D-Day is coming up (6. June 1944)

I grew up in the 60's and 70's on a diet of Commando comic's - The Victor - Airfix Kits and Action Man - WW2 only finished 16 years before I was born - I had grand parents who fought and drank in pubs with guys who did too - its rather sad that the youth of today have little or no knowledge of these events now and more importantly little interest.
 
theddaystory.com

D-Day timeline

After the evacuation from Dunkirk in 1940 the Allies knew that to end the Second World War they had to land powerful forces in German-occupied Europe. Four years later on D-Day these landings took place. Why did it take so long, and what were the steps along the way? Designing, building and moving
theddaystory.com theddaystory.com
 
D-Day is being commemorated here in the U.S. with special news reports, especially about the 98 or 100 year old veterans who have made the trip back to Normandy this week. And Joe Biden is there, meeting with Zelensky and hoping to echo the mood Ronald Reagan struck in his moving speech about "the boys of Pointe du Hoc" at the 40th anniversary in 1984. Forty years on, eh? Freedom's still in danger, he'll say, and yes it bloody well is.

I've been to Normandy once, 1980 or so, took a school party there when I was teaching in London. Went to Bayeux etc. and spent an afternoon at the landing grounds and the immaculately cared for war cemeteries. The kids were respectful, awed and saddened, all except for two scrotes who pissed about and ended up being downright offensive. I sent them off to wait by the tour bus in the car park and when the rest of us got back there one had a busted lip and the other a rapidly swelling cheek. Two of the French workers tending the graves had seen their shitty behavior and given them both a slap. They were going to complain to their parents and wanted me immediately to take it up with someone. I got off the coach and went back to the two gentlemen to say thank you and give them a bottle of Calvados, much to their delight.
 
Very moving stories on this thread, thanks to @Cessna for starting it.

I'd recommend "Band of Brothers" as a better series that Hanks was a part of than "Saving Private Ryan". Episode 2 in particular covers the 101st Airborne Division, U.S. Army's involvement with D-Day from the air. I rewatched that recently with my son and he was amazed at the conditions and effort involved to make it all happen.

Very inspiring stories here of the overall Allied effort to afford us the luxury of the freedom's we should not take for granted.
 
Black&White&BlueMoon Town said:
Very moving stories on this thread, thanks to @Cessna for starting it.

I'd recommend "Band of Brothers" as a better series that Hanks was a part of than "Saving Private Ryan". Episode 2 in particular covers the 101st Airborne Division, U.S. Army's involvement with D-Day from the air. I rewatched that recently with my son and he was amazed at the conditions and effort involved to make it all happen.

Very inspiring stories here of the overall Allied effort to afford us the luxury of the freedom's we should not take for granted.
Click to expand...
I'd also recommend Masters of the Air on Apple TV. It doesn't cover D-Day but it's an excellent series which shows what the airmen of the American bomber groups went through.

I just find the scale of it all incredible as so many people were involved across so many different countries and military groups. Everyone basically did their own little job and had they not done then things would be very different.

It's so important to keep these events going because every year there are less and less veterans left.
 
I remember on a school trip, coming back from Germany, the coach was stopped at one of the war cemeteries and one of the teachers told us about it. We were quite a rum bunch - OK, it was a grammar school, but trust me, we had plenty of rogues, thieves and drunks on that bus. You could have heard a pin drop. Seeing those graves brought it home to us, I think. It's a moment I shall never forget, though much of what happened on that trip is a blank to me. (Possibly because German beer and a thirteen-year-old brain are not the best mix.)
 
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