this thread just turned into a **** show, instead of honoring the brave soldiers that started the liberation of Europe
OT: June 6, 1944
- Thread starter MadRU
- Start date
The best people remember soldiers every day and not just a few days a year.
Looking at how the country is intentionally being broken down, people should worry more about larger present realities and not just the calendar one-offs. I wonder how many June 6 guys would be happy seeing 300,000+ strangers a month allowed over a dissolved border, and young children are being mutilated while the military, schools etc are made into freak shows. The country is being wrecked, and its probably too late as the kooks and weirdos push for WWIII. Not many actually in the military are happy and its better to remember them more right now
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Just finished Stephen Ambrose's book on D-Day. A great read but I would recommend that you familiarize yourself with the maps in the book before reading.
Locations can get confusing.
Something that is not mentioned much is that many of the German troops at Normandy that day were not Germans. Many were Czechs, Ukrainians, Russian and Poles that were coerced to join the German army. The Germans would put these guys in pillboxes with a couple of German NCOs who would make them fight at gunpoint. There is a brief scene in Saving Private Ryan when two "Germans" try to tell the US troops that they were Czechs.
Locations can get confusing.
Something that is not mentioned much is that many of the German troops at Normandy that day were not Germans. Many were Czechs, Ukrainians, Russian and Poles that were coerced to join the German army. The Germans would put these guys in pillboxes with a couple of German NCOs who would make them fight at gunpoint. There is a brief scene in Saving Private Ryan when two "Germans" try to tell the US troops that they were Czechs.
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Yes, the disrespect shown by some who clumsily divert attention by shoehorning in their political opinions is not a good look …
At the same time, there were volunteers from all of the occupied countries who believed in the fascist cause and joined enthusiastically. When the war was over many no doubt tried to claim they were coerced.
they were the ones that fought against the D-Day attack that was the beginning of Europe gaining freedom from their fascist Nazi oppressors.
Heck the leaders planing that fight needed to help an undesirable commie dictator gain military equipment so the D-Day invasion would have a better chance of success because Germany couldn't take troops from their eastern border and place them on the Atlantic Coast of Europe because of fear of weakening the eastern German territories and having the Russian Army take that territory over.
Basically making Germany defend two fronts and not just have their whole army stationed in defensive positions that might jeapordize D-Day from being a successful mission.
Everything possible was done to help D-Day be a success, including making sure Germany couldn't pull troops from the east and position them where they could be used to make the D-Day landings become another Dunkirk and need to be rescued.
It should be noted that the lend lease program has a slight role helping D Day be successful
For those that might know what it was.
The Lend-Lease policy had the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, France, China, and other Allied nations with food, oil, and materiel between 1941 and 1945 .
That policy made sure all the countries fighting Germany and Japan had the means to do so and though Russia wasn't directly involved in D day Germany needed to have troops stationed in positions on their eastern front to keep Russia at bay and not be pulled out while the D day invasion was going on
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My father would occasionally talk about sustaining a 'minor' wound when hit by a sniper's round entering St. Lo; hearing German spoken while being on night patrols, and being in a jeep with an officer and nco while trying to scout enemy positions when a German 88 blew the jeep off the ground killing one, and injuring my father and the other man. My father was able to get the other man and himself to safety away from view of the German spotter. his injuries sent him back to England where he stayed until he was discharged. He landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day, but never talked about it so I figured it must have been late when he landed. Year 2000 comes around and I' reading Ambrose's book mentioned above by Colbert, and just about drop the book when I see may father's group being the fourth or fifth wave to land on Omaha. I asked him about writing his memoir of the day, and ,he said "son, I've spent my whole life trying to forget that day". I asked about Saving Private Ryan, and he felt the movie did a fairly good job capturing the events on Omaha, but that no movie could capture the intensity and duration of what transpired. As an adjunct, my mother was ith the WAVES working with the women who broke the Japanese Codes, She had taken a secrecy oath, and she died never saying how it had been done. My father's older brother was a tank commander in the Battle of the Bulge and never talked about it. In the end, just three 'ordinary' Americans who like so many others rose the occasion.
My Uncle was in St. Lo also, definitely walked on some of the same dirt your dad did. Thanks for sharing.
This is so true. I finally made it to Normandy last November and the people could not have been nicer and more respectful. I was amazed to see so many American flags flying side by side with the French flag on many of the private residences.
The experience at the cemetery is truly so emotional even 80 years later. Never been prouder to be an American. It is a pilgrimage every American should make once in their lives.