D-Day

So a bit surprised not to see anything on here but maybe I missed it so apologies if I did.

Thank you to all those in the Allied armed forces and their families who gave the ultimate sacrifice and to all the survivors of Operation Overlord. You all were/are truly heroes.

The pictures have been amazing. I have had the honor and privilege of seeing Utah, Omaha & Gold beaches in person. Truly awe inspiring and humbling.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27730358

http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/D-DAY-MAP-times-beaches-tactics-broken/story-21199865-detail/story.html

Very much agreed me Lady, a huge thanks to all those who served.

Posted this if your interested, never seen such pictures before.

http://www.newsfixboard.com/t5078-d-day-70th-anniversary-ministry-of-defence-releases-rare-aerial-photographs-showing-planning-and-chaos-of-largest-single-military-operation-in-the-history-of-warfare

When war broke out I was still a young lad and eventually I knew I had to go into Service, so I volunteered. As luck would have it I was training to be a mechanic and had a bit of knowledge about cars and engines so I was accepted in as a mechanic and it went on from there.

I had to go to Blackpool to join. We were posted to different parts of the globe, it went on week after week and we went to different places.

I remember once going to the Isle of Sheppey - I met an aircraft fitter and he said, "You and me have to take the engine out of this Hurricane and put it in another one". He couldn't start the other one up so between us we swapped the engines over - I didn't really know what I was doing! It was a really heavy engine but we managed to get the job done. We got it fired up and got it going then they flew it down to Basingstoke, where they did a proper repair.

I didn't know anything at all about D-Day, we didn't know it was coming. We had to do a course in camp waterproofing vehicles - there was a big bath and you had to drive through it and if you came out the other end still going you'd done the job properly! That was more or less our training for D-Day.

We went to Christchurch first; we were there for a while. When we got to the other end of Chesil beach we stopped to have some food and drink and then we put all the vehicles on this small landing barge. We had no idea whatsoever what was going on or where we were going until the time came.

I was young and didn't realise how crucial D-Day was.

Thinking back, it's a good job I did it when I did, because if I had to do it now it might be a different story - when you're older you see the danger of it and when you're young you don't think about it.

The RAF did a lot in the weeks before we went over but it was a combined effort.

I always commemorate D-Day - I think it's important to remember, a lot of people lost their lives through this campaign.

A lot of water has gone under the bridge since I ever talked about this, I think back and I was lucky to get away with my life.

I'm extremely grateful to the RAF Benevolent Fund for the support they have given me.

I was struggling to get in and out of my armchair and they bought me a chair that allows me to get up easily.

I'd also had a few falls getting out of the bath so they turned my bathroom into a wetroom - bathing is so much easier now and the help they have given me means I can still be independent in my own home.

This blog, which first appeared on the RAF Benevolent Fund website, is in memory of all those men who did not return.

Sergeant Lee Wrake joined the RAF at the age of 19. On 6 June 1944 he landed on Omaha Beach, and after saving a man who was hit in the stomach, he himself was hit in the chest by shrapnel. Lee, now aged 94, recently turned to the RAF Benevolent Fund after he found simple tasks, like bathing, more and more difficult

Please make a donation today to help the RAF Benevolent Fund continue supporting RAF veterans and other members of the RAF family.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/sergeant-lee-wrake/d-day-anniversary-veterans_b_5458156.html?utm_hp_ref=uk

stop...I have cried enough already today.....so moving....sorry I missed your post....amazing pics.....there are not enough superlatives to describe the whole thing.

my grandfather was in the Pacific theater but had basic training mates who went over on D-Day....1 died, 1 badly wounded and the rest survived.

Cass wrote:stop...I have cried enough already today.....so moving....sorry I missed your post....amazing pics.....there are not enough superlatives to describe the whole thing.

my grandfather was in the Pacific theater but had basic training mates who went over on D-Day....1 died, 1 badly wounded and the rest survived.

It always makes me sad this day, as my sister and I had piano lessons from this retired lady 30 years ago, her husband was one of the Rear Admirals that helped plan D-Day, he taught me chess and maths and became to me such a role model. My first job was on the railways and was trained by a former Royal Marine Commando who landed on Sword Beach. Was gutted that 2 weeks after retirement, he died of a heart attack
My Irish Granddad fought in the Italian theater, survived Monte Cassino, Africa also, and into Austria, truly broke him mind, as he never was the same man again my mother tells me.

You can guess thus through many people, why I have such a fascination with History.

Didge wrote:

Cass wrote:stop...I have cried enough already today.....so moving....sorry I missed your post....amazing pics.....there are not enough superlatives to describe the whole thing.

my grandfather was in the Pacific theater but had basic training mates who went over on D-Day....1 died, 1 badly wounded and the rest survived.

It always makes me sad this day, as my sister and I had piano lessons from this retired lady 30 years ago, her husband was one of the Rear Admirals that helped plan D-Day, he taught me chess and maths and became to me such a role model. My first job was on the railways and was trained by a former Royal Marine Commando who landed on Sword Beach. Was gutted that 2 weeks after retirement, he died of a heart attack
My Irish Granddad fought in the Italian theater, survived Monte Cassino, Africa also, and into Austria, truly broke him mind, as he never was the same man again my mother tells me.

You can guess thus through many people, why I have such a fascination with History.

I told you to stop making me cry!
how awful about your grandad. I am lucky mine was ok. same though for my dads BF from Vietnam. when we used to go to Iowa for summer to see my other grandparents we would visit him. he lived in a kind of sheltered housing complex. I knew there was something not right but he never scared me. he was just broken and could function only just. Sadly he died after I moved to England. no one ever said but I suspect it was suicide.

the photos and stories I have watched from these sweet old men gas had me in floods.

