Imagine the Bravery and Guts it took: June 6, 1944.

[beemerdons]

 

[Pterodactyl]

Amazingly, they were just normal everyday guys. They became part of something far bigger than any single soldier and they did it because their buddies did it with them. They were our fathers and grandfathers, and we are losing them rapidly.

 

[bluesdog]

Brothers in arms.

The hardest struggle was at Omaha Beach where the Americans suffered terrible casualties. Everywhere else, the attackers landed with fewer casualties than feared, the Germans apparently caught by surprise. Their panzer divisions, most well inland, would need time to reach the beaches.

They will not be forgotten.

 

[steveoreno]

Our debt to these brave men is immeasurable.

 

[wheatonFJR]

Those men knew they were in for a heap of trouble. Then they moved forward through machine gun fire even as they saw their friends dropping like flies.

I can't imagine it. I just can't.

 

[jmgrif]

Just finishing reading, Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand. Yes it is a movie but what a read! It is unfathomable that anyone, could endure the hardships and depravity inflicted by an enemy! This story takes place in the Pacific theatre which offers conditions similar to those of hell. When will we learn from our past? Lest we forget!

 

[steveoreno]

Just finishing reading, Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand. Yes it is a movie but what a read! It is unfathomable that anyone, could endure the hardships and depravity inflicted by an enemy! This story takes place in the Pacific theatre which offers conditions similar to those of hell. When will we learn from our past? Lest we forget!

The book is better than the movie as it is way more detailed.

 

[LKLD]

My dad was on a LST at Normady, and saw his sister ship taken out by a u-boat on the way there. He had some interesting stories from it. They defined brave!

 

[HotRodZilla]

Amen!! Those men had enormous courage. I don't know that I'd have the balls to just say "screw it" and jump into incoming fire. They fought like lions and ensured us many of the freedoms people take for granted today.

 

[08FJR4ME]

Yes they were without any doubt brave men. Same goes for our soldiers today. Today you may be dropped off on top of a 10,000 foot mountain in Afghanistan with no cover. Either way they are doing their job for you and me without any hesitancy or complaints.

God bless them all,

Dave

 

[wheatonFJR]

Lot of courageous men in all generations.

I stand in humble salute to all of them.

 

[900gc]

I met an old timer years back in a Walmart who was wearing a WWII Army Vet hat so I couldn't help but strike up a conversation with him. Turns out he was in the first wave that landed at Omaha beach. A chill ran down my spine when he said that and at one point in our chat, he paused and said; "A lot of my friends died that day". I can't even imagine what he experienced.

Heroes all of them.

 

[juniorfjr]

I read recently that of the first wave to hit the beaches 9 out of 10 men died. Unfathomable. As many men died that day as in Vietnam. Yet they went without question.

 

[Pterodactyl]

Over 50,000 died in Vietnam. 4,400 died on D-Day, about 2,700 were US forces and 1,700 of them died on Omaha Beach.

 

[juniorfjr]

My memory was wrong. USA lost 400k in WW 2 in total. Vietnam was 58223 deaths. Thanks for making me think.

 

[Uncle Hud]

The first few minutes of Saving Private Ryan show the beach landing. Scary as ****.

Thanks, beemerdons, for the reminder.

 

[drc32-0]

The first few minutes of Saving Private Ryan show the beach landing. Scary as ****.
Thanks, beemerdons, for the reminder.

One of the surviving members of the National Gaurd unit from Bedford Virginia was a technical directer for Saving Private Ryan.Bedford's young men were in the first landing craft to hit the beach,they also suffered the highest causality rate of any American community.

If you ever ride the Blue Ridge Parkway it's well worth the short detour to head over to Bedford and the National D-Day Memorial.

 

[hppants]

Years ago on a trip to Normandy, my parents toured the beach. My father (1 generation past WWII) came home immensely moved. He was trying to explain that when you look at it in 3 dimensions (especially from the Germans' high turrets), the magnitude of the courage it took for those solders is truly unfathomable. One day I will see that for myself.

I still live a selfish life, but now I try to at least do it in a manner that is worthy of what those people (all of them in all conflicts) did for me and my family.

 

[Pterodactyl]

In 1977, on the anniversary of D-Day, I jumped into Ste. Mere Eglis, Normandy as part of the US Army Europe Parachute Team. The church where the 82d Airborne trooper was suspended for most of the night was still there and although still in use, it was largely unrepaired from the battle damage. Almost every store front and other street front window had a series of pictures on display. The first would show the villager with a young American GI taken shortly after the invasion. Then there would be 2,3 or 4 other pictures of the same two people taken over the period of years. Ste Mere Eglis was full of 82d ABN vets in 1977. I magine they are few and far between now, and that the succession of pictures have run their course in most cases.