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D-Day was today, 62 years ago. Let's honour those who gave their lives for us.
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| VERTiG0 |
While everyone is probably caught up in the 06/06/06 shenanigans, we should not forget that 62 years ago this day the Allied forces were landing on the beaches of Normandy, France to liberate mainland Europe from the Nazi occupation.
With so many World War II vets across the world over passing away each year, it's important that the current generation of humanity take a little time to remember the people who fought and died for our freedom that day, and (in a much larger sense) during World War II.
Plus it's totally rad that our Canadian forces who landed on Juno Beach were the only ones who reached their objectives that day :cool:
| quote: | The Canadian forces that landed on Juno Beach faced 11 heavy batteries of 155 mm guns and 9 medium batteries of 75 mm guns, as well as machine-gun nests, pillboxes, other concrete fortifications, and a seawall twice the height of the one at Omaha Beach. The first wave suffered 50 percent casualties, the second highest of the five D-Day beachheads.
Personnel of Royal Canadian Navy Beach Commando "W" landing on Mike Beach, Juno sector of the Normandy beachhead. June 6th, 1944.
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Personnel of Royal Canadian Navy Beach Commando "W" landing on Mike Beach, Juno sector of the Normandy beachhead. June 6th, 1944.
Despite the obstacles, within hours the Canadians were off the beach and beginning their advance inland. The 6th Canadian Armoured Regiment (1st Hussars) was the only Allied unit to meet its June 6 objectives, when it crossed the Caen–Bayeux highway over nine miles (15 km) inland.
By the end of D-Day, 15,000 Canadians had been successfully landed, and the 3rd Canadian Division had penetrated further into France than any other Allied force, despite having faced such strong resistance at the beachhead. The 21st Panzer division launched the first D-Day counterattack between Sword and Juno beaches, and the Canadians held against several stiff counterattacks by the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend on June 7 and 8. |
Brings a tear to my eye, damnit.
If you wish to read more about D-Day:
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-day
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Normandy
* http://www.dday.org/
* http://www.britannica.com/dday
* http://www.google.com/search?q=d-day |
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| adi26 |
Interesting...
good post
I love the whole world war 2 history...how Hitler lost n stuff...thats some great strategy by Allied forces.. |
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| simms327 |
Good Post Cale
Its hard living in our world today to even grasp at what it might have been like to have lived during the second world war. My Grandparents on my mother's side lived in London during the blitz, and My grandmother on my dad's side was imprisoned in a Japanese Internment Camp in Manilla for 3.5 years. Their stories chill me to the bone.
Here's to many young men and women's courage to risk the ultimate sacrifice in the name of peace and justice.
may we never forget. |
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| simms327 |
| quote: | Originally posted by adi26
Interesting...
good post
I love the whole world war 2 history...how Hitler lost n stuff...thats some great strategy by Allied forces.. |
and stupid moves by Hitler...
their are many (well founded I beleive) articles that argue how he could have won easily... |
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| Fir3start3r |
Hug a vet today! :D
I think I'll send my buddy Ches (a WWII vet) an email today.
We (my wife and I) hooked him up with a computer and have been giving him email and internet lessons.
Opened up a whole new world for him :)
Thank God for our vets! |
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| VERTiG0 |
Can you imagine this ?
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| loconet |
| quote: | Originally posted by VERTiG0
Can you imagine this ?
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Thanks to them we don't have to. Respect to those who faught. |
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| Grinder |
British casualties on D-Day have been estimated at approximately 2700. The Canadians lost 946 casualties. The US forces lost 6603 men.
Thank god for these people. If it was not for these brave men, from the greatest countries in the world, we would probably all be speaking Germen right now.
Canadians and Americans working together for freedom. Not unlike whats going on today. |
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| VERTiG0 |
This is perhaps the best thing I've seen written about it.
| quote: | Because of my own family history, I have always felt that D-Day was a great day to honor the spirit and tenacity of the people of Great Britain, as well as the courage and determination of the multinational invasion forces. The citizens of England, Scotland and Wales had endured over five years of hunger, hardship, and psychological and physical warfare leading up to D-Day. Their cities, towns, and factories were being bombed and rocketed on a daily basis, the men between the ages of 16 and 50 were fighting across the seas and around the world, and women, older folks, and boys and girls were pressed into service day and night to keep the allied war machine running and their island nation from a Nazi invasion.
Every citizen and every action was directed toward island defense and war production. Families were issued one egg per person per week, along with 4 ounces of meat and 4 ounces of margarine. All road signage on the island was removed, to confuse invaders, and transportation, when there was any at all, was shared. Mostly, people walked or rode bikes, and they did it at night in complete and total darkness. City-dwellers slept in subway tunnels and culverts at night to escape bombings. Children were sent by themselves into camps in the countryside for protection.
And in the midst of all the grinding hardship, a million Britons kept a secret. Since the summer of 1943, things had been happening on the island of Great Britain, from military encampments suddenly appearing in the Scottish north to huge and inexplicable movements of ships and soldiers all over southwest England. Canadians, Americans, and even their own men began appearing, without unit identification patches, all over the place. No one asked why, and no one ever told. Everyone knew, and yet, no one knew or talked about these activities. While the greatest air and naval armada in human history was being assembled and trained at sites across Britain, the citizens pretended they saw nothing, heard nothing, and they discussed nothing, even among themselves.
But they all knew. They knew that one day, as Winston Churchill put it, “The tide will turn.” So I can just imagine the moment that my mother, then a girl of twenty, can never forget and to this day, she cannot talk about without crying. On the night of June 5th, well after midnight, she and a girlfriend were walking home after working a second shift and catching a music show at a small theater. She had been a university student, but the university had closed, as all male students and professors were in the services and the women were assigned to work for the war department or homeland industries. As they walked, a wave of bombers and cargo planes swept overhead. This elicited no reaction from anybody on the street, as the RAF always launched at night. But then came another wave of heavy transports, which everyone who had been hearing planes for the past five years could tell from the engine sound. Then came another wave. And another. Then the higher, more reedy sound of night fighters. Then more transports. Then more bombers.
People came up out of their basements and culverts, and stood staring at the sky and at each other. Hundreds, and then thousands of people, still standing in complete black-out darkness, started cheering. They struck up the national anthem – ‘God save the King’ – and everyone hugged one another. Then, a thousand voices strong, they sang ‘Rule, Britannia!' As the planes still came overhead in waves, they all knew that, whatever happened, they did not have to pretend anymore – the invasion of Europe had begun. It was D-Day. |
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| simms327 |
| quote: | Originally posted by VERTiG0
This is perhaps the best thing I've seen written about it. |
that gave me goosebumps, whats that from Cale? |
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| VERTiG0 |
| quote: | Originally posted by simms327
that gave me goosebumps, whats that from Cale? |
Another forum.
Also,
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