Just a reminder, there weren’t any ‘safe spaces’ back then.
D-Day was June 6, 1944, but that was just the FIRST day…
Battles continued in and around the Normandie area through the end of June as more and more troops came ashore and the Mulberry pier at Arromanches was put in place, where it remained for the next 10 months.
Not sure of the date of the pictuer below, but it is obviously after the original landings on June 6th.
Over 9000 Americans died to retake the area… But it was not just Americans…
Allied forces consisted primarily of American, British and Canadian troops but also included Australian, Belgian, Czech, Dutch, French, Greek, New Zealand, Norwegian, Rhodesian and Polish naval, air or ground support.
Take a moment, if you will, to remember those who served and died in Operation Overlord…
Remember the crossword puzzle authors who got screwed to the wall with questioning when code words for the operation ended up as puzzle words right before the operation? The article below explains that the puzzle creators would let schoolkids fill in blank areas, and the kids had been mingling with soldiers stationed in advance of the operation.
Another puzzle included the word ‘Dieppe’ on the day before that disastrous raid attempt.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/features/10789884/Who-put-secret-D-Day-clues-in-the-Telegraph-crossword.html
My Dad, who was named after me :).
My friend Nate Weiser, who was at Pearl, Normandy and Bastogne and lived just shy of 99 years.
John has a long moustache.
Guy- Definitely an ‘interesting’ story!
Ed- Amazing!
Though the fighting was just amazing in its breathe and scope, the really crazy thing was… The Logistics War.
For the first day, we were landing using landing craft and landing ships. By the second day we had pontoon wharves and piers started and large pontoon barge combos powered by huge outboard motors.
A week, and breakwaters of concrete structures, floated from England and sunk on site, along with damaged or scrap ships.
By the time we took a major port, we had converted the shelving beaches of the invasion site into a major port, and kept using it till the end of the war.
Crazy stuff. Everything from ammo to locomotives came ashore via rafts, pontoons, landing craft and ships. Just crazy.
Beans- That it did!
Two uncles:
Dick Bernardin (US Army)
Roland Groulx (Canadian Army)
Hand SALUTE!
My ancestors served in every war going back to the Revolution. French & Indian War is suspected, but not proven. Uncle Verle served ’43 to ’46 on Adak; his son Bill went to Viet Nam and came back a full bubble off – currently committed (if still living). No one talks about him, because he killed Verle.
The invasion was remarkable as was the generation which achieved it.
I most certainly “took a moment.”
All- Thanks. And yes, not all came back…
Posted from my iPhone.
Ouch. There was a tale I read of a hapless carpenter who took a wrong turn and wound up in the Very Secret Planning HQ for D-Day. Amazingly, he was NOT a spy, but the Americans quietly sat on him and his family until after D-Day had gone off. One hell of a way to get a vacation.
And as for the memorial, I will only say:
“All gave some, and some gave all.”