OT: D-Day +74

[BrunswickDawg]

74 years ago this morning, my grandfather hit Omaha Beach as a part of the Third Wave of US Infantrymen making the greatest military assault the world has ever known.

When I would ask him about that day, he'd kind of shrug his shoulders, and look down. "It was a hard day. You were lying on the beach and one minute you were cursing, one minute you were crying, and one minute you were screaming angry. You'd look over to a buddy, then turn away, and the next time you would look over he would be gone." Over the years he would tell bits and pieces of his story of the war years. It was always filling gaps. He was cursing because his watch was shot off his arm - somehow not injuring him. He was crying because that buddy next to him was his younger cousin who he was supposed to watch out for. The screaming was after the Bangalore's had opened up the beach head and they charged off the beach.

I knew a lot of the men of the greatest generation - mostly my grandfather and his 6 brothers who all served, and their various cousins and friends. I'm thankful for the job they did, the sacrifices they made, and world they created.

[Liverpooldawg]

I had a client, dead a number of years now, who drove a landing craft at Omaha Beach. He never told me anything about it. I had heard through other people about him being there. I didn't want to ask him about it directly because I know many of that generation did not talk about what they went through. I asked his wife. She said, "I will let him know you are interested and he will talk to you, if he wants to. Whatever you do don't bring it up first." He never said a word to me about it. She filled me in a little bit over the years. She said he would wake up in obvious distress quite frequently for years. She always asked him what was wrong and for a long time he wouldn't tell her. He eventually told her. He drove his Higgens Boat in with the first wave at Omaha. When he dropped the ramp the soldiers went charging off. Every single one was cut down before they made it 10 yards. She asked him what he did. He said, "I turned around and went back and got another load. What else could I do?" I think he was 20 years old.

[Martianlander]

Great men and great sacrifices for us.

[Bully13]

Heroic Day Indeed. I just wished things would have gone better for our young men that day. So much went wrong.

[starkvegasdawg]

Those men were walking right into a buzz saw and did it without flinching. Amazing bravery and dedication to country. My grandad, who just died a few months ago, was a radio operator in Algiers. An interesting note regarding him was after we nuked Japan X2 it was my grandad that telegraphed the surrender conditions to Hirohito. I try to imagine the massive smile on his face when he was doing that. Another fun story he told was that when he was writing home to my grandmother, he could only say "somewhere in Northern Africa" as his location for security reasons. But he devised a plan to allow her to know where he was. In his letters he would tell her to take some vegetables or whatever to their neighbors at such and such addresses. The neighbors were completely fictional. Their addresses, however, were the lat/Long coordinates of his location. The mail censors never caught on.

[BrunswickDawg]

Heroic Day Indeed. I just wished things would have gone better for our young men that day. So much went wrong.

But our troops had the training and the leadership to overcome those obstacles and challenges - which is more important.

[DanDority]

Yes, I agree a lot went wrong, luckily we didn't have a D-Day with Japan which is were my grandfather fought. If we would have he always said I wouldn't be here. He said those Japs were some tough sumbitches!

[starkvegasdawg]

Yes, I agree a lot went wrong, luckily we didn't have a D-Day with Japan which is were my grandfather fought. If we would have he always said I wouldn't be here. He said those Japs were some tough sumbitches!

No doubt the Japs were hard core. They redefined fully dedicated. My mom's old back surgeon who fought in the Pacific campaign absolutely hated the Japanese. I mean hated them. When my mom asked him why he replied if you had seen all the things they did to our boys you would have, too. He saw enough for him to hold a 50 year grudge.

[HereComesTheSpiral]

The 315 and 437 along with the 82nd airborne are doing a reenactment of the D-Day invasion and streaming over Facebook and Twitter.

[Dawgbite]

My Dad went in on day 3 with an engineering battalion. My entire life I never heard more than one or two sentences about the war, he served during Korea as well but never deployed. When Saving Private Ryan came out on DVD I took a copy to watch with him in hopes of maybe him opening up a little. I was and always have been a big WW2 history buff. The only thing he said was in reference to the scenes depicting the present day cemetary. He said, "You see all those nice neat rows of crosses, that's not how they were buried. I drove a D11 Cat cutting slit trenches to bury both American and German dead. The only difference between the two was GI's hand carried the Americans into the trenches before I covered them up and they just piled the Germans up and I pushed them in with Dozer." That was all he said.

