Remembering D-Day today (in 1944)

Most people will wander through today without a moment's thought of what happened over 60-years-ago on the beaches of Normandy, Northern France, when the largest seaborne invasion force ever amassed in the annals of history was launched at the might of the Nazi's fortress Europe.

Hindsight is a great gift to have. But at the time, it was very far from being a sure thing that the allies would gain a foothold in Europe or even maintain it. Within weeks of landing, many in the Allied Command thought that they would be stuck in France in a war of attrition not unsimilar to the stalemate of the 1914-18 Great War. The shadow of that war very much hung over the Allied Command.

US, Commonwealth and British troops had been trained in invasion from the sea and air in securing the beachheads, but not in fighting within the terrain that they found themselves (1000-year-old criss crossing ditches and hedgerows). Great for defence, not for attack. So they had to adapt and adapt quickly and learn on the job at a great cost to lives. Also, thankfully, Hitler still felt that this was a diversion to the REAL INVASION that would take place around the Pas De Calais and so numerous Panzer (tank) Divisions were help in reserve in NW France, allowing the allies precious time to secure their positions and inflict attritional damage on the Germans (Germans could only replace 1 new soldier to every 11 casualties!).

Anyway, enough of history lessons!!! But it was a close run thing and a far from easy foothold to hang onto in Europe. Just spare a thought for those young folk who gave their lives and spilled their blood on the beaches and fields of France (not so long ago), FOR US GUYS, IT WAS FOR US, LET'S NOT FORGET.

They shall not grow old as we grow old, age shall not weary them. At the going down of the sun, we will remember them.

I plan on watching The Longest Day today, and thinking about those brave warriors and the men who died that day, and in preparation for that day and the days that followed.

Thank you for this post. It makes me sick that D Day is not mentioned in ANY headlines of major news outlets right now.

PADDY said:

Hindsight is a great gift to have. But at the time, it was very far from being a sure thing that the allies would gain a foothold in Europe or even maintain it.

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Indeed. I found the text of a speech Winston Churchill had written in case the operation didn't go our way:

“Our landings have failed and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.”

I was lucky enough to go to Normandy a few years back (photos)

Fantastic

Thanks for those photos, Paddy.

What those men did for us that day haunts me. The terror they must have felt, the chaos, the horrible grief, the weariness. And yet, here we are. They brought us through to the better world we so take for granted today.

It's important to remember the terrible price.

A few years ago, I wrote an article discussing the 100 most significant moments in the history of American radio broadcasting -- and the Number One spot was held by radio's coverage of D-Day.

"It is arguably the single most important news story of the 20th Century -- the beginning of the Liberation of Europe from a regime which has come to embody modern evil. And radio covers it from beginning to end, in depth and in person. The highlights are many: Wright Bryan of NBC describing the disappointment of a paratrooper who failed to make his scheduled drop, Charles Collingwood of CBS making his way to a Normandy beach, George Hicks of the Blue Network describing the joy of Navy gunners bringing down their first Nazi plane. But perhaps the greatest thrill comes at 3:32 am on June 6th, as Colonel R. Ernest Dupuis reads the concise, understated communique the entire world awaited: "Under the command of General Eisenhower, Allied naval forces, supported by strong air forces, began landing Allied armies this morning on the Northern Coast of France." History in the making -- and, for me, radio's finest moment."

As I do every year, I'll take some time today to listen to those broadcasts again -- remembering those who fought the battle, and those who risked their lives to bring the news back home.

XM Radio 40's station is playing the CBS report right now!

I would just like to say Thank You to the FL folks.

Some of us got into vintage for various reasons, and maybe didn't care or realise as much about past events as we should.

Once again, the FL serves a purpose other then bringing us all closer together as freinds, it educates a lot of us who just never really -thought- about events of the past and how important they are.

Does that make me shallow? perhaps it did, but as time goes on I learn more and more and hopfully that makes me a better person overall.

So thanks again to everyone who reminds the less history minded of us, and makes us remember.


Denise

http://www.live365.com/stations/freedomson

To hear the entire coverage of D-Day as it was broadcast to the home front, 62 years ago today, click the link below and after the page loads click the yellow speaker button:

"P-47 pilots returning to their base in England report little resistance.. only one truck burning on the beach".

Uh, yeah.

