June 6th, 2014, 70th Anniversary of D-Day

[N2NH]

On this day (JUNE SIXTH, NINETEEN-FORTY-FOUR), the Allies invaded Nazi strongholds on the beaches of Northern France. This began ground warfare on the European Continent that culminate with V-E Day and the end of the "1,000 year Third Reich" in a bit under a year.


June 6, 1944, 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. General Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which “we will accept nothing less than full victory.” More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day’s end on June 6, the Allies gained a foot- hold in Normandy...

One of my girlfriends father enlisted at the age of 33 with a bunch of guys from her town. Despite having a heart condition, he and his unit landed on the beach at Normandy. He was wounded, a leg wound which got him sent home. But he did what he wanted and for that I've always had a lot of respect for him as well as all who partook of this epic battle.


D-Day - June 6th, 1944. (http://www.army.mil/d-day/)

[NQ6U]

Your calender is off a notch. Today is June 1

[KG4CGC]

A lot of guys died. They watched the guys ahead get off the landing craft and die. Some even had to hit the beach in those floating tanks, which all sunk, but they all went anyway because

[N2NH]

Your calender is off a notch. Today is June 1

NO!

http://i59.tinypic.com/oissrc.jpg

[NA4BH]

My dad was part of that battle, luckily he made it through with only shrapnel in his leg and face. I have the piece from his leg in my safe.

[kb2vxa]

Born too late I've only seen it in movies, and can't imagine the horror of what was perhaps the bloodiest battle of the war. Men mown down in the landing craft the moment the ramp dropped, wading through bodies in blood red surf, climbing over more on the beach and watching those ahead dropping like flies... yet they pressed on in the face of almost certain death. All I can say is they had GUTS!

My OM started in North Africa, went across to Palermo, marched up the boot and spent 2 years in Napoli where he learned fluent Italian and Napolitano. He brought back a souvenir, an ash tray made out of lava from Mt. Vesuvio. He never talked about it, save for one misadventure in London while waiting to come home on the Queen Mary. At the time in America The Shag was a popular dance, so at the "Pally" as they call a dance palace he asked a girl to shag... OOPS! For those who don't know British slang, that's the F word... <SMACK!> right across the face. That didn't hurt nearly as much as the beating he got from her boyfriend! He learned quick, even a Yank overpaid, oversexed, and over here can understand the universal language of pain.

[KG4CGC]

Born too late I've only seen it in movies, and can't imagine the horror of what was perhaps the bloodiest battle of the war.
Over 4000 for that one single battle.

[PA5COR]

Watched a program on a UK commercial station about D Day, most of the time around this time the BBC has a week of movies and programs about the D Day and all around it.
We remember the end of WW2 at the 4th of may, and all the allied personel that fell, most military burial places are adopted here by people that ech take care of the maintenance of a grave, many times also having contact with the family, sending pictures of the grave and in case of older people that were in the war exchanging stories.

Many kids from schools also took up or adopted a grave and maintenance, keeping the story going for another generation.
I visited many war memorials in Europe paying respect for the ones that gave the ultimate gift for our freedom.

Took my son with me in France to one of the larger ones just to make thee point that freedom doesn't come "free" .
My direct family suffered many casualities in that war, directly as soldier in the army, or being shot as member of the underground movement fighting the germans here.
about 100 hams were executed for being in the underground and sending data to the UK or building and operating transceivers used by the underground resistance movement.

[NA4BH]

THANKS COR, that meant a lot to me.

I need a fscking tissue now.

[PA5COR]

http://www.adoptiegraven.nl/index.php/en/adopting-a-grave/american-war-cemetery-netherlands
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2010/05/30/bonds_form_between_us_families_european_caretakers _of_american_soldiers_graves/
http://donmooreswartales.com/2013/05/03/robin-gulikers/
http://www.fallennotforgotten.nl/
http://www.abmc.gov/multimedia/videos/dutch-citizens-adopt-graves-netherlands-american-cemetery
Just paying respect.
For me that Is on the 4th of may here at the memorial in my city for the 8 allied crew of a bomber shot here near our city.
Attending and putting flowers there.
http://home.kpn.nl/been0319/newspaper12.html
http://www.zplace2b.com/464th/jvanharen.htm
Have a read up on the links please.

