D Day

[Chuckanut]

D Day a memorable day is our history.

Interestingly the invasion of Italy occurred in July 10 1943, over a year earlier. For some reason we don’t notice this. Yet there is a graveyard outside of Florence where thousands of American GIs are buried.

 

[REWahoo]

Today is D Day...

Better take another look at your calendar...

 

[Chuckanut]

Better take another look at your calendar...

Opps!

Darn auto-correct!

Nevertheless, most of us do not notice the invasion of Italy, yet thousands of our fellow citizens are buried there.

The monument says that it was put there in reverent tribute to the sacrifice of the United States of America.

 

[REWahoo]

Opps!

Darn auto-correct!

Yep, auto-correct is filled with opps oops.

 

[braumeister]

Some of us are all too well aware of it.

My father was with the 3rd Infantry Division (Patton's group).

He landed in French Morocco and fought across North Africa, all across Sicily, and up through Italy until he was wounded by a German machine gun bullet just north of Naples. It affected him the rest of his life.

 

[audreyh1]

D Day a memorable day is our history.

Interestingly the invasion of Italy occurred in July 10 1943, over a year earlier. For some reason we don’t notice this. Yet there is a graveyard outside of Florence where thousands of American GIs are buried.

Oops - the anniversary was yesterday?

I'm not a WWII buff, but I watched Darkest Hour on the airplane* and got a lot out of it. I could tell they were screwing with the timeline though - as some things made no sense, and sure enough Great Britain had declared war on Germany a year earlier, so the "pressured negotiation" business was all nonsense. But still it was a powerful movie.

* long airplane ride is about the only way I'll sit through a movie.

 

[audreyh1]

I enjoyed seeing Liberation Day (Bevrijdingsdag) celebrated on May 5 in the Netherlands. That's when The Netherlands was liberated from Nazi occupation - mostly by Canadian forces as part of the Allies.

We stepped out of a museum in The Hague into a parade of vintage US Army vehicles passing by - each sporting American, Canadian, Australian or British flags. They had a couple of tanks, lots of jeeps, cars, trucks, motorcycles, and even some amphibian vehicles! It was very cool.

 

[CoolRich59]

Some of us are all too well aware of it.

My father was with the 3rd Infantry Division (Patton's group).

He landed in French Morocco and fought across North Africa, all across Sicily, and up through Italy until he was wounded by a German machine gun bullet just north of Naples. It affected him the rest of his life.

We are grateful for his service and sacrifice. God bless him.

 

[samclem]

I'm not a WWII buff, but I watched Darkest Hour on the airplane* and got a lot out of it. I could tell they were screwing with the timeline though - as some things made no sense, and sure enough Great Britain had declared war on Germany a year earlier, so the "pressured negotiation" business was all nonsense. But still it was a powerful movie.

I liked the movie, too. They did take liberties with some facts. It is true there were Axis attempts to negotiate terms (which probably would have been quite favorable to the UK) to get Britain out of the war prior to Dunkirk. Some in the British government wanted to pursue that course of action. Churchill would have none of it. If things had gone that way and Germany had then been free to turn all attention eastward--well, the world might be very different today.

 

[candrew]

Had an uncle that served in WWII and was one of the "poor bastards of Bastogne". He was subsequently wounded in that battle and awarded a Purple Heart.

My great uncle, Henri Laussaucq, served with the OSS and worked with the great female spy, Virginia Hall. Originally with the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), at age 62, Henri was the oldest agent ever placed in the field by the OSS. Both my great uncle (code name Aramis) and Ms. Wolf (code name Diane) were put ashore in Normandy via submarine 15 months ahead of D-Day. They were tasked with assisting the French Forces of the interior and coordinating with the Resistance. Virginia Wolf worked the wireless set while my great uncle helped find safe houses for downed allied fliers escaping capture. Ms. Hall already had a price placed on her head by the Nazis who pledged to "find and destroy her", yet at incredible risk, she and my great uncle returned to France to do their parts in preparing for D-Day.

 

[Bigdawg]

Notable dates in my military career: Enlisted on 2 August, 1990 (two hours before Iraq invaded Kuwait). Graduated bootcamp on 7 December, 1990 (49th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor). Checked into OCS on 6 June, 1999 (55th anniversary of D-Day) and graduated OCS/pinned on 2nd Lt on Friday August 13th, 1999. Ominous day if you are superstitious.

The Longest Day with John Wayne is my favorite D-Day movie.

 

[gamboolman]

candrew
Thanks for sharing - incredible story about your great uncle !

Ms. gamboolgals father was in the 101st. He jumped into Normandy and was in every major battle, including Bastogne of course. He was never wounded. He was on Eisenhower's honor guard at Nuremberg. He said he guarded/escorted the Nazi's on trial.

We lost him in 2008 and I miss him to this day as he was a father to me.

Mr. Beam is pictured on the lower right side of the pics.

 

[Scrapr]

Last year our family toured Normandy with a private guide from Normandy. He took onto the sands at low tide. And showed us the gun placements from the beach. We were crying down there. very powerful

 

[DrRoy]

The invasion of Italy did not have the same strategic impact on the war in Europe as the invasion of Normandy. Italy was a continuation of Operation Torch and the invasion of Sicily. While significant, it was not the opening of a brand new front.