• On this day, 70 years ago, 156 000 landed on the beaches of Normandy in the largest military operati
    51 replies, posted
[img]http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/dday060514/s_d01_94127287.jpg[/img] [quote]A composite image of the seafront of Weymouth, England -- in June of 1944 (left) and 70 years later, on April 5, 2014. In 1944, US troops on the Esplanade were on their way to embark on ships bound for Omaha Beach for the D-Day landings in Normandy. The Allied invasion to liberate mainland Europe from Nazi occupation during World War II took place on June 6, 1944. (Galerie Bilderwelt, 1944/Peter Macdiarmid, 2014/Getty Images) [/quote] [img]http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/dday060514/s_t07_94127303.jpg[/img] [quote]A ruined street in Caen, France in June of 1944. Click to see transition to a view of the rue de Bayeux on May 5, 2014. [Click image to fade] (Galerie Bilderwelt, 1944/Peter Macdiarmid, 2014/Getty Images) # [/quote] [img]http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/dday060514/s_t08_94127267.jpg[/img] [quote]The British 2nd Army: Royal Marine Commandos of Headquarters, 4th Special Service Brigade, making their way from their landing craft onto 'Nan Red' Beach, JUNO Area, at St Aubin-sur-Mer at about 9 am on, 6 June 1944. Click to see the same beach on May 6, 2014. [Click image to fade] (Lt. Handford/IWM, 1944/Peter Macdiarmid, 2014/Getty Images) # [/quote] [img]http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/dday060514/s_t09_94127305.jpg[/img] [quote]Troops of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division landing at Juno Beach on the outskirts of Bernieres-sur-Mer on D-Day, June 6, 1944. 14,000 Canadian soldiers were put ashore and 340 lost their lives in the battles for the beachhead. Click to see the same beach 70 years later, on May 5, 2014. [Click image to fade] (Galerie Bilderwelt, 1944/Peter Macdiarmid, 2014/Getty Images) # [/quote] [img]http://i.imgur.com/B7RUgQJ.jpg[/img] [quote]Re-enactors wearing World War Two U.S. military uniforms re-enact a D-Day landing on Omaha Beach in Vierville sur Mer, on the coast of Normandy June 5, 2014. [/quote] [img]http://i.imgur.com/fC9bYRq.jpg[/img] [quote]Jim Martin, dressed as he was 70 years ago, will be parachuting into Normandy tomorrow at age 93.[/quote] [img]http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/5/31/1401561843701/United-States-Army-trucks-001.jpg[/img] [quote]July 1944: United States Army trucks and jeeps drive through the ruins of Saint-Lo. 7 May 2014: A view of the roadway in the town today. Saint-Lo was almost totally destroyed by 2,000 Allied bombers when they attacked German troops stationed there during Operation Overlord. Photographs by Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty and Peter Macdiarmid/Getty [/quote] [img]http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02933/DDAY-HOLLANDE-OBAM_2933433k.jpg[/img] [quote]US President Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande look out over Omaha Beach[/quote] [img]http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02933/DDAY-REENACTORS_2933430k.jpg[/img] [quote]WWII military vehicles and enthusiasts muster on Gold Beach at Arromanche[/quote] [img]http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02933/DDAY-FLYPAST_2933386k.jpg[/img] [quote]The fly-past before the Service of Remembrance at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery, Bayeux[/quote] [img]http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02933/DDAY-SUNRISE_2933109k.jpg[/img] [quote]Landing craft from the Royal Marines arrive on Arromanche beach at sunrise[/quote] [img]http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02933/DDAY-LONE-PIPE_2933104k.jpg[/img] [quote]A lone piper plays a lament on Gold Beach as landing craft from the Royal Marines arrive at Arromanche on June 6 2014[/quote] [img]http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02932/dday-drop_2932426k.jpg[/img] [quote]People watch as a parachute drop takes place near Ranville[/quote] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJtZHEzoc8Y[/media] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWg2AX4sGxc[/media] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4HCqqsrFJc[/media] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngISnYWwypw[/media] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4z_m7e00uc[/media] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU5I-kpTHEA[/media] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjJVGLSOesI[/media] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMdpemnfjDc[/media] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpoqzZkBs0A[/media] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAZNGSCUfPQ[/media] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zqniTeJiXQ[/media] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6EsjZYInjo[/media] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNZT6Mi3AdQ[/media] [quote] Normandy, France (CNN) -- Jim "Pee Wee" Martin acted like he'd been here before, like jumping from a plane is as easy as falling off a log. Maybe that's because he had -- 70 years ago. "I'm feeling fine," Martin told reporters moments after landing in a French field. "... It was wonderful, absolutely wonderful." Martin was part of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division that parachuted down over Utah Beach in their bid to retake France and, eventually, the rest of Europe from Nazi Germany. They actually touched down in enemy-controlled territory a night before what's referred to as D-Day. His jump Thursday in the same area was different and -- despite his being 93 years old now -- a