OT: 75 years ago today, D-Day
Over 150,000 British, American, and Canadian troops stormed the beaches of Normandy. The largest aquatic invasion the world has ever seen. Highly recommend the docu-series "World War II in Colour" on Netflix, but if you're interested in the D-Day/Operation Overlord aspects watch episode 9.
Not many of these heroes left. If you know one give em a hug. America woke up to this on the radio.
Wow. Amazing.
My best friends Dad was part of the force on the second day, June 7th.
Would never talk about it.......
My grandfather, who I bear an uncanny resemblance to, was also part of the 2nd day force on June 7. While he got a bit "lucky" that day, it got real ugly for them later in the Battle of the Bulge.
Would never talk about it.....
He was 22 on that day, lived to 82. He had 4 children, a bunch of grandkids, and a career. I was 22 when Saving Private Ryan came out in the theater. I took some pretty blonde, and we went out to the beach after. Some sacrificed their lives. Others sacrificed a part of their souls so schmuck grandkids like me could take pretty blondes to the movies and beach. We should never get over this. I promise I'll raise that man's great-grandsons to be the finest men I can.
I had a similar thought when I saw Saving Private Ryan (with a pretty brunette, by the way.) I couldn't escape the thought that, if I had been born 40 years earlier, I would have been a 23-year-old crouched in a Higgins boat, puking on my boots, heading toward the Normandy coast. What would I have done? Would I have made it out of the boat alive? Would I have dug a hole in the sand and tried to hide? Would I have stumbled across the shale toward the seawall as others fell and blew up around me - or until I did? Would I, would I, would I ... the wonderings are endless.
But I was born 40 years later, so I never had to find out like those guys did. Thank God for that. Thank God for them.
My grandpa—19 and 5’5 tall—was one of them storming the beaches.
God bless him and those like him. May we never forget that freedom is not free.
Captain America?
(Yes I know Steve Rogers is neither real or would have been there for D-Day)
A thousand blessings upon your house.
It was honestly a miracle that the invasion succeeded. If the Germans had their shit together they should have been able to push us back into the sea.
Also, we should be building some modern battleships, or at the very least updating and recommissioning the Iowa class boats. Those guns made a huge difference during all of the amphibious invasions of the war. We wouldn't be able to pull it off today.
Of course, it was no coincidence the Germans were not prepared.
The war would be different today with our ability to deliver smart ordinance and various methods of dropping in infantry. The men who were there for D Day had unfathomable courage!
Read this yesterday about Ernie Pyle’s reporting on D-Day and WWII overall. Thought it was a very moving account of his refusal to shy away from the uncomfortable details of war and what exactly we were fighting for and the costs of that fight.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/05/magazine/d-day-normandy-75th-ernie-pyle.html
"the eyes of the world are upon you"
god bless those badasses, greatest generation
Huge turning point for the US as a global power. Much simpler times, much more integrity in the way we as a people, and as a nation conducted ourselves.
Unfortunately we've been so far removed from this type of tragedy and loss... we've become entitled. I don't have much, but I do thank those that sacrificed so much, for what little I do have.
Obviously a historic day in American and World history.
What I always think about --- June 6, 1944 and everything that happened during the 1943-1945 era was a result of the mobilization of the ENTIRE COUNTRY for the WW2 effort. The entire freaking country! The amount of resources: manpower, industrial production , money, et cetera. It was incredible.
All props to those who were in Normandy 75 years ago - today is the day to remember them. But our WW2 victory was truly a "Team America" effort.
i agree 100% with your sentiment, but would tell you from the contact with my father and his generation that 12/7/41 was when, as emperor hirohito is alleged to have said, japan awoke a sleeping giant. it was 'game on' from then until VJ day. and yeah, God bless those brave men and women and that generation's sacrifices for the world and our country. doubt there will ever be another such engagement where this country is so united.
It wasn't Emperor Hirohito who said that, it was Adm Isoroku Yamamato - CMDR of the Japanese Combined Fleet. He studied in America and was a voice of caution, concern, and opposition to the pending fight with America. Nonetheless, he obeyed orders and did his job well.
Otherwise, what you said is absolutely true.
The text of the film quote per Wikipedia:
Isoroku Yamamoto's sleeping giant quote
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Isoroku Yamamoto's sleeping giant quotation is a film quote by the Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto regarding the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor by forces of Imperial Japan.
The quotation is portrayed at the very end of the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora! as:
I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.[1]
Admiral Yamamoto
There's a reason they call it The Greatest Generation
My granddad was part of that generation - he saw some action in the Ardennes (Battle of the Bulge) in late 1944.
He would say quite often: "don't let folk say that we are the only generation that would have answered the call. We did what we had to do. But if the crap hit the fan once again, I'm confident the new generations would do it too."
Maybe I'm too much of an idealist, but I DO agree with him.
I believe it. It seemingly came out of nowhere and everyone answered the call. People shit on our country a lot, but i think it our freedom was truly threatened everyone would unite. Maybe i'm too optimistic.
While I think it technically started on December 7th, 1941, your overall sentiment is spot-on. The entire country was on board and rallied behind the troops. Everyone did their part. It was total, full-scale mobilization. There was no "counter-culture" like you saw with Vietnam. The entire country had one mission and one goal.
