Will be remembered as The Biggest Battle ever fought,and assembled no matter what continent,or time frame. With nearly 7,ooo ships involved at sea.The Invasion of Normandy was planned carefully and was slightly postponed due to poor weather. Nevertheless, Dwight D. Eisenhower,the Supreme Allied Commander gave the go ahead for Operation Overlord on the morning of June 5th. It was to be The Largest amphibious military operation in history. By dawn of June 6th 18,ooo parachutists were already on the ground. The British and Canadians overcame light opposition to capture Gold, Juno and Sword beaches.As did the Americans at Utah beach. Omaha beach was another matter.As 2,ooo troops were lost,some right on board their naval amphibious carriers as the germans cut them down trying to land on the beach with heavy machine gun fire. By day's end of June 6th, 155,ooo Allied Troops { American,British,Canadian } had successfully stormed the Normandy beaches. Yet not a peep out of the MSM or even at this Site over the most Historic Battle ever fought to Liberate Europe.Same thing happened last fall when there was but a tinkle of mention made over the J.F.K. assassination. What Gives.What on earth has supplanted for news that so easily can overtake History as commanding our undivided attention. If such a thing as History can be made to appear as if unessential and not worthy our time ... what else is next.? An Orwellian World or a Fahrenheit 451.
1. This is a community based forum and you are a member of that community. If you wanted a thread on it yesterday, you could have started one; and 2. There was a "peep" on this site yesterday about it. http://www.politicalforum.com/polit...9653-how-much-does-obama-cherish-country.html Poor Werewolfen's pants went supernova over the misinformation he was trying to pull off.
The deadliest battle in U.S. history the Meuse-Argonne Offensive (WWI) in 1918. 26,277 fatalities How often is that memorialized? I'd venture to say, never. Taking nothing away from the Normandy invasion of course, but because it's not talked about, at least on this forum doesn't mean it's not remembered. I watched Saving Private Ryan last night and try to do this every June 6th, so as to remember those brave men, particularly those who died on Omaha beach. Just didn't feel like starting a thread on it, since most of my threads never go anywhere in terms of discussion.
The deadliest battle in Canadian history was also WWI where 11,000 were lost at Arras and the Canal du Nord. Not to take anything from WWII combatants in any way but WWI, The Great War, was orders of magnitude more brutal.
The Civil War had many battles with casualties in the tens of thousands. All counted the casualities of the Civil War totaled 620,000. Gettysburg - 51,ooo Chickamauga - 34,624 Spotsylvania - 30,ooo The Wildemess - 29,800 Chancellorsville - 24,ooo Shiloh - 23,746 Stones River - 23,515
I used to work with this "older" guy named Max Greenland. And Max was Jewish (His religion is applicable to this story.). Max was in the Army during WWII in an artillery brigade and a participant of the D-Day invasion. It was around the 40th anniversary of the invasion when he told me about his experience on that day. Max told me that he and his brigade were in like the 11th wave of the invasion so it wasn't quite so "hot" when he went in. Max said that practically everyone on the transport boat going in on the beach was puking their guts out except him. What was Max doing while going in on the beach? He said that he was sitting at the rear of the boat eating a ham sandwich! I said to Max, "Didn't you think you, a Jew, were pressing your luck going in to a battle whilst eating a ham sandwich? Max thought what I said was pretty funny!
The distinction is duly noted.Fatalities is more specific as to death. Casualties more specific as to combat. Fatalities involve loss of life,usually by accident or disaster. Casualties as to battle or mortal combat.Sometimes referring to grave injury leading to loss of ability to serve.
A good number of soldiers { recruits } never made it to the beach.They were cut down while departing those landing craft.The front part { lowering ramp } weren't Up armored enough.Bullets from machine guns were penetrating through. - - - Updated - - - Those landing craft were hard to navigate and uncomfortable.No wonder G.I.'s were puking their guts out.
Going into a war zone where there is a good possibility that you could be killed probably was more of the reason.
I noticed that too. But perhaps that is what is to be expected in our country today. When my grand kids have to go to school on Memorial and Veterans day, forgetting D-Day completely should be of no surprise. Next to be forgotten will be 7 December 1941. When I grew up VE and VJ days had special meaning in our family. Now I wonder how many even know what VE and VJ stand for. I suppose that is all ancient history now along with the Roman Empire. Thanks for noticing and caring.
It could well be all part of the plan.The Indoctrination.Like what Al Gore pulled with his bogus - An Inconvenient Truth - which won an Emmy and an Oscar and was mandatory filming in many a public school. Obama has a War on Reality.Obama wants to do as Chicago educators { Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn } have practiced their adult life.To Make sure and get the Kids.At the earliest of age.To Indoctrinate them into the ways of being a Radical.Given to Anarchy if necessary.Or just a big brother mindset where Government is the cure for all things. Part of that would be the elimination of our Past.To rewrite History. Reduce the Founders and out Constitution to the footnotes.
I'm afraid you're right. It is happening right in front of us. The dumbing down of our kids and grand kids teach instead of self-reliance, to become reliant upon government.
