Lest We Forget...Again

[MountainMan]

Amidst all of the hue and cry that surround us constantly on a daily basis, it is easy to lose sight of the important things in our lives.

Today is D-Day. Take a moment to remember those who gave everything for their nation, most of them just young men seeing war for the first...and last...time.

[Brakie]

Yes,we need to remember the fallen and those that lived.We should not only remember the fallen allies but,the wehrmacht soldier that was force to fight for a party and war he may not believed in and wanted no part of.He had no choice or say in the matter.Refuse to serve and be shot or go and have a chance of surviving.

The more I study life under the Swastika the more I realize how oppress the German people was.

It must have been a terrible thing to live in fear 24/7.The Gestapo and SSA could come and haul you away to prison or a concentration camp for the slightness breech of party rules or just for suspicion.

[ezdays]

I grew up during the war and can still remember thinking that it would be a great day when the newspaper headlines were about something other than the fighting. Or going to the Saturday matinee as wishing the "Movietone News" didn't have pictures of the war. I remember seeing a shot of my uncle aboard a ship in one of those newsreels. He did make it through to the end and came home to his family, but many others were not so lucky. The D-Day invasion was just a blur, just another headline in the news. Many kids my age could not comprehend what went on there. When we got to high school, there was a lot of space in the history books about the war, I'm guessing that today history books don't have but a few paragraphs dedicated to it.

I was watching a news story the other day where they were interviewing someone that wrote a book about the dark side of D-Day. He talked about how our soldiers treated the French, mostly the women, as they occupied the towns along the way. I thought it was totally unfair given what these troops were going through. The French wanted to make accommodations for these men, but the allied command would not have a part of it and made them shut these houses down.

I really don't care, these men won the war and they all deserve to be called heroes. I remember the ticker-tape parades greeting the troops as they came home, everyone was showing their appreciation for what they had done, and I'll bet everyone that remembers, will still honor these men on this day, just as everyone should.

[Brakie]

Don:The French wanted to make accommodations for these men, but the allied command would not have a part of it and made them shut these houses down.
-----------------------------------------------
Yet high ranking officers was allowed these privileges.

The foot soldier was suffering from several aliments from frostbite to hunger.I'm surprise they held a strong will to fight.

Don,I'm glad people can watch the Military channels and learn about WWII.

[Sumpter250]

The keel of the first ship I served in, USS Lowry DD-770, was laid the year I was born, 1943. She fought in WWII, Korea, and after I transferred off her, in Viet Nam. I reported aboard the day she returned from the Cuban Blockade, and spent three years aboard.
She was the closest I ever got to "in country", even though I had several changes of duty station, during the Nam era.

The U.S. had no intentions of entering WWII, until the "sneak attack". We declared war on Japan, an Axis Member, and Germany then declared war on us, and we were, unwillingly, in the European conflict, and fighting in the Pacific.
I have many reasons for not forgetting. They rest in peace now, because so many Americans fought, and survived, for what they believed in.
Lowry, now rests in 1250 Fathoms of Atlantic Ocean. She too is at peace.

[nachoman]

Can you imagine being one of those young men - I assume they knew what was about to happen when they boarded the ships - that there was a good chance they werent coming home in one piece. How does one prepare for that at such a young age? War is such a confusing thing.

[Brakie]

Can you imagine being one of those young men - I assume they knew what was about to happen when they boarded the ships - that there was a good chance they werent coming home in one piece. How does one prepare for that at such a young age? War is such a confusing thing.

Kevin,The closest I can explain their feelings knowing you are about to attack a strong hold and know you are facing a determined enemy.Its not a good feeling,but,you go knowing today just may be your last and should you survive you face the night and its many dangers..Come morning you start anew with death tugging at your elbow every second of every minute of the day.

Then the first thing you know you're either dead or going home.

There is no glory in war for either side.