D day

[fireblake]

70 years ago today thousands of allied troops left The south coast of England to start the invasion of Normandy. Many met their final resting place on those beaches. Thank you for your sacrifice. We will remember them.


Mickey

[dazza]

Here, here.

[bri h]

well said.

[Exupnut]

I agree ... On their shoulders we stand ... LEST WE FORGET...

[Frosties]

Total respect for all

[stevierst]

It brought a tear to my eye listening to an old Royal Marine stood on the beach telling the story of how he journeyed across the channel laughing with his mates on the landing craft, landing on the beach and the ramp went down.

He then stopped talking as if he was Re-living it all over again. It was incredibly moving.

[dazza]

Me too Stevie, must have set me off as I even had a little cry at Farscape.    

[Andy FZS]

It's good to see these people getting the respect they deserve.

[Punkstig]

The landlady's dad at my local is getting his night payed for.
Lovely guy, deaf as a post.

[fazersharp]

Many times I hear people talking about their Granddad who was there, but somehow I feel a stronger direct connection as it was my Dad that was there, imp not that old its just that my parents had me when they were 40, my Mum also worked in the ammunitions factories and my Granddad also worked in the factories making  spitfires and when he was supposed to be on a brake he would knock up some household items on the lathes from aluminium that was destined for spitfires---- some of those very items now sit proudly in my dining room, like so many others my Dad never talked about it and was never interested in claiming his medals so when he died that is exactly what we did and they too sit framed along side those spitfire items.   

[Slaninar]

http://emsnews.wordpress.com/2014/06/06/d-day-revisionism-us-and-uk-want-to-undo-all-of-wwii-russian-sacrifices/

[ogri48]

It's been a very moving few days, watching these men, heroes to the last one of them.
All that sacrifice to keep our freedom, and our politicians have handed rule of us to Europe, and ultimately Germany, the very state these men fought to protect us from. It's not directly our fault, but it's happened on our watch, sadly.
It's a shame there wasn't a few Normandy ride outs planned for this anniversary, me and penny will go in a coupla weeks, but it won't be the same as being there with the last of the soldiers who gave so much for us.

[esetest]

Heroes all of them , hard to imagine what was going through there minds , wondering if they or those around them would be alive at the end of the day .

[slimwilly]

I fell asleep just now on the lawn,,got woken up by TWO sPITFIRES overhead, doing a d-day fly by for the hall down the road from the country estate we live on,,,bloody noisey two of them,,but amazing to see

[dazza]

Thought better of it, neck now wound in.

[Hedgetrimmer]

http://emsnews.wordpress.com/2014/06/06/d-day-revisionism-us-and-uk-want-to-undo-all-of-wwii-russian-sacrifices/

Without the Russians, I would say there is definitely some doubt as to whether Hitler would have been defeated - his own stupidity for choosing to fight a war on two fronts, and not learning the lessons of the past, especially regarding the Russian winter. Brave soldiers they were, and deserve our thanks too.

But I would call into question the comment about the Allies facing minimal resistance in France in August of 1944. The battles around Caen in June/July had been a bloodbath before the American Cobra breakout, so the Brits and Canadians had been much weakened - they didn't have the seemingly endless reserves of manpower the Americans were later able to bring to bear.

After the link-up when the German armies were surrounded in the Falaise pocket, many did escape, and Germany's industrial bases in the Rhineland were still able to re-equip them, as was shown during Operation Wacht am Rheine, which came to be known as the Battle of the Bulge.

The Western Allies did indeed advance at a rapid rate after the Cobra breakout, but due to the extending supply lines, and Eisenhower's insistence on the "broad front" strategy, this advance petered out. As we all know, Montgomery's plan to punch through and cross the Rhine at Arnhem failed, so it's not like the Allies didn't try. Maybe if the resources had been allocated to Patton, further south, things would have been different, but Montgomery won the argument for resources, so we'll never know.

But these are commemorations for D-DAY 6TH JUNE  1944, and the opening of the Western European front, so perhaps not appropriate to be including the Russians in these particular remembrances.

I fell asleep just now on the lawn,,got woken up by TWO sPITFIRES overhead, doing a d-day fly by for the hall down the road from the country estate we live on,,,bloody noisey two of them,,but amazing to see

Rolls Royce Merlin engines - one of my favourite sounds - we had a Spitfire or Hurricane around here too yesterday, didn't see it but I know that sound anywhere!

 

[ChristoT]

The Mark Knopfler fans here might enjoy this song of his.

Certainly apt.

Mark Knopfler - Remembrance day

[dazza]

Well said Nick,  much more diplomatic than I could have been.

[lew600fazer]

The Mark Knopfler fans here might enjoy this song of his.

Certainly apt.

Mark Knopfler - Remembrance day

Nice one Christo

[richfzs]

http://emsnews.wordpress.com/2014/06/06/d-day-revisionism-us-and-uk-want-to-undo-all-of-wwii-russian-sacrifices/

Without the Russians, I would say there is definitely some doubt as to whether Hitler would have been defeated - his own stupidity for choosing to fight a war on two fronts, and not learning the lessons of the past, especially regarding the Russian winter. Brave soldiers they were, and deserve our thanks too.

Absolutely nick - given the Russians lost 1.1 million men in the battle of sebastopol (more than the UK and US lost in the entire war), if you think about the resources the nazis needed to counter /create these losses, and what it cost them, I think the result on the western front might have been very different.

Ww2 is still very fresh in the minds of the Russians - I flew aeroflot a few times about 6 years ago, with stopovers on Moscow. Every magazine in English that I saw - 3 I think - and some Russian ones, all had articles about the defeat of the nazis. It still hurts with them, and no wonder.

[Doddsie]

.

[Slaninar]

Russians lost some 20 million people in the WW2. More Russians were killed than Jews in WW2.




As far as D-day goes - it was heroic and tough. Not 100% sure whether it was necessary, or whether it was just US rushing to take some of Europe before the Russians. But I'm no history expert, obviously.

[Hedgetrimmer]

The US had to be persuaded to take the position of Europe first - they were already embroiled in the Pacific war against the Japanese, and many senior US officials, both civilian and military, thought this was where their main effort should be. So I don't think there was any question of the US rushing to take as much of Europe as they could.

Churchill knew that Stalin could not be trusted - it was more likely that "Uncle Joe" was the one in a rush to take as much of Europe as he could - he hated having to side with the Russians. But needs must, and besides, Stalin was actually pushing the Western Allies for a new front to be opened in the west for some time before it actually happened.

The bravery and achievements of the Russian military cannot be questioned, but remember what Stalin did to his people after the war. For many eastern European countries, it could be argued that the war did not end until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 - certainly many people (especially the Poles) just exchanged one tyrant for another.

[Dunky]

Lest we forget.