D-Day today
 

Today marks the 64th anniversary of the D-Day landings, on this day in 1944 the largest ever amphibious assault was underway, ships and landing craft carrying 130,000 men of the allied armies were about to penetrate Hitlers Atlantic Wall. Of the five invasion beaches the British assaulted code name Gold and Sword, between these two the Canadians took Juno and off to the west the Americans stormed Omaha and Utah. By the evening Allied forces had established a small beachhead, and from this point on men and supplies flooded in, the much anticipated second front had been opened. As we all know D-Day was a success and the beginning of the end of Hitlers third reich, but this opening offensive cost in the region of 10,000 casualties, young men, as the poem says, who really did give all their tomorrow's for our today's.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/d...00/3499352.stm


http://www.ddaymuseum.co.uk/

Re: D-Day today
 

thanks for that, froggie - 10,000 casualties - we really should be more grateful for our 'todays' ...

Re: D-Day today
 

Tell you what, they had some humongous testicles coming off those amphibious landers and facing a wall of machine gun fire. All i know is in that situation id be hiding like a chicken.

Re: D-Day today
 

Yes I never cease to be moved by footage of the landings and men being cut down on the beaches. The same is true of the WWI footage of soldiers going 'over the top'. The fact that, as is the case now, so many of these men were so young only serves to make the whole thing even more moving.

Lest we forget!

Not wishing to digress but mental images of events related to me by my father have a similar effect. Based on a minesweeper in the Atlantic, he told me how they once came upon the aftermath of a torpedoed US warship. He was only in his late teens and at first he thought (quite possibly even deluded himself) the water was full of grotesque statues. His lifelong memory is dragging stiff bodies of young US servicemen from the icy water.....


Oh and co-incidentally it's this guy's birthday today!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7439117.stm

Re: D-Day today
 

They didn't really have large testicles a lot were conscripted and didn't really have a choice. From documentaries these guys were terrified but they just had to do it im sure a lot tried hiding like chickens and were just shot by said machine guns for their trouble.

I agree remember the dead with pride but also remember the politics left over from WW I that gave the charismatic man who was Hitler the opportunity to gain power in the first place.Wars are not started by the common man but by those who are meant to look out for our best interests

Re: D-Day today
 

A hell of a lot of them were not conscripted either Zingle so your comment wasn't necessary. What happened on june 6th 1944 is something for us all to be proud of and to remember those that fell and those are the only comments that should be made.

Re: D-Day today
 

However you see it - millions of these people gave their lives for us.

Re: D-Day today
 

How very apt that Mr Henry Allingham 112 years old today, the last survivor of the Battle of Jutland and one of only three survivors of the Great War, should share his birthday with such an auspicious event. Many happy returns Henry.:birthday: