The Canadians, the Russians, the resistance in every country, and others deserve mention. Many Americans think they single handedly won the Second World War. That's simply not right.
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June 6, 1944
- Thread starter xfire
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The Canadians, the Russians, the resistance in every country, and others deserve mention. Many Americans think they single handedly won the Second World War. That's simply not right.
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Back on the beaches one final time: D-Day heroes return to Normandy to mark the 69th anniversary of the landings
Several hundred British and American veterans of the 1944 landings gather to pay their respects
British and American veterans of the the Normandy landings have returned to the beaches one final time to mark the 69th anniversary of the invasion.
In emotional scenes, several hundred former soldiers, many proudly wearing their old uniforms emblazoned with medals, gathered to lay wreaths and remember fallen comrades.
Among the returning heroes was Ivor Anderson, 88, from Salford, who nearly lost his life in a mortar attack after being dropped in at Pegasus Bridge, near the village of Ranville, Normandy, overnight on June 5, 1944.
Running towards the beach: The second wave of American troops lands on Omaha Beach at dawn on June 6, 1944
The grandfather-of-two joined the Royal Engineers as an apprentice in 1938 - aged just 14 - but later became part of the 591 Para Squadron.
He returns to the spot where he fought today under a lottery scheme which is paying for World War II veterans to make emotional trips back almost 70 years on.
Ivor said: 'We were all in pretty good spirits and there was a good singalong during the first part of the flight. Once over the Channel we all quietened down and made ready for the jump into darkness.
'Our job was to clear the landing ground for the Allied gliders. We had been told there were broad areas of heavy upright posts all around the bridge region, and it was down to us to wrap explosive charges around these so that gliders could land unobstructed.
'When I jumped out I had the bren gun strapped to my ankles. We only had 20 minutes and the gliders were coming in at all angles.
'Our job then was to protect the landing site from anyone who was going to attack it. It was a bit threatening because we were being shelled and mortared the whole time.'
American Second World War veterans Robert Bearden (R), Robert Joseph Blatnik (2nd R) and Earl Tweed (C) attend a ceremony at the American cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer
After the mission, Ivor spent five weeks laying mines and helping the infantry, before an incident ended his army involvement.
'It was a mortar or a shell,' he said. 'We were holding a position and we were hit.
'The next thing I remember is waking up in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. It turned out I had been half buried with shrapnel in my leg, and I was pulled out.'
Ivor, who did his Paratrooper training at Manchester Airport, is having his trip funded by the Big Lottery Fund's Our Heroes Return programme.
The charity scheme allows World War II veterans to make commemorative visits to the places where they fought and served.
Scores of retired soldiers are making the voyage to France today to mark the anniversary of the D-Day landings and pay their respects to fallen comrades.
Ivor added: 'I go back most years. It's very poignant, especially at certain places where friends got killed.
'It's very sad to see again, but the local people treat us very, very well.'
A ceremony was held at the memorial overlooking Omaha Beach, where a U.S. cemetery holds the remains of over 9,000 Americans who died during the vicious battle to storm the French beach under withering Nazi fire.
Commemorations of the June, 6, 1944, battle began in respectful silence early Thursday morning, with the stars-and-stripes raised in a quiet ceremony at the cemetery.
Tourists, many from the U.S. and Britain, gathered under a brilliant spring sky to witness the flag-raising amid the neat rows of thousands of white marble crosses and stars of David marking the graves of U.S. servicemen and women fallen in the Allied invasion of Normandy.
On June 6, 1944, Allied forces led by General Dwight D. Eisenhower stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, on "D-Day," beginning the liberation of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II.
A full day of ceremonies - including fireworks, concerts and marches - was taking place across Normandy in honor of the more than 150,000 troops, mainly U.S., British and Canadian, who risked or gave their lives in the invasion.
'The tide has turned. The free men of the world are marching together to victory!' Eisenhower said in an historic address after the invasion was launched.
