It was the beginning of the end for the tausendjähriges Reich, and good damn riddance. This photograph from Life Magazine is justly famous: that's what Our Boys had to wade through, on their way to the fight. What wasn't shown to the folks Back Home is what it looked like from the other side.
 |
| Image via Wikipedia |
My God, how could they possibly have done this?
I almost made the first sea wall
When my friends turned and saw me fall ...
What they did was was simply impossible. They did it anyway. They still do.
Sweet Mother Mary, we're so tired ...
If you're reading this, say a prayer for those who did the impossible, and who sacrificed everything these seventy years ago. Pinch yourself. That pain you feel is what they would have felt if their last sacrifice had been but a pinch.
Just remember thisThe entire core of my being wants to believe this. It may even be true. So let it be written, so let it be done.
I'm in a better place.
Where Soldiers rest in peace
and Angels sing Amazing Grace.
Remember: when Heaven needed 6000 heroes as a down payment, they knew who to call. They knew who would pick up the phone when it rang. They still do. The Longest Day seems not to end.
Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceatis eis. Amen. After all these years, amen.
11 comments:
Well unlike Sword Juno and Gold highly successful landings with relatively lighter casualties, Omaha was terrible thanks to the American refusal or should I say arrogance in refusing the offer of the "funnies" or specialized assault tanks used to breach defenses or used to clear obstacles and lay down firm tracks for more vehicles. If they had accepted this offer casualties would have been a hell of a lot less.
This refusal of help is reminiscent of the American admiral who refused British admiralty advice on how to deal with U-boats and how to deploy the convoy system when America entered
WW2, lots of coastal shipping was lost as were many US sailors lives before the admiral was fired. The Germans referred to this as the second happy time.
American soldiers do it, and always have, in spite of bad management. Why? Because they're American soldiers.
Amen, and Amen.
"...what it looked like from the other side."
I've read the memoirs of some of the soldiers on the other side. What it looked like was a wall of ships from horizon to horizon, as far as the eye could see. Some of those soldiers took one look at that sight and concluded right then and there that the war was well and truly lost.
Thankfully they did what they had to... They were heroes then, and are heroes now...
Moving post, Borepatch. Well done.
Amen.
SFMEDIC did I slag off the average service man,no. Did they refuse help, again no. It was the leaders of your troops that declined the offer. Also the topic was covered on the military channel tonight and basically made my point the "funnies", helped a great deal on D-Day. Omaha just tried to use Sherman's which sank on the way to the beach. You may wish to actually read real history not the myth and propaganda you have been fed from birth.
As for Montgomery while not a very likeable man was the one who drove Rommel from North Africa and his strategy on the Normandy landings kept German armour from crushing American forces at the Western end of the bridge head and occupied around Caen. This allowed your troops to break out. At the expense of British armourer and troops.
As for insults may I remind you that you the American people elected Obama not once but twice and he is your commander in chief. Who is busy doing a Stalin on your military commanders and purging the services of talent.
Gentlemen,
this is John Rambo, Anti-Feminist Soldier. I am posting this on behalf of Peter-Andrew: Nolan© also now known as Joschua-Brandon: Boehm©. I am doing this because, as a young men who knows Peter well, I know he has our best interests at heart.
Gentlemen,
It is well known that five years ago, April 2008, I spent a month suicidal as I went through the process of disowning my former children. When I came out of that rather unpleasant experience I contacted other men who had been similarly affected. I realized that many men were killing themselves because of the criminal abuse of the family law courts all across the western English speaking world.
As a direct result of this experience, and my compassion for my fellow men, I made a vow in June 2008 to re-introduce the rule of law into Australia and Ireland. Naturally, at the time I made the vow I had no idea how that might be done. We call it “throw your hat over the wall”. You make the vow and “figure it out later”.
Along the way I have talked to many tens of thousands of men, perhaps as many as 100,000 men have seen at least one comment by me one way or another. What I heard from men in 2008 was that they were DESPERATE for a remedy for the crimes being committed against them in the family courts. They were DESPERATE to find a way to end the criminal effects of feminism on their lives. Because so many men told me the same thing I mistook this to mean they actually WANTED to solve the problems of the family courts and feminism. As I said. My mistake.
Through very extensive research and labour, and collaborating with the best and brightest, the remedy for both the family courts and feminism was proven on 2009-11-26. A mere 18 months after I was suicidal. The court meeting that I did on 2009-11-26 I regard as one of the finest achievements of my life. Regardless? The very men I risked my life to create a remedy for have ignored that remedy, preferring to whine, bitch, moan and complain because that is far more rewarding to them than actually solving their problems. If they solved their problems they would have nothing to whine, bitch, moan and complain about.
The remedy has now been available 2.5 times as long as it took to develop and has proved uniquely unpopular. I am hated for even talking about it. The blood of every man who kills himself due to criminal abuse in the family courts is on the hands of those perhaps 100,000+ men who have heard from me and done nothing. I did all I could. They did not. It is actually very simple.
The mechanism for men to free themselves now is the Mens Business Association. The MBA provides individual based services to get men out of the control grid. Such services may well save the mans life from suicide. Going forward? It is necessary to create second economy outside the control of any government entity. Why criminals in governments can dominate and control men via the economy they will continue to do so. There is no reason for them to stop. The MBA is the proposal of a second economy outside the control of the government. This is a NECESSARY ingredient for men to live in freedom.
Only a small percentage of men will want to live in freedom. Those men who want to live in freedom? You are invited to watch a short update on how we are going in our efforts to get the second economy going. Naturally? The second economy will grow just as quickly or slowly as men join in and contribute to it. Those who want to “stick with the government run economies”? You are welcome to do so. I wish you luck with that because you are going to need it.
best regards
your brother peter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGXDBDzsAk0
Might I point out, knottedprop, that it was *your* leadership that could have stepped on and crushed the little cockroach back in 1938, but elected instead for "Peace in our time."
I can understand it, though, since everyone makes mistakes, nobody can see the future, and nobody wants war. Just keep in mind that if it weren't for the mistakes of the leadership in London and Paris in the 30's, none of those men would have had to have been there in the first place.
Well said sir, well said.
Post a Comment