FDR

I'm reading two FDR bios at the moment, so I'm drawn again to the President's broadcast bracing the nation for the inevitable losses that were to come.
Hearing it breaks me up.
The text:

My Fellow Americans:

Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our Allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far.

And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:

Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.

Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.

They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.

They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest -- until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men's souls will be shaken with the violences of war.

For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and goodwill among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.

Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.

And for us at home -- fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas, whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them -- help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.

Many people have urged that I call the nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.

Give us strength, too -- strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.

And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.

And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade. Let not the keeness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment -- let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.

With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogances. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace -- a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.

Thy will be done, Almighty God.

Amen.

Franklin D. Roosevelt - June 6, 1944

It is strange how much coverage a date like this will receive if it is a momentous anniversary - but if it's NOT, then it's pretty much forgotten. I'm glad that there are still people that remember this day for it is a day we can NEVER forget.

I almost always listen to the XM 40s channel. Last night they broadcast the address from June 5, 1944. It was interesting to listen to it and imagine what it must have been like hearing that on that day in 1944, not knowing that the invasion would begin the next morning! Several times they broke into the music with broadcasts from England indicating that the invasion would take place "within days, perhaps even hours." Every year on June 6 they interrupt the music with news broadcasts about the invasion, which I think is really cool of them.

My grandfather landed at Normandy, D+8.

I agree, we must never forget the terrible price.

This morning, I listened to an interview with a paratrooper who was among the first to land in Normandy on D-Day.

I was a bit surprised to hear coverage on this particular radio show, as they tend to stick to ‘lighter’ bits, but I was quite pleased that they made note of the 62nd anniversary of D-Day, and really enjoyed the interview.

If you know of anyone with a firsthand story they would like to share:
http://www.normandy1944.info/

about wwI but apropos:
Green Fields of France

Well, how do you do, Private William McBride,
Do you mind if I sit down here by your graveside?
And rest for awhile in the warm summer sun,
I've been walking all day, and I'm nearly done.
And I see by your gravestone you were only 19
When you joined the glorious fallen in 1916,
Well, I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean
Or, Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?

Did they Beat the drum slowly, did the play the pipes lowly?
Did the rifles fir o'er you as they lowered you down?
Did the bugles sound The Last Post in chorus?
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?

And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind
In some loyal heart is your memory enshrined?
And, though you died back in 1916,
To that loyal heart are you forever 19?
Or are you a stranger without even a name,
Forever enshrined behind some glass pane,
In an old photograph, torn and tattered and stained,
And fading to yellow in a brown leather frame?

The sun's shining down on these green fields of France;
The warm wind blows gently, and the red poppies dance.
The trenches have vanished long under the plow;
No gas and no barbed wire, no guns firing now.
But here in this graveyard that's still No Man's Land
The countless white crosses in mute witness stand
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man.
And a whole generation who were butchered and damned.

And I can't help but wonder, no Willie McBride,
Do all those who lie here know why they died?
Did you really believe them when they told you "The Cause?"
Did you really believe that this war would end wars?
Well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame
The killing, the dying, it was all done in vain,
For Willie McBride, it all happened again,
And again, and again, and again, and again.

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My Dad was a Crew Chief on a C-47 during D-Day. He was in the 442nd/305th and flew with some of the first missions during the invasion. They dropped paratroops near St. Mere-Eglise.

Today has a special significance to our family. Besides D-Day, today would have been my Mother's 82nd birthday, as well as the date my Dad was discharged (6 June 1946).

I asked my Dad about D-Day this morning. His tearful comment was, "It was such a terrible waste of young lives."

PrettySquareGal said:

It makes me sick that D Day is not mentioned in ANY headlines of major news outlets right now.

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foxnews.com put it front and center top page.


Remembering D-Day

CNN and MSNBC sites had for-pay video, no text. BBC had nothing. Drudge, New York Times, same.

scotrace said:

foxnews.com put it front and center top page.


Remembering D-Day

CNN and MSNBC sites had for-pay video, no text. BBC had nothing. Drudge, New York Times, same.

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I had checked CNN and MSNBC early this morning. Clearly they read FL and made adjustments!

D-Day June 6, 1944



"In all of the far-flung operations of our own Armed Forces, the toughest job has been performed by the average, easy-going, hard-fighting young American who carries the weight of battle on his own young shoulders. It is to him that we and all future generations of Americans must pay grateful tribute." --Franklin Delano Roosevelt