Posted on 06/06/2022 4:12:40 AM PDT by Scarlett156
My college classmate John Floberg recently retired after a distinguished career in neurology. We took Professor Peter Bien’s freshman seminar on Politics and the Novel together during our first term. John is originally from Chicago but we reconnected in the Twin Cities through Power Line 40 years after our studies with Professor Bien.
Following in a family tradition, John served as a commissioned Navy officer after our graduation. In 2016 John sent me this Daily Journal article about his father’s service on D-Day and his sister Anne Wilson’s then upcoming visit to the Normandy beaches where John and Anne’s father fought. Please check out Corey Elliot’s excellent story on Frederic Floberg, the executive officer on PC-565.
The story concludes: “Anne Wilson has a copy of the D-Day orders passed onto her father’s ship in May of 1944. Here is the briefing all members of the United States Navy received just two weeks before D-Day, June 6, 1944.” I thought readers might enjoy a look at the call to duty:
27 May, 1944.
Secret
From: Naval Commander, Western Task Force
To: ALL HANDS
1. We of the Western Naval Task Force are going to land the American Army in France.
2. From battleships to landing craft ours is, in the main, an American Force. Beside us will be a mainly British force, landing the British and Canadian troops. Overhead will fly the Allied Expeditionary Air Force. We all have the same mission — to smash our way onto the beaches, and through the coastal defenses, into the heart of the enemy’s fortress.
3. In two ways the coming battle differs from any that we have undertaken before: it demands more seamanship, and more fighting. We must operate in the waters of the English Channel and the French coast, in strong currents and twenty-foot tide. We must destroy an enemy defensive system which has been four years in the making, and our mission is one against which the enemy will throw his whole remaining strength. These are not beaches held by apathetic Italians or defended by hasty fortifications. These are prepare[d] positions, held by Germans who have learned from their past failures. They have coastal batteries and mine fields; they have [illegible] and E-boats and submarines. They will try to use them all. We are getting into a fight.
4. But it is not we who have to fear the outcome. As the German has learned from failure, we have learned from success. To this battle we bring our tested methods, with new weapons, and overwhelming strength. Tides and currents present a challenge which, forewarned, we know how to meet. And it will take more than the last convulsive effort of the beaten “master race” to match the fighting spirit of the American Navy. It is the enemy who is afraid.
5. In this force there are battleships, cruisers, and destroyers. There are hundreds of landing ships and craft, scores of patrol and escort vessels, dozens of specials assault craft. Every man in every ship has his job. And these tens of thousands of men and jobs add up to one task only — to land and support and supply and reinforce the finest army ever sent to battle by the United States. In that task we shall not fail. I await with confidence the further proof, in this the greatest battle of them all, that American sailors are seamen and fighting men second to none.
6. Captains will please publish this letter at quarters on the day that the ships are sealed; then post on bulletin boards; and remove and burn prior to sailing.
A.G. Kirk (Commander, U.S. Navy)
"They have coastal batteries and mine fields; they have [illegible] and E-boats and submarines."
My guess on the "illegible" tag: "...they have EXQUISITE BAKED GOOD and E-boats and submarines."
Should be “baked goods.” SMH
They are pretty much gone now. The average age of a U.S. soldier in 1944 was 26. That would make them 104 today. Even if you stormed the beaches at age 18, you would be 96 today.
A few are still around but we are rapidly reaching the point where there will be no more living WW2 veterans.
I have hope for the future, but let’s face it: That kind of bravery and sense of duty is seldom found anywhere these days.
I recall seeing those army patches at garage sales in the neighborhood all the time back in the 60s. One of the nicest guys at our church had been through Iwo Jima.
My father”s friend, may they both rest in peace, was a survivor of Bataan. Their memories should honored forever. My niece told me she was never taught the history of WWIi in school. So sad, so deliberate.
To commemorate one of the most important events in history, liberals are comparing the brave Allied soldiers with the unemployed loser scumbags of the domestic terrorist group Antifa. The reason for this disgusting comparison is of course to
Obviously Normandy wasn't done by just the U.S. But stop and think about all the major operations the U.S. military was doing simultaneously in 3 different parts of the world. It's nothing short of amazing! I don't know if any other country has ever done anything like that.
Which, historically, is exactly the time it begins to reappear.
Yeah, the generation currently in school is going to really suffer in the future. It’s not going to be like, “Oh, now that we’re older, we’re going to get our act together and start appreciating our parents and our way of life!” because they are basically going to be INCAPABLE of making decisions or thinking for themselves. A whole bunch of them are going to be physically and mentally damaged from what they’re experiencing now and unable to work, raise a family, etc.
