On June 6th, 1944, 150,000 Allied troops assaulted a 50 mile wide beachhead in Normandy, France. Four German infantry divisions and one Panzer division were waiting for them, but by midnight 175,000 Allied soldiers along with 50,000 combat vehicles were ashore.
The Allied beachhead was established, but instead of breathing a sigh of relief and taking a day of leave, the Allies had to focus their attention of the next and more costly phase of their invasion. They had to break out of their beachhead and drive the enemy back to make room for almost a million more troops and their equipment that would be needed to liberate France and then the rest of Europe.
Breakout proved to be more difficult than was anticipated. Enemy resistance was fierce and the hedgerows of the Normandy farmland turned out to be daunting. The farmers sectioned off their fields by planting rows of hedges. Each small section of farmland (about the size of a football field or less) was surrounded by hedgerows that had been there for centuries, their roots grown large and deep and impenetrable. Allied tanks couldn’t break through them and the enemy could hide all through them making progress for the Allies very costly and time consuming.
In the midst of all this frustration, an enterprising young American serviceman came up with a plan to make use of the iron obstacles the enemy had submerged in the surf of the Normandy beaches to hinder the Allied landing. These iron railings were welded onto the fronts of Sherman tanks and acted as plows to break through the hedgerows. They had used the enemy’s own weapons against him.
Finally, the Allies were able to break out of their beachhead and establish their full invasion force on the European continent, but the price of victory had been staggering indeed. D-Day had lasted one day and cost the Allies 9,000 casualties. The breakout had taken 75 days at a cost of 200,000 casualties (casualty estimates from Stephen Ambrose’s book on the D-Day invasion).
I believed we have established a beachhead in our new season. But that does not mean we can sit back and rest. The real battle lies ahead. We must break out. And sometimes the weapons we will use to break out will be those the enemy has fashioned against us.
or “in”us for our demise,but we are rising up and God is giving us the wisdom,strength, tenacity, and united front to turn the battle at the gates
I was just talking to my husband last night about a beach head. About 2 years ago, I felt the Holy Spirit ask me to pray that a beach head would be established. I said to my husband, “what is a beach head?” That was on a Friday night at a prayer meeting and then on Sunday, Rober Heidler spoke about apostolic beachheads. So, here it is again almost 2 years later and I’m bringing up the beachhead thing again for prayer and I turn on my net and you are talking about it…I don’t know everything entailed in all of this, but I do know it is something that God is trying to get into my spirit and may this be the season that we see a beachhead established for the Lord here in St. John, New Brunswick, Canada. I want to also say that I got the book that you and Chuck wrote together about Worship as it is in Heaven….what an incredible,book full of revelation concerning worship…..awesome…Peggy
John, such a great word. The real battle is ahead and it is definitely time to prepare. My beachhead is full of artillery!
Amen!
Thank you! I feel this word is encouraging me where I am right now!
I love this article. Victory and freedom is costly and God teaches my hands to war. Even David said it in Psalms 18. Blessings.
I agree…I am so glad I played sports in middle and high school – got pushed into the pool by my swim coach, hit in the head with a flying basketball, hit in the face with a hard ball while playing soft ball (we were all out of softballs), lost part of my equipment at the top of the ski slope and had to make it down the mountain with just the foot gear…all of this prepared me for working on teams with people, along with other life experiences. I love GOZ. .. I am working to set up a small Special Olympics opportunity for youth with disabilities through the Boys and Girls Club. I love GOZ’s worship. “Blessed be the Lord our God, who teaches our hands to war….” By my God, I can run through a troop, leap over a wall….
Very timely word for us! I believe we established the beachhead at our 13th gate here in Mongolia this last week. Now, with 12 more to go, we must continue to move forward, this time using the weapons the enemy has tried to use against us!
Dear John:
Very insightful story about D-day. The Lord has assigned me to establish a beachhead in Tanzania and had been pointing out Normandy to me last year. I watched a couple WWII movies about it but your story was a great help to gleening all I should. He also spoke re: Guns of Naverone which is an equally insightful offensive strategy. Thanks for the insightful input and encouragement to keep on keepin on. Elizabeth