D-Day – IOTW Report

D-Day

Tuesday, 6 June 2017, 12:00 MJA Uncategorized 27

 

During World War II (1939-1945), the Battle of Normandy, which lasted from June 1944 to August 1944, resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control. Codenamed Operation Overlord, the battle began on June 6, 1944, also known as D-Day, when some 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region. The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history and required extensive planning. Prior to D-Day, the Allies conducted a large-scale deception campaign designed to mislead the Germans about the intended invasion target. By late August 1944, all of northern France had been liberated, and by the following spring the Allies had defeated the Germans. The Normandy landings have been called the beginning of the end of war in Europe.

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27 Comments on D-Day

  1. This is hell from the sky
    this is hell on the sea
    this is hell on earth
    just for you and me
    it’s a long wade through deep water
    to get to the beach

    (from “D-Day” by John Erhardt)

  4. As a child I used to ask all the time how in the world could everyone forget an entire city (Pompeii). It blew my mind that the destruction of an entire metropolis could be **forgotten** and that when it was re-discovered the world was surprised.

    This morning I saw a headline that asks if D-Day will
    fade from our memories once the last living veteran passes away. It seems so terrible to contemplate, though having lived through the last ten years I understand the fear, and now better recognize the way in which the world can forget. It isn’t just leftist scum that causes history to disappear; it’s also because good people don’t challenge that silence–and in an age when so many fought for our freedom to do that very thing, challenge the silence or lies, it is a disgrace when we don’t.

    Nothing is too small–a small banner on Facebook, an image at your desk, tell your children about the fifteen year olds who lied about their age so they could go fight and cruelly die on a foreign beach so they could have a better life, that our nations would still be free when their time came to be born.

    We owe them EVERYTHING.

  5. My father’s best friend from Wichita Falls, Texas landed on Omaha Beach with the 29th Infantry Division in one of the early waves. Fought all the way through the war to the surrender of the Nazis as a Sargent. Never suffered a scratch. At the end of the war, only a handful of men were left from the original company roster. He never talked about it unless someone asked him what he did in the war. He earned his way in the world. Knowing him, I know what his generation would think about the current situation in England and France.

  6. Had an uncle who was a coxswain on a landing craft that day for the first and third waves. He didn’t really talk about rather often saying “it was the day that changed his life.”

  7. I was fortunate enough to work for Mr.McGill who was actually there. He said there were 20,000 dead American troops on the beach after combat moved inland. He did not talk about it much.

  8. One of my fears is that unless our President is successful in turning the tide of opinion about Islamic extremism, we are now on the precipice of WWIII. We have all the same indicators, except this time our American President sees through a glass clearly; unlike FDR and his bid for reelection before him at the time. This is the greatest concern for the erasing of history. Fewer and fewer people know the real history of Germany, Hitler, appeasement and the NAZI march through western Europe. Shockingly, least of all, Europeans, themselves. It’s hard to imagine the Dutch, Swedes, Belgians, British and French unable to grasp the deja vu of being overrun by hordes of people who want to eliminate them. How many more times do we Americans have to step into the breach and save them from their own ignorance? But we have to, don’t we? I’d like to personally confront their leaders with the pictures, letters, burial and/or medical records of Americans who sacrificed everything to pull their butts out of the fire last time. Then I’d like to serve them with a bill for the cost of doing it and another for the loss of lifetime income for the families who lost the head of their households. It seems the only language the EU understands is finance, and I’d speak to them in their native tongue.

  9. Hooray! Brave Americans died to insure jews could destroy their own civilization! Look how much better off Europe is now than under the nazis! Why, if those brave Americans hadn’t died…muslims couldn’t invade Europe and America to kill us and rape our women! Yay! How proud I am!

  10. My late husband’s father was a major who served as Commander of Company A, 39th Infantry, from January 7, 1944 to March 6, 1946. He was in four battles and campaigns including Normandy, Rhineland, Ardennes, and Central Europe. He never talked about his service except for the post-war conditions in occupied Germany. He’s the one from whom I inherited a Muslim fez and an SS officer’s belt and dagger.

    (I’m not a collector of WWII enemy artifacts, so if anyone here knows one or buyer, let me know.)

