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D-Day

Posted By: rwatson

D-Day - 06/06/19 09:37 AM

Today 75 years ago men landed at Normandy..I will pause to remember and salute the brave men who served there they were truly "The Greatest Generation" and deserve or gratitude for preserving the freedom we have today
Posted By: KraziKanuK

Re: D-Day - 06/06/19 09:41 AM

Originally Posted by rwatson
Today 75 years ago men landed at Normandy..I will pause to remember and salute the brave men who served there they were truly "The Greatest Generation"

Yes a thank you for them all, overseas and at home.
Posted By: F4UDash4

Re: D-Day - 06/06/19 10:04 AM

<SALUTE>
Posted By: PanzerMeyer

Re: D-Day - 06/06/19 10:17 AM

Salute and respect!!

Today is a good day to break out my Blu-ray Disc for “The Longest Day”.
Posted By: rwatson

Re: D-Day - 06/06/19 10:23 AM

for sure PM and "Saving PVT Ryan" I get chills at the landing at Omaha,and wonder if I could have done it
Posted By: F4UDash4

Re: D-Day - 06/06/19 12:40 PM

Written by General Eisenhower, to be released if the D-Day invasion failed. A real leader.

"Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that Bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone."
Posted By: F4UDash4

Re: D-Day - 06/06/19 12:46 PM

Also on June 6, 1944 while 156,000 British, American and Canadian troops went ashore on the beaches of Normandy to defeat Hitler another 71,000 Americans embarked on troopships at Pearl Harbor headed for Saipan where they would land about 2 weeks later.

The people of todays world cannot even conceive of such near total mobilization for global warfare.
Posted By: WangoTango

Re: D-Day - 06/06/19 12:50 PM

Never Forget. Thank you Veterans.

Days like today I feel silly playing WW2 video games.
How far removed we are, in our comfort and freedom, all because of brave great men.
Posted By: rwatson

Re: D-Day - 06/06/19 02:13 PM

F4 good solid quote and for sure was the measure of the man
Posted By: oldgrognard

Re: D-Day - 06/06/19 02:32 PM

The Great Crusade.

My respects to the Allied forces that accomplished the noble endeavor.
Posted By: CyBerkut

Re: D-Day - 06/06/19 03:37 PM

<Salute!>
Posted By: Mr_Blastman

Re: D-Day - 06/06/19 03:49 PM

I learned about Juan Pujol García today:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Pujol_Garc%C3%ADa

One of the many innumerous, crafty badasses that helped us bring down the wicked Nazi rule.
Posted By: Pooch

Re: D-Day - 06/06/19 05:07 PM

"The people of todays world cannot even conceive of such near total mobilization for global warfare."

No, they don't! Years ago a girl at my job was talking about the Olympics and mentioned something about the games during a year that the Second World War was being fought. I explained to her that there were no Olympic Games during World War Two. "Why not?" she said.
I tried to patiently explain that you don't go playing games at a time when the entire planet in embroiled in a world war. You don't play soccer against against a country when you are trying to wipe each other out. I wound up going into how we didn't even build civilian cars during those years and that's why you don't see any 1944 Chevies and Fords being restored. There weren't any built!
The idea was completely alien to her. I really got the impression that she was not convinced and that it couldn't have been as bad as all that!
People today are used to these small wars that we fight. They don't affect your life unless you have someone "over there." They can not grasp the concept of the entire country being mobilized for war and how it affects and intrudes on almost every facet of your life. You couln't even use your car every day because of fuel rationing. It was needed for the war effort. Women couldn't buy stockings because the silk was needed for parachutes. Schools collected pots and pans and donated the metal to the factories making planes, ships, tanks, and everything else needed for such a huge undertaking as a global war.
No, people today can not conceive of it.
Posted By: PanzerMeyer

Re: D-Day - 06/06/19 05:11 PM

Originally Posted by Pooch

No, people today can not conceive of it.



And let's hope we don't have another war on such a scale as WW 2 where the people today will get a very rude awakening.


