Posted on 06/06/2018 10:57:18 AM PDT by Leaning Right
Operation Overlord Normandy, Troops of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division are landing at Juno Beach on the outskirts of Bernieres-sur-Mer on D-Day. 6th June 1944. 14,000 Canadian soldiers were put ashore and 340 lost their live in the battles for the beachhead.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
D-Day Ping
“These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. And these are the heroes who helped end a war. Gentlemen, I look at you and I think of the words of Stephen Spender’s poem. You are men who in your “lives fought for life and left the vivid air signed with your honor.””
Chilling and evocative. Still makes me weep
In that picture, the one person you can see his facial expression actually looks like he has a smerk on his face.
He’s saying, I’m going to kill them Nazis bastards.
Been there since the beginning of time. Don’t know what it was called during Civil War. In WW1 it was shell shock. WW2 battle fatigue. Vietnam forward PTSD. All the same shit.
Poor wretches:
https://youtu.be/SS1dO0JC2EE
“acute mania”
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ptsd-civil-wars-hidden-legacy-180953652/
https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/08/13/ptsd-and-the-civil-war/
He told the story of an obnoxious Nationalist Chinese officer who had acquired a baby grand piano in India and wanted it transported to China, backing out space for the war material the C-46 was supposed to carry.
Dad refused to allow the piano on his airplane, but arrived one morning to find it was already on board.
Dad took off, circled the airfield once. His crew chief made it back to the cargo area and opened the door. The piano went out at 1,000 feet.
He nailed it...like he did with most things.
That’s great!!!! Good for your dad!!!!!
As an Assistant Scout Master myself, I took our scout to Normandy one weekend and during the D-day week celebrations on the beach we found a live mortar round which the police fenced off - we hiked from the bunker at Pointe du Hoc back to Omaha and military grave yard. Over a three span while in The Netherlands, our troop put out US/Dutch Flags on the 5000+ US burial site at Margaraton. I planned it so I could put a pair of flags on every headstone during that time.
I have been to Bastonge many times, it was my favorite place, and found many old items from the war, from broken weapons, helmets, mess kits, ammo, etc.
America needs to always be reminded of the cost of liberty and honor, duty and country.
Today is also the 76th anniversary of the victory at Midway after day 3 of the battle. Every bit as important to the Pacific war as Normandy was to the European theater.
I love that movie....and the book is a great read too. Thanks for sharing.
As you noted, Midway was as important as Normandy was. After Midway, America could be confident of eventual victory in the Pacific. And after Normandy, the same was true for Europe.
It’s a shame, but Midway never quite gets the attention that D-Day does.
That’s true in general of the Pacific war, people are more familiar with European history and have a more natural bond with the Continent than we do with Asia.
While Japan was a formidable enemy, I don’t think people really feared the Japs invading the country.
One uncle of mine was on first wave at Omaha beach. He survived, watched several of his buddies standing there on minute and get hit by mortar and just gone. Fought at Hurt-gen Forest where frost bite on his feet sent him to the Ardennes, the quite sector to recover and then of course, the Bulge and was in either Austria or Czechoslovakia by wars end. He really gets emotional if you can get him to talk about the war.
Another uncle’s transport was torpedoed before D-Day during practice landings, he survived and ended up an anti-aircraft gunner in the 3rd Army. Same with him, very emotional when he would talk about it. Big thanks to all these men!!!
And let’s not forget those D-Day casualties who perished even before June 6th in the various training exercises to prepare for it.
Same here. I've been to Point-du-Hoc, right where the raised platform was built for the 40th anniversary speech. What I didn't realize back in 1984, was that the ground beneath that platform, right in front of the memorial, was some of the only smooth and level ground in that area. Most of Point-du-Hoc is still pockmarked with craters from the naval and aerial bombardment. Of course, now it's all covered in grass and carefully manicured, so it looks like a golf course on the moon.
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