D-Day+80 Years
Landing on the coast of France under heavy Nazi machine gun fire are these American soldiers, shown just as they left the ramp of a Coast Guard landing boat, June 6, 1944. CPhoM. Robert F. Sargent. (Coast Guard)
NARA FILE #: 026-G-2343
WAR & CONFLICT BOOK #: 1041
It’s that time of year again, where we take a moment to remember D-Day. I know David included it in his roundup on his daily collection of new, but I think it deserves its own post. Long time readers will notice that I actually got the number of years right, which I apparently screwed up not once but twice in previous years. When Hardin and AW1ED asked me to write here, I should have known they weren’t expecting much of me when the application was solely putting a mirror under my nose to look for fog.
It’s a good day to re-read some of our old articles on the topic of Operation Overlord which commenced that day, better known as D-Day. Overlord was the Allied invasion of Fortress Europe on the coast of Normandy. It would be a marked success and the largest amphibious assault in history. At the time it was the largest airborne assault as well, and was only outdone several months later by Operation Market Garden (which involved many of the same units as Overlord). Opening a foothold on Continental Europe, from there the fate of the Nazis was sealed. Millions of Allied troops poured into France and in less than a year Germany had surrendered unconditionally and Hitler had killed himself.
US Army History Center’s D-Day piece
Brig. General Theodore Roosevelt – One of only a handful of men who received the Medal of Honor for actions on 6 June 1944 at Normandy.
AW1Ed’s 75-year D-Day Retrospective
Ex-PH2 reminds us of the importance of the weatherman on D-Day
Flak Bait – B-26 Marauder that flew more than 200 combat missions over Europe and always came back, including D-Day.
This delightful bit of bureaucratic nonsense that the war fighters had to death with from guys in the rear.
The D-Day Vet who broke out of a nursing home to make the 70th anniversary events
And some outside links that readers previously added in the comments;
D-Day Vet, “Why am I alive?” (Courtesy of CDR D)
Chinese D-Day Ranger (Courtesy of Mike B)
Category: Historical, We Remember
Hooah!
Spines of steel and balls of brass.
A sad day soon to come when the last WWII Veteran passes.
Thank You.
It sure will be.
It was very sad when Harry Patch ( Britain’s last WW1 combat vet) died.
Eighty years… I watched Mark Felton’s video on surviving D-Day ships yesterday, and the stock film footage was amazing. Young men in their prime: training for, embarking on, and completing a mission that changed history. Young men not unlike most of us at one point. Young men now mostly gone, with the few survivors being around a century old now.
My own father was not yet four, and he’s been gone for ten years. My namesake grandfather was not yet 17 and would be in the Philippines before the end of the war in the Pacific Theater, before being killed by a Navy destroyer sinking the Army tugboat he served on as a civilian 12 years later.
Eighty years is a long time, but it’s a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of things. The men (and let’s face it, MEN) who bore the brunt of the landings at Normandy and the subsequent defeat of Germany will be forever young so long as our nation remembers them.
When I was a young man D-Day was a long time ago.
Now that I am an old man D-Day was not so long ago.
And all that stuff in between taught us nothing..nada..ziltch.
Concur
We will remember them.
My namesake grandfather(Australian) served during the Kokoda Track campaign in PNG before he was sidelined for the rest of the war due to malaria and dysentery.
I completed the ‘ Kokoda Trek ‘ in 2006. There were times I wish I had an Owen with me, but it was still the trip of a lifetime.
I couldn’t imagine the misery those men went through there in addition to the Japanese; 100% humidity, constant mosquitoes, mega-toxic elapid snakes, saltwater crocs, hostile natives, tropical diseases ect.
“…that such men lived…” “…so long as our nation remembers them.” Sadly, many in our nation and indeed the world, they don’t care that the actions/sacrifices made that day did indeed save the world from despotism. One has to wonder what the men lost that day would think of what the world has become.
I got lost in all the linkys. Well played.
All the members of my family from WWII (5) are gone, all those from Korea (6) are gone and all those from Vietnam (2) are gone.
Those of us with post Vietnam Service, the youngest is 60 and oldest is 71
Sabaton history #75
0PSSGZEdBMk
Amen
Thank you, WW2 vets!
Thanks, Dad, vet of N. Africa, Sicily, and Italy. The only thing he ever said to me about WW2 was, “that Monte Cassino…THAT was rough!”
Like many vets, he didn’t see glory in his service. He was proud to have served, but he just wanted to forget!
Just in… at today’s observance:
https://x.com/EndWokeness/status/1798694555560354073
WSJ just ran story expressing concern on 31 May:
https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/joe-biden-age-election-2024-8ee15246
I can’t fucking believe Biden left during the ceremony. Right in front of the 100+yo Vets. The speech…..
He looked like he shit his pants too.
Only “MAGA trolls” believe that was anything gross, The Daily Beast says:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/this-video-shows-joe-biden-did-notin-factpoop-himself-at-d-day-event
THIS is what we should be proud about in June. June should be about sacrifice, not perversion.
I remember reading a veteran’s diary (became published in novel form) where his opening line when he landed in Normandy in September 1944 was “they were still picking up bodies from DDay.”
Imagine that for a welcome committee to France as a young kid from across the pond. The things they saw, dealt with and overcame astound me — especially when you consider the average age on the beaches was 19.
I look at most 19-20 year olds and can’t figure out what, if anything, they’re capable of — or what they’d do in similar circumstances.
Like ol’ Clint says:
To each and every one of those Warriors,
*Slow Salute*
Rest easy Soldier.
In Normandy, a Jewish D-Day veteran buried in a Nazi mass grave will receive a proper burial 80 years later.
https://www.jta.org/2024/06/06/religion/in-normandy-a-jewish-d-day-veteran-buried-in-a-nazi-mass-grave-will-receive-a-proper-burial-80-years-later
Rest in peace. Welcome home.
RIP GI Jew Nate.
One Vet going to the ceremonies passed away on the way to Normandy when he stopped in Germany. I think he was 102.
The terrible irony
British documentary on WWII. Runs about an hour, and maybe you have seen it before.
Mason – was hoping a better writer could do the day more justice than I. As I told my wife (also a vet) this morning, I was a bit appalled that my meager paragraph was the only mention, and I hoped a later article would pick up the slack. Thanks!
Our family was not at D-Day – Dad landed on D-Day +2, but stayed with Patton across France, up to the Bulge, and was one of the folks who opened Dachau – he stayed on into ’46 as Occupation, coincidentally in a town I was stationed at ’82-84. I feel he did his bit, and treasure his memory.
God bless the Greatest Generation!!
And to you/them for what they did!
My Grandfather included. 3.5 years deployed to Africa, Sicily, Italy, France, Belgium,Germany!! I really miss this humble man!!! Died at 93 yo while I was deployed to Afghanistan in 11-12! Greatest MAN I’ve ever known!!!I do my best to emulate him!!!