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Remembering June 6, 1944

post #1 of 33
6/9/08 at 9:39am
Thread Starter 
And be grateful for the sacrifices made so that we can be here today complaining. about our silly, mundane problems.


http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/dai...112.guest.html
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post #2 of 33
6/9/08 at 3:28pm
Reagan's speech about the Rangers at Pointe du Hoc was stirring and powerful.
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post #3 of 33
6/9/08 at 3:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ckblv View Post
And be grateful for the sacrifices made so that we can be here today complaining. about our silly, mundane problems.


http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/dai...112.guest.html
Cindy, thank you for posting this. It's sad and shameful that too many Americans have no idea why June 6, 1944 is a significant date.
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post #4 of 33
6/9/08 at 4:13pm
Thank you for posting this.
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post #5 of 33
6/9/08 at 4:22pm
my total respects!...
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post #6 of 33
6/9/08 at 8:07pm
You know, I feel so bad. I kept thinking all day last friday that 6/6 was special somehow. I mentally checked off my friends...not a birthday, not their anniversary....and it wasn't until now that I realized what it was. I didn't hear anything about it on the news Friday morning or evening.

The military, past and present, have my total respect and heart-felt thank you for everything they have done and will do.
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post #7 of 33
6/9/08 at 8:12pm
Thread Starter 
It is sad that the major media forgets this important day. It should never be forgotten. The heroic actions of those valiant men is so humbling.
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post #8 of 33
6/9/08 at 8:13pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by KTLynn View Post
Cindy, thank you for posting this. It's sad and shameful that too many Americans have no idea why June 6, 1944 is a significant date.
You are very welcome, my friend.
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post #9 of 33
6/9/08 at 8:58pm
And three guesses what day Saturday is?



Sorry, changed my mind, you're only allowed ONE guess, and if you didn't get that right, well, .......
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post #10 of 33
6/9/08 at 9:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by coaster View Post
And three guesses what day Saturday is?



Sorry, changed my mind, you're only allowed ONE guess, and if you didn't get that right, well, .......
National Flag Day. Proclaimed in 1916 by President Woodrow Wilson.
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post #11 of 33
6/10/08 at 2:55am
By the end of 6 Jun 1944, the furthest inland the Allies managed to get was six miles (I believe this was done by a Canadian unit that landed with the British) but Operation Neptune gave them a toe hold on the Normandy coast. There were an estimated 10,000 Allied casualties on D-day. Omaha Beach had the highest number of casualties out of the five invasion beaches. The fight for Normandy would last a little more than two months, by then Operation Overlord was well under way.
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post #12 of 33
6/10/08 at 6:20am
When you read about it, the reality of the mind-boggling casualties they took and they still held on, is almost too much for the mind to take in. It's an achievement hard to wrap your mind around. Yet, if the Germans hadn't been looking the other way for a landing in a different spot, and if Hitler wasn't such a strategic idiot, things might have turned out much worse.
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post #13 of 33
6/10/08 at 7:05am
The pre-invasion casualty estimates were higher than the actual number. They were prediciting up to 20,000 (that includes killed and wounded).

Hitler was strategically challenged. Instead of spliting command of the German forces in Normandy between himself and Rommel, he would have been better off leaving them under the command of Rommel. If the Panzer divisions were used right away to counter the invasion Neptune may have very well failed.

The airborne, despite the mass mis-drops and confusion, deserve a lot of credit. The British 6th Airborne was responsible for securing the left flank of the invasion force. This included defending against a couple of Panzer divisions in their area to keep the beaches from being overrun by seizing and controlling key bridges over the Orne River and Canal. The US 101st Airborne was tasked with capturing and holding four exits through the flooded marshlands behind Utah Beach as well as destroying key bridges over the Douve River. The US 82d Airborne Division was also tasked with destroying bridges over the Douve River as well as securing both sides of the Mederet River. They were to also capture and hold the town of St. Mere-Eglise which sat on the main road between Carentan and Cherbourgh. The main job of the 82d was to protect the right flank of the invasion.
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post #14 of 33
6/12/08 at 7:23pm
canadians were there too
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post #15 of 33
6/13/08 at 1:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mer636 View Post
canadians were there too
I sort of mentioned that. The furthest inland the invasion got on D-Day was six miles- by a Canadian unit.
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post #16 of 33
6/13/08 at 7:30am
Thread Starter 
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle4124354.ece

Does France want to forget about D-Day? I hope not.
Sad.
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post #17 of 33
6/13/08 at 8:15am
I have stood on those beaches. I have hunkered down in the bunkers on Pointe du Hoc, and imagined trying to scale that cliff. I've walked among the graves at the cemeteries in the area. It's all very sobering.

It's so easy to forget the price we have paid for freedom and peace.
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post #18 of 33
6/15/08 at 5:41pm
missed that but..canadians were there! lol i'm glad people remember that day
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post #19 of 33
6/15/08 at 9:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ckblv View Post
Does France want to forget about D-Day?
In 1985 President Reagan visited a German cemetary and laid a wreath in honor of German war dead. France gets a bit touchy about stuff like that.
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post #20 of 33
6/16/08 at 4:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ckblv View Post
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle4124354.ece

Does France want to forget about D-Day? I hope not.
Sad.
Why do you think France would forget about D-Day? This looks like a bureacratic screw up not a deliberate affront to the men who stormed Normandy. And steps were being taken to correct the error. With one of the most Pro-American French Presidents in a long time I think we can back off of the French disparagement. Try to restore our friendship.

