D-Day

[WindOnHisNose]

I have watched "Band of Brothers" about every 2-3 years and find myself more and more grateful for those who gave their all over 70 years ago on behalf of our Country. I am very thankful for their efforts and sacrifices.

Many of the surviving heroes are quite elderly now, and I hope that the challenges they faced will never be forgotten. I realize this is not a super cub-related post, but the subject is of such importance that I couldn't resist a quick post on this anniversary of D-Day.

Randy

 

[Tom Jones]

A high school friend of mine's dad left the bottom half of both legs on Omaha. My dad went to Africa with Patton, ended up in the second wave at Anzio, then vacationed at the Battle of Monte Casino. My mom was in the Navy as a Link Trainer instructor in Corpus Christi, her brother, also in the Navy, got to enjoy the Battle of Leyte Gulf up close and personal. Every one of my relatives, who were in the right age range, served in the war.

As Tom Hanks character John Miller, in Saving Private Ryan, said: "Earn this".

Tom

Tom

 

[WindOnHisNose]

Tom, thanks for the note. I am just sitting down to watch Saving Private Ryan now, for the 3rd or 4th time, and it brings such emotions.

Randy

 

[cubdriver2]

I wish I had paid more attention to all my neighbors when I was a kid growing up in the sixtys. I grew up around men with giant sets of balls and at that time was too stupid to realize it. God bless them all, giants every one of them.

Glenn

 

[WindOnHisNose]

I am entirely with you, Glenn. I have passed up on many, many opportunities to learn from those who were there...just didn't put the importance into perspective until relatively recent years. These folks were not braggers, though, and were very quiet about their experiences.

 

[Tom Jones]

Randy, you're right. Parts of it are really hard to watch.

Tom

 

[Tom Jones]

I suppose I should add that my sister-in-law's dad was from Hiroshima. He spent the war enjoying Manzanar with the rest of his family.

Tom

 

[cubdriver2]

I am entirely with you Genn. I have passed up on many, many opportunities to learn from those who were there...just didn't put the importance into perspective until relatively recent years. These folks were not braggers, though, and were very quiet about their experiences.

No braggers, most I have talked to felt guilty they didn't do enough. Too many buddies left behind that they felt they should have done something or anything different even though the outcome would have been the same in the end. I think most were like my dad who landed with the 1st Marines on Guadalcanal and later became alcoholics so that they could sleep at night and try to live a normal life after they got home. None of us can fathom the horrors most of those young boys witnessed on a regular basis. Men who came home and just wanted to forget what they saw and talking about it just dragged them back to a place worse then hell.

Glenn

 

[RAC cubs]

Many people did a lot of things in the past.to many people are living in the past.We need people now! my part of the country is falling apart so fast now. Went to a dinner under my friends flying boat,what stories of Johnson Wax,my racine Wi. 75,000 people home of Case ,and to many of the companies that built this nation. all the people there are of those Families.but it's all all gone now. they live high on the hog on OLD money,but everyone else can only listesn to the stories. One man from France said he could not believe the wasit in the this land.he is a rich man but could not believe the people he was staying with left all there lights on all night. we need to understand we are at war now,and to fight all the waist and mismanagement,fix the roads fix something.

 

[RanchPilot]

I'm a history lover, and few things are more humbling or inspiring to me than what those guys faced and accomplished on D-Day. This is the most harrowing account I've ever read--I can't even imagine what it was like to be there.

Already the sea runs red. Even among some of the lightly wounded who jumped into shallow water the hits prove fatal. Knocked down by a bullet in the arm or weakened by fear and shock, they are unable to rise again and are drowned by the onrushing tide. Other wounded men drag themselves ashore and, on finding the sands, lie quiet from total exhaustion, only to be overtaken and killed by the water. A few move safely through the bullet swarm to the beach, then find that they cannot hold there. They return to the water to use it for body cover. Faces turned upward, so that their nostrils are out of water, they creep toward the land at the same rate as the tide. That is how most of the survivors make it. The less rugged or less clever seek the cover of enemy obstacles moored along the upper half of the beach and are knocked off by machine-gun fire.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1960/11/first-wave-at-omaha-beach/303365/

For a wider perspective on the cost of freedom, I highly recommend this 17-minute film. It left me speechless.

https://vimeo.com/128373915

 

[scout88305]

The Honor Flight program takes Vets to Washington for the day to see the memorials, have a dinner and thank them for their service. It is free. They are back home the same day. Yesterday 2 friends, one a WWII vet that fought for Patton and a Korean campaign soldier flew from Duluth very early for this trip. I brought them the paperwork, stamped envelopes, and the push they needed to make it happen. As Randy stated our hero's are very old now and none will be left in the near future. If you know a vet encourage them for the http://www.honorflight.org/
It gives you a pretty good feeling to see it happen.

