Posted on 06/05/2014 1:37:27 PM PDT by BenLurkin
It may surprise the many Americans who have arrived in Normandy in France this week to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings, but the largest burial place here is not, in fact, the iconic U.S. war cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer about 10 miles from here. That site’s forest of sunlit, erect white crosses in perfectly symmetrical rows marks the graves of more than 9,387 Americans, memorialized for later generations in Hollywood movies, including the closing scene of the Tom Hanks hit, Saving Private Ryan.
Instead, among the many cemeteries for the 100,000 or so soldiers killed in the mammoth seaborne invasion on June 6, 1944 known as D-Day, and the three-month Battle for Normandy that followed, the biggest number of graves by far honor 21,222 soldiers who fought on the losing side: The Germans.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
You mean the dirty krauts?
Should we be celebrating the soldiers of the regime that caused the deaths of tens of millions of people?
Time really needs to go out of business. I’m not going to mourn the loss of those who fought FOR evil, rather than against it.
Around 20 years ago, I got to meet one of my childhood idols.
General Robert L. Scot was signing books at a historical society meeting with the proceeds going to the museum at Warner Robbins AFB.
One question I got to ask him is how he felt about the Japanese pilots he fought against. It was clear his attitude had changed as he said “they were fighting for their country just as I was mine”.
I was surprised to learn the region in Germany where my ancestors came from was the same one my father fought in during WWII. I asked him if he saw any cousins. He said he didn’t but he was looking for them.
Photos of the German cemetery:
https://picasaweb.google.com/VictorySpeedway/DaySixDDayTour
Photos of the British cemetery in Bayeux:
https://picasaweb.google.com/VictorySpeedway/DaySevenNormandyBritishCemetery
The British cemetery is adjacent to the Normandy Museum, one of the best in France.
The article points out the obvious: German mourners do not generally show up on D-Day, but come at other times of year.
It sucks to be the loser. Obama will have the particular distinction of having surrendered twice.
Thanks!
Well, the Nazis had a lot of Gaul.
That’s good.
It’s sort of like who morns for the Romans?
They were fighting for their country. Many dead southerners were fighting for their country.
It is interesting that every March 15 dozens of roses are thrown onto Gaius Julius Caesar’s grave. By whom?
I have respect and pity for the families of the war victims, both German and Japanese.
Boxers invariably bond together after a boxing match is over, sharing respect for each other and the guts to fight. (And they share a contempt for the audience who didn’t, but just sat there yelling).
Did Time Magazine mourn when they proclaimed God dead?
I doubt they were mourning, probably partying
Excited local children wave U.S. flags at village ceremonies, even while singing the French anthem, “La Marseillaise.” And signs are splashed across the storefronts proclaiming the American heroes, who have arrived, many in wheelchairs, in what all realize is the world’s last glimpse of the D-Day generation.
“Merci a nos liberateurs!” or thank you our liberators, reads a sign, typical of the area, in La Cambe village, near the German cemetery.
I don’t know if “celebrating” is the right word. When Ronald Reagan laid a wreath at Bitburg cemetery he wasn’t celebrating Nazism. He was showing respect for the average German soldier who was fighting for his country and comrades, as solders do everywhere.
Remember all the heat Reagan took when he went to Bitburg?
Yup.
Thanks for the post. I have relatives who were there (who survived but have passed in the last decade).
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