IT IS THE EVE

[williamlayton]

The assault is at sea and the leaders have assembled for the weather is terrible.
What are they hearing from the forcasters?
What is the mood?
It is a turning point, is it not?
We have 24 hours of discussion available before a certain final decision has to be made.
I think I would like to hear the verbal traditions handed down from those who were there and get a feeling of the mood.
Blessings

[Haywire Haywood]

whut air ya talkin bout?

[victorcharlie]

On June 6th 1944 the allies hit the beaches near Normandy, France in the greatest assult the world has ever known.  Those brave men are leaving us for a better place at a fast pace now and soon will be no more of this world.  The day, and the things they did on that day, will live forever.

No doubt the "Greatest Generation", to whom we all owe our appreciation and admiration.  I salute those gentlemen, for the mark they set is high.

[gwindrider1]

I thank our lord for the brave souls who found the courage to overcome their fears on that day.  Their sacrifices that day, and through those years of conflict, are the reason we enjoy so many of the freedoms that we now take for granted.

I hope that the memory of those deeds, and the soldiers that performed so admirably, always hold a place of honor in the minds of the American people.

[kevin.303]

on my mothers side, two great uncles where riflemen in the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, the first unit to land on Juno Beach. Juno was the second most heavily fortified beach with Omaha i think being the first. someone once asked one of them what it was like when the ramp came down and the MG42's opened up. he got kinda of a faraway look in his eyes and muttered "worse then hell on earth, you where looking the devil right in the eye..."

on my father's side most of his uncles and cousins served with the South Saskatchewan Regiment. a few of them took part in theill fated Dieppe raid, where the lessons learned from 1000 dead Canadians saved 10,000 allied lives on D-Day. they where kept out of action on D-Day, but my great uncle Owen told me that when they where informed of the landings, "a lot of the boys wished they where there to give em back some of what we got in '42"

[williamlayton]

That was the verbal traditions I wanted.
Thanx &
Blessings

[Haywire Haywood]

Ah, my father was a tail gunner in a B-17 Bomber stationed out of England.  He wasn't one for stories, but he did mention 2.

They flew so high that that they had electric suits to keep from freezing, no pressurized cabins in those days.  His boots quit working on one mission and he got frostbite.  Had to get whirlpool baths on his feet and scrub the dead flesh off with a bristle brush. They also had to clean up their own planes of bodies and the associated mess when they came back from missions.  He told me of planes coming back so shot up that the blood from the unfortunate crew would be dripping out of bulllet/flak holes in the belly of the aircraft. Before it was all said and done, he had his 50 missions under his belt and rotated back to the states where he was a gunner instructor for would be crew members.

He said that the flyers would look down and feel sorry for the ground pounders who would not be returning to a warm bed the next day.  The infantry he talked to felt the same way about the flyers when they saw all that flack and MG fire going up to meet them.  They had no foxhole, no cover, nowhere to hide.  All you can do is wait at your station and hope for cross-eyed gunners.

Years later (early '90s) when I was stationed in Germany, he flew over to to visit with me after stopping over in England for a couple of days.  He said that when he was flying over the channel, he could close his eyes and see the bursts of flak as if it were just yesterday.  Never again he said, Never again.

While he was there, he walked over the Mainz Kastel bridge one Sunday morning and watched as the people gathered at the large church there. Every time he saw someone his age, he wondered if he was piloting the fighter that the twin 50s he controlled were spitting death at, or maybe he was between the impacts of the bombs they were dropping.  

It wasn't a very good visit for him, lots of memories and nostalgia dredged up, most of which were not pleasant.

Ian

[NYH1]

My grandfather wasn't there for the invasion, he arrived a few months later. He was a tanker in the 14th Armored Division (Liberators). He fought in the Battle of the Bulge! :toast:

[Old Griz]

:cb2: My uncle who raised me was in the Pacific. CV-5 the USS Yorktown. The Japs thought they got her at the Coral Sea. Limped into Pearl and they put her back together with wooden beams and anything else they could find. She made it back in action in time for Midway, where the Japs thought they got her again. A sub sank her as she was being towed back to Pearl. It took a lot of work by a lot of brave men to get her through those two battles. I was a major turning point for the US Navy.

Sorry. Didn't mean to turn the focus off of D-Day. I was just proud of those brave sailors, too. It's kind of like those men in the B17. Where can you go? There is no "safe" place on an aircraft carrier (or any other ship loaded with ammo.)

[williamlayton]

Good stories all. The verbal traditions, stories are priceless and should be rememberd and passed on. It is history.
I would understand the pain of remembering BUT there is greater pain in the forgetting.
Blessings

[williamlayton]

The Brits are still drinking tea before Caen while Monty is clueless.
Blessings

[Sourdough]

My Father-In-Law was a belly gunner on a B-17.  When he reached his 50 missions he wanted to stay.  Eventually shot down behind German lines.  French resistance got him and one other survivor out, and back to England.  He had never talked to any of his family about the war.  Then after his daughter went into the Air Force, and her and I got married he opened up to her and I.  We think it did him good to finally talk about it to someone.  He had kept it bottled up inside for all those years.  He did a lot of crying that day.  A lot of remembering about lost friends.  Shot downed airplanes.  He wondered about the pilots of the planes he shot down.  He thought about the kids that lived in Weisbaden, and Frankfert, where they dropped bombs.  He also thought about the two German shoulders he shot while escaping france.  He still had the rifle he had used. The one the French had given him on his trip to the lines.  He laughed when he told us how he was able to mail the gun back to the states, but not the bolt.  Bolts were on the restricted list.  A corpsman friend had made him a cast for his arm and embedded the bolt in the plaster.  He wore that cast with the bolt in it till he got home.  The Army had told him during a debriefing that what had happened in Europe stayed in Europe.  He was not to talk to anybody about it back in the states.  He lived by that code and kept it bottled up inside him all those years.  But after my wife and I went home and we were both active duty Air Force he decided it was finally time to tell someone.  My wife is one Technical Sargent (USAF Ret) that can stand tall and be proud of her heritage.

[williamlayton]

Write those stories down or record them.
Blessings

[kevin.303]

well if your still interested...


July 20, 1944. the South Sask has moved up into battle and is back in action for the first time in almost 2 years.there first day in the line they suffer 8 Officers & 56 Other Ranks kiiled, 5 Officers and 121 Other Ranks wounded, 4 missing, 27 Captured.