Cass wrote:

Didge wrote:
It always makes me sad this day, as my sister and I had piano lessons from this retired lady 30 years ago, her husband was one of the Rear Admirals that helped plan D-Day, he taught me chess and maths and became to me such a role model. My first job was on the railways and was trained by a former Royal Marine Commando who landed on Sword Beach. Was gutted that 2 weeks after retirement, he died of a heart attack
My Irish Granddad fought in the Italian theater, survived Monte Cassino, Africa also, and into Austria, truly broke him mind, as he never was the same man again my mother tells me.

You can guess thus through many people, why I have such a fascination with History.

I told you to stop making me cry!
how awful about your grandad. I am lucky mine was ok. same though for my dads BF from Vietnam. when we used to go to Iowa for summer to see my other grandparents we would visit him. he lived in a kind of sheltered housing complex. I knew there was something not right but he never scared me. he was just broken and could function only just. Sadly he died after I moved to England. no one ever said but I suspect it was suicide.

the photos and stories I have watched from these sweet old men gas had me in floods.

It is the saddest thing about war, how it can affect people and how it breaks people, sorry about your daddies best friend. War is horror, and hold my hand up to many who have gone through some of the most extreme emotions, which many of us would not even start to contemplate or imagine, why I have so much respect for them. I have loved to listen to their stories, but just by seeing their facial expressions you can tell it has taken its toll on people

Sorry, did not mean to make you cry, you are just one of the few people I love talking history with, as well as someone I respect so much.

bugger just lost a long reply....got logged out again dammit.

another time.

goodnight x

Cass wrote:bugger just lost a long reply....got logged out again dammit.

another time.

goodnight x

Night me Lady.

x

Wrong war, but:

Ben_Reilly wrote:Wrong war, but:

That is a truly beautiful and moving song Ben.

Certainly is, one of my all-time favorites.

Amazing story of British veteran who absconded from his care home to join old comrades on a Normandy beach marks extraordinary occasion

Seventy years after he endured the horrors of D-Day, a veteran summed up how much it meant to Britain’s wartime heroes to honour their fallen comrades for what might be the last time.
Bernard Jordan, 89, was told by staff at his Hove care home that he would not be able to travel to France for the ceremony because they could not organise transport for him.

However, the Royal Navy veteran refused to take no for an answer. Showing all the determination that got him through the Normandy invasion, he pinned his medals to his chest, grabbed his raincoat and caught a coach to France.
After prompting an international missing persons alert and a police inquiry, he joined hundreds of his friends to commemorate the heroism and sacrifice of those who did not survive the largest seaborne invasion in history.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-two/10882975/Veterans-say-final-farewell-to-beaches-of-freedom.html

The only thing that makes me sick though, is the fact the arseholes who will stand their and salute or put down wreaths, shake the hands of the remaining few are the very ones that have made the sacrifice of millions of lives pointless because they have sold the country back in to the control of those that the brave men fought to keep out..

I don't know how these politicians can look one of these brave men in the eyes...

How so HF?

IT is a shame a thread like this inevitably had to be hijacked by someone wanting to use the occasion to throw political mud   

Eilzel wrote:How so HF?

IT is a shame a thread like this inevitably had to be hijacked by someone wanting to use the occasion to throw political mud   

because it is true, the very politicians out there shaking hands are traitors to this country, they have not defended it in anyway, they have given sovereignty away just to line their own pockets...

even troops coming back recently from active service are not protected from muslims yelling abuse at them...

I split the vile stuff from this thread into another thread in the basement, it dishonors the veterans to have that kind of stuff in this thread.

Speaking of the basement, HF, please lay off the homophobic slurs or you'll be relegated to it for half a day.

Ben_Reilly wrote:I split the vile stuff from this thread into another thread in the basement, it dishonors the veterans to have that kind of stuff in this thread.

Speaking of the basement, HF, please lay off the homophobic slurs or you'll be relegated to it for half a day.

Thanks Ben

Ben_Reilly wrote:I split the vile stuff from this thread into another thread in the basement, it dishonors the veterans to have that kind of stuff in this thread.

Speaking of the basement, HF, please lay off the homophobic slurs or you'll be relegated to it for half a day.

lol...you look pathetic when you worry about what i said about gays but you can wish someone dead...

Ben_Reilly wrote:I split the vile stuff from this thread into another thread in the basement, it dishonors the veterans to have that kind of stuff in this thread.

ay.

thank you ben.

^Didge I saw that story.....I am glad he got to go but absolutely shameful that somebody didn't organize it for him instead of him having to sneak out - he could have gotten into bother. Bless him.

I have a historian friend who is in Portsmouth and has been involved in talks and ferry rides over for the vets. He gad a busy but brilliant time. he even got to meet Eisenhower's grandson and wife (who was a Nixon!).

Cass wrote:

Ben_Reilly wrote:I split the vile stuff from this thread into another thread in the basement, it dishonors the veterans to have that kind of stuff in this thread.

ay.

thank you ben.

^Didge I saw that story.....I am glad he got to go but absolutely shameful that somebody didn't organize it for him instead of him having to sneak out - he could have gotten into bother. Bless him.

I have a historian friend who is in Portsmouth and has been involved in talks and ferry rides over for the vets.  He gad a busy but brilliant time. he even got to meet Eisenhower's grandson and wife (who was a Nixon!).

Amazing that we still get to share the planet with some of these people. Soon, they'll be another part of history, but it's a real honor to still have some of them about and sneaking out of their nursing homes