allies totally screwed the pooch by not taking Caen on schedule, and leading the originally planned breakout through the flat, open country, sans hedgerows, that lie to the east of Omaha beach. I distinctly remember Stephen E. Ambrose remarking that after making easy landings at their assigned beachheads, our allies stopped to make tea, congratulate themselves, and fail to aggressively press further inland over easy terrain.
Again, to emphasize my point, I’m now reading, and seeing on TV, that we Americans are the ones that dropped the ball. And this despite the fact that it was American forces that ultimately achieved the Normandy breakout at Saint-Lô. Needless to say, I’m offended after seeing for myself what American forces had to deal with at Omaha beach and Pointe du Hoc, compared to what the other allied forces faced. And although casualties were much lighter at Utah beach, I’m surprised the landing there succeeded at all, after seeing the lay of the land for myself.
So, is this an example of the Mandela Effect?