[Liverpooldawg]

Heroic Day Indeed. I just wished things would have gone better for our young men that day. So much went wrong.

A lot more went right than went wrong. A lot of the things that did go wrong worked out for the better too. People always point to Omaha, but if you read deep we KNEW Omaha was going to be a bloody mess. Tactically it just had to be taken and it was.

I got to spend a day(not nearly enough time, but it was what we had)in Normandy a few years back. We were there on July 4th. When you see all those crosses above Omaha, it brings home what our continued Independence costs. We got to go to Easy Red and Dog Green at Omaha. We went to Pointe du Hoc, St. Mere Egliese, St. Marie Dumont, Brecourt Manor, Utah Beach, a German Cemetery, and La Fiere. I'm sure I butchered those spellings. We had a great guide and he got us to a lot of places in a short time. If anyone wants a name let me know. The last time I checked he is still in business.

[Dolphus Raymond]

Those men and women of The Greatest Generation were TRUE patriots; not the wannabe "I love my 'Amurca' so much and if you don't stand for the Anthem I'll kick your ass" patriots of today. All served, and politics did not matter; George McGovern flew a bomber and Bob Dole was a tanker. They served, as millions of others did and thousands died and many thousands more were maimed. They were the true Patriots. The "patriots" of today, for the most part, have never, and would never, strapped on a ruck-sack and humped down the road all day. The "patriots" of today love their "assault weapons" and brandish them at every opportunity but never dreamed of carrying an M-16 while in uniform. (Yes, Ted Nugent, I'm talking about you).
The Greatest Generation personified what true patriotism is and many of the patriots of today make me puke.
To all of those who died on the beaches and DZ's, on 6 June 44, I salute you

[Liverpooldawg]

Those men and women of The Greatest Generation were TRUE patriots; not the wannabe "I love my 'Amurca' so much and if you don't stand for the Anthem I'll kick your ass" patriots of today. All served, and politics did not matter; George McGovern flew a bomber and Bob Dole was a tanker. They served, as millions of others did and thousands died and many thousands more were maimed. They were the true Patriots. The "patriots" of today, for the most part, have never, and would never, strapped on a ruck-sack and humped down the road all day. The "patriots" of today love their "assault weapons" and brandish them at every opportunity but never dreamed of carrying an M-16 while in uniform. (Yes, Ted Nugent, I'm talking about you).
The Greatest Generation personified what true patriotism is and many of the patriots of today make me puke.
To all of those who died on the beaches and DZ's I salute you

Why did you have to make this political? Jeez.

[Dolphus Raymond]

Why did you have to make this political? Jeez.

Not intended to be political. I simply drew a comparison between The Greatest Generation and the "patriots" of today. The contrast between the two is striking.

[starkvegasdawg]

The Fallen 9,000. Each one of those dark areas on the beach is a life size rendition of a person representing someone who was killed storming the beach.
https://i.huffpost.com/gen/1377220/thumbs/o-FALLEN-900.jpg?6

[Bully13]

Not intended to be political. I simply drew a comparison between The Greatest Generation and the "patriots" of today. The contrast between the two is striking.

BULL SHIT. Your intentions are way obvious. Way to 17 up the thread.

[starkvegasdawg]

One thing I don't understand about D Day is I would have thought we would have had massive air support strafing the German bunkers and bombing them. And maybe we did, but I never saw any depiction of it. I would have thought some Mustangs going up and down the beach might have helped things a little.

[Liverpooldawg]

Not intended to be political. I simply drew a comparison between The Greatest Generation and the "patriots" of today. The contrast between the two is striking.

Then where are your left wing examples? You did what you intended to do. Delete the political part please.

[Liverpooldawg]

One thing I don't understand about D Day is I would have thought we would have had massive air support strafing the German bunkers and bombing them. And maybe we did, but I never saw any depiction of it. I would have thought some Mustangs going up and down the beach might have helped things a little.

WE had air support, tons of it, but the weather spooked them into dropping well inland. They didn't want to drop on our troops. Close air support wasn't as developed a science at the time. If you have ever been there and seen where the Germans were, esp at Omaha, nothing short of a direct bomb hit would have got them, if that. There were no such thing as precision munitions then. We really would have killed more of our own troops than Germans if we had tried to hit the beach bunkers after they were ashore.

