Sixty-eight years ago today. My annual D-Day post, first published in 2009...
Never forget.D-Day
Sixty-five years ago today. All images as captioned in the Life Magazine photo archives.
Tracer fire from many different ships lighting up the night sky over the English Channel during opening phase of D-Day, the Allied invasion of France. (no credit)
American B-26 Marauders with special D-Day markings make a bombing run over Cherbourg around the time of the Allied D-Day invasion of France. (Frank Scherschel)
Aerial view of American troops and tanks coming ashore as landing craft continue to unload on the first day of Operation Overlord, the invasion of France, aka on D-Day. (no credit)
Massive landing and deployment of US troops, supplies and equipment in the days following victorious D-Day action on Omaha Beach; barrage balloons guard against German aircraft while scores of ships unload men & material. (no credit)
Bodies of 8 American paratroopers lie outside the wreckage of their glider near Hiesville, France on the day of the invasion of Normandy, aka D-Day. (no credit)
Chaplin saying mass aboard HMS Scylla, laying at anchor off the Normandy coast shortly after the D-Day invasion of France. (no credit)
As always... click for larger. And spare a thought and a prayer today for those who made the ultimate sacrifice6568 years ago. There were many thousands who gave their lives for freedom on this day...
Those poor glider pilots were written off as KIA the minute they took off. Armed with only a side-arm and with NO inf cmbt tng, their life expectancy even IF they survived the landing was measured in hours if not minutes..
ReplyDeleteAnd yet some of them DID survive, against all odds. Every guy that hit the beach or jumped on D-Day had BIG brass ones, but the glider pilots had bigger ones than most.
DeleteWhat these men did - astounds me. I stand in awe of our warriors all of the time anyway; but when you really read about events like D-Day...it takes your breath away at their courage in the face of what must have seemed sure death.
ReplyDeleteHear, hear.
DeleteMy dad hit the beach at D+10, which would have looked like the third picture from the end. Massive unloading, 24 hours a day. He said the sad part was the months and months of training, and as soon as they got to the front, a lot of guys were killed or maimed within the first 10 minutes. All that training was really wasted for guys who were just thrown at the enemy in frontal assaults. He said he learned more at the front in 10 minutes, then the 10 months of training since getting drafted. Rule #1 was not bunch-up, because the incoming artillery would blow up 25 guys at a time. You'd see guys with their ammo cooking-off as their bodies burned in the field. At night they would pile the dead bodies like sandbags, to keep from getting hit by mortar shrapnel. None of these stories were told with any pride. He "really amazing neat" stories outnumbered his blood and guts stuff. One day him and another guy were eating, and all of a sudden on of the bodies in the "sandbag" wall started moving. Oh shit! They thought one of them must still be alive. But it was just rigor mortis setting in. The first French civilians they met up with (old ladies with water buckets), vomited from how bad they smelled.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that, Safe.
DeleteWell, I got too long winded there, but I wanted to add, that I always thought that my dad's part of the war started near Paris or something, being 10 days after the landing started. It was shocking to find out they hadn't moved very far from the beaches after even 15 days. That kind of put it in perspective for me, as the Generals had to know that victory wasn't a sure thing.
DeleteI don't think you got long-winded at all. People have written books on the subject and I think the personal observations are even better. Thanks.
DeleteThe massiveness of the operation always impresses me, even after viewing such photos many times through the years. Then, to take it down to the individuals in each bit of the operation, many striding forward toward almost certain death in the cause of a greater good, has to humble anyone with a soul.
ReplyDeleteThanks for giving me reason to think those thoughts again, Buck. Always useful to not let it slip away in any fashion.
There are MANY more pictures at that Life archive link.
Delete