Actually, another war on the same scale as WW 2 wouldn't last nearly as long since it would undoubtedly go full nuclear.
Posted By: rwatson

Re: D-Day - 06/06/19 05:15 PM

Pooch for those serving there is no small wars And I understand that people don't understand the concept of total war.Unless they have someone serving it doesn't hit home ,,when I served I was just away to a place they couldn't find on a map
Posted By: Pooch

Re: D-Day - 06/06/19 05:16 PM

"Actually, another war on the same scale as WW 2 wouldn't last nearly as long since it would undoubtedly go full nuclear."
I think it would go nuclear very quickly. Both sides would be expecting the other to push the button so they'd want to beat them to it. There'd be no time for school metal drives during the next one. The missiles would be flying the very first day.
Posted By: Pooch

Re: D-Day - 06/06/19 05:20 PM

R, I'm sure you know what I meant by "small wars." It was in no way an attempt to deminish the importance or impact of ANY war on someone who was there. I'm speaking comparitively. Compared to World War 2, Viet Nam was a small war. But 58,000 American were killed.
Posted By: rwatson

Re: D-Day - 06/06/19 05:20 PM

to use the maximum means to achieve the desired objective
Posted By: Sluggish Controls

Re: D-Day - 06/06/19 05:26 PM

Salute to All !
Jour-J, jamais oublie
Posted By: oldgrognard

Re: D-Day - 06/06/19 07:57 PM

Originally Posted by Pooch
"The people of todays world cannot even conceive of such near total mobilization for global warfare."

No, they don't! Years ago a girl at my job was talking about the Olympics and mentioned something about the games during a year that the Second World War was being fought. I explained to her that there were no Olympic Games during World War Two. "Why not?" she said.
I tried to patiently explain that you don't go playing games at a time when the entire planet in embroiled in a world war. You don't play soccer against against a country when you are trying to wipe each other out. I wound up going into how we didn't even build civilian cars during those years and that's why you don't see any 1944 Chevies and Fords being restored. There weren't any built!
The idea was completely alien to her. I really got the impression that she was not convinced and that it couldn't have been as bad as all that!
People today are used to these small wars that we fight. They don't affect your life unless you have someone "over there." They can not grasp the concept of the entire country being mobilized for war and how it affects and intrudes on almost every facet of your life. You couln't even use your car every day because of fuel rationing. It was needed for the war effort. Women couldn't buy stockings because the silk was needed for parachutes. Schools collected pots and pans and donated the metal to the factories making planes, ships, tanks, and everything else needed for such a huge undertaking as a global war.
No, people today can not conceive of it.


If your daughter doesn’t get it about sports during the Second World War, you can use the movie “A League of Their Own”. Ask her why they even formed professional women’s baseball teams. The men were off in service.

Talk to her about Pete Gray , the one armed player, who played during the war until .... “Gray's major league career ended that same year when many of baseball's stars returned from the battlefront and assumed their previous positions on the diamond. ”
Posted By: Bill_Grant

Re: D-Day - 06/06/19 08:19 PM

Solid read by an author that was there, written in 1960

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1960/11/first-wave-at-omaha-beach/303365/
Posted By: rwatson

Re: D-Day - 06/06/19 08:37 PM

bloody good read Bill "least we Forget" the men who went ashore,,Watching some good shows on TCM Dunkirk now and The Battle of Britain next and "The longest Day " after
Posted By: oldgrognard

Re: D-Day - 06/06/19 08:43 PM

That is better than a solid read. It captures the utter overwhelming blanket that descends on you in combat. Your span of command and control shrinks to those you can touch and yell to. Your field of vision narrows and sometimes you are seeing no more than looking through a cardboard tube. Utter chaos.



Another good read on the cost and conditions.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/a...ford_boys_ultimate_sacrifice_140507.html
Posted By: malibu43

Re: D-Day - 06/06/19 09:33 PM

Originally Posted by Bill_Grant


That was a very humbling thing to read. Not sure what else to say.
Posted By: F4UDash4

Re: D-Day - 06/06/19 10:14 PM

Originally Posted by oldgrognard
That is better than a solid read. It captures the utter overwhelming blanket that descends on you in combat. Your span of command and control shrinks to those you can touch and yell to. Your field of vision narrows and sometimes you are seeing no more than looking through a cardboard tube. Utter chaos.



