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This is a story. This past Thursday was the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the largest

seaborne invasion in history and in retrospect one of the most consequential global events ever.

But we have to remember there was no guarantee of success.

Certainly praying on every Allied commander's mind was the failure of Dunkirk.

Though a miraculous evacuation that saved countless lives, it was fundamentally D-Day in reverse.

So all the Allies really knew for sure was that they could retreat from France and just barely.

But could they invade?

Well, they'd have to.

The consequences of failure of D-Day are, of course, unknowable, but would have likely changed the course of

history in profound ways. German morale would have soared. The liberation of Europe would

have been delayed by months. The Soviets might have raced further west to

capture even more of Germany than they did, or the opposite, stopped at their 1939 borders

uncertain that Germany could be so easily defeated in the phase of a faltering

D-Day.

And let's not forget that the Trinity test, the world's first atomic bomb blast, was conducted

only 13 months after D-Day.

Germany had always been this weapon's primary target.

If D-Day failed and another invasion had to be planned,

...