I don't know that we'll ever see anything like that again. Almost, if not every major conflict the US has been involved with since WWII has involved a sizable portion of our population wondering why we're even involved, and what ulterior motives that the powers that be in this country may really have for being there. Not arguing for one side or the other, but you look at Vietnam, the Gulf War, Afghanistan, Iraq, people had one of two mindsets about those wars. And they were very, VERY different mindsets.
There was no one wondering why we went to war with Japan and Germany.
Well of course, we were attacked. Prior to Pearl Harbor many Americans did not want any part of the war.
I'd argue actually that public sentiment was pretty similar immediately after 9/11. Very few people questioned the initial intervention in Afghanistan. It was Iraq that really divided society.
I wish i could say what i want to.
We were directly attacked by another nation, that's why everyone was united behind the cause. If something like that ever happens again, God forbid, I imagine the response will be the same.
That said, the WWII generation was tough as nails. And we owe all of them a huge debt, as they did nothing less than save the world.
Bless them, what a different world we live in today because of their sacrifices.
It's incredible to think most of the soldiers storming the beaches were just kids 18-20 something years old.
Truly the Greatest Generation, no doubt.
Greatest generation.
I'm ashamed to admit how many times i have watched that series.
I learned German in high school and college. Thanks to these guys, it was strictly voluntary.
Gleichwals.
My grandpa was in the 101st, Charlie Company, and parachuted in the early hours. He's also in the very famous picture of Ike talking to the troops before D-Day.
Let's not forget the Free French forces which fought for the liberation of their homeland on June 6. These include 177 commandos deployed on Sword Beach; four sticks of paratroopers dropped over Brittany; three fighter squadrons and two light and heavy bomber squadrons which took part in the pre-invasion bombardment; and four Free French ships: cruisers “Montcalm” and “Georges Leygues” and destroyers “Roselys” and “La Combattante”.
Also, from behind the German lines, members of the French Resistance provided important intelligence for the Allies, and dynamited railways to slow the arrival of reinforcements.
We lost nearly 500,000 American's in WWII. Fighting for the freedom of others more so than anything else. They are known as the Greatest Generation for good reason.
18, 19, 20 years old storming that beach, having to step over the bodies of your fallen brothers and driving forward, no quit, no self-pity.... truly great men.
John 15:13 says there's no greater love than to give your life for a friend...... These fine young men gave their life for the freedom of total strangers.
Never forget!
Always Remember, Never Forget!
That was fascinating.
My grandpa did not take part in D-Day but was on the U.S.S. Gambier Bay, an escort carrier that was sunk by the Japs in the Pacific. Luckily, he survived the sinking and the sharks that claimed many of his shipmates.
" The majority of her nearly 800 survivors were rescued two days later by landing and patrol craft dispatched from Leyte Gulf. Sharks killed many drifting crewmembers. Three other ships—Hoel, Samuel B. Roberts, and Johnston—were also lost in the battle. Gambier Bay was the only US Navy aircraft carrier sunk by surface naval gunfire during World War II. "
This and many more examples, is why we have military "frippery".
Here is the complete radio broadcast day for 6/6/44:
https://archive.org/details/Complete_Broadcast_Day_D-Day
It's really interesting to hear the reported events unfold.
The light of that generation is fading, now. It is sad that this is the last significant anniversary that any real quantity of vets will survive to see.
But at least there is a free Europe to which they can travel to see it.
The speeches today were good. Macron’s genuine gratitude was beautiful.
Agreed. I wonder and am anxious about what the world will do once those remaining service members are gone - who will be the voice to help ward off evil? One with firsthand experience?
i think our culture today thinks 'evil' is very different than the heroic generation that fought WWII.
None of my family participated in the D-Day landings, but many of them fought in the war on other fronts.
When the German tanks crossed over the Polish border in 1939, my great uncle Jan, who was all of 13 years old at the time, grabbed his hunting rifle and went off into the woods with some friends. They spend the next 6 years living off the land, disrupting supply lines, and killing Germans whenever they could. Jan lived, earned his Phd, and became a scientist of some note. I met him for the first time when I was 8 and he was a visiting professor at Cornell.
My other great uncle had the very first shot of WWII fired at him. He was the commander of a small unit of Polish forces on the Westerplatte peninsula. They withstood point-blank fire from a German battleship, dive-bombing raids, and marine assaults, for a week. They eventually surrendered when they ran out of ammunition. His was the only unit offered honorable terms of surrender by the Germans.
tldr? There were some badass motherfuckers in my family tree.
Can't thank those who served on this fateful day enough.
I just hope that we use anniversaries like these to remember that while our country feels divided at many times, in the end we all want to do the same thing and should defend that above all. It's powerful how united the United States were then. I hope that if the time comes we can find that place in ourselves again.
Truly the greatest generation, the whole world owes those men a beer and a salute!
Well, I am in the weird position of having family on both sides of this battle actually. My dad's father was in the British XXX Corps, which came up Gold Beach. My mother's father drove a tank in the fifth Panzer Army that eventually got trapped in (but escaped from) the Falaise Pocket.
If I remember my history, General Brian Horrocks' XXX Corps was also the "Garden" half of "Operation Market Garden," Montgomery's ill-fated attempt to get the Allies over the Rhine through Holland.
If your grandfather saw action there as well, the empire certainly got their money's worth out of him. Salute.
Mrs. Hatter is 1/4 German (and 1st Gen American). There are whispers that some of her extended family not only fought for the Germans (which would be expected), but had to escape to South America after the war. Which means they were SS. Or worse.