When freedom came ashore: Stunning shots of Allied troops storming Omaha Beach in Normandy by war photographer Robert Capa and how they were almost lost forever
They're iconic images which capture the brutal reality of the D-Day landings 69 years ago today - but they were nearly lost forever.
War photographer Robert Capa took these remarkable close-up photos - named The Magnificent Eleven - which show Allied troops in the second wave landing on Omaha beach in Normandy on June 6, 1944.
The Hungarian bravely took 106 photographs while wading through the water just off the French coast but because of a blunder when processing the film in London, all but 11 of the images were lost.
The images were sent to Life magazine's office in Britain where picture editor John Morris told staff in the dark room to 'rush!' as they did the developing.
In their haste, worker Dennis Banks shut the doors on a wooden locker where the film was drying and 95 of the images melted as the negatives were destroyed.
Three whole rolls were lost, and more than half of the fourth.The useless film was tossed in a dustbin that same night and lost forever.
There were no other pictures taken from so close to the frontline landings on D-Day so The Magnificent Eleven provide the only enduring images from Normandy.
Capa was aboard a landing ship carrying Company E of 16th Regiment, First Infantry of the US Army which landed on Omaha beach in the early hours of June 6.
As machine guns were fired all around him, the troops - and the war photographer - waded towards the beach under heavy enemy fire.
Omaha beach proved to be the worst killing field of the first day of the invasion, with an estimated 3,000 US soldiers killed within a matter of hours.
He later wrote in his book, called Slightly out of Focus: 'The men from my barge waded in the water. Waist-deep, with rifles ready to shoot, with the invasion obstacles and the smoking beach in the background gangplank to take my first real picture of the invasion.
More Allied troops can be seen crouching in the water, with their landing crafts in the background just off the shore. Although Capa took 106 pictures, all but 11 of them were destroyed
'The boatswain, who was in an understandable hurry to get the hell out of there, mistook my picture-taking attitude for explicable hesitation, and helped me make up my mind with a well-aimed kick in the rear. The water was cold, and the beach still more than a hundred yards away.'
He dived for cover behind a steel object before heading onward in the water for a disabled American tank as he snapped away furiously.
The photographer held his camera high above his head to stop his precious film being damaged and later ran towards an incoming landing craft. He was hauled aboard and spirited away to England where most of his shots were inadvertently destroyed in the developing room.
Capa, who died in 1954 in Vietnam while working after stepping on a landmine, was wrongly listed as dead in the aftermath of the battle.
But he got away with his pictures - and the remaining 11 were first printed in the US Life magazine on June 19, 1944.
Some of the images are blurred, which the magazine said was because Capa was so excited when he took the photographs he was shaking. It is possible that the damage was instead done in the darkroom.
Steven Spielberg said that when making the D-Day film Saving Private Ryan he 'did everything' to make the action scenes look like the stills taken by Capa.
He was famed for the phrase: 'If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough'. And on D-Day he was the only person to get near enough to the frontline to take decent pictures - and survive.
Robert Capa also took pictures of the Spanish Civil War, in Russia in the aftermath of World War II and of the First Indochina War during the course of a distinguished career.
After capturing these pictures, Capa ran towards another landing craft holding his camera above his head so it didn't get wet before climbing aboard. He was spirited away to England so his pictures could be developed
D-Day landings: This map shows where in Normandy British, US and Canadian troops landed from on June 6, 1944
Landings: Omaha beach, shown here secured after D-Day, was used as a harbour by Allied Troops and an entry-point into France. The initial June 6 landings were chaotic - but the troops were able to build on the small early gains
Commando troops are seen walking ashore on another section of beach in the aftermath of the D-Day landings
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-69th-anniversary-landings.html#ixzz2VTg7GGyV
England had allied with France and other European countries, and Germany started bombing the crap out of them once the western front was secured. They had no choice but to fight.
The US was attacked by Japan. Japan was allied with Germany.