  11. My Dad went in on Utah Beach.
    But I think it was D+2.
    He was a P-47 (Thunderbolt) sheet-metal mechanic.
    Had just turned 21 in April of ’44.
    Died in ’97.

    izlamo delenda est …

  13. had a Great-Uncle go in on the second wave at Omaha Beach. he would never talk about, even with the pleadings of a 10-year old hero worshiper. he would just bring out his Purple Heart (along w/ the Bronze Star & Distinguished Service Medals) occasionally … & the tears would well up.
    had another Uncle on my mom’s side that was a gunner on a Landing Craft. was credited as the first person in the Navy to down a German aircraft (from a naval vessel). never knew that until after he died a few years back …. he would never talk about it either.
    … that generation paid so much so we could adsorb ourselves on fakebook & brag about our puny, pathetic lives, slowly turning into the Eloi

  16. There are lots of things that never get mentioned when the D Day anniversary comes around. If Hitler hadn’t been fighting the Russians, the Allies never could have landed on Normandy, because millions of Germans were fighting on the Eastern Front in some of the biggest land battles in history. The Nazis were stretched too thin to adequately defend the French coast, and they were led by a delusional lunatic. If the Allies hadn’t landed in France, the Russians would have occupied all of Germany, and the world would have been a much different place for the next fifty years. Of course, the biggest mistake Hitler made was declaring war on America after Pearl Harbor, before Roosevelt would have dared to ask for a Declaration of War against Germany. Then again, if Hitler had been stopped when he marched into the Rhineland by the French or the British, it’s possible that none of this bloodshed and bravery would have been necessary. That’s why military history is so fascinating. But history’s lessons seem to be forgotten in a couple of generations. Especially in liberal, generous Western countries. That’s why the next war in Europe is going to be a religious civil war unlike anything seen there since the 1500s.

  17. … & let’s not forget the 75th anniversary of “the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare” happened yesterday

    what utter courage & sacrifice these ordinary people displayed … I wonder who would step up in a crisis of that proportion in these times? … not enough, I fear

  19. There has been a trend over the past several years to discount the role the United States played in both World Wars. People argue that in World War I, the US was only involved in combat for about 7 months. Similarly, a lot of historians argue that Russia would have defeated Nazi Germany without the Normandy invasion.

    To which I say – bullshit. America kept the allies, including Russia, going through its industrial might. We ended building the ships that formed the convoys, we ended up building the ships that protected the convoys and destroyed the Uboats, we ended up building the airplanes that destroyed the Luftwaffe, and we provided soldiers who had the right amount of swagger to get the job done. Germany ended up actually fighting a three front war – we seem to forget about Italy – and without Sicily, Italy and Normandy, the Germans may have fought the Russians to a stalemate on the eastern front. And the US did it while fighting its own two-front war; a war that took place over two oceans.

    Maybe Russia would have defeated Germany all by itself, but on the other hand Stalin had a nasty habit of keeping occupied territory for himself. But this is all speculation; the fact remains that the western allies, led by the US, launched the biggest amphibious invasion in history, were successful, and made the defeat of Germany inevitable and much quicker. We should remember and honor these folks for what they accomplished.

  21. I just received my copy of “Never Call Me A Hero” by Jack “Dusty” Kleiss, who helped sink two Jap carriers and a battleship at the Battle of Midway during June 4th-6th, 1942. He was the last survivor of the Naval airmen who turned the tide in the Pacific. Maybe some of you have seen him on the History Channel program on the USS Enterprise, or the one about the Battle of Midway. What a hero!

  22. I was a Ranger and member of the 82nd Airborne in the 70’s, and was part of the civilians’ who put on the 82nd Airborne convention in 80 and 83 in Houston Texas. I met a bunch of the 82nd and 101st paratroopers from the WW2 era, and cannot phantom what they went thru. Those are memories I will never forget. They are America’s Greatest Generation.

  23. For anyone who is interested in what hell looks like to 15 to 45 years old real men, I suggest going to youtube actual wartime footage of the war in the Pacific and the Normandy invasion. The snowflake in particular could never imagine doing the job they did and the instant death waiting for each of them. To survive this hell they went through is unimaginable. We owe a debt of gratitude that can never be paid for saving America and freedom. And now we are about to lose it all again from an enemy within, the arrogant leftist, socialist, multicultural, antifa bastards.

  27. It was I who cleared Sword Beach for the invading armies of the Empire.

    I told Ike, “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed, ye lily-livered!”
    That was just before I put some spine into Montgomery, that little runt shit-weasel! Field Marshal, indeed! He was crying and sobbing – sea-sick and puking. No Wellington, he! I remember telling Wellington, come to think of it, (during a previous invasion of France) to man-up, take the bull by the horns, and give what to whomever it’s due!

    Then there was the time when we (Caesar and I) invaded France from the South –
    but that’s another story …

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