I had 'puter problems most of the day yesterday so I finally gave up having not completed a single productive thing and went to bed in digust. About 4 this morning I'm up since I was in bed so early the night before and I hear an email hit my inbox all full of love and concern:
"There's something wrong with your email. Fix it."
Looks like I did, but hit me up, if you were emailing and nothing went through, it bounced back or I didn't answer you. skyblue812@gmail.com
Those of you that donated, big hugs and kisses, but not on the mouth.
Those that didn't I'll give you another chance to redeem yourself. Promise. ;) At some point in the next 24hrs barring any html glitch this blog is being reformatted so bear with me, I'll have all those that didn't ask to be anonymous up with links and pictures of the first mailouts. I have some graduation festivities and shopping to do today.
Happy Sunday, blogpeeps!
On with my D-Day post.
From the video: "A lot of people gave their life so that (the generations) who are living in our country today realize they're free and what would have happened if this had not been a successful war. I sure hope that the people in this country realize what these WWII veterans--any veteran in any war they were in-- what they have done to protect this country so they could enjoy all the things that we enjoy in this country...Every year it gets harder to talk about this...but I feel it's very important that I talk in schools and to people so that everybody realizes that freedom is not free."
Given what this vet in the interview said regarding the retelling of this day--the difficulty of it, I would expect that it would be easier for us to listen to it then it is for him to recount. I hope you will take the time to look at this segment in light of that.
Oldest Blogger in the blogosphere...Some refer to Solomon Fein, the oldest military blog in the blogosphere.
Normandy Vet If you haven't been you should head over.
Had you been alive in 1944 and living in a small town America you would have read an article much like what you se here from a small town in Virginia:
SUPREME HEADQUARTERS, ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE, JUNE 6
(AP) - Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower the supreme allied commander, went on the air this invasion day telling the people of Europe the grand assault on the continent had begun and "all patriots, young and old, will have a part to play in the Liberation." He pleaded against premature uprising saying, "be patient, prepare. Wait until I give you the signal."He was followed by King Haako nof Norway who broadcast special orders to both organized and unorganized resistance groups in Norway , but warned his people not to rise against the Germans prematurely.It was announced that Gen. Charles De Gaulle, who had just arrived in London , would broadcast a message to the people of France later in the day. Earlier in the day the BBC had broadcast Communiqué No. 1 from Invasion headquarters, first in English and then in French and immediately thereafter sounded an "Alert" to the peoples of Norway, the Netherlands , Belgium and Denmark .French people were told additionally to stand by in 14 minutes for a special announcement.
NORMANDY INVASION WEATHER LONDON, JUNE 6 -- (AP) The sun broke through heavy clouds at times in the
Other D-Days
August, 7, 1942, Guadalcanal
April 1, 1945, Okinawa
November 23, 1943 Tarawa
January 22, 1944 Anz io
Before Normandy, D-Day was a term generally used as a term for the day of any invasion. I only knew the date for Normandy by heart. These above I had to look up and like these dates, I realize that these are only a few of the great battles from this war. There were many our troops in World War II as well as other wars, as the veteran in the video mentioned, who woke up to the longest or last day of their life. In either situation, these men knew going into it that it would be one or the other.
Another quote that struck me.
"We shot at everything that moved. The beach was soon covered with the bodies of American soldiers." - German soldier Franz Gockel, writing to his family on June 10, 1944, about the landings on Omaha Beach four days earlier.
On Uncle Lucian...
I was readying my Uncle's book on the campaigns he took part in in World War II and I came across a passage referring to a drive he took with General Marshall when they met in Algiers after Uncle Lucian left the Italian Campaign in early 1944. Marshall told my uncle that General Eisenhower had asked for him to be a part of the Normandy invasion given his experience with the difficult and costly invasion at Anzio, but General Clark, his superior had insisted that my uncle prepare instead for a secondary landing the following August after the Normandy invasion at Toulons in the south of France called Operation Anvil initially and later named Dragoon. Of that conversation, Uncle Lucian experessed great gratitude to have known his expertise had been requested for the cross channel invasion, but was gracious and replied to Marshall that it was his desire to do the best job whereever it was his superiors believed he was the most useful. He also said he was touched by the generosity of Marshall in conveying this information for he had not obligation to make my uncle aware of Eisenhower's regard for him.
I hadn't read his autobiography in a very long while and this was the first I knew of what role he played in this part of the war in Europe.
One last thing...I'd be remiss if I didn't post this last quote as I have often been centric, as many of us, surrounded by great oceans tend to do.
"I often hear the phrase, 'When the Americans liberated us,' in conversation. No. The Americans were with the British, the Canadians, during the landings and it was, after all, Britain that suffered the crux of the struggle for several years."- Louis Mexandeau, a former war veterans minister on how some overlook the contribution made by other Allied nations
I came across this blog link . It's interesting to have perspectives other than what you normally are presented with. If anyone has blog links for Britsh or French veterans, let me know. I looked , but I didn't find anything of the up to datea nature. 'Course I was pressed for time.Canadian vet.
5 comments:
I had trouble reading the text in the blue box...on my screen the text was also a shade of blue, so it was very hard to see.
Thanks for your thoughts on the events of 6 June.
Iam still not sure how that blue got coded that way.Can,t seem to rectify...
Great post, Hope, even if some of it is hard to read. I especially like the video of the gentleman talking about his longest day. As I said in Airman Mom's site, I was raised with WWII vets from all the services and both oceans sitting in my living-room drinking whiskey and talking to my dad. I grew up having respect and awe for these brave men. And almost all of them never talked about 'I' or 'me' but about those they were with and what they did. Not bragging, just unloading as best they could for the times.
As much as I despise Stalin and his NKVD, honestly, most of the brunt of the European Theatre was shouldered by the Russians. If you add up all the divisions that fought the Germans and all the casualties, what our folks did in the West hardly equals side show status. Hard to believe, but its true. Doesn't detract from what our guys did, because it was enormous, but it just shows how much bigger the war was in the East, and believe me, it WAS bigger by multitudes.
Good post Hope, especially since we are going to visit Normandy in January 2010. My son is keen on the history of what happened there (as I am also). It will be an interesting journery for us.