Just The News: For the first time in 75 years, America’s D-Day commemoration ceremonies in Normandy, France will not be held on the beaches where brutal combat changed the course of World War II. Instead, because of coronavirus, observances for Operation Overlord will be held virtually, military officials said.
Operation Overlord, the D-Day offensive of June 6, 1944, was the largest amphibious assault in history. During the invasion, nearly 160,000 Allied forces forged through treacherous water and in the face of withering fire, to land on Normandy.
“While we will never know every individual act of heroism that occurred on D-Day, we can pause to honor all the Allied forces who acted so valiantly 76 years ago,” said Gen. Tod D. Wolters, the head of U.S. European Command. more
Considering what the allied forces faced while trying to establish beachheads to free the European continent from the Nazis this idea of a “virtual” commemoration is a blatant insult. Were the Euroweenie officials waving a white flag while issuing the statement?
My Dad went in at Omaha beach as a first wave combat medic in the Army.
He never talked about it, not even once.
I imagine most people today short of the Boomer generation don’t really know what D-day signifies.
They think they are erasing history. They are wrong.
IOTW has the only mention of D Day I have seen so far today. How sad. We might have the country we do but for those brave men. Never forget!
Those men gave their all to provide this nation and the world a greater opportunity for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness! A short 76 years later all their sacrifices are proving to have been in vain!
We could defeat the Nazis and the Soviet Union but a tiny virus that affects virtually no healthy person has stopped us in our tracks, amazing.
Spent the late morning watching “Saving Private Ryan”
to help me focus on the day.
had a great-uncle in the Army that landed on Omaha Beach … had another uncle, in a Navy LCD at Omaha (actually credited w/ shooting down the first Me-109 for the Navy … never knew that until his funeral, cited by a Navy Chaplain)
the uncle in the Army was MIA on the road to Berlin when a tank he was walking next to was hit. he was blown into a hedgerow & was found several days later w/ a blown out chest & a wicked leg burn … they sewed him up & grafted flesh from a recently dead German onto his leg (so the story goes
… they actually sent someone to my Great-Grandparents to say he was MIA … how devastating that must have been … they had 3 of their 5 sons in service at that time (the other 2 were too young). uncle ‘Beechie’ (his nickname) came home w/ the Purple Heart … always had the feeling it was his most prized possession