You must spread some reputation aroud before giving it to xfire
Being french, what could I say except "Thank you to the thousands of US, brits, aussies, canadians -and some french that had left France to join General De Gaule in England- who came to get my people free from the nazis.
Eternal gatitude to those guys who came and died far from their homes to fight for a country that wasn't theirs
The US attacked the germans because, after Pearl Harbor, Germany and Italy declared war on them as act act of support to Japan, which was a member of the Axis forcies
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/11/newsid_3532000/3532401.stm
Being french, what could I say except "Thank you to the thousands of US, brits, aussies, canadians -and some french that had left France to join General De Gaule in England- who came to get my people free from the nazis.
Eternal gatitude to those guys who came and died far from their homes to fight for a country that wasn't theirs
Revenge from the 1918's Traité de Versailles which gave the full responsability of WWI on Germany and sentenced the german people to pay a very very very expensive price for it.
England had an alliance with France and Hitler had some argues with England about colonies in Africa.
The US attacked the germans because, after Pearl Harbor, Germany and Italy declared war on them as act act of support to Japan, which was a member of the Axis forcies
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/11/newsid_3532000/3532401.stm
Mayhem
Banned
Why the hell wouldn't we respond with that? And how is it not a perfectly valid response?
Mr. Daystar
In a bell tower, watching you through cross hairs.
Maybe the answer he's looking for is, to rule the world with an iron fist. Which was probably what he really did want...he blamed the Jews for everything. I would think that also is a valid answer.
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Sam Fisher
Banned
One of my biggest regrets was not visiting that sight while in Paris. We took a train one day to a really neat little town that was about an hour or so from Paris. I think the name of the town was Rouen, or something like that. I don't know how to properly pronounce it, but it was a very quaint and pretty town. And I so very much regret not going to Normandy while I was in France.
:bang:
:bang:
Red XXX
Official Checked Star Member
Rouen when it wasn't quite such a neat little town! http://virtedit.free.fr/page_01.htm
It gives you a opportunity to come back, someday
Jagger69
Three lullabies in an ancient tongue
Millions of lives were wasted as either combatants or civilians in the conflict. Allied, Axis or neutral, the carnage was incredible. 25 million total dead in the Soviet Union alone. 86 times more lives were lost by Russia than by the USA....a mind-blowing statistic. All told, over 60 million lives were lost in the conflict.
Read Mein Kampf (if you can stay focused enough) and you'll get your answer as to what Hitler and the NSDAP wanted. He plainly outlined his plan in the book. Utter destruction of the Jewish oligarchy was a paramount tenet so it simply cannot be ignored. Glorification of the Aryan "race" was a parallel theme. The idea that Aryans were predestined to dominate the world, Hitler saw himself as the catalyst for this in almost messianic terms. He was plainly insane yet he got an entire nation of Germans to hand him the keys to the kingdom. As Johan points out, the desire for vengeance over the incredibly harsh terms imposed by the Allies at Versailles was the rallying point that swept the entire National Socialist movement into power.
For England, it was a matter of survival. For the USA, it was a matter of global economics and the balance of military power.
Since 1945, the USA has become the dominant world power, both militarily and economically. That era is in its final years as the balance of power begins to shift to Asia, particularly China.
Sam Fisher
Banned
After taking Jagger's suggestion of reading Mein Kampf, grab a copy of Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy
Or, this... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Bonhoeffer#Works_about_Bonhoeffer
Sam Fisher
Banned
[B][URL="https://www.freeones.com/red-xxx said:
Thanks, Red. You should see it now. It's beautiful today!
It is a nice town.
On the other hand, i've driven through Rouen in morning rush hour a few times on the way to Le mans, and there aint no beauty then. I tell thee!
Sam Fisher
Banned
I was there in August of 2001. Perhaps it has changed since I was there.
As for Paris, I was especially impressed with the M (Paris Subway System) Was very efficient and clean.
Stop that shit. I actually agree with this.
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