whole lot easier. "It didn't (compare)," Martin said, "because there wasn't anybody shooting at me today." Every year, every day it seems, the number of surviving World War II veterans like Martin dwindles. He estimates there are only a few dozen members of his unit who took part in the now historic D-Day invasion who are still around. It's ironic, in a sense, because Martin was among the oldest of his bunch in June 1944 -- at 23 years old -- surrounded by others who were mere teenagers. Together, they parachuted onto France's northern coast in the dark of night not knowing what awaited them. Whatever it was, it would not be friendly or easy, they expected. "Everybody (was) scared all the time, and if they tell you anything differently they are full of crap," the former paratrooper recalled. "But you just do what you had to do regardless of it. That's the difference." And they didn't stop. According to a Facebook page he regularly updates, Martin fought for 43 days as part of the Normandy campaign before moving onto invade Holland, fending off Nazi fighters during the Battle of the Bulge and finishing off by taking Berchtesgaden, site of Hitler's "Eagle's Nest" redoubt in the German Alps. None of it was easy, but Martin insists, "I don't ever have flashbacks. Never. Nothing ever bothered me." All these years later, he has become a celebrity of sorts -- as evidenced by a mob of reporters who greeted him after his parachute landing Thursday. Martin says he feels "kind of humbled and embarrassed at the adulation because I don't feel we did anything that we weren't supposed to do or anything exceptional." He adds: "We just did what we trained to do." Seven decades later, Martin did it again -- not fighting a bloody war but at least reliving his role in a military campaign that changed the course of history. Others joined him in this now daytime jump, though he was the only one from his generation. This time, he said that he wasn't scared because, "once you get in the plane, you forget everything." Bored would be more like it. As he told reporters afterward, "To tell you the truth, riding around in the plane is boring. It's when you get off the plane, that's when it gets exciting ... But there's no fear to it. It's just something you do." Martin admitted that he was motivated by "a little bit of ego, (to show that) I'm 93 and I can still do it." "And also I just want to show all the people that you don't have to sit and die just because you get old," he added. "Keep doing things." Among those things he'd like to do is another jump in the same plane, one year from now. [/quote] [url]http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/05/world/europe/d-day-paratrooper-jumps-again/[/url] [quote] Actor Benedict Cumberbatch has recorded the BBC's 8am news bulletin from D-Day, using the original radio news script from 6 June, 1944. The bulletin, which will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Friday, is one of a number of news bulletins that have been re-recorded to mark the 70th anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy. [/quote] [url]http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-27727055[/url] [quote] Age had finally wearied them. They marched proudly on Sword Beach with stiff legs, bent backs and, in some cases, tears in their eyes. After decades of annual pilgrimages to the beaches, towns and fields where their friends died, British Normandy veterans gathered for a private ceremony of remembrance for the last time. There were 150 of them – with a combined age of around 13,500. Media coverage of Friday’s 70th anniversary of D-Day will focus on the grandiose “international event” organised by France, to be held this afternoon at the other end of the beach. The Queen, Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel, François Hollande and many other leaders will pay tribute to the 200,000 British, American and Canadian men – and the handful of women – who took part in the largest seaborne invasion of all time. It promises to be spectacular, but its unlikely to have the poignancy of this final parade of the Normandy Veterans’ Association (NVA) at Colleville-Montgomery. For each of the 30 years since it was founded, members of the NVA have gathered on 5 June around a nearby, malevolent-looking statue of the allied commander, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. Politicians and royalty have never been invited. This has always been an event organised by the veterans, for the veterans – and for their families and for British and French well-wishers. A large crowd did turn up, including 150 British veterans – one-in-four of the surviving members of the NVA. Fifty of the fitter veterans (average age 92) marched 50 metres to the ceremony and then 200 metres to the beach, led by a military band and applauded by French and British supporters. “I was astonished when I saw how many people had turned up,” said George Batts, 88, the National Secretary of the NVA. “It is sad, of course it’s sad, but this will be the last time that we meet here on 5 June. Our numbers are melting away. Many of our members are in nursing homes. I am practically the baby of the organisation and I am 89 next month. We wanted a fitting last occasion, rather than a gradual disintegration.” The NVA will disband in November and hang up its banners in a final ceremony at York Minster. From a peak of around 30,000 members in the 1980s, and 14,000 members at the 60th anniversary in 2004, there are now around 600 NVA members left alive. It is estimated that there are roughly another 600 British Normandy veterans alive who do not belong to the association. As D-Day passes over the horizon of living