D-Day Thoughts

[owlice]

Random thoughts about the day...

Today is my brother's birthday, so of the things I think about this day, he is one of them.

When I was 17, I spent the summer in Normandy, living with a family there and taking French language, lit, and culture classes. We had a number of field trips, and one of them was to the Norman beaches.

Seeing the beaches and an Allied cemetery there was one of the most moving experiences of my life; to know that so many boys scarcely older than I was at the time had stormed those beaches, that so many boys scarcely older than I was at the time were buried in that cemetery which stretched out as far as I could see in almost every direction, that so many boys scarcely older than I had fought there, many of them surely knowing they were likely to die that day or the next, was a powerful experience. The carnage of that day, the sacrifices of that day, the courageousness of that day, all were terribly, horribly necessary, but oh, at what a heavy price. I am teary now, remembering it, as I always am when I remember it.

I saw an article recently about the French in Normandy remembering, even now. That was certainly true when I was there; the people were grateful 30 years after that terrible, necessary day. They remembered and honored the sacrifices of the Americans and British boys, and were grateful to the countries which gave their boys for their freedom. The family with which I stayed hosted American children to honor the memory of those young men, to care for the youth of a country that had given theirs so much.

So I think of the Norman beaches, how gray the sky was the day I was there, the Allied cemetery, the acres of crosses and stars of David, my French family, and the thousands of Allied families left to grieve their losses with the balm of pride in what their children helped accomplish, each anniversary of D-Day.

[DavidRoss]

Cut and pasted from my post on the similar thread on CMG in memory of "the greatest generation" and their courage and commitment in defense of democracy during those terrible times:

One of our oldest family friends, our next-door neighbor when I was born in the years just after the war, is one of the kindest, most unassuming and most easily underestimated fellows I've ever known: a gentle man who stands barely over five feet tall, who spent much of his war in the 8th Air Force flying missions from England over Germany.  He has always been a hero to me, even when we were at odds over America's role in Vietnam (where he finished his career flying B-52s much as he had begun it flying B-17s)...but I never quite understood just how courageous he was, or the meaning his annual reunions with his crew and others held for him, until I saw the movie Memphis Belle, which gave me only the slightest glimmer of a taste of what they went through and sacrificed to make the world a much better place.  I am honored to have been guided by men like him and my uncles and father, and grateful that our world was blessed by their presence and their courage.

[Bogey]

Thank you.

[Coopmv]

My late father-in-law, whom I never met, served under General George S. Patton ...

[vandermolen]

Yes, in grateful memory 6/6/1944:

[Coopmv]

It sure was better late than never.  The WWII Memorial was constructed after the Vietnam Memorial and the latter really belongs in the same category as the Iraq War - totally unnecessary.  The Great Generation deserves to be immortalized for the sacrifice they made or we would all be speaking German today ... 

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

And in this clip, you can see Gordon Brown refer to Omaha Beach as "Obama Beach":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-RNqD-gO9w&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fiaindale%2Eblogspot%2Ecom%2F2009%2F06%2Fbrown%2Dis%2Dbooed%2Dat%2Dd%2Dday%2Dceremony%2Ehtml&feature=player_embedded

[knight66]

He has one or two other things on his mind just at the moment.

In the UK, we feel it is beyond bizarre that our head of state was not invited.

Mike

[owlice]

The Vietnam War memorial was completely necessary; it is America's "wailing wall."

I find the WWII memorial very unattractive and think it should have been put somewhere other than where it was put. The sacrifices made should have been memorialized (that should go without saying), but I disagree very much with the placement and design of the memorial. I think WWII vets deserve better than the abomination on the Mall they got.

Mike, that IS beyond bizarre!

[Dundonnell]

Superb initial post, owlice

When so many people in the world-including many in Great Britain-criticise aspects of American foreign policy and American involvement in other conflicts around the world(sometimes with justification) it is always salutory to recall the sacrifices made, as you say, of so many very young men on the beaches and in the fields of Normandy in 1944. They were all a very long way from home but they sacrificed their lives to help in the liberation of Europe and we owe them a debt which can never be sufficiently acknowledged.

I heard recently that 20,000 French civilians died in Normandy in June 1944-many of them as a result of Allied bombing. That sort of level of what is know called 'collateral damage' would simply not be tolerated in the modern world. Their sacrifice too needs to be much better recognised!