Great read on a solemn day to honor all the brave soldiers of many nations who fought those evil fascists despite the odds against them. I wish we had a higher percentage of real men like that today in the World.
Well said. June-6 should also be known as Real Man day. For it was tens of thousands of men, many willing to lay down their own lives, who realized the liberation of Europe. And as Jeffrey relates, it was tens of thousands of men in the Pacific front who risked death and gave their lives to free Asia from Japanese aggression.
Fortunately, we don't fight war the way the old wars were fought. Unfortunately, our culture does not value sacrifice and unselfish devotion as was required to win the old wars.
President Reagan's 40th Anniversary Speech, 06/06/1984 “These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.”
The sacrifices that the men and women of that generation made for us are amazing. God bless them all.
It may sound silly, but I try to watch “The Longest Day” every year. It illustrates for me the magnitude of the effort and incredible sacrifices made by those men. There are a number of scenes in that movie that still send a chill up my spine today, even after watching the film at least 50 times or so.
On this 80th anniversary of the beginning of D-Day, it reminds me how quickly time passes: Less than a year before the beginning of the Battle of Normandy, in July 1943, we marked the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg.
Thanks for the fine remembrance Mr Carter. My father flew bomber cover for those guys as part of the Bloody 100th Bomb Group. He attended the 40th anniversary memorial in France and my mother told me it's the only time she'd ever seen him cry in public. They were quite a group of men and women in those days. All gave some. Some gave all.
Of course, that day was a good day for the 100th. No real threats in the sky. In the years before that day, you had a better chance of surviving on Omaha than you did making your missions in the Bloody 100th.
True that sir! 96-97% casualty rate! And he was home after VE Day preparing to go to the Pacific theatre until Truman dropped the bombs that ended the war in the Pacific. He never thought his luck would have held out in another tour. And I and my six siblings wouldn't be around to honor his memory!
The French situation reminds me of the paradox the US and UK faced with the French Partisans. French and refugee Communists made up a large proportion of the Partisan forces. The US/UK could arm them via airdrop and the French Mafia running the same smuggling operations they have always run in Marseilles etc. But if you gave the Partisans machine guns, grenades etc, you risked the Commies doing what they always do, robbing banks and killing people indiscriminately while they looted the civilians rather than engaging the Germans.
Had a good chat with a Vet from the Afghan War on Memorial Day. Same situation with arming civilians over there. High risk of them turning against other civilians.
While D-Day, and the American and English landing was absolutely arguably the most decisive engagement in the war in Europe in bringing it to a close and yes those pesky French-Socialists/Communists were/are never going to give Normandy and all that it did to defeat Germany its due, there is sadly, as always with things involving FDR's white house a lot of issues with the invasion to begin with. While it was unreal what was done, and this takes none of the accolades or admiration away from those incredible men and what they did; the facts are it was never necessary. We all ready had a foothold in Europe in Italy and frankly a Balkan's landing, which several generals, including Patton, lobbied for because Normandy was going around your ass to get to your elbow and said as much. However, because of the Alger Hiss's of the world, the Tugwell's, the Harry Hopkins(a.k.a. the Co-president) and their love and or allegiance to the USSR and Stalin simply repeating to FDR that they needed to establish a Western Front in Europe....umh, dude, we all ready have one in Italy because last time I checked JS, Italy was part of Europe- Stalin retort- No, that is not the front I am looking for to help take the pressure off of the USSR and the German forces it is currently dealing with and more importantly, I don't want non-soviet forces in the Balkans because I have designs on all of eastern Europe and whatever else I can con the west into giving me after this thing is over. Sadly, we never needed to land all of those men, we had a "beach" front already in place and would have had a lot easier time making our way to Berlin. But what the heck. Of course same admin that left at least 10-20 thousand U.S. soldiers, at least, who just happened to be in the wrong place at wars end in the hands of the Soviets who gave them a warm welcome in gulags as our special friend, as FDR loved to refer to the USSR as, no longer was very friendly. A lot of the story either has not been told, is still classified and or what has been told is really not very becoming of the United States as it relates to its military during this time in our history.
"How do you volunteer to be a Doolittle Raider knowing you were ditching your plane and probably wouldn’t make it back?"
Not quite; the PLAN was to launch the B-25s from the carrier, bomb Japan, and continue on to land on "friendly" fields in China. But they encountered a Japanese fishing boat a day out from the intended launch site and feared that they had radioed home. So they launched the bombers 300 miles out from the plan. At that point, they knew that they were going to have problems; ditching or crashing. And a good number of the crew made it, even so, to China where they could be re-patriated.
Agree. I know the history (met the Doolittle Raiders). They knew they weren't coming back ditching out over China....Bill Cole had never jumped out of a plane before. He read the manual on how to use a parachute on the way over.
Although an unpopular view, I think you will find there were more collaborators in France than resistance fighters. While the Soviets do deserve credit for helping defeat the Nazis, a lot of people (including the Russians) seem to forget they were allies with the Nazis at the start of the war and were responsible for the Katyn Forest Massacre in Poland. Also going unmentioned about the Soviets is the massive amount of material aid from the United States which allowed them to fight Russia. Had it not been for this material support things might have been much worse for them.
https://x.com/vek1217/status/1798697739276140552 Send him to his room, now
She took him home early. No ice cream either, from the looks of it.
Thanks to all who gave their lives to liberate Europe and the world !!!!!
