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As D-Day Soldiers Fade Away, Locals in Liberated Lands Carry on Giving Thanks for the Yanks
New York Sun ^ | 6 June 2024 | DEAN KARAYANIS

Posted on 06/06/2024 6:52:38 AM PDT by Vigilanteman

Likely the last major anniversary with veterans, now it’s on the living to pay tribute to the soldiers who fought the war, rebuilt the towns, then left.

The eyes of the world are falling on the beaches at Normandy, France, as leaders mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day. For most nations whose troops risked and sacrificed their lives at the landings, the beaches are far away in time and place. But locals are resolved to carry on eternal salutes to their liberators.

World War II touched every continent, and even the greatest armada ever assembled — while a huge set piece — is just one story in one theater. This is likely the last major anniversary to feature veterans, leaving it to the living to seize the torch from their faltering hands.

“Old soldiers never die,” General Douglas MacArthur said in his 1951 farewell address, “they simply fade away.” Citizens in nations then-occupied live the spirit of the English folklore MacArthur was quoting; with commemorations large and small, they make the 150,000 men who stormed the beaches immortal.

(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; France
KEYWORDS: dday; heroics; veterans; worldwarii
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A nice feel-good article today on an important anniversary of the longest day.
1 posted on 06/06/2024 6:52:38 AM PDT by Vigilanteman
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To: Vigilanteman

Never again.

Our war is here.


2 posted on 06/06/2024 6:54:47 AM PDT by Jim Noble (Assez de mensonges et de phrases)
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To: Vigilanteman

Hitler lost the war on the beaches. First at Dunkirk when he prevented the German army from completing its victory and allowed the BEF of 250,000 to escape to Britain. If he had captured the BEF, Britain would have been forced to sue for peace. At Normandy either the invasion was repelled or it was over for the Germans.


3 posted on 06/06/2024 7:01:40 AM PDT by allendale
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To: Jim Noble

4 posted on 06/06/2024 7:07:08 AM PDT by knarf (BEC)
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To: allendale

Normandy was the third front on the invasion of Europe.
The first was the Russians invading from the east after the defeat at Stalingrad in February of 1943.

The second was the invasion of Patton’s army of Sicily in the summer of 1943.

The Normandy Invasion in 1944 was a direct attack on northern Europe.


5 posted on 06/06/2024 7:14:46 AM PDT by woodbutcher1963
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To: knarf

A lot of them grew up in the hills of the US with no running water and no indoor furnace in the winter. Hell yes, they were tougher than the fat, lazy entitled “men” of today. I was checking out the new boyfriend of a friend of mine, and I was happy to see that he knew how to hunt and fish and loved his mother. A real man, not some emotional cripple.


6 posted on 06/06/2024 7:15:56 AM PDT by yldstrk ( )
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To: woodbutcher1963

It was Churchill’s idea to attack Italy. He wasn’t enthusiastic about invading France.


7 posted on 06/06/2024 7:16:37 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: allendale

Sorry I left out the fact that Monty(British Army) was also part of the invasion of Sicily/Italy.


8 posted on 06/06/2024 7:17:11 AM PDT by woodbutcher1963
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To: Vigilanteman

Newsmax TV this morning was showing the ceremony live. Several 98–102-year-old Vets sitting there, in their uniforms, hats, wheelchairs, blankets over them, nurses running around checking on them, dignitaries in the stands, cold, windy, and Biden running very late. These old guys that could stood when the Flag was presented. Biden, wife, france’s dictator and his wife come marching in. Hubs holding wives hands. They walk, top, walk some more, stop, and then old Joe tries to take Macaroni’s hand, he moves it away and puts his hand in the small of ole Deadbrains back and moves him along. Biden come to speak and I turn it off. Cannot stand to hear that Marxist’s open his pie hole.


9 posted on 06/06/2024 7:21:46 AM PDT by RetiredArmy (The Bible speaks truth! Don't believe it, you do so at your own peril. You'd better be right!!)
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Comment #10 Removed by Moderator

To: dfwgator

The problem was that you can not bring an army through the Alps from Italy into southern France/Switzerland. So, you would have had to make a landing somewhere in Southern France.
Mountain passes are too easy to defend. You only have to defend certain choke points in a mountainous area.

Northern France/Belgium/Holland are all relatively flat. Much easier to move an army across that country.


11 posted on 06/06/2024 7:25:40 AM PDT by woodbutcher1963
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To: Vigilanteman

Analogous to the Philippines, for the most part, they have a deep love for and gratitude for America and Americans.


12 posted on 06/06/2024 7:44:09 AM PDT by Flaming Conservative ((Pray without ceasing))
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To: yldstrk

I spent a long time at the airport in Austin Texas yesterday due to a delay. Lots of time to watch the strolling freak show. I’m not sure if the 15-year-old ungainly fat kid in the Playboy branded jacket or the fruitcake wearing a 3-foot-long stuffed shark hat were the most weird.


13 posted on 06/06/2024 7:44:58 AM PDT by cyclotic (Don’t be part of the problem. Be the entire problem)
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To: cyclotic

Yeah, it is pretty sad.


14 posted on 06/06/2024 7:47:25 AM PDT by yldstrk ( )
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To: allendale
Some historians question whether Hitler really wanted to win. A lot of his actions are like Dunkirk, very questionable from a military POV. You can say he was a strategic nitwit, but even a strategic nitwit ought to pull the right switch ~50% of the time. Hitler "guessed wrong" almost continuously from 1941 on, like he was committing slow suicide and taking Germany with him.

Case in point: he stranded something like 25,000 troops in Norway playing cards and drinking beer while the Russians were at the gates of Berlin (and, yes, Steiner couldn't make his attack; he couldn't find enough men).

15 posted on 06/06/2024 7:48:53 AM PDT by Campion (Everything is a grace, everything is the direct effect of our Father's love - Little Flower)
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To: Campion

Hitler was basically an uneducated sociopath from the wrong side of the tracks.


16 posted on 06/06/2024 7:53:03 AM PDT by yldstrk ( )
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To: Vigilanteman
I would like to see this meme posted a lot today.


17 posted on 06/06/2024 8:09:42 AM PDT by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
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To: yldstrk

He was a meth addict. A burned out junkie taking the world out with him.


18 posted on 06/06/2024 8:11:29 AM PDT by Justa (Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people....)
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To: allendale
When Dunkirk took place, there was a heated debate going on in British Parliament. Lord Halifax and his faction was arguing that Great Britain should make a separate peace on more favorable terms than the French just did.

Hitler saw the Brits as a "culture carrying" race just one rung below the Germans. They were fervently hoping that the Halifax faction would win out. Thus, they had to tread lightly on the quarter million BEF troops stranded in the Dunkirk quadrant.

The Germans also had air superiority over the channel and the last thing they were expecting was the miraculous evacuation that happened. Herr Schicklegruber seriously underestimate the will of the British people to fight for continental interests and, with that, the Churchill faction swept the Halifax faction aside in the parliamentary debate.

19 posted on 06/06/2024 8:17:10 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (The politicized state destroys aspects of civil society, human kindness and private charity.)
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To: Justa

Hope Hitler is burning in Hell.


20 posted on 06/06/2024 8:43:01 AM PDT by yldstrk ( )
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