" It was a mistake to eat the breakfast.Weiners and beans.I lost it all within 30 minutes.Those boats were like corks." -- Private Clarence Evans
" I saw things on that beach that no 19 yr.old should ever have to see. " " Body parts were flying all over. " " The only way I can describe it is you just opened the gates to Hell and stepped in. "
The Initial Invasion included huge rocket attacks by ships. 5" shells which lit up the skies but all landed in the Ocean. An estimated 4,ooo shells {rockets } aimed at the German Defenses. They never reached land. The secret weapon was to be the DD Tanks { equipped with twin propellers for sea travel }.The waves were 6-8' swells. Those few DD tanks that did make it to shore were immediately put out of action. Instead of the German Defenses being softened-up they were virtually untouched. The lowering of the Landing crafts flat bow {ramp } was a signal for germans to open fire.The German MG42 machine gun fired 20 bullets a second. There were about 35 American soldiers per landing craft. So if a German starts firing as soon as the landing ramp is lowered in about 4 seconds he could take out every soldier. Some soldiers recount being neck deep in bloody water. This why guys like Actor Charles Durning refused to ever talk about his Normandy experience.Or many,many other Greatest generation actors. Like Eddie Albert { Green Acres } and his duty at the Invasion of Tarawa and rescuing 47 Marines receiving the Bronze Star w " Combat V ".
Company A was the first wave.They were new soldiers,mostly Teenagers { 19 yr.olds }. " It was bad,really bad.Company A was in the first wave and they were decimated.They were wiped out.They just ceased to be a fighting unit.95% casualties in the first 20 minutes. "
I had an older relative who was in D-Day. In fact, I had several older relatives who fought in WWII who have all died that I had the chance to know for a brief period. I wish I heard their story now, but they pretty much never told anybody their story. They simply would not talk about it.
Almost completely underestimating the German defenses { beaches lined with huge metal obstacles extending far into the water line intended to cripple landing ships.} Also expecting a shorthanded German force of mostly older men of the 716th Wehrmacht Division.Figuring on a quick surrender.But what the Allied forces encountered was the 352nd German Infantry Division.Comprised of a lot of veterans coming off the Eastern Front.Some of Germany's Best soldiers. Combined with the shelling coming off the Infamous 88's. " there was no way to describe it.This is what nightmares are made of. " The death toll was skyrocketing before the troops even left the water. And they still had 300 yards of open sand and german gunfire to weather.
Which is why they were called Our Greatest Generation.Because they did their duty and fought hard and then kept quiet about the horrors of War. As if once would be enough.Do it with honor and discipline and then move on. War is not some bragging contest.We learned a lot from my Father's generation. I used to sneak into my old man's bedroom and take a look at his Purple heart which was in a box.When he and Mom were out on the town.My Father also had boxes of Photo's of the Pacific Campaign.He flew an aircraft taking aerial photographs. Caught schrapnel in his leg on an Aircraft carrier during a bombing.
If you want the most in-depth account of the D-Day invasion, there is one author that is a MUST read... I read all of his (above quoted) books before I finished the 9th grade. And I'm not much of a reader. Cornelius Ryan spent years interviewing people from all walks of life who had an involvement in the books he wrote about. Not a time goes by when I see the actual crack of dawn and I think about one part of his book (D-Day) and how he described in vivid detail what one small group of soldiers did on D-Day. If you saw the two major movies that his books were based on, you haven't got even close to their actual story as Ryan wrote it. What I thought was his best book, The Last Battle, about the fall of Berlin, was not made into a movie but would probably make a good one. It opens with a German citizen dutifully going to pay his taxes in downtown Berlin during a break in the constant Allied bombings within just a few days of Berlin being captured by the Russian troops. If you haven't read any or all of the above listed books, Foolardi, I believe you would definitely enjoy every minute of them.
D-Day was a disaster.Everything that could go wrong did.Even the Bombers had to delay by a few seconds on account of cloud cover their dropped bombs to soften the german defenses.A few seconds when planes are going 250 m.p.h. is like a half a mile or more.All the Bombers accomplished was killing a few French cows.The delay was considered important so as not to mistakenly drop bombs on the beaches where incoming soldiers were mounting their offensive.
Er, I'm reasonably certain several battles on the Russian front were far bigger. As far as seaborne invasions, both the invasion of southern France and (I think) Okinawa involved more men and ships. Not to take anything away from D-Day, but I'm tired of the mythologizing and fetishizing of historical events.
The problem was now exacerbated by lack of any radio contact and dire reports from troops on the beach.Radio men had wet equipment and shot equipment and dropped equipment.Omar Bradley had to concede from his ship out at Sea he could not make any visual contact.He needed those radio men and he was getting no reports.That was actually worse than very pessimistic reports.No Reports at all as to what is taking place. Then the worse of all things to consider for the Allied Forces. The guns at Pointe Du Hoc.This freak of nature { Cliff 6 stories high } was strategically manned with german 155 mm guns with a range of 25,000 yards or 12 nautical miles.There SIX such heavy weapons. " Properly manned those six monstrous guns by themselves could fatally wreck our Invasion forces. "
