Foo - D-Day

Today, let's try not to forget that the world may have been a very, very different place if not for people like these:

http://www.mikelavella.com/portfolio/wd/Dreamweaver/Media/dday4.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f4/1944_NormandyLST.jpg/791px-1944_NormandyLST.jpg

http://eatonvillenews.net/images/Bob/D%20DAY%20MEN%20ON%20BEACH%20(Use)%20d-day04.jpg

http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/ww2-pix/d-day07.jpg

http://todayspictures.slate.com/20060606/images/PAR77862.jpg

http://todayspictures.slate.com/20060606/images/NYC41396.jpg

Today, let's try not to forget that the world may have been a very, very different place if not for people like these:

http://www.mikelavella.com/portfolio/wd/Dreamweaver/Media/dday4.jpg

+trillion

Thanks to the greatest generation ever.

D Day Film (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvZCDfhoNxA)

My grandfather's brother was on the first wave, my grandfather (seabee) was on the second wave to hit the beach. Both survived the war unscathed.

Lamplight - This world is a different place without people like you and I can't say how nice it is to see you posting. I hope that things in your world are good.

And to the OP...

We owe all the people who served so much... there is no way we could ever thank them properly.

My grandfather's brother was on the first wave, my grandfather (seabee) was on the second wave to hit the beach. Both survived the war unscathed.

Surviving something like that unscathed is quite a feat in itself. :twitchy: Much gratitude to your grandfather and his brother!


Lamplight - This world is a different place without people like you and I can't say how nice it is to see you posting. I hope that things in your world are good.

And to the OP...

We owe all the people who served so much... there is no way we could ever thank them properly.

Thank you sir, although I'm not sure I'm deserving of such a generous complement. :o

[QUOTE=Lamplight;9053744]Surviving something like that unscathed is quite a feat in itself. :twitchy: Much gratitude to your grandfather and his brother!


/QUOTE]

Body wise - not emotionally - they were not the nicest of people to their wives and family, had a bit of a cruel nature actually. I watched my grandfather pester my younger brothers (they must have been about 5 at the time) into wearing all these weird hats - and when he finally got one of them to wear one - he'd break out into a peel of laughter - while my brothers stood there not knowing what to do. War does some strange and bad things to people :(

D Day Film (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvZCDfhoNxA)


Wow, that's some great Kodachrome footage. I'm kind of surprised they included the bit about De Gaulle being the first to enter Paris in the newsreel though. I have to wonder how that was received by the Americans viewing that back at the home front.

Watch the first hour or so of the film Saving Private Ryan. That pretty much lays it out for you in gruesome detail. When audiences complained about the graphic violence in the opening combat scenes, director Steven Spielberg wondered how Americans can vote to send 18 year olds to war if they can't even watch a realistic depiction on the screen. Good point.

Private Ryan should be required viewing in American high schools. In my experience, the best war film ever made, and I've seen just about all of them. Amazing achievement. I don't think anyone's ever filmed a combat scene that harrowing and convincing before or since. How Tom Hanks didn't win an Oscar for that role is baffling.

Survived 4 years under the Nazis in Belgium. Were liberated by the Canadians Sept. 1944.
Took years before my subconsious buried all that happened and my nightmares became less frequent.
Have reasons to be thankful.

Watch the first hour or so of the film Saving Private Ryan. That pretty much lays it out for you in gruesome detail. When audiences complained about the graphic violence in the opening combat scenes, director Steven Spielberg wondered how Americans can vote to send 18 year olds to war if they can't even watch a realistic depiction on the screen. Good point.

Private Ryan should be required viewing in American high schools. In my experience, the best war film ever made, and I've seen just about all of them. Amazing achievement. I don't think anyone's ever filmed a combat scene that harrowing and convincing before or since. How Tom Hanks didn't win an Oscar for that role is baffling.

+1

Band of Brothers as well. One of the best series I have ever seen and probably will ever see. Produced by Hanks and Spielberg too. Absolutely amazing, so realistic. The interviews with the surviving soldiers were heart breaking.

+1 more. My father-in law wasnt involved with D-day, hey was on the otherside of the world in the Phillipines. Stationed on Corrigedor. Survived part of the Bataan march and 3 1/2 years in a Japanese pow camp. I have his Purple heart and his medals and look at them from time to time. True heros, every one of them ole boys. (and ladies too). We don't (or can't) thank them enough.

My mother survived 4+ years under British and American bombs and then another year of the brutal atrocities by out of control Russian occupying forces in wartime Berlin. She was 11 when the war ended. She witnessed 12 year old classmates being raped by drunken Russian soldiers, which was fine with their commanders. Her own house was flattened by American bombers in March 1945.

WWII had victims on all sides. Germany incurred 5.5 million military deaths, more than 10x that of the US. Over 1.5 German civilians were killed, on top of the 6+ million killed in concentration camps by the Nazis.

11 year old girls don't have politics or nationalism. They have hopes and fears.

At the end of the day, nobody is more grateful for the success of the D Day invasion and the liberation of Germany from Hitler's regime than the Germans.

I can't imagine what it must have felt like to hit that beach. The courage and sacrifice involved is staggering to consider.

We often lament at our current abilities to bomb from a computerized and impersonal 30,000 feet...the alternative wasn't exactly so lovely.

Let's hope we never see the need for that kind of loss and destruction again.

Watch the first hour or so of the film Saving Private Ryan. That pretty much lays it out for you in gruesome detail. When audiences complained about the graphic violence in the opening combat scenes, director Steven Spielberg wondered how Americans can vote to send 18 year olds to war if they can't even watch a realistic depiction on the screen. Good point.

Private Ryan should be required viewing in American high schools. In my experience, the best war film ever made, and I've seen just about all of them. Amazing achievement. I don't think anyone's ever filmed a combat scene that harrowing and convincing before or since. How Tom Hanks didn't win an Oscar for that role is baffling.

Effin' right, and you have to remember to breath during that part of the movie.

Wow, that's some great Kodachrome footage. I'm kind of surprised they included the bit about De Gaulle being the first to enter Paris in the newsreel though. I have to wonder how that was received by the Americans viewing that back at the home front.


It was a first class move given as a gift. Another example of unbelievable grace and valor by the greatest generation.

Compilation of above mentioned movies set to music by one of the greatest rock'n roll bands ever.

Strong content warning...

Guns N' Roses - Civil War (Music Video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9VhD4SccSE