Another good read on the cost and conditions.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/a...ford_boys_ultimate_sacrifice_140507.html



"The Bedford Boys" is a harrowing read. Very sad.
Posted By: WOLF257

Re: D-Day - 06/06/19 10:25 PM

S! to all who took part, to the men who returned and especially those that didn't.
Posted By: Pooch

Re: D-Day - 06/06/19 11:11 PM

"Solid read by an author that was there, written in 1960"

Wow...I read that on the edge of my seat. I've read few descriptions of the landings that were as terrifying as that. Some war stories are written in ways that almost make you wish you could have been there. I would not like to have been wading ashore on Omaha Beach, on the morning of June 6th, 1944.
Posted By: Coot

Re: D-Day - 06/07/19 02:30 AM

Posted By: Pooch

Re: D-Day - 06/07/19 04:08 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbHPcg9zcDw

This is a documentary on the very same unit the article talked about, the 116th REG of the 29th Division at Normandy. Some of the men mentioned in the story were interviewed for it.
Posted By: kaa

Re: D-Day - 06/07/19 11:44 AM

Originally Posted by F4UDash4
Also on June 6, 1944 while 156,000 British, American and Canadian troops went ashore on the beaches of Normandy to defeat Hitler another 71,000 Americans embarked on troopships at Pearl Harbor headed for Saipan where they would land about 2 weeks later.

The people of todays world cannot even conceive of such near total mobilization for global warfare.


And the day before, Rome fell into allied hands: the first Axis capital town to fall...
Posted By: No105_Archie

Re: D-Day - 06/07/19 01:01 PM

Saw a BBC clip yesterday of a millennial reporter interviewing a an old D-Day vet. The old guy had a strong London accent. I was struck by how much his words sounded like an interview I heard with George H Bush years ago.. The millennial reporter kept calling this old chap a "hero" . He stopped her and said something like. " I was not a hero. I was just a young chap doing my job and my duty. the heroes gave their lives " George H said something like " I'm not a hero......I was just dumb enough to get shot down "

What GREAT men. They KNEW what service and duty meant.
Posted By: wormfood

Re: D-Day - 06/07/19 02:19 PM

Don't forget the other landing sites.
Here's a great speech, I've only just discovered, from Reagan at Pointe du Hoc:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTLVIp1AjAg
Posted By: F4UDash4

Re: D-Day - 06/07/19 02:53 PM

Originally Posted by wormfood
Don't forget the other landing sites.
Here's a great speech, I've only just discovered, from Reagan at Pointe du Hoc:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTLVIp1AjAg




I vividly remember that speech. It was and is awesome.
Posted By: oldgrognard

Re: D-Day - 06/07/19 03:01 PM

That was a great speech.

I’d have taken a bullet for Reagan.
Posted By: PanzerMeyer

Re: D-Day - 06/07/19 03:04 PM

Reagan's poise and charisma will not be replicated in my lifetime.
Posted By: rwatson

Re: D-Day - 06/07/19 03:40 PM

Good post wormfood I listened to it twice..Always had great respect for President Reagan a good man..I still hear him saying
Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
Posted By: Alicatt

Re: D-Day - 06/09/19 08:46 PM

My nephew was one of the C130 pilots dropping paratroopers for the D-Day commemoration, waiting for his turn to take off along with USAF C130s

http://simhq.com/forum/tmp/16681.jpg

Attached picture C130PP.jpg
Posted By: oldgrognard

Re: D-Day - 06/09/19 08:53 PM

That’s a great experience. One he will always treasure ; more in retrospect when he looks back later in life.
Posted By: Alicatt

Re: D-Day - 06/09/19 09:05 PM

That I'm sure he will, this area owes a lot to the Scots and Welsh Guards who were the main troops that liberated the towns here, and one of the streets is called 12th September straat as that was the day in 1944 that the town was liberated from the occupying German forces.
Posted By: KraziKanuK

Re: D-Day - 06/09/19 11:20 PM

Originally Posted by Alicatt
That I'm sure he will, this area owes a lot to the Scots and Welsh Guards who were the main troops that liberated the towns here, and one of the streets is called 12th September straat as that was the day in 1944 that the town was liberated from the occupying German forces.


The area I grew up in was a post war development for WW2 vets and had the streets named after battles/areas they fought in. Normandy was the main street and Falaise the second major street. My street was Arnhem tho it took 40 years to have the Dutch spelling not the German spelling on the signs.
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