A can of Whoop Azz was opened up ! 
1944 – World War II: The Battle of Normandy begins. D-Day, code named Operation Overlord, commences with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy in France. The allied soldiers quickly break through the Atlantic Wall and push inland in the largest amphibious military operation in history.
“Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.”
― Edmund Burke
-J.
I was gonna say that America showed her might. God bless those who served!
On June 6, 1944, during World War II, Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, on “D-Day” as they began the liberation of German-occupied Western Europe
Google is my friend. 
Old-Glory.jpg
Not to be forgotten and perhaps no less critical in the US war effort was Battle of Midway…
The Battle of Midway was a decisive naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II which occurred between 4 and 7 June 1942, only six months after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. The United States Navy under Admirals Chester Nimitz, Frank Jack Fletcher, and Raymond A. Spruance defeated an attacking fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy under Admirals Isoroku Yamamoto, Chuichi Nagumo, and Nobutake Kondo near Midway Atoll, inflicting devastating damage on the Japanese fleet that proved irreparable. Military historian John Keegan called it “the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare.”
1944 – World War II: The Battle of Normandy begins. D-Day, code named Operation Overlord, commences with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy in France. The allied soldiers quickly break through the Atlantic Wall and push inland in the largest amphibious military operation in history.
“Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.”
― Edmund Burke
Nothing quick or painless about it.
Yes, we just observed Memorial day in honor of those who died, but I really wish days like this were kept on the actual date of the event being remembered. Moving the day for “convenience”, has turned a day of remembrance, into just another 3 day weekend.
My hat is off and my hand on my heart, for and to all those who died to make D-Day happen.
When living in the UK in the early 1990s, I stopped by to see some British friends and Grandpa happened to be visiting.
Cliff, knowing I was studying History, casually mentioned that Grandfather was in The War. I asked the elderly gent where he served. By the way, in the UK there was almost literally not a man who would have been of fighting age during WW2 that did NOT serve.
Grandfather reeled off a list of extrodianry places and battles, as it turned out he was a British Paratrooper. And then he told me, “Yes, well, it all came to an end in June of 1944 for me, I’m afraid.”
He proceeded to tell me the most harrowing tale. At before dawn on June 6, ’44 he and his regiment jumped into the dark behind German lines in Normandy. The idea was to catch the Germans in a pinchers and either attack from both the beach and the landward side, or catch the Germans in full retreat.
The plan was to jump and assemble in the churchyard in a tiny French town.
Unfortunately, this gent got a little too close to the intended landing zone and in the pitch black, he landed on top of the iron fence surrounding the churchyard and was speared through the chest with the iron fence spikes.
So there he hung figuring that was it, he dared not cry out as being discovered by the Germans would ruin the mission.
As luck would have it, a few of his regiment came in to the churchyard and found him before he bled out. A painful process ensued, but they did get him off the fence (!). In hinsight, he said this was not so much to save him as to “hide the body”, for that side of the fence faced the main road where he was sure to be discovered come dawn.
So they dressed his wound as best they could, tucked this gent literally in a hedgerow, and said it’s been nice knowing you old man, GSTK, etc.
He proceeded to spend D-Day in a hedgerow, by his best estimate it was 20 feet from the main road wich was just a French country lane, the hedge almost to the edge of the road on each side. When the fighting started 3 hours later, suddenly there was all manner of German men and equimpment passing literally within feet of him. At one point, a group of German soliders on foot stepped off the road to let some trucks by and in the process passed within arms length of him. The whole of the day there were Germans in full on retreat thundering past, he dared not even move to drink from his canteen.
He spent D-Day, and most of the following day in the hedgerow. Finally, he heard English being spoken and he called out. It was some members of his Regiment back to see if they could find him, or as he put it, more likely find his body. The were quite amazed and to add to the luck they actually heard him call out, for they were looking for him in the wrong place because they had hidden him in the dark.
He told me all this in the most ordinary way, as if he were recalling a trip to the grocery store just yesterday. I told him that was the most amazing tale I’d ever had honor to hear personally, but he said it was a great disappointment to him, for he was bundled up and shipped back to the UK for months of recovery and so, as he put it, “Missed my chance to give the hun one King and Country.”
Extrodinary people, extrodianary times. I’ve often thought of this when I hear people complain about the hard times we have these days.
Grouse
Yes, we just observed Memorial day in honor of those who died, but I really wish days like this were kept on the actual date of the event being remembered. Moving the day for “convenience”, has turned a day of remembrance, into just another 3 day weekend.
I’m not sure what you’re referring to here, when you say “kept on the actual date”. Are you under the impression that Memorial Day stems from a commemoration of those who died on D-Day? If so, that would be incorrect.
The history of honoring fallen soldiers with ceremonies and gatherings in late May or early June goes back to just after the Civil War. It’s placement there has nothing to do with the occurrence of D-Day in early June almost 100 years later.
Grouse
I watched a documentary on WWII a couple years ago and they talked about all the deception leading up to D-Day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Fortitude
If I remember right, after Patton was removed from his position in Italy(after famously slapping a soldier I think), they stationed him in the UK, fairly publicly(so the Germans thought we were planning something big). They wanted to convince Germany that they were planning attacks on Norway and France, they leaked information through spies, fake radio broadcasts, etc. My favorite though, they staged like hundreds or thousands of inflatable tanks, boats, planes in England, with Patton in vicinity to make it look like they were planning a huge attack on Pas de Calais. German spy planes would see these fake divisions marching and building forces, but the technology in the 40s didn’t allow them to see they were fake forces.
The end result was Germany sending like a million additional troops to Pas de Calais to prepare for the assault, instead of Normandy. Tough to say what would have happened, but the Allied losses would have been significantly higher had this genius bit of deception not been crafted. There’s a chance we would have never got that foothold in France on that day to begin with(imagine there being hundreds of thousands more German forces on those beaches that day, scary thought).
It is absolutely incredible what those that came before us went through and did for us. Amazing what mankind is capable of when there isn’t another option.
Beat me to it JJ, thanks for posting! I am not overstating it when I say that the actions that men and women have done for our country just blow my mind. No words to describe. Forever grateful for our country and how we got here.
GOD BLESS ‘MERICA 
Here’s by the numbers
73038E9C-59D4-4DCE-87C8-9F9B983FAD1B.jpeg
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