Nothing special, saying thanks for the ultimate sacrifice is the least we can do.

[N2NH]

Thanks Cor. That is really heart-warming. We have monuments here that are basically forgotten. People walk by them on the way to work and rarely even give a glance. Sad when you realize the sacrifice that has been made so that they can live the way they do.

[PA5COR]

Maybe having lived under the boot of the Germans for 5 years makes more of an impression as the ordinary USA citizen had is the difference.
We also fought the Japanese in our then oversees territory, losing lots of soldiers and material there, our then largest commercial shipping flet in the world was put in service to help allied forces and lots of ships were torpedo'd with loss of many personel then.

Having your country robbed bare and 100.000's of people killed of the then 5 million citizens we had still reverberates in our society.
Every family here had losses or some families were completely wiped out.

The Netherlands was mostly liberated by the Canadians and the Dutch that were in the Allied forces, still we honour every allied soldier burried here whatever his role was in the war.
I was born in 1952, and still have mixed feelings about the Germans, certainly when i'm in Bavaria where you still can find lots of old WW2 veterans being proud about their role in the German army and the NAZI period.

One reason i'm vehemently against rightwing extreme idiots, they didn't learn a lot from history.
Even my son has been influenced by my mixed feelings and story's about WW2 and what our family had to endure.
That is also one reason the Dutch hate war and what it stands for, it is easy to rattle your little sword when you never were invaded in your homecountry, and had to enndure years of slavery and the killing of your folks in your own country losing your freedom.

We know what freedom means, and what price we paid for it.
And what thanks we owe tto the soldiers from many countries that came to our aid and liberated us.

[kb2vxa]

You're quite right, the difference of wartime experience between Americans and Europeans is like night and day, night for Americans under Operation Mushroom (keep them in the dark and feed them shit) and Europeans who saw it in the light of day. People living in the Heartland may never know the truth, while those living on the coasts lived it. My family being shore people told me stories as I grew up about living under blackout conditions and watching naval battles from the top of Mt. Mitchell in Highlands, NJ that overlooks Sandy Hook just south of New York, the highest elevation on the Eastern Seaboard. It's just not the same as when the bomb drops on your house and enemy troops march up your street though!

[N2NH]

Basically, the World Trade Center would've been just one casualty out of thousands if not millions in a war that lasted 6 years in Europe. How St. Peters in London survived nearly untouched is a miracle. But pictures of the time make you wonder how anyone could survive 6 years of war like that. From the guys I met as a kid who made the trip and were a part of D-Day, it was a life-changing experience for every one of them. They'd always get that faraway look when they talked about it.

Since the UN, diplomacy seems to work, at least better than before its inception.

[PA5COR]

The Rotterdam Blitz was the aerial bombardment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_bombing) of Rotterdam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotterdam) by the Luftwaffe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luftwaffe) (German air force) on 14 May 1940, during the German invasion of the Netherlands (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Netherlands) in World War II (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II). The objective was to support the German troops fighting in the city, break Dutch resistance and force the Dutch to surrender. Even though preceding negotiations resulted in a ceasefire, the bombardment took place nonetheless, in conditions which remain controversial, and destroyed almost the entire historic city centre, killing nearly nine hundred civilians and leaving 30,000 people homeless.

On the Morning of 14 May, Hitler issued his "Weisung" Nr. 11. Concerning the Dutch theatre of operations he says the following:
The resistance capability of the Dutch army has proved to be stronger than expected. Political as well as military reasons demand that this resistance is broken as soon as possible. It is the task of the army to capture the Fortress Holland by committing enough forces from the south, combined with an attack on the east front. In addition to that the air force must, while weakening the forces that up till now have supported the 6th Army, facilitate the rapid fall of the Fortress Holland.