[parabrave]

One thing I don't understand about D Day is I would have thought we would have had massive air support strafing the German bunkers and bombing them. And maybe we did, but I never saw any depiction of it. I would have thought some Mustangs going up and down the beach might have helped things a little.

The bombers missed the beach due to the smoke and haze from the naval bombardment. Most of the bombers dropped their loads miles inland.

[Bully13]

The 29 amphibious tanks that didn't make it to the beach hurt bad. well 2 made it, the other 27 sank due to the bad weather. They were gonna provide tons of cover for our troops. Too many troops were dumped off in water over their heads and they ended up drowning. before D-Day, we had gliders drop off paratroopers behind enemy lines only to be dumped off in flooded waters due to the Nazis releasing the dams. Lot's of them drowned. The British paratroopers fared better than ours because their parachutes were easier to disconnect once they hit the water and thus were able to swim to safety. More French citizens died than Nazis from our bombers on D-Day due to our pilots not being able to see the ground well enough.

[starkvegasdawg]

Para / Liver,

Thanks for setting me straight. I figured we had to have thought of that and there was something I was missing.

[Martianlander]

The 29 amphibious tanks that didn't make it to the beach hurt bad. well 2 made it, the other 27 sank due to the bad weather. They were gonna provide tons of cover for our troops. Too many troops were dumped off in water over their heads and they ended up drowning. before D-Day, we had gliders drop off paratroopers behind enemy lines only to be dumped off in flooded waters due to the Nazis releasing the dams. Lot's of them drowned. The British paratroopers fared better than ours because their parachutes were easier to disconnect once they hit the water and thus were able to swim to safety. More French citizens died than Nazis from our bombers on D-Day due to our pilots not being able to see the ground well enough.
Maybe you history guys can fill me in , but I believe I read that the invasion was originally supposed to be June 5th and was postponed a day because of the weather.

[BrunswickDawg]

Maybe you history guys can fill me in , but I believe I read that the invasion was originally supposed to be June 5th and was postponed a day because of the weather.

That is correct. And Ike was hesitant to go on the 6th, but a second delay would have pushed the invasion back due to tides/moon cycles. They got a weather report that the morning of the 6th would have some clearing in the weather enough to invade (must have been an MSU meteorologist) and they went.

[Dolphus Raymond]

BULL SHIT. Your intentions are way obvious. Way to 17 up the thread.

To the contrary. The word "patriotism" has been whored away to the highest bidder for the past two decades. The men who waded ashore and fell from the sky on 6 June 44 transcended all political ideologies; New Dealers, Socialist, and Adam Smith Republicans alike. They were patriots, ALL of them. My point is more historical than political, and demonstrated how far we have sunk since that day. The manner in which the word "patriot" is used and defined today is disgusting and we all know it. Anyone who disagrees with the present day definition is branded a "snowflake" by people who have never, in any way, shape, or form, served and it makes me ill. A lot of "snowflakes" are buried across Europe and the Pacific. Political to a degree yes, but historically sound.
Sorry if what I said offends anyone.

[Liverpooldawg]

To the contrary. The word "patriotism" has been whored away to the highest bidder for the past two decades. The men who waded ashore and fell from the sky on 6 June 44 transcended all political ideologies; New Dealers, Socialist, and Adam Smith Republicans alike. They were patriots, ALL of them. My point is more historical than political, and demonstrated how far we have sunk since that day. The manner in which the word "patriot" is used and defined today is disgusting and we all know it. Anyone who disagrees with the present day definition is branded a "snowflake" by people who have never, in any way, shape, or form, served and it makes me ill. A lot of "snowflakes" are buried across Europe and the Pacific. Political to a degree yes, but historically sound.
Sorry if what I said offends anyone.

As I said, your post was political.

[parabrave]

Maybe you history guys can fill me in , but I believe I read that the invasion was originally supposed to be June 5th and was postponed a day because of the weather.

Watch the movie, The Longest Day. It is accurate with most of the major happenings of Overlord,

[Dolphus Raymond]

Watch the movie, The Longest Day. It is accurate with most of the major happenings of Overlord,
An exceptional and historically sound move. My father watched it every June 6

[Dolphus Raymond]

As I said, your post was political.

But I hate Ole Miss more than you do. Take that.***

[BrunswickDawg]

Watch the movie, The Longest Day. It is accurate with most of the major happenings of Overlord,

The first 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan is pretty damn accurate too.