Great read on a solemn day to honor all the brave soldiers of many nations who fought those evil fascists despite the odds against them. I wish we had a higher percentage of real men like that today in the World.
Well said. June-6 should also be known as Real Man day. For it was tens of thousands of men, many willing to lay down their own lives, who realized the liberation of Europe. And as Jeffrey relates, it was tens of thousands of men in the Pacific front who risked death and gave their lives to free Asia from Japanese aggression.
Fortunately, we don't fight war the way the old wars were fought. Unfortunately, our culture does not value sacrifice and unselfish devotion as was required to win the old wars.
Landing on the beaches in the Pacific was no day at the beach either.
President Reagan's 40th Anniversary Speech, 06/06/1984 “These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.”
The sacrifices that the men and women of that generation made for us are amazing. God bless them all.
It may sound silly, but I try to watch “The Longest Day” every year. It illustrates for me the magnitude of the effort and incredible sacrifices made by those men. There are a number of scenes in that movie that still send a chill up my spine today, even after watching the film at least 50 times or so.
On this 80th anniversary of the beginning of D-Day, it reminds me how quickly time passes: Less than a year before the beginning of the Battle of Normandy, in July 1943, we marked the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg.
Thanks for the fine remembrance Mr Carter. My father flew bomber cover for those guys as part of the Bloody 100th Bomb Group. He attended the 40th anniversary memorial in France and my mother told me it's the only time she'd ever seen him cry in public. They were quite a group of men and women in those days. All gave some. Some gave all.
Of course, that day was a good day for the 100th. No real threats in the sky. In the years before that day, you had a better chance of surviving on Omaha than you did making your missions in the Bloody 100th.
True that sir! 96-97% casualty rate! And he was home after VE Day preparing to go to the Pacific theatre until Truman dropped the bombs that ended the war in the Pacific. He never thought his luck would have held out in another tour. And I and my six siblings wouldn't be around to honor his memory!
Well put. Thank you.
The French situation reminds me of the paradox the US and UK faced with the French Partisans. French and refugee Communists made up a large proportion of the Partisan forces. The US/UK could arm them via airdrop and the French Mafia running the same smuggling operations they have always run in Marseilles etc. But if you gave the Partisans machine guns, grenades etc, you risked the Commies doing what they always do, robbing banks and killing people indiscriminately while they looted the civilians rather than engaging the Germans.
Had a good chat with a Vet from the Afghan War on Memorial Day. Same situation with arming civilians over there. High risk of them turning against other civilians.
While D-Day, and the American and English landing was absolutely arguably the most decisive engagement in the war in Europe in bringing it to a close and yes those pesky French-Socialists/Communists were/are never going to give Normandy and all that it did to defeat Germany its due, there is sadly, as always with things involving FDR's white house a lot of issues with the invasion to begin with. While it was unreal what was done, and this takes none of the accolades or admiration away from those incredible men and what they did; the facts are it was never necessary. We all ready had a foothold in Europe in Italy and frankly a Balkan's landing, which several generals, including Patton, lobbied for because Normandy was going around your ass to get to your elbow and said as much. However, because of the Alger Hiss's of the world, the Tugwell's, the Harry Hopkins(a.k.a. the Co-president) and their love and or allegiance to the USSR and Stalin simply repeating to FDR that they needed to establish a Western Front in Europe....umh, dude, we all ready have one in Italy because last time I checked JS, Italy was part of Europe- Stalin retort- No, that is not the front I am looking for to help take the pressure off of the USSR and the German forces it is currently dealing with and more importantly, I don't want non-soviet forces in the Balkans because I have designs on all of eastern Europe and whatever else I can con the west into giving me after this thing is over. Sadly, we never needed to land all of those men, we had a "beach" front already in place and would have had a lot easier time making our way to Berlin. But what the heck. Of course same admin that left at least 10-20 thousand U.S. soldiers, at least, who just happened to be in the wrong place at wars end in the hands of the Soviets who gave them a warm welcome in gulags as our special friend, as FDR loved to refer to the USSR as, no longer was very friendly. A lot of the story either has not been told, is still classified and or what has been told is really not very becoming of the United States as it relates to its military during this time in our history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-2sOV3prmU decide for yourself if Biden lived up to the moment or not.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgW5zIQbO8A Dr. Hal Baumgarten
"How do you volunteer to be a Doolittle Raider knowing you were ditching your plane and probably wouldn’t make it back?"
Not quite; the PLAN was to launch the B-25s from the carrier, bomb Japan, and continue on to land on "friendly" fields in China. But they encountered a Japanese fishing boat a day out from the intended launch site and feared that they had radioed home. So they launched the bombers 300 miles out from the plan. At that point, they knew that they were going to have problems; ditching or crashing. And a good number of the crew made it, even so, to China where they could be re-patriated.
Agree. I know the history (met the Doolittle Raiders). They knew they weren't coming back ditching out over China....Bill Cole had never jumped out of a plane before. He read the manual on how to use a parachute on the way over.
Although an unpopular view, I think you will find there were more collaborators in France than resistance fighters. While the Soviets do deserve credit for helping defeat the Nazis, a lot of people (including the Russians) seem to forget they were allies with the Nazis at the start of the war and were responsible for the Katyn Forest Massacre in Poland. Also going unmentioned about the Soviets is the massive amount of material aid from the United States which allowed them to fight Russia. Had it not been for this material support things might have been much worse for them.
Jeff,
Thank you for a great tribute. Although he never really talked about it, my father was a B-24 mechanic in Italy on D-day and through VE Day.