General June 6 Normandy Invasion, 75 years ago

[Splinty]

Today US Army Rangers spent the 75th anniversary reenacting the climb up the cliffs on D-Day. It is the 2nd Ranger Battalion that took Pointe du Hoc ( Pointe du Hoc - Wikipedia ) building their Battalions legacy, and where those Rangers climbed. Pretty impressive to actually see the HD video of that cliff and how hard it must have been to assault.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRP78F1icOU


Channel 4 has some great youtube coverage interviewing British vets.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnlLgUU4VAY


Lots of amazing history from these guys that is disappearing quickly. We are lucky to get them on tape while we can.

 

[Thuglife13]

Is that first video related to the Dunkirk film? Won't watch the 2nd video right now because I know it'll get dusty instantly...

 

[Splinty]

More vet interviews.

"I prayed, if you must kill someone, kill me. But please don't send me home a cripple"

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGez69FUVFw

 

[sparkuri]

Watched WW2 in color, Normandy the other day.
Not many left to tell the story.
Not many left who care to listen, unfortunately.

 

[jason73]

adolf merkel showed up to the d day ceremony today too

 

[Splinty]

Eisenhower letter.

And his private worry, things could fail:

Accidentally dated July 5 (instead of June 5)...
Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that Bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.






AND...

Newly released letter of Eisenhower writing to his wife before D - day

“Starting tomorrow,” Eisenhower wrote on June 5, 1944, “I have a series of trips that will last without interruption from six to ten days.”
“So if you have a lapse in arriving letters, don’t jump at the conclusion that I don’t want to write — I’ll simply have no opportunity to pick up a pen,” Eisenhower assured his wife.

 

[1372]

Great thread @Splinty

 

[Splinty]

Capt. Norman Skinner, a 38-year-old officer with the Royal Army Service Corps, wrote to his wife Gladys and their two daughters while he prepared for the invasion.

“My thoughts at this moment, in this lovely Saturday afternoon, are with you all now," he wrote. "I can imagine you in the garden having tea with Janey and Anne getting ready to put them to bed...Although I would give anything to be back with you, I have not yet had any wish at all to back down from the job we have to do.”

He landed on Sword Beach on June 6, but died the next day.

Sword Beach - Wikipedia

 

[Never_Rolled]

Sunday we just had a Bday for a 99 year old. He was a Marine pilot in the pacific. He's the first to point out he didn't see combat. He flew important people around. He still has his flight books and training sign off books. Pretty amazing he kept all that. I don't think he's going to see 100. He is fond of saying "I'm ready to fold up my tent" He retired as an executive with Ford. After the war he got an MBA from Wharton. Even at 99 he doesn't drive but he still gets a new car from Ford every year. His GF drives him around. When Ford owned Jaguar he took those for a few years. The last 2 years he has hybrid Lincolns. Super nice man and an old school gentleman. They don't make them like Pete any more.

 

[Disciplined Galt]

People to be respected.

 

[benjo0101]

Lest we forget

 

[Masato Toys]

Truly amazing courage and honor, considering what these men BELIEVED they were doing. In the context of what they were told, what they were sold, what they THOUGHT they were fighting for... these men are heroes and as brave as it gets. Respect forever.

Unfortunately, I don't think anymore that why they were actually fighting was the same as what they were told.
And that makes me very sad.

 

[Masato Toys]

Oh yeah fuck Eisenhower. Look up his role in the post war death camps for surviving Germans.

 

[Never_Rolled]

Truly amazing courage and honor, considering what these men BELIEVED they were doing. In the context of what they were told, what they were sold, what they THOUGHT they were fighting for... these men are heroes and as brave as it gets. Respect forever.

Unfortunately, I don't think anymore that why they were actually fighting was the same as what they were told.
And that makes me very sad.

I'm pretty sure they knew exactly who and what they were fighting for. How is this even a question?

 

[Never_Rolled]

Oh yeah fuck Eisenhower. Look up his role in the post war death camps for surviving Germans.

Eisenhower sounds a little Jewish to me. You may be on to something.

 

[Masato Toys]

I'm pretty sure they knew exactly who and what they were fighting for. How is this even a question?

really?

I think there was a LOT more to that war and what was actually going on behind the scenes than the overly simplified fairytale we've been taught. It was not the bedtime story of good-guys vs bad-guys.

The propaganda during wartime on both sides skewed how each side saw 'the enemy'. That's how you get people to kill other people.

The real winners never set foot on the battlefield.

 

[Never_Rolled]

really?

I think there was a LOT more to that war and what was actually going on behind the scenes than the overly simplified fairytale we've been taught. It was not the bedtime story of good-guys vs bad-guys.

The Nazi's invaded other countries not of their own. They gassed people in concentration camps. Hardly a bedtime story.

 

[Masato Toys]

The Nazi's invaded other countries not of their own. They gassed people in concentration camps. Hardly a bedtime story.

Russians/Bolsheviks invaded countries not their own too.
So did the other Allied countries.
Both slaughtered masses in concentration camps and via other means
But you don't hear much about that stuff.


Good guys vs bad guys is a bedtime story.

 

[Never_Rolled]

Russians/Bolsheviks invaded countries not their own too.
So did the Allies.
Both murdered masses in concentration camps.


Good guys vs bad guys is a bedtime story.

OK what exactly was good about the Nazi's (other than cleaning up the Jewish problem)? The men on Dday specifically had nothing to do with any points founded or unfounded you have raised. You made a remark you can't back up that makes little sense to anyone. Those men knew why and who they were fighting against on DDay.

 

[Masato Toys]

Those men knew why and who they were fighting against on DDay.

To destroy the evil Nazis/German people in the name of Uncle Sam and Freedom to stop them from taking over the whole world?

To defend their families in Kansas and Missouri so they could have a future and be free?

Is that why and who they were fighting for?

 

[Masato Toys]

Because the whole world was peaceful and everyone was just minding their own business, until those crazy Nazis just popped up out of nowhere and decided to start hating and killing people out of sheer mass-lunacy?

 

[benjo0101]

On a day of remembrance for fallen heroes we are arguing on the internet about whether what they died for was what they thought it was?

Please stop.

 

[Masato Toys]

I'm looking at american WWII propaganda posters. Great stuff. Too many to select to post.

You get the idea.

These poor men in D-Day were used as pawns in a much bigger chessboard.

That is why I mourn for them.

 

[Never_Rolled]

To destroy the evil Nazis/German people in the name of Uncle Sam and Freedom to stop them from taking over the whole world?

To defend their families in Kansas and Missouri so they could have a future and be free?

Is that why and who they were fighting for?

They weren't fighting the German people per say, they were fighting Hitler and his Nazi war machine which many thought were evil. I wasn't around back then so I don't know if the country (U.S.) actually feared being invaded. It was/is patriotic to stand for your country and to fight for what you believe in.

 

[Never_Rolled]

On a day of remembrance for fallen heroes we are arguing on the internet about whether what they died for was what they thought it was?

Please stop.

Only one person here is doing that.