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The Silent Wings Museum commemorates the 74th anniversary of D-Day |
Read and watch the videos at 5 Fast Facts About D-Day, June 6.
Today is the the 74th anniversary of the Allied invasion that changed the course of history — for the better:
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Related video. Short and to the point.
ReplyDeleteJust added to the body of the blog post.
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ReplyDeleteThose who assaulted Gold, Juno, Sword, Omaha and Utah beaches...those who jumped by parachute into Ste. Mare Eglise and Pegasus Bridge.....those who landed by glider onto dark fields miles behind the coast....
These were giants among men.
CI,
DeleteMultiple up votes!
I was only three years old at the time, so I CANT remember D-Day, but I DO remember what life in these United States was like in the immediate post-war years (1946 on) –– buoyant, ebullient, bounding, soaring, joyful, full of unrestrained optimism, unlimited enthusiasm and faith in a bright, glorious future.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I'm old enough to have experienced that wonderful post-war euphoria firsthand, because I'm sure from the sad condition into which we've slipped in latter years, that no one more than five years younger than I could possibly believe we were ever that delighted just to be AMERICANS and simply to be ALIVE.
I wish all Americans could have felt that, FT...particularly our kids who absolutely haven't a CLUE of what American happiness and joy are today. Because you have to search for it today, so hard. So sad. There is ZERO optimism today....at least I don't see much.
DeleteWhat Z said!
DeleteWatch "The Best Years of Our Lives".
Delete"After The Longest Day" :)
Ed,
DeleteI love The Best Years of Our Lives!
NORMANDY, where soldiers who were first off the ships knew without a doubt they'd never make it to shore. It's always filled me with awe...courage like that is other-worldly. Or the second wave, crawling against their buddies' dead bodies, hoping they might at least make it to the sand. I've stood in a German bunker and looked out the slit where the guns fitted through to shoot our kids on the shore...I'll never forget it. We should never forget THEM.
ReplyDeleteZ,
Deletesoldiers who were first off the ships knew without a doubt they'd never make it to shore
True.
Just imagine! And many of them were so young, too.
Stuart Cooper's Overlord (1975) has an extremely powerful scene on that topic.
DeleteYoung Tom requests compassionate leave because there's going to be a death in the family soon (his).
It's a terrific film.
I Have a Rendezvous with Death
DeleteI have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade,
When Spring comes back with rustling shade
And apple-blossoms fill the air—
I have a rendezvous with Death
When Spring brings back blue days and fair.
It may be he shall take my hand
And lead me into his dark land
And close my eyes and quench my breath —
It may be I shall pass him still.
I have a rendezvous with Death
On some scarred slope of battered hill,
When Spring comes round again this year
And the first meadow-flowers appear.
God knows ‘twere better to be deep
Pillowed in silk and scented down,
Where love throbs out in blissful sleep,
Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath,
Where hushed awakenings are dear...
But I’ve a rendezvous with Death
At midnight in some flaming town,
When Spring trips north again this year,
And I to my pledged word am true,
I shall not fail that rendezvous.
~ Alan Seeger (1888-1916)
Poet Alan Seeger was born in New York City, and was a graduate of Harvard University.
Was he a hero, or merely a victim of the insanity of war. Did his young life count for anything, or did he die in vain?
_______ Is It Worth Dying? _______
DeleteIs there anything worth dying for, I ask?
Show me why I should give up my life.
I feel this Gift from God is like a cask
That too soon emptied functions like a wife
Who pledges love, then treats it like a task,
Or welches on an honorable bet ––
Reneging, shameless, insolent to bask
Truculent –– a Booby Trap to Let.
How ironic to be born just to regret
Duty’s dreary dictates spelling Doom ––
Years of preparation to beget
Impossible demands shrouded in gloom.
No innocence should be required to cede
Great future hopes to selfish monsters’ greed.
~ FreeThinke
Two of my cousins served on D-Day, on those beaches: one in the US Army and one in the US Navy. They were 19 or so at the time.
ReplyDeleteBoth came home (as did their brother in the USMC in the Pacific Theater), but the two who served on the beaches of Normandy never slept through a night again and died young (age 39 and age 44).
My dad went ashore there.
ReplyDeleteMy friend Nate who had survived Pearl should have gone ashore, but his LST got stuck on a sandbar.
Dad never talked about the war much until we watched Battleground together. He had also been at Bastogne, as Nate had.
Glad that your dad finally discussed the war with you. Important to discuss, IMO.
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