May 5th, Liberation Day

[Hueij]

Maybe it's old age setting in, I was born just ten years after the end of WW 2 so I'm very much influenced by this, but...

Yesterday was Remembrance Day in the Netherlands, today is Liberation Day.

I only want to say thank you all British, Canadian, American, Polish, French and What-have-you veterans for making it possible for me to post this on a forum like this. Without you there wouldn't even be something like this.

But most of all I want to remember all the young men that where less than half my age that never got back to their homes and families and gave their lives for my freedom.

Please remember that with all the *****ing that's going on around here on Apolyton about Iraq, the Middle East, Communism, Capitalism and what have you, without them we wouldn't even be here.

Thanks guys, I'll remember you...

[Sava]

CINCO DE MAYO BABY!

drinking corona's and passing out will be my contribution!

[FrustratedPoet]

.

[Hueij]

Whatever Sava...

[Sava]

Cinco de Mayo is a Mexican holiday also... their independence day I think.

[Donegeal]

FP strikes a good tune again!

[Winston]

I'd like to second Hueij and FrustratedPoet, and express my gratitude for the men and women fighting, resisting and making possible the liberation of my country and our entire continent.

The couarage, dedication and sacrifices it took from other nations, in Europe and not least overseas, will never be forgotten, not as long as I'm around.

[Sava]

ditto... such sacrifices have made freedom possible

[SlowwHand]

In his defense, Sava is correct.

[Sava]

always!

[SlowwHand]

And congrats to Netherlands.

[Eli]

Nice coincidence. Today is the Israeli memorial day and tommorow is the independence day.

[Inverse Icarus]

INTERNATIONAL ZOG CONSPIRACY!

[Frozzy]

The Nations united under the banner of freedom stood tall under relentless foreign aggression. From the English Channel, to Stalingrad, to El Alamein and to the Ardennes and beyond we remember you.

They will not grow older as we will, they paid the ultimate price for what we value today, the happiness of freedom. They had a moral cause for what they did, and the countless number of people, whether conscripts or volunteers are often overlooked.

Today as we celebrate the anniversary of the liberation of peoples in Europe and beyond from Nazi genocide and tyrrany, we must remember those who fought, whether dead or alive, to give us what we have today. We will remember them.

We will remember them.

[Dis]

I see this day as a victory over the french.

have they ever won any wars?

P.S. cinco de mayo doesn't deal with independance, but the mexican victory over the french. Although I'm not sure if they should brag about beating the french.

copied and pasted:

The 5th of May is not Mexican Independence Day, but is should be ! And Cinco de Mayo is not an American holiday, but it should be. Mexico declared its independence from mother Spain on midnight, the 15th of September, 1810. And it took 11 years before the first Spanish soldiers were told and forced to leave Mexico.

So, why Cinco de Mayo? And why should Americans savor this day as well? Because 4,000 Mexican soldiers smashed the French and traitor Mexican army of 8,000 at Puebla, Mexico, 100 miles east of Mexico City on the morning of May 5, 1862.

The French had landed in Mexico (along with Spanish and English troops) five months earlier on the pretext of collecting Mexican debts from the newly elected government of democratic President (and Indian) Benito Juarez. The English and Spanish quickly made deals and left. The French, however, had different ideas.

Under Emperor Napoleon III, who detested the United States, the French came to stay. They brought a Hapsburg prince with them to rule the new Mexican empire. His name was Maximilian; his wife, Carolota. Napoleon's French Army had not been defeated in 50 years, and it invaded Mexico with the finest modern equipment and with a newly reconstituted Foreign Legion. The French were not afraid of anyone, especially since the United States was embroiled in its own Civil War.

The French Army left the port of Vera Cruz to attack Mexico City to the west, as the French assumed that the Mexicans would give up should their capital fall to the enemy -- as European countries traditionally did.

Under the command of Texas-born General Zaragosa, (and the cavalry under the command of Colonel Porfirio Diaz, later to be Mexico's president and dictator), the Mexicans awaited. Brightly dressed French Dragoons led the enemy columns. The Mexican Army was less stylish.

General Zaragosa ordered Colonel Diaz to take his cavalry, the best in the world, out to the French flanks. In response, the French did a most stupid thing; they sent their cavalry off to chase Diaz and his men, who proceeded to butcher them. The remaining French infantrymen charged the Mexican defenders through sloppy mud from a thunderstorm and through hundreds of head of stampeding cattle stirred up by Indians armed only with machetes.

When the battle was over, many French were killed or wounded and their cavalry was being chased by Diaz' superb horsemen miles away. The Mexicans had won a great victory that kept Napoleon III from supplying the confederate rebels for another year, allowing the United States to build the greatest army the world had ever seen. This grand army smashed the Confederates at Gettysburg just 14 months after the battle of Pueblo, essentially ending the Civil War.

Union forces were then rushed to the Texas/Mexican border under General Phil Sheridan, who made sure that the Mexicans got all the weapons and ammunition they needed to expel the French. American soldiers were discharged with their uniforms and rifles if they promised to join the Mexican Army to fight the French. The American Legion of Honor marched in the Victory Parade in Mexico City.

It might be a historical stretch to credit the survival of the United States to those brave 4,000 Mexicans who faced an army twice as large in 1862. But who knows?

In gratitude, thousands of Mexicans crossed the border after Pearl Harbor to join the U.S. Armed Forces. As recently as the Persian Gulf War, Mexicans flooded American consulates with phone calls, trying to join up and fight another war for America.

Mexicans, you see, never forget who their friends are, and neither do Americans. That's why Cinco de Mayo is such a party -- A party that celebrates freedom and liberty. There are two ideals which Mexicans and Americans have fought shoulder to shoulder to protect, ever since the 5th of May, 1862. VIVA! el CINCO DE MAYO!!