As for June 6th, not being of that generation, I don't think I can ever trully appreciate the heroics of the men who fought and the families back home that trully sacrificed during this time. However watching the opening of Saving Private Ryan brought tears to my eyes and gratitude to my heart for the bravery and sacrifice of the service men.
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post #21 of 33
6/16/08 at 6:02am
The French have always been very supportive of the Canadians that fought for them so I don't see why they wouldn't be the same for the Americans.
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post #22 of 33
6/16/08 at 6:33am
Yes, but Canada has a significant French population, who are determined to maintain their unique French identity, and therefore their cultural and societal ties to France. From the point of view from "down here" it makes perfect sense that Canada and France would have closer ties than the U.S. and France.
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post #23 of 33
6/16/08 at 7:50am
Quote:
Originally Posted by coaster View Post
Yes, but Canada has a significant French population, who are determined to maintain their unique French identity, and therefore their cultural and societal ties to France. From the point of view from "down here" it makes perfect sense that Canada and France would have closer ties than the U.S. and France.
Actually, if you do a little research you will find that the Quebec French do not particularly like the France French and vice versa and really have little cultural or societal ties to France per se. Quebec French are more concerned with keeping their Quebecois status and don't want English spoken in their Quebecois province. Quebec French consider the France French to be snobs and that they look down their noses at the Canadian French. Also, Quebec French is almost a different language than the pure French spoken in France. And then of course, there were probably more English Canadians that fought in the war than French Canadians.
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post #24 of 33
6/16/08 at 8:38am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrblanche View Post
I have stood on those beaches. I have hunkered down in the bunkers on Pointe du Hoc, and imagined trying to scale that cliff. I've walked among the graves at the cemeteries in the area. It's all very sobering.

It's so easy to forget the price we have paid for freedom and peace.

I envy you that experience.
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post #25 of 33
6/16/08 at 10:14am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yosemite View Post
...Quebec French consider the France French to be snobs and that they look down their noses at the Canadian French. ...
France (as a nation) is snobby toward everybody, but especially the U.S. They have a passion of thwarting U.S. national policy. I think it's because we never paid back our Revolutionary War debts.

But when I went to France, that although I found the people to be quite reserved at first toward strangers, they became very friendly and helpful if you just spent a little time getting to know them and their country and culture.

You're probably right about the Canadian French; no, undoubtedly you're right -- you're a lot closer to it than I am. But getting back to France and the U.S: although France and the U.S. eventually end up supporting each other, it's not been without a lot of fuss and bickering between them before they did. The relationship goes hot and cold and cold and hot. It's just momentarily warm while Sarkozy is in office.
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post #26 of 33
6/16/08 at 10:33am
Thread Starter 
Coaster, does that mean we are allowed to say, "French Fries" again? I never really liked saying, "Freedom Fries".
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post #27 of 33
6/16/08 at 11:03am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ckblv View Post
Coaster, does that mean we are allowed to say, "French Fries" again? I never really liked saying, "Freedom Fries".
Heavens! I had almost forgotten about that.

And Coaster - just to be clear, some Quebec French aren't particularly nice to English Canadians either. Heaven forbid you get lost while driving in Quebec - if you ask for directions it is not unusual for them to deliberately give you the wrong directions. It happened to me (I actually expected it so I just reversed their directions and got directly to the place I was going. ) That also happened to my aunt and uncle one time. Unfortunately for the 2 police officers they asked directions of, my uncle asked in English and couldn't possibly know my aunt was French. The two officers spoke to each other in French and agreed to give them the wrong directions at which point my aunt spoke up in French and told them she would like their badge numbers to report them. Stunned would be an apt description of their faces.

Having said that - those are incidents that have and do happen but that is not the general rule. Overall Quebec is a beautiful province with lovely landscape and exceptional food. I would recommend anyone to visit and for the most part folks are friendly and wonderful.

So back to the main topic of this thread, I do believe that France appreciates the assistance they received from North America during the war and that modern day issues have little or nothing to do with what happened 60 years ago and more to do with what is happening now.
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post #28 of 33
6/16/08 at 12:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yosemite View Post
So back to the main topic of this thread, I do believe that France appreciates the assistance they received from North America during the war and that modern day issues have little or nothing to do with what happened 60 years ago and more to do with what is happening now.
The story about the trees being felled wouldn't have even been a news items if a Frenchman hadn't have been so concerned about it.

I have little doubt that D-Day and the liberation of France haven't been forgotten by its citizens, but I think many people on this side of the Atlantic were very disturbed by the attitude of the Bush administration and many Americans that Europe just "had" to support the invasion of Iraq because of the role the U.S. played in WWII and the Cold War.

Gratitude doesn't equal utter subservience, and I have to assume that many who reacted with such arrogance have little idea how Europe has evolved over the last five decades, and especially the last two. WWII no longer casts such a huge shadow over European relations, nor does the Cold War. The EU has united Europeans in a manner unimaginable to most less than 20 years ago, so naturally the relations of the individual members with the U.S. have also changed.
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post #29 of 33
6/16/08 at 12:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jcat
Gratitude doesn't equal utter subservience . . .
Or at least it shouldn't.
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post #30 of 33
6/18/08 at 8:01pm
quebec cops hate people from ontario! If you have an ontario plate they will go out of their way to stop you for anything they can get away with!!

My grandfather was in D-Day and he still couldn't talk about his days in the army until the day he died very sobering to think of all those who fought and lost so much
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