D-Day: 'I was there'

BBC News ^ | June 6, 2003

[Cultural Jihad]

D-Day: 'I was there'

Flying over D-Day

The Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France on D-Day nearly stalled on the sands of Omaha beach. The heavy seas which drove landing craft far off course and stiff German resistance threw the ambitious attack into confusion. This chaos is caught on an aerial photograph which has just been released to the public by Keele University Aerial Photographic Library.

The photograph - taken at 10am on 6 June 1944 by the US Army Air Force - shows the eastern section of the beach codenamed Omaha by the Allies, cluttered with tanks and beached ships.

[My2Cents]

A letter written by Lt. Thomas Meehan, CO of Easy Company, 560th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Divsion, on May 26, 1944, eleven days before the invasion of Normany, to his wife:

"We're fortunate in being Americans. At least we don't step on the underdog. I wonder if that's because there are no 'Americans' -- only a stew of immigrants -- or it's because the earth from which we exist has been so kind to us an dour forefathers; or if it's because the 'American' is the offspring of the logical European who hated oppression and loved freedom beyond life? Those great mountains and the tall timber; the cool deep lakes and broad rivers; the green valleys and white farmhouses; the air, the sea and wind; the plains and great cities; the smell of living -- all must be the cause of it.

And yet, with all that, we can't get away from the rest. For every one of our millions who has that treasure in his hand there's another million crying for that victory of life. And for each of us who wants to live in happiness and give happiness, there's another different sort of person wanting to take it away.

Those people always manage to have their say, and Mars is always close at hand. We know how to win wars. We must learn how to win peace. Make the world accept peace whether they damn well like it or not. Here is the dove, and here is the bayonet. If we ever have a son, I don't want him to go through this again, but I want him powerful enough that no one will be fool enough to touch him. He and America should be strong as hell and kind as Christ."

Lt. Meehan died during the Normandy invasion, the night of June 5, in the crash of his C-47 which was shot down by anti-aircraft fire. (From TO AMERICA, by Stephan Ambrose)

[Fiddlstix]

[Cultural Jihad]

BTTT

[Rummyfan]

Re Lt Meehan's letter.... Amen!

[MoJo2001]

Thank you so much for the ping, Cultural Jihad. Definitely an Important Read Bump!

[Hatteras]

I'm always struck by the interviews with soldiers from the other side (Germans, Japanese, etal...). They were crapping in their drawers just as much as my dad and his buddies. It's always worth it to see the view from where they sat. I guess that's why I had no problems sitting through the movie Das Boot.

[gg188]

News Flash: Senator Robert Byrd has announced investigations to determine if the D-Day invasion was justified, if its stated reasons were valid or were lies, and if it accomplished what it allegedly was intended to accomplished. "Is Germany REALLY better off without Hitler?" Byrd seemed to add, though observers weren't sure since the pointed-white hood Byrd was wearing muffled the old b@st@rd's words.

(jus' kiddin'...sorta)

[VOA]

bump

[VOA]

a bump for a guy who was there:

Jake McNiece, the postman who attended church in my hometown.
He parachuted in, as he did three other times in the European Theater...and
managed to walk away whole.

His name appears in the back of one of the Cornelius Ryan books (The Longest
Day or A Bridge Too Far...I can't remember which).

[VOA]

I'm always struck by the interviews with soldiers from the other side (Germans, Japanese, etal...).

I was really impressed by a German tank commander who appeared on a guest panel
that Stephen Ambrose had at the Eisenhower Center at the Univ. of New Orleans for the
50th Anniverary. (televised on C-Span).

The German tank commander said there was only one problem with the Sherman tank...
you could always handle ten of them, but an eleventh one would always appear.

[VOA]

Another bump for a fellow I know who was there...
Professor Lynd...had to make his way across that long stretch of sand.

Towards the end of his academic career, he freaked out my brother (and his classmates)
by spontaneously taking part of a class period to tell about what happened to himself
and his fellow soldiers.

Freaked out the class at first, but most got the message after Lynd finished his
20 minute review of telling them "I was there...".

This was about 10 years before "Saving Pvt. Ryan" woke people up again...

[snopercod]

LOL! Nicely done.

[chasio649]

thanks for the post! bttt

[tpaine]

In early 1957, the 502nd Airborne Infantry Regiment was reactivated at Warner Kaserne, Munich Germany, as part of the newly reorganised 11th Airborne Division.

If memory serves there were three men in the regiment who had jumped with the 502nd on D-Day. Two were much decorated master sergants. Tough 'old' birds..
- The third was an booze-loving Private, maybe 32 years old, who only wore his CIB and was trying like hell to get in twenty years for a pension.. I'll always wonder if Williams made it. He was a great drinking buddie, and a damn fine soldier..

[Sparta]

D-Day eyewitness account bump.

If you want on or off the Western Civilization Military History ping list, let me know.

[Jimmyclyde]

BAD ASS BUMP!!!

[Sparta]

I knew everyone would like it ;-)

[SAMWolf]

D-Day Remembered Bump

[Temple Owl]

My best friend, the Godfather of two of my sons, was in an anti-aircraft outfit on Omaha Beach on D-Day. He tells a charming story about a pilot wearing class-A's being shot down by a member of his outfit--not him, he denies everything--and parachuting to the beach. The pilot even before hitting the sand is cursing the anti-aircraft guys and looking for a ride back to England because he had a date with a lassie that night.

We don't know if he were able to keep his date, but my buddy slogged his way across France and Germany and made it back home.