memory, the NVA is running a campaign – supported by The Independent – to record filmed interviews of the memories of as many surviving Normandy veterans’ as possible. Many of the veterans at the final parade had well-rehearsed stories to tell. Others were anxious to fill gaps in the D-Day record or to correct mis-impressions. Albert Holmshaw, 90, from Sheffield, was a gunner who came ashore under fire on Gold Beach on D-Day. “What people don’t realise is that the most extraordinary thing was the noise,” he said. “Not just a bang-bang-bang but a continuous ear-splitting bang which went on for hours.” Another veteran, John Scase from Exeter, who could not be present in Normandy, pointed out that one aspect of D-Day – perhaps the most written-about event in military history – had been neglected or deliberately obscured. On 6 June he was a junior naval officer on one of the motor launches, equipped with an experimental new form of direction-finding radar. There is no mention of the launches or the radar in the official history – perhaps for security reasons. “Surprisingly, not a shot had been fired in our direction from the enemy forces opposing us,” Mr Scase recalled. “We were, exceptionally lucky.” Colleville added Montgomery to its name after the war in tribute to is British liberators. Some years ago, the village made a permanent gift of the ground around the Bernard Montgomery statue to the NVA.[/quote] [url]http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/world-history/dday-70th-anniversary-seven-decades-on-a-band-of-brothers-meet-to-pay-their-respects-one-last-time-9496730.html[/url] [quote](Reuters) - Sitting in the shade on a bench in the center of Moscow, 77-year-old Galina Makarenko pauses for several seconds before delivering her blunt opinion on the Allied D-Day landings of June 6, 1944. "It helped us a little. But only a little," says the sprightly physicist, who was evacuated from Moscow to Kazakhstan to escape the conflict that Westerners call World War Two and Russians refer to as the Great Patriotic War. President Vladimir Putin joins the leaders of France, Britain, the United States and Germany to mark the 70th anniversary on Friday of the Normandy landings that opened the western front against Hitler's forces, catching them in a giant pincer movement as Stalin's Red Army pushed them back in the east. But while many in the West see D-Day as the decisive turning point in the conflict, conversations in the Russian capital on Thursday reflected a widely held view here that the Soviet Union had already turned the tide of the war, in which it lost more than 20 million people, and would have prevailed on its own. "That is absolutely clear, there's no doubt about that. It would have won because the people were desperate, they had gathered their strength and learned to wage war. The war would definitely have been won by the Soviet people," said pensioner Nikolai Kosyak, 64. STALIN HOSTS CHURCHILL The timing of the second front was a vexed question between the wartime Allies: Soviet leader Josef Stalin had urged British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to open it as far back as August 1942. According to the interpreter's record of their tense encounter that month in Moscow, Churchill argued this would be premature, insisting that "war was war but not folly, and it would be folly to invite a disaster that would help nobody". A "restless" Stalin retorted that "a man not prepared to take risks could not win a war". For the eventual D-Day assault, the Allies mustered more than 150,000 British, Canadian and American troops, and preceded their offensive with months of intensive bombing of targets in German-occupied France. But many Russians are convinced to this day that the delay was a deliberate ploy. While D-Day "helped us a great deal", Kosyak said, Churchill "wanted the Russians and Germans to destroy each other in this war, and to enter it at the right moment when both were weakened". Communications worker Igor Tolkarev, 48, said: "I think he just waited for us and decided to do it only when our troops started an offensive. Only then he joined the side of those who were stronger." MISTRUST OF COMMUNISM For retired engineer Lyudmila Krylova, 67, the timing had to do with political ideology. "Because the West had a very bad attitude towards the Communist Soviet Union at that time and was interested in preventing Communism from spreading across Europe - that's why probably political leaders in the West were not interested in such a triumphal victory of the Red Army and a swift end of the war," she said. "And then they were sparing their people, their army, their casualties." Her grandson Maxim Krylov, 11, chimed in: "If not for our Red Army and for all our troops we, Russians, would not be standing here now." In a schoolchildren's encyclopedia on sale in central Moscow, the opening of the western front is dealt with in just half a sentence, in a four-page entry on the Great Patriotic War: "In the meantime the allies had opened a second front in Europe, but Soviet forces had captured the initiative in the offensive on Germany."[/quote] [url]http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/05/us-dday-anniversary-russians-idUSKBN0EG20820140605[/url] Bless these men.
That picture of the 93 old is probably one of the most badass images ever. Remember when I went to Normandy 10 years ago for the 60th. Shame I couldn't go again this time, its an incredible event and it's pretty powerful to be there and remember what happened
It's hard to believe such a huge and important operation was staged only 70 years ago. I'd like to go to Normandy someday and pay my respects to those who didn't make it.
