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The First Wave At Omaha Beach( Long )
The Alantic ^ | N O V E M B E R 1 9 6 0 | S.L.A. Marshall

Posted on 06/06/2003 4:16:11 PM PDT by Leisler

Edited on 06/07/2005 12:37:49 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

UNLIKE what happens to other great battles, the passing of the years and the retelling of the story have softened the horror of Omaha Beach on D Day.

This fluke of history is doubly ironic since no other decisive battle has ever been so thoroughly reported for the official record. While the troops were still fighting in Normandy, what had happened to each unit in the landing had become known through the eyewitness testimony of all survivors. It was this research by the field historians which first determined where each company had hit the beach and by what route it had moved inland. Owing to the fact that every unit save one had been mislanded, it took this work to show the troops where they had fought.


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


TOPICS: Unclassified
KEYWORDS: dday; militaryhistory; omahabeach; vetrans; wwii

1 posted on 06/06/2003 4:16:11 PM PDT by Leisler
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To: Leisler
Bump for later read when time. God Bless our fallen heroes and d*mn the thankless French....
2 posted on 06/06/2003 4:19:19 PM PDT by eureka! (Rats and Presstitutes lie--they have to in order to survive.....)
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To: Leisler
Thanks!
3 posted on 06/06/2003 4:24:02 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch (Freedom is not Free - Support the Troops!)
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To: Leisler
Thanks!
4 posted on 06/06/2003 4:37:32 PM PDT by Enterprise
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To: eureka!
I read this this afternoon and could hardly not tear up at the effort of it all. Good thing I not in Europe, I'd smak the first look I got from someone, police be damned.
5 posted on 06/06/2003 4:42:19 PM PDT by Leisler
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To: Leisler
Yep. Just glancing through it harkened back to the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan. Have a great weekend....
6 posted on 06/06/2003 4:43:48 PM PDT by eureka! (Rats and Presstitutes lie--they have to in order to survive.....)
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To: Leisler
bump later
7 posted on 06/06/2003 4:45:26 PM PDT by chasio649
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To: cavtrooper21
Later
8 posted on 06/06/2003 4:47:53 PM PDT by cavtrooper21 ("..he's not heavy, sir. He's my brother...")
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To: Leisler
(from the "memorable quotes" section for "The Longest Day" at www.imdb.com)

Brigadier General Norman Cota (played by Robert Mitchum):
I don't have to tell you the story. You all know it.
Only two kinds of people are gonna stay on this beach:
those that are already dead and those that are gonna die!
Now get off your butts! You guys are the Fighting 29th!


sure, it's movie dialogue, but it's good movie dialogue...
9 posted on 06/06/2003 4:52:10 PM PDT by VOA
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To: Leisler
Without being detected, he gets to within twenty yards of the gun, obliquely downslope from it. He heaves a grenade; but he has held it just a bit too long and it explodes in air, just outside the embrasure. His second grenade hits the concrete wall and bounces right back on him. Three of its slugs hit him in the shoulders. Then, from out of the pillbox, a German potato masher sails down on him and explodes just a few feet away; five more fragments cut into him. He starts crawling back to his men; en route, three bullets from the machine gun rip his rump and right leg.

A Software Engineer would try it again to see if the conditions could be replicated. :-)
Signed,
An ex-tanker.

10 posted on 06/06/2003 4:54:49 PM PDT by glorgau
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To: Leisler; All
If you ever have the opportunity, there is the D-Day museum in New Orleans.

I have been there and it is a great tribute to those brave men.

11 posted on 06/06/2003 4:55:08 PM PDT by LibKill (MOAB, the greatest advance in Foreign Relations since the cat-o'-nine-tails!)
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To: Leisler
My father in-law went in with the gliders. He was one of the lucky ones that had an aluminum glider, unlike the britsh who ahad 2x4 and plywood, and survived the landing.

Three days later he was out of action with shell shock and fragments in his chest.
12 posted on 06/06/2003 4:56:50 PM PDT by TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig (Soccer Mom's flee the Rats for Bush in his flight suit: I call this the Moisture Factor. MF high!)
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To: Leisler
I read this this afternoon and could hardly not tear up at the effort of it all. Good thing I not in Europe, I'd smak the first look I got from someone, police be damned.

They hate America because America saved them. They are weaklings.

Of course, we had to get rid of the Nazis before they took over the world, but don't expect gratitude from a WEAK nation like frogland. They don't know the word.

13 posted on 06/06/2003 4:59:20 PM PDT by LibKill (MOAB, the greatest advance in Foreign Relations since the cat-o'-nine-tails!)
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To: Leisler
Later, still under the spell, Price paid the perfect tribute to Taylor. He said: "We saw no sign of fear in him. Watching him made men of us. Marching or fighting, he was leading. We followed him because there was nothing else to do."
14 posted on 06/06/2003 5:06:13 PM PDT by LibKill (MOAB, the greatest advance in Foreign Relations since the cat-o'-nine-tails!)
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To: Leisler
A little something else that I got from a man who had charged the machineguns.

"I figured I was going to die. So, I thought I would make my death mean something."

Of course, he lived or I would never had conversation with him.

Luck? The favor of heaven?

Take your pick.

But know this, he stood up when others dropped down and hugged Mother Earth for all she was worth.

And there were thousands like him.

They saved the world.

15 posted on 06/06/2003 5:50:28 PM PDT by LibKill (MOAB, the greatest advance in Foreign Relations since the cat-o'-nine-tails!)
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To: Leisler
I have twiced been blessed with the opportunity to visit the Normandy beaches and walk through that beautiful cemetary above Omaha Beach. Last year, I took my 15-year-old daughter. Everyone should try to get there sometime in their life.
16 posted on 06/06/2003 6:07:56 PM PDT by Timmy
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.
17 posted on 06/06/2003 6:14:47 PM PDT by firewalk
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To: Leisler
bump
18 posted on 06/06/2003 7:21:54 PM PDT by VOA
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