Posted on 05/28/2024 5:48:38 AM PDT by RandFan
The 6th June marks a significant day in world history. Just after midnight on 6th June 1944, the Allied forces invaded northern France, beginning the largest amphibious military operation in world history.
Known as Operation Overlord or D-Day, the invasion marked the Allied assault on Hitler’s ‘Fortress Europe’ and changed the course of WWII.
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There are a number of ways you can remember the beginning of the liberation of Western Europe.
You can visit ‘Legacies of D-Day’ at the site of the British Normandy Memorial in France and the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. The exhibition will be open to the public from 6th June, with online previews available on the Royal British Legion’s (RBL) website from 13th May. The RBL will also be hosting events around the UK and Normandy on 5th and 6th June.
Alongside the traditional anniversary service at Bayeux Cathedral, a service of Remembrance will be held in conjunction with the exhibition at the National Memorial Arboretum on 6th June at 2pm. A similar service of commemoration will mark D-Day 80 at the Bayeux War Cemetery in France on 5th June at 5pm. Along with the Ministry of Defence, the RBL will host a British National Event to mark D-Day 80 on 6th June at the British Normandy Memorial. This event will also be broadcast on UK National Television.
The RBL has helpful resources for members and supporters looking to commemorate D-Day 80 with their own community on 6th June 2024.
The UK city of Portsmouth will also host a major national commemorative event to mark D-Day 80 on 5th June 2024. Thousands of members of the public will be invited to attend alongside D-Day veterans, Armed Forces personnel and VIP guests. The event will be broadcast live for those who can’t attend in person.
You can also use the Ministry of Defence’s recently launched D-Day 80 website. You’ll find details on official commemorations in both the UK and Normandy, and can discover how to sign up for information and registration.
Wow, indeed. I was “over there” in Luxembourg, France and Germany for the 60th, with my dad and other soldiers from his outfit and their families, meeting citizens who lived through it. Incredible experience hearing the stories direct from those who lived it. One guy had dinner with the people whose barn he hid in before being captured by the Germans and imprisoned for 7 months, wearing his uniform without a change of clothing the entire time. A German officer actually stopped a soldier who was about to execute him on the spot after his capture. Soldier was upset because the man had killed his friend a few minutes prior.
Exactly. I imagine most Taiwanese will shrug their shoulders and just go to work. The leadership will try to fight it…but in the end, they will simply become an economic zone of China.
It’s also the 106th anniversary of the Battle of Belleau Wood, where the US Marines turned the tide of WWI.
“”””.I had the privilege to attend the 50th Anniversary on the USS Harlan County....spent the summer attending liberation celebrations in villages all over France.””””
I never did a tour of France, or saw Paris, but oddly enough I did get to be with the French Army in some of the cities and small villages that get mentioned in the advancement and German atrocities I was also in the 36th Infantry Division that my father was supporting in Operation Dragoon, I did make friends with a French Resistance fighter in one of those villages, his wife had also been with them and he was something of a local celebrity.
Since my father’s ship had been attacked by the Luftwaffe, I also got a kick out of earning German jump wings out of Luftwaffe aircraft.
Military stuff is strange at times.
I would bet that a lot of those emotional spineless girly boys were raised by women and didn’t have a man around to kick their asses a couple of times to grow them up.
I’ve had the privilege of having met a few D-Day veterans. One was UDT. He said his unit swam ashore the night before the invasion and planted some timed charges, then swam back to the ship.
He never landed in France. He was on a landing craft and took a bullet. He said he later fought in the Pacific Theatre.
One of the heroes of the battle of Belleau Wood was Lemuel Sheppard, Jr. (1896-1990), later Commandant of the Marine Corps. I have a photo from 1954 of my father with Gen. Sheppard.
Next week is also the 82nd anniversary of the Battle of Midway.
There are no battlefield memorials, no marked graves, no poppies, no flags. Presidents and dignitaries remember Normandy and not Midway or other momentous sea-battle sites.
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