A/N: I don't own Hogan's Heroes and I don't get paid for this; it is truly a labor of love.
A missing scene from "D-Day at Stalag 13".
For all of those brave young men who landed on the beaches of Normandy sixty-nine years ago today, and gave up their lives so that millions might be free.
His part was finished. He had done what he could, and who knew if what he had done would make any difference in the grand scheme of things? At this point all he could do was wait.
Kinch's jaw tightened as he looked around the radio room. Earlier it had been buzzing with activity, but now all was quiet as he waited for word from London; waited for a message that would no doubt be merely a glimpse into the huge picture that was unfolding this day.
D-Day...at last.
Everything he and his friends had done at Stalag 13 to support the war effort had been important, but this was the moment they had all been waiting for. Because no matter how many successful missions they carried out, no matter how many crazy ideas came to fruition in Stalag 13, no matter how many defectors were helped to safety, no matter how many airmen were returned to England, there was only one certainty.
The liberation of Europe—and of Stalag 13—would never happen until an invasion force gained a foothold in France and the Allies fought their way across the Continent. The price of liberation would be paid in human lives, and the Allies would begin paying that price today.
Kinch thought about the current and most important of all Colonel Hogan's schemes. The Colonel's ideas were always ambitious and a bit bizarre, and this one was the most bizarre of them all. But even if this plan succeeded and there was indeed a delay in the deployment of Panzer divisions to Normandy, the Allied invaders still faced a fearsome task today.
Master Sergeant McMahon had told him earlier that due to treacherous weather over the Channel, the window of opportunity for the invasion was a small one, and even with ideal weather the crossing could be rough. Aboard the thousands of ships headed for Normandy were tens of thousands of young men...boys, really. At this moment those boys were probably trying desperately to cope with seasickness as well as the stark fear of the coming battle.
They would soon be storming the beaches under heavy fire, trying to dislodge seasoned soldiers who had had months to dig in behind fortifications that had been years in the making.
Thousands of those boys would die today, that was certain, but the outcome of the struggle was far from certain. Kinch wondered fleetingly what was going through General Eisenhower's mind right now, and concluded it was probably the same thing that was on everyone's mind.
They were all waiting for this longest of days to end. But there was still one thing he could do, Kinch decided; something that millions of others were doing at this very moment.
And he bowed his head to pray.
