Posted on 08/15/2011 7:04:02 AM PDT by ccj85
American D-Day veterans are crying foul over a French initiative, approved last month by President Nicolas Sarkozy, to construct over one-hundred 525-feet wind turbines just off the Normandy landing grounds.
According to Gérard Lecornu, president of the Port Winston Churchill Association of Arromanches, the giant structures, expected to be built seven miles from the beach, will be visible from the Normandy battleground beaches of Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword.
“Three million tourists come from the world over to the landing beaches. The first thing they do is look at the line of horizon from where the landings came,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “D-Day is in our collective memory. To touch this is a very grave attack on that memory.”
American veterans are weighing in with opposition and dismay. Bob Sales, the only survivor from his landing craft on D-Day, and Omaha beach veteran Bob Slaughter told The Daily Caller that the beaches are “sacred ground” and expressed their strong opposition to the building of the turbines.
Hal Baumgarten, who was wounded five times on Omaha beach, added that he considers the beaches to be a “shrine” to those who died and said that constructing windmills off the coast would be a “desecration.”
“I landed with the first wave on Omaha beach,” said Baumgarten. “Of course it is hallowed ground. I have been going back for the last 15 years straight — except I missed last year and this year … When I look at it I see all the bodies — we lost a lot of people on D-Day, especially on my beach where we couldn’t get any reinforcements.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thedc.com ...
No, this is brilliant. Germans in WWII ran out of oil. But in the next war the French will power their military planes and tanks with batteries powered by windmills. They just need to raise taxes to refine the technology so it will work. :)
The only people who have “skin in the game” are the owners of said land. If you preserved every battlefield in Europe, you wouldn’t have any room left for people.
Don't have a problem with the French Soldiers. I believe the history of famous French Generals after Napoleon would only require a small pamphlet. I would also criticize the French governments during that time; however, since our own appears to be rapidly rocketing into anti-military lala land, I'll remain silent on that subject.
34 miles.
The French are finally showing up on the beaches....
I am sure there are tons of junk laying on the bottom at these beach’s. Old jeeps tanks ships or anything else that was sunk there.
Let them put their wind mills there and in twenty years they will be more junk lying on the bottom.
It won’t be many years before the realisation comes that these things take up more maintenance and time that they are worth.
Hey, Pardner ... that’s a mighty high horse ya got there.
These beaches just aren’t any old battlefield. They’re where Allied Forces first set foot to eradicate the Nazis from Europe. Many men died while being transported to shore, and many others lost their lives in landing craft that never made it to shore. The remains of these various craft, litter the bottom of the English Channel. I’ve been to the D-Day beaches, and believe me, it isn’t a place you want to see wind turbines.
: )
The land is a National memorial and the subsurface property in question would be within the nationally owned distance offshore. No private property involved.
Yes, it is. Earned it.
Seems to me, it just wouldn’t be very smart from a tourism perspective to put the turbines there...how many people come to Normandy to visit those beaches, and how many would otherwise not visit if the turbines are installed there?
Well, there was the Maginot Line....
You know, the French were extremely bitter to us during and after WWII and even up into Vietnam. My old man was WWII Airborne, was over there and bled quite a bit in the Ardennes snow with pieces of German steel in him.
He said the French were quick to collaborate with the Germans, quick to be resentful of the Americans having to save their asses, and very, very nasty overall in their demeanor towards us. Think about it...they got their asses handed to them in less than 6 weeks, and half the country (Vichy) became collaborationist. They FIRED on American troops coming ashore at Oran in Algeria (North Africa), and DeGaulle made himself a royal pain in the ass at every opportunity.
They have no self-respect and that makes them act the way they do. They surrendered and behaved like cowards, while the English were driven into the sea at Dunkirk and then fought on alone.
I have very little respect for them. They’re socialist assh*les, and have been for a very long time.
That being said, this does not surprise me; one more way to poke “les Amis” in the eye.
And with this current MTV and American Idol generation, that does NOT remember WWII, does NOT remember the sacrifices of American boys dying for those people over there, does NOT remember seeing two, sometimes three blue and/or Gold stars in neighbors’ windows, or seeing American boys coming home missing legs, arms, eyes, it is not surprising at all that there is no outrage amongst younger Americans. They have not been taught American history, have not been educated in the sacrifices and the terrible human toll that was paid for in American blood, heartache, and horror by their ancestors.
It’s sad, and it’s pathetic, that a people’s “collective” memory could be so effectively and indelibly erased, in a few short decades.
It shows me that what we fought over there never really was totally defeated - National Socialism or International Socialism, it’s all the same old crock of sh*t, with the same old sh*thead mentality, they just call themselves Liberals or Progressives now, and they’re here doing the same thing, and we’re letting them get away with it.
As the WWII generation dies away, and people like us, whose fathers fought in that awful conflagration, die away, it will get more and more distant in the past, and the left will be able to rewrite the history, as they have done with everything else. Pretty soon, kids will be reading in “Social Studies” books about how the Great Soviet Union, under the brilliant, wise leadership of Stalin, won the entire war, and the US played only a supporting role, and then became the new enemy that tried to stop glorious socialism from bringing on the new utopia.
Unless WE make it a point to teach our youngsters what their ancestors did, the heroic deeds and stories of valor, bravery, and courage. This is part of what makes us Americans, a PEOPLE, a Nation - our history and the deeds of those Americans that came before us.
Personally, I couldn’t give two sh*ts about what the French do. They’re worthless to me. If they want to build turbines there, we can’t stop them. As good buddy Gilbo said - it’s their country. But it’s one more example to me of how pathetic and contemptible they are, that they would choose THAT spot, above all others, to build those things. I have no problem with power-generating equipment; my problem lies with that particular location, KNOWING how many American boys stained the sand with their blood to gain a foothold there - to free THEM from the Germans.
But we should remember it and make it clear to them that we owe them nothing, ever again. And because it IS “their country”, they can have the total cost of defending it on their own, and we should present them a bill for 50-odd years worth of defense spending to keep them “safe”.
And our honored dead should be brought home to rest in American soil, a place for valiant, brave boys who went away and never came home. They should rest HERE, amongst their own countrymen and their families - not in a country full of vain, selfish, and arrogant people who rolled over and collaborated, rather than fight to the death before giving up an inch of their land to an invader.
Sorry...this sh*t chokes me up and pisses me off.
/rant off...
...BRAVO, (hope that's not french)...
The Frenchies fought like lunatics in WWI; Verdun is a perfect example. They were tigers there. I think their collective “courage” genes were just bled out from that conflict, as it destroyed several generations of their best and bravest.
What was left behind was, well, history speaks for itself.
...Yer right, it’s not all, just the rotten part...
There are people in Belgium that I know personally who tend, maintain, and preserve American war dead graves. Their children are still doing this now, youngsters, teens. They were taught the sacrifices that were made by complete strangers from far away, who came to their country to help them when they needed it.
I’m sure there are some Frenchmen who do the same, but...this is just pathetic and angering...
” He said the French were quick to collaborate with the Germans, quick to be resentful of the Americans having to save their asses, and very, very nasty overall in their demeanor towards us. “
The French are inveterate scum.
You must have been proud of your dad.
When the muzzies try to take over France, we should let them have it : )
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.