Just 2-1/2 years into ChoMoeJoe’s reign of terror, we’re already sitting ducks for our enemies.
If it’s any consolation, a lot of those quadruple-vaccinated losers aren’t going to be around in the future.
The US entering WWI also spelled the end of the war. Now we’re giving away air force bases and entire fleets of jet fighters. (And I don’t even have ONE jet fighter!)
*********
Apples/Oranges. In today's environment you don't
need the physical human bodies to do many times
more destruction/deaths as in those days. Just think
back to the differences since Columbus sailed the
ocean blue. One idiot to issue the order and one to
push the button or they could be one and the same.
*********
Apples/Oranges. In today's environment you don't
need the physical human bodies to do many times
more destruction/deaths as in those days. Just think
back to the differences since Columbus sailed the
ocean blue. One idiot to issue the order and one to
push the button or they could be one and the same.
THANK YOU!!!
I was just starting to be disappointed in FR ... I expect “gargle dot com” to ignore D-Day. Glad to see someone on FR upholding standards.
I read this every year and it still sends chills down my spine. Truly the Greatest generation - https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1960/11/first-wave-at-omaha-beach/303365/
Those were the days.
"They have coastal batteries and mine fields; they have [illegible] and E-boats and submarines."
My guess on the "illegible" tag: "...they have EXQUISITE BAKED GOOD and E-boats and submarines."
Should be baked goods. SMH
That's right! It's okay, the more the better.
In fact, it was my very first thought when I saw the title on the main page:
D-DAY AT 78
Heh, this is where I amuse, lose, or just plain irritate people because I just say WHat I see:
78 = lechem [לחם]* = bread, as in Bethlehem, the "house of bread."
Positive waves:
Because when I clicked, I saw your comments right at the top. I was reminded that David was born in the city of Bethlehem -- Bakery Town, so to speak -- and yesterday (Shavuot, the day of the giving of the Law) is the traditional date for the birth and death of King David. Yesterday at dusk, I saw that 2 out of the 4 Phoebe eggs hatched in the nest over the front door and house sign. Having already calculated the ETA, I had decided to name them all "David".
The next two arrived by this morning! God bless all of the brand new Baby Davids at my door.
Anyway, yesterday was Pentecost, the "50th" day on the Christian calendar for the same day, and David (the name in plain English) ends up back in Hebrew with the sum of 50 [דייוויד] because the name is spelled as it sounds: DAY-vid.
I love it when a plan comes together.
D-Day: "D" is for whatever day is *the* determined day, the "mum's the word" day because... it's classified:
The invasion is often known by the famous nickname "D-Day" yet few people know the origin of the term or what, if anything, the "D" stood for. Most argue it was merely a redundancy that also meant "day" but others have proposed everything from "departure" to "decision" to "doomsday"
According to the U.S. military, "D-Day" was an Army designation used to indicate the start date for specific field operations. In this case, the "D" in D-Day doesn't actually stand for anything -- it's merely an alliterative placeholder used to designate a particular day on the calendar...
Shavout actually runs for a second day, and our beloved 40th president died on June 5th, 2004, so here we are all together on the luchot/luches: the calenders, the tablets of the "lawh". 18 "chai" years on.
D-Day.. "the start date for specific field operations"
♪ Sway with Me (Live In Time) ♫
I can hear the sound of violins, long before, it begins.
The military also employed the term H-Hour to refer to the time on D-Day when the action would begin. This shorthand helped prevent actual mission dates from falling into enemy hands, but it also proved handy when the start date for an attack was still undecided. Military planners also used a system of pluses and minuses to designate any time or day occurring before or after D-Day or H-Hour.
78 *is* "this day", hayom hazeh: היום הזה, 78
"Dis" Day, sounds like a day for no respect.
Thank you for remembering, and connecting this Day with baked goods.
***
God's enemies fight Him with all that they have, all that they know, 24/7/365.
*The Hebrew root for war ties right in: ל-ח-ם (78)
As it turns out, God has at His disposal all that His enemies *don't* know. The dark side never learns because it knows everything already.
Q.E.D. (It's a veritable tombstone.)
Shavuot is the only Festival not referenced by a specific date in the Jewish lunar calendar. Its classification as the time of the giving of Torah is recorded as Day 50 after the Exodus. This firmly establishes Shavuos as the climax of the Exodus. In the relationship between God and Israel, the giving of Torah at Sinai is termed on your wedding day.
Thank you. Copied it and sent it to several friends and colleagues. God bless you and your family.
Someone posted the other day that the so called “Pride” celebrations last a month, but the veterans of our nation are reluctantly allowed one day of recognition...
The queers and freaks are celebrated more than those who sacrificed, often times their lives for our country....what a truly pathetic society we have become.
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