Posted on 06/05/2012 9:39:24 PM PDT by TonyInOhio
"At about 9:30 p.m. (21:30 hours) on the evening of June 4, 1944, Eisenhower called a meeting at his command post at Southwick House in Portsmouth, England. A storm with high winds and rain had forced a one-day postponement of the invasion, originally set for June 5. Eisenhower had learned from his meteorological staff that there would be a break in the weather and that the next day, Tuesday June 6, would be more favorable. He considered all the variables. General Montgomery, his ground commander, favored taking the risk. After a long silence, Eisenhower gave the command, "Okay, we'll go."
Take a moment today and remember the thousands of young, free men who gave their lives to destroy a brutal tyranny.
Take a moment today and remember the thousands of young, free men who gave their lives to destroy a brutal tyranny.
Yes!
Take pride in remembering the "greatest epoch of free achievment by free men that the world has ever known."
The Day of Days. May God bless all our heroes, then and now.
Was just going to post that link...I always try to imagine what it was like to hear those broadcasts back then, without knowing what the outcome was going to be.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdrvtiSmP1w&feature=related
Thanks for the CBS link, TonyinOhio. : )
“Blessent mon coeur d’une longueur monotone.”
It really is treasure; don't miss the second hour and the description by Wright Bryan of NBC News who flew with a stick of paratroopers into Occupied France; I listen to it every year, and every year, I have a lump in my throat when he finishes his broadcast.
I made friends with an older gent, a soldier of the 506th PIR who jumped into Normandy on D-Day; he told me that he weighed 105 pounds when he left the C-47 and was carrying about 110 pounds of equipment. :) Alas, he's gone now, but I think of him every June.
My dad sometimes gets a bit annoyed by the way ‘D-Day’ is used to designate the Normandy invasion.
He likes to point out that every military operation has a d-day and an h-hour- when you’re writing an operations order you don’t know the actual date it will kick off, so it gets designated ‘d-day’ in the OPORD, and subsequent days are identified as ‘d+1’, ‘d+2’ and so on.
This objection may seem minor but I suppose he’s entitled to it, being a WWII vet who participated in his own share of d-days and h-hours.
Like I said, Backbone of Steel. I sure hope we see leaders like that again soon.
A few years ago, our family go to take a trip to Normandy, France and tour the beaches.
Every American needs to forgo the obligatory European wine and cheese tours of Paris, London, etc, and just go see Omaha as well as the rest of the beaches. And the American cemeteries there.
It’s beautiful French countryside, but it’s also a reminder of WHY and HOW we live as we do and what we stand for, as Americans.
My TRUE education in life began after we visited Normandy.
“OK, Operation Overlord. How’s that? : )”
Lol, that would probably make him happier. I’ll have to ask him tomorrow.
Technically, the landings were Operation Neptune. I believe Operation Overlord was the overall invasion of Normandy. Picking nits, I know!
It was supposed to be our longest day.
I noticed his tattoo and said “Oh - you were in the Navy!”
“Yes”
“WW II obviously?”
“Yes”
“My dad was on a minesweeper in the Pacific, what sort of ship were you on?”
“I drove a Higgin’s boat”
It was then that his wife piped up and said
“Harry was at Normandy on D-Day.”
I got up, shook his hand, said thank you with a tear in my eye, and then turned the conversation to other things. But the rest of the time that I would meet with them I was always in awe of what he did, and what he had gone through.
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