D-Day - June 6, 1944 - Never Again
There is no question here, only a reminder.
From Wikipedia:
The Normandy landings, codenamed Operation Neptune, were the landing operations on 6 June 1944 (termed D-Day) of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. The largest seaborne invasion in history, the operation began the invasion of German-occupied western Europe, led to the restoration of the French Republic, and contributed to an Allied victory in the war.
Lest We forget!!
7 Answers
War veteran makes great escape from care home to mark D-day anniversary:
Bernard Jordan, reported missing after leaving nursing home wearing his medals, found in France at commemorations
Yesterday, he returned safely home and received a heroes welcome.
I know a man who is now 91 years old. He was in the Navy, fighting the Japanese, when the D-Day operation was pronounced victorious. He told me that he will never forget the importance of that day.
Neither should we. Thanks for the reminder.
Thank you for the reminder. Freedom has a cost.
Freedom is not free. . .
British forces Landing (above)
Lest We Forget
Fallen Friends Remembered
Retelling the Story of the Sacrifices Made that We might be Free . . .
I watched a lot of the coverage of the ceremonies. It is amazing that there are still so many veterans that are capable of making the journey to France. In a ceremony for British veterans attended by Prince William and his wife veterans staged a march past. I visited the area for a holiday many years ago. Even though I had no relatives who fought there, I went to the cemetry at Bayeux. It was beautiful. Each grave individually carved and engraved and surrounded by flowers. Esteban has a photo on his post. The majority are British but there are other nationalities, indeed in one corner there are a significant number of Germans. On all sides their are many teenagers who died. We also visited the large American cemetery which overlooks the sea. It was pristine with rows and rows of plain white symetrical crosses. However you looked you saw hundreds of perfectly spaced graves. Every now and then the symetry was broken up by a star showing the dead person was Jewish. For me the Bayeux cemetry was prettier and more tranquil - the American cemetry seemed to dramatically highlight the enormity of the losses. I went to the drumhead ceremony at Southsea Common, 20 years ago. I remember the vast number of cars and men accompanying Clinton whereas the visible security for our Royal family who were all present, including Diana seemed minimal. The weather was dreadful. The next day, however, we sat on the beach in sunshine, watching a flypast and the ships setting out in a flotilla for France. I have also been to the map room at Southwick which overlooks Portsmouth harbour and where the operations were organised. There were a huge number of heads of state at the ceremony at Arromanches including Putin and the new president of Ukraine. The French broadcasters focused on Obama and Putin. I thought it was great that Angela Merkel of Germany looked relaxed and got a warm welcome. The message from all the veterans was there was no glory in war and they were sad for all the people who died. One man said to his grandson it should never happen again. For those interested in what happened or who want to practise English the BBC have a series of guides called iWonder - find the bit that interests you: BBC info
Thanks to the Merchant Navy
Much forgotten heroes of WW2 are the brave men and women of the Merchant Navy.
For a number of years I buddy taught with a great guy and teacher who told me of
the terrors of sailing in convoy across the Atlantic from NewYork to Liverpool.
He was torpedoed on one voyage at the tender age of 16, but strangely said that
the most frightening day of his life was when we both took our first ever class .
Sadly Bernie Herlihy is no longer with us , but I remember and thank him and all the boys
who suffered the cold wet and constant fear during their service in WW2.
Andy Rooney of CBS News and Eyewitness to D-Day - video remarks (3:07)
Click to see: D Day remarks by Eyewitness Andy Rooney