[quote] Only then he joined the side of those who were stronger."[/quote] ehh...
What worries me the most is how quickly people are forgetting about what happened back then. Not just D-Day but the entire World War.
"But many Russians are convinced to this day that the delay was a deliberate ploy. While D-Day "helped us a great deal", Kosyak said, Churchill "wanted the Russians and Germans to destroy each other in this war, and to enter it at the right moment when both were weakened". Easy to understand why, after all, Churchill wanted to invade the USSR immediately with Operation Unthinkable (lol no shit unthinkable indeed) [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Unthinkable[/url]
[quote]Only then he joined the side of those who were stronger." [/quote] Playing Devil's Advocate a bit here: The Germans held out against incredible odds for years. Global warfare, supply lines stretched to their limits, no naval superiority, only had the area they occupied to get their supplies from while the Allies had literally the entire world at their disposal. I'm not denouncing the Allied forces, don't get me wrong. But all things considered the Germans accomplished an incredible feat with limited resources and I reckon that with equal resources, they'd have won.
It also my birthday, I'm glad I was born on such a patriotic day
Sad to think of the thousands that died. You can't even imagine what they must have felt as they waited for the order to charge through a hail of bullets.
we liberated the FUCK out of europe [img]http://deegeesbb.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/crying-hitler1.jpg[/img]
Shame it had to happen in the first place
[IMG]http://static.fjcdn.com/gifs/Saving_d8e606_2213392.gif[/IMG] [highlight](User was banned for this post ("Image macro" - Craptasket))[/highlight]
[QUOTE=Tsyolin;45015307]It's hard to believe such a huge and important operation was staged only 70 years ago.[/QUOTE] [I] Only?[/I] First World War started literally a century ago, with the last known person to have lived through it dying just two years ago. Give it two decades and a bit then WWII will be just as old.
I'm pretty sure that photo of the old man in the uniform isn't Jim Martin..
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uTAIpU0sa0[/media]
[video=youtube;QToxqPJFkeg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QToxqPJFkeg[/video]
[QUOTE=Alyx;45015848][IMG]http://static.fjcdn.com/gifs/Saving_d8e606_2213392.gif[/IMG][/QUOTE] Too soon.
The lone Bagpiper on the beach image in the OP is actually based/reminiscent on/of a true story [url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27672376[/url] [quote]A Scottish bagpiper who played his fellow soldiers ashore during the D-Day landings in 1944 has been remembered by veterans in Portsmouth. Bill Millin, known as Piper Bill, defied orders and took his bagpipes to D-Day. Patrick Churchill, a friend of Bill Millin, said that the piper had led the troops on to the beaches "completely unarmed".[/quote] [img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/02/Bill_Millin.jpg[/img]# He played under enemy fire on Sword beach
[QUOTE=Godzillarr;45016089]I'm pretty sure that photo of the old man in the uniform isn't Jim Martin..[/QUOTE] I'm not sure but these are definitely him. [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/fHE1E0J.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/yZDzVM3.jpg[/IMG]
Was in Normandie a couple of years ago. Would have loved to be there today.
Someone from my town is there :downs:
[QUOTE=CommanderPT;45015543]What worries me the most is how quickly people are forgetting about what happened back then. Not just D-Day but the entire World War.[/QUOTE] Are you being serious? You think people are forgetting about WWII?
[QUOTE=sloppy_joes;45016602]Are you being serious? You think people are forgetting about WWII?[/QUOTE] I don't think he meant that they forget that it happened, I think he means the scale of the slaughter and the effect on the world that people are now starting to forget.
[QUOTE=sloppy_joes;45016602]Are you being serious? You think people are forgetting about WWII?[/QUOTE] [video=youtube;PqNgqSVTVEM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqNgqSVTVEM[/video]
And it's the 72d anniversary of the Battle of Midway, which turned the tide in the Pacific Theater in favor of the United States, being an absolutely massive battle that saw the first notable Japanese loss in the war. Two years difference, but two turning points nonetheless.
70 years since D-Day and exactly 20 days to the 100 year mark of the death of the Archduke. If there's a god, he has a cynical sense of coincidence.
I like how all the movies with D-Day primarily have white people storming the beaches.
[QUOTE=Pat4ever;45016871][video=youtube;PqNgqSVTVEM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqNgqSVTVEM[/video][/QUOTE] Pretty painful to watch
[QUOTE=Alyx;45015848][IMG]http://static.fjcdn.com/gifs/Saving_d8e606_2213392.gif[/IMG][/QUOTE] Stop.
[QUOTE=Pat4ever;45016871][video=youtube;PqNgqSVTVEM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqNgqSVTVEM[/video][/QUOTE] Name one Allied Leader "Hitler?"
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.