D Day

[KrazyHorse]

Yes, I know that there's already a thread on this, but I'd like this one to be a bit less of a troll fest.

65 years ago today, in the grey light of dawn, tens of thousands of young men, packed like sardines on landing craft watched steel doors crash down in front of them, exposing them to small arms fire. They dove out into waist deep water (or worse, in some cases) and made their way to shore as bullets and shrapnel splashed around, and for the unlucky ones, into them. They shed their blood in the water and on the sand of the beaches. They gave their strength, their limbs, their lives as they advanced forward with the ocean at their back and barbed wire, guns and the enemy at their front. All to rid the world of a great evil which held continental Europe in its grasp. An evil which viewed most of the world's people as no better than cockroaches to be eliminated as soon as possible, or cattle to be worked to death. By the end of the day many thousands of them were dead and a few square kilometers of France were retaken. Behind them came many hundreds of thousands of more young men who would, over the next year, push the evil backwards until it was no more.

To all the men who dove ashore that day, or who died in the water with continental Europe a never to be reached sight a few hundred meters ahead, thank you.

Utah beach:



Omaha beach:



Gold beach:



Juno beach:



Sword beach:

[Imran Siddiqui]

To all the men who dove ashore that day, or who died in the water with continental Europe a never to be reached sight a few hundred meters ahead, thank you.

[BlackCat]

but I'd like this one to be a bit less of a troll fest.

To all the men who dove ashore that day, or who died in the water with continental Europe a never to be reached sight a few hundred meters ahead, thank you.

[SlowwHand]

Thank you.

[Jon Miller]

I had an old neighbor who landed at DDay. This was 2 decades ago.

JM

[SlowwHand]

No, it was 65 years ago. (6 1/2 decades)

[Nikolai]

To all the men who dove ashore that day, or who died in the water with continental Europe a never to be reached sight a few hundred meters ahead, thank you.

Well said. And now we seem to begin to forget. The things compared to Hitler and nazism the last couple of years, how anything can be called nazi just to discredit it, whatever it is, it's simply scary.

[Thoth]

To all the men who dove ashore that day, or who died in the water with continental Europe a never to be reached sight a few hundred meters ahead, thank you.

This.

Dad was born near Dover in 1940, Mum was in London during the Blitz and had the roof of her house blown off by a near miss.

Thank you.

[Dis]

sadly this event is losing its luster in the media. But the anniversary still gets coverage. Even in my mind it fades. but it's important to not forget the war. It shaped the world as we know it.

I risk possible flames, but so be it. I think it's important to remember the context. The d-day is celebrated as it was the beginning of our victory. Our being the "west's" victory not Soviet Russia's. They had their successes even before D-day, but western media never celebrates that. But it is a time where we can say we kicked ass. And our men performed so bravely. An amphibious landing of any kind just takes raw courage. So as I said above, it needs to be kept in perspective. There were many important battles and many important amphibious invasions (in the pacific). They were all particularly brutal. Many films and media show the brutality in europe, but forget the brutality in the pacific.

But it's a time we can truelly say, America, Britain, and Canada kicked some serious ass. That's cause for celebration. We freed the frenchies so we can eat their delicious cheese while they badmouth our culture. We should put a mcdonald's on every street corner in Paris.

This long and rambling thread is dedicated to the soldiers who fought for freedom, and I'll be nice and dedicate it to the commies as well. As I said, it's important to keep perspective. And remember how much more difficult the invasion would have been without Soviet Russia in the war. Could we have won?

[Zkribbler]

... And remember how much more difficult the invasion would have been without Soviet Russia in the war. Could we have won?

Could we have won without the Russians? Not bloody likely.

Nor could we have won if the Norwegians hadn't taken out the Nazi's heavy water production. Nor could we have won without the Poles stealing Ultra. Nor could we have won without the French underground paving the way for the return of the allied armies.

World War II was a very closely run thing. We could not have won without the contributions of everyone.

But today is for the heroes of Normandy.

[Dr Strangelove]

The D-Day Memorial in Bedford, VA is once again on the verge of bankruptcy.
When WW2 broke out a large percentage of the draft age young men joined the local National Guard Unit. They trained togther and eventually most of them were formed into a single infantry company. On D-day they were driven to the beach in one landing ship. Almost all of the landing ship's occupants were killed by a single artillery hit, and so Bedford bears the distinction of being the community to loose the largest portion of its young men on D-day. Though Congress chose Bedford as the site for the memorial it was funded through private donations and now it's in danger of folding. The problem is that there just isn't that much tourism in this area.

[Dr Strangelove]

Obama called D-day "an improbable victory", but really the Germans had little hope of repelling the invasion. By June 1944 the Luftwaffe in France had virtually ceased to exist. Most of the units in the area were essentially third line units manned by a high percentage of invalids. They were lacking in equipment. Some of the "divisions" were really construction units with a high percentage of non-Germans who very much did not want to die for the Third Reich. While the allies were lackig in heavy armor they made up for it with air power. P-51s and P-47s devastated the linse of communication between Germany and Normandy. Only 1/3 of the equipment destined for Normandy made it to the front. The few panzer divisions in the area were particularily strangled by allied air power. Most of these units fought with less than 1/4th of their alloted tanks, so it didn't matter how terrific the Tiger and Panther tanks were, they often fought out numbered 5 or 10 to 1 against an enemy which was also able to call in precision artillery and air strikes.

[Jon Miller]

It was good it was 5:1 or 10:1, that is what our armor doctrine called for!

JM

[Grandpa Troll]

It was good it was 5:1 or 10:1, that is what our armor doctrine called for!

JM

If Im reading this correctly JM, we had a numerical advantage?

Yes, for all I have studied on our Armor doctrine, although we were inferior in tank for tank performance, our superiorty in numbers is what sustained and eventually vaulted us to the position of superiority.

So many theories and no, i dont know every fact about WW II, but many accounts that Hitler put such fear into the hearts of his commanders, many would not take action on their own, which, with local intel, could have momentarilly sustained the German War machine.

I am just glad we as Allies, found the right chemistry and all things considered, were able to thwart the Nazi domination of the world.

Gramps

[Sprayber]

No commentary. Just a thank you.