OPINION: How Madame X helped win D-Day

On this day, June 6, 75 years ago, my dad was awakened early — or, more accurately, late.

Just about midnight, he and his crewmates were stirred roughly from a much too short sleep and told to get ready for what would be Mission #10 of the 25 expected for their B-17 bomber.

The time alone was a signal that this might be the day most of their base at Nuthampstead -- indeed most of England — had been waiting for. Their mission the morning before, on June 5, had...