Just one day of war in the Netherlands and the 5 year occupation.

On 15 May, the Dutch officially signed the surrender with Germany, however Dutch forces in the province of Zeeland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeeland), which had come under French control, continued fighting alongside French forces until 17 May, when the bombardment of the town of Middelburg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middelburg) forced them to surrender also. The Dutch Empire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_Empire), in particular the Dutch East Indies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_East_Indies), remained on the Allied side and were unaffected by the surrender. Many ships of the Royal Dutch Navy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Navy) in Dutch waters also fled to the United Kingdom.[19] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands_in_World_War_II#cite_note-19)
During the four-day campaign, 2,300 Dutch soldiers were killed and 7,000 wounded, while over 3,000 Dutch civilians were also killed. The German army lost 2,200 men killed and a further 7,000 wounded. In addition, 1,300 German soldiers captured by the Dutch during the campaign, many around The Hague, had been shipped to Britain and therefore remained POWs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner_of_War).

The Dutch resistance to the Nazi occupation during World War II developed relatively slowly, but its counter-intelligence, domestic sabotage, and communications networks provided key support to Allied forces beginning in 1944 and through the liberation of the country. Discovery by the Germans of involvement in the resistance meant an immediate death sentence

Dutch naval ships joined forces with the Allies to form the American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) Fleet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American-British-Dutch-Australian_Command), commanded by the Dutch Admiral Karel Doorman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karel_Doorman). On February 27–28, 1942, Admiral Doorman was ordered to take the offensive against the Imperial Japanese Navy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Japanese_Navy). His objections on the matter were overruled. The ABDA fleet finally encountered the Japanese surface fleet at the Battle of the Java Sea (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Java_Sea), at which Doorman gave the order to engage. During the ensuing battle the allied fleet suffered heavy losses. The Dutch cruisers Java (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HNMS_Java) and De Ruyter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HNLMS_De_Ruyter_(1935)) were lost, together with the destroyer Kortenaer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HNLMS_Kortenaer_(1925)). The other allied cruisers, the Australian Perth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMAS_Perth_(D29)), the British Exeter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Exeter_(68)), and the American Houston (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Houston), tried to disengage but they were spotted by the Japanese in the following days and eventually all were destroyed.

The Dutch submarines escaped and resumed the fight with the Allies from bases in Australia such as Fremantle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fremantle,_Western_Australia). As a part of the Allied forces, they were on the hunt for Japanese oilers on their way to Japan and the movement of Japanese troops and weapons to other sites of battle (including New Guinea (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Guinea_campaign)). Because of the significant number of Dutch submarines active in this theater of the war, the Dutch were named the "Fourth Ally" in the theatre — along with the Australians, Americans, and New Zealanders.

Many Dutch Army and Navy pilots also escaped and, with airplanes provided by the U.S., formed the Royal Australian Air Forces (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Australian_Air_Force)' Nos. 18 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._18_(Netherlands_East_Indies)_Squadron_RAAF) and 120 (Netherlands East Indies) Squadrons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._120_(Netherlands_East_Indies)_Squadron_RAAF), equipped with B-25 Mitchell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-25_Mitchell) bombers and P-40 Kittyhawk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtiss_P-40) fighters, respectively. These squadrons helped to defend Australia from the Japanese; bombing raids from Australia to the Dutch East Indies were carried out, with both squadrons eventually also participating in their recapture.

By the end of the war, 205,901 Dutch men and women had died of war-related causes. The Netherlands had the highest per capita death rate of all Nazi-occupied countries in Western Europe
Another 30,000 died in the Dutch East Indies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_East_Indies), either while fighting the Japanese or in camps as Japanese POWs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POW). Dutch civilians were also held in these camps