 

[cubdriver2]

The Honor Flight program takes Vets to Washington for the day to see the memorials, have a dinner and thank them for their service. It is free. They are back home the same day. Yesterday 2 friends, one a WWII vet that fought for Patton and a Korean campaign soldier flew from Duluth very early for this trip. I brought them the paperwork, stamped envelopes, and the push they needed to make it happen. As Randy stated our hero's are very old now and none will be left in the near future. If you know a vet encourage them for the http://www.honorflight.org/
It gives you a pretty good feeling to see it happen.

Its a great program. Our EAA chapter sponsered 2 this past May

Glenn

 

[NunavutPA-12]

I know exactly where my late father was on the morning of June 6, 1944. He was sitting in the rear turret of an RAF Halifax bomber, returning from a mission in northern France. The boys of that squadron got a bird's eye view of the invasion fleet. Of course, it was not quite that comfortable on Gold, Sword, Juno, and (particularly) Omaha beaches that morning!

 

[39-J3]

Hopefully these pictures come out. I am trying to post this from my phone. The pages didn't come out in order so if you read them start with the second one first.

I have my uncle's diary from his stint with the 101st airborne. I posted these two pages of his diary on my Facebook of my uncle's accounts of June 6th 1944. On that day he writes about loading up in gliders and landing on the beaches. The General that he talks about that died in the glider was General Pratt. My uncle was his aid. But before being General Pratt's aid he was General William Lee's aid. That was before General Lee had his heart attack just before the invasion. I have great detail in my uncle's diary of him in the "War room" planning out the DDay invasion.

So proud of my Uncle. My he rest in peace.
Larry

 

[Cubus Maximus]

81 years

 

[Cubus Maximus]

and can't forget the Cubs...

 

[cubdriver2]

The whole invasion plan is amazing that it all came together, not all as planned but the outcome was thankfully successful. Truly mans greatest triumph of good versus evil

World War II: D-Day, The Invasion of Normandy | Eisenhower Presidential Library

www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov

 

[aktango58]

While in High School our History teacher invited vets to come talk about their experiences; we had five folks involved in the taking of Manila, one that landed on Utah beach, and one former sailor that was firing a 50 Cal. gun at the Kamikazi plane until it hit the bottom of his gun station.

The gentleman that was fortunate enough to survive Utah Beach on D-Day, then fought the hedge line battles for the weeks following. He was very descriptive telling about his experience, including the ricochets inside the landing craft while approaching the beach, (Germans figured out to just bounce rounds off the steel behind the steel gunnels), then the rush to exit the boats when the front ramp dropped into unknown depths or gunfire.

My admiration for those that have risked it all continues to be strong since that day. The story was as incredible as it was horrific.

 

[55-PA18A]

My now 104 year old Dad joined the 2nd Armored Division at the the end of the Invasion of North Africa (Operation Torch). He had trained as an Army cook, but was handed a tool kit and told he was now a tank mechanic. They trained for the Invasion of Sicily then went in on the initial waves on the first day.

At the end of that action they were shipped to England to prepare for Normandy. Because his outfit suffered heavy losses in Sicily, they were held back a few days on the Normandy Invasion. On Day 5 he was on a LST that hit two mines just off the coast from France. It went down pretty fast. About all he recalls from that is a couple sailers helping him cross from the sinking ship to a PT boat (and that someone had taken his life belt!). He was taken to a hospital ship going back to England, where he stayed in a British Army base for a couple weeks wearing a British Army uniform while his outfit reorganized. He crossed the English Channel and landed on Normandy Beach in the middle of the night, carrying a Tommy Gun and 750 rounds of .45 ammo. When he rejoined his unit, they took the gun and ammo, handed him tools and told him to get to work.

From there it was across France, the Battle of the Bulge, Holland, and on to Germany where they were stopped just outside of Berlin while the Russians took Berlin.