D-Day commemorative celebrations

Cosimo said:
Great to hear from one of our brave men:


:)
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I love hearing these stories. I can remember my nan telling the stories of my Grandad.. Spare a moment for those that were at home with loved ones going out.. What must have been going through their minds.. or the moment they said goodbye.. I can't get my head round that.
 
I know everyone here probably already know this, but the figures are oustanding.

156,000 troops
23,000 paratroopers
195,000 naval personnel
7000 vessels
1,200 warships
4000 landing craft
12,000 aircraft

Holy ****. All in all almost a million soldiers were deployed in france by the end of June.
 
I think this is the most important memorial ever considering recent advancements in world conflict. I think it will also be the last as the vets are getting very old and a lot of organisations are disbanding due to lack of members.

Well done to the people involved at the time and hopefully we learn from our history as our forefathers would have wanted.
 
tbh, just thinking about it all just makes me feel so.... disturbed?? im not really sure how to explain it.

the landings, the deaths, the struggle to win. the "do or die" attitude and the overall bravery of these men astonish me. Its something ive never been able to get my head around. They were all true heros.

It just wouldnt happen today, people are too self centered, lazy, greedy and generally only care about themselves. 95% of the blokes now wouldn't run into machinegun fire to try and better the next generation. They would be too busy sat in the pub watching it on TV with a pint of lager in their hands, complaining how hard their job at tesco is.

So much respect. So many losses. so sad.
 
*doffs hat to the fallen and the the survivors on both sides*

I spent a week going around Normandy back in 2007. Didn't really have much of a plan of what to see, but on June 5th we were at Pegasus Bridge and there was several surviving members of 6th Airbourne who took the bridges and a vast number of school children who were captivated by the stories they were telling. It was astonishing.

June 6th we were on Omaha and got into the memorial ceremony in the cemetery with all of the veterans. I wasn't supposed to be there, but I was talking to a couple of guys from the 101st Airbourne who were in the initial air drop and I walked past the security with them. Got invited by one of them to the parade at Arromanches-les-Bains in the evening and spent a lot of time with the veterans there. British, Canadian and American all there and being celebrated for what they did. Some truly amazing and harrowing stories.

I've tried to get my other half's granddad to come along to one, but he wants to forget and doesn't really talk about it. He was involved with the landings and I know he also served in Africa, but other than that, I know very little about his service. I keep trying to find out more.

Such a shame that the Normandy Veterans Association is being disbanded later this year, but when the youngest members are in their 80's, you can understand their reasoning.
 
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davido_labido said:
tbh, just thinking about it all just makes me feel so.... disturbed?? im not really sure how to explain it.

the landings, the deaths, the struggle to win. the "do or die" attitude and the overall bravery of these men astonish me. Its something ive never been able to get my head around. They were all true heros.

It just wouldnt happen today, people are too self centered, lazy, greedy and generally only care about themselves. 95% of the blokes now wouldn't run into machinegun fire to try and better the next generation. They would be too busy sat in the pub watching it on TV with a pint of lager in their hands, complaining how hard their job at tesco is.

So much respect. So many losses. so sad.
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+1

I try to envisage that journey from England across the channel, getting crammed into smaller amphibious landingcraft, hearing the explosions, seeing the carnage as you get closer, planes flying over, shells hitting the water, sound of machine gun fire from the heavily fortified German embankments. Basically a sitting duck, not being able to do anything until you hit the beach and the ramp comes down, funneling everyone in your boat out one entrance.

Then it has only really just began.

I wont come anywhere close to what they were actually feeling.
 
balky12 said:
+1

I try to envisage that journey from England across the channel, getting crammed into smaller amphibious landingcraft, hearing the explosions, seeing the carnage as you get closer, planes flying over, shells hitting the water, sound of machine gun fire from the heavily fortified German embankments. Basically a sitting duck, not being able to do anything until you hit the beach and the ramp comes down, funneling everyone in your boat out one entrance.

Then it has only really just began.

I wont come anywhere close to what they were actually feeling.
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The thing is that they were actually fighting for something they believed in too, i know many people in the army now and they see it as a job rather than fighting for something.

These guys just didn't care about the money or anything like that, they wanted to just do what needed to be done, no matter the cost to them. It truly pulled England (and other countries) together.
 
davido_labido said:
The thing is that they were actually fighting for something they believed in too, i know many people in the army now and they see it as a job rather than fighting for something.

These guys just didn't care about the money or anything like that, they wanted to just do what needed to be done, no matter the cost to them. It truly pulled England (and other countries) together.
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Makes you sick how much this country has changed in 70 years. Not even the average persons lifespan.

Going from willing to sacrifice everything for each other (not just the soldiers but wives/ parents, etc.) and how society/communities were during the blitz. Things only that generation would have only experienced and the others could never understand.

To what we have today. Which doesn't need much explaining. Not that there is much to talk about.
 
I remember my Great Grandad telling me about Dunkirk, he always told me how he was one of the last ones off the beach.
He never took part in the D-Day landings, but he always reeled off a list of names of the lads he knew who he never saw again because they went.
My great grandad got sent to Burma to fight along side the Gurka's and was taken prisoner by the Japanese, who must have done horrific things to him as the doctors said his mind must just chosen not to remember what happened to him. The other thing I remember him saying was how much he hated the french soldiers, he hated them even more than the germans and the japanese. Because even though they were the ones trying to kill him he said these exact words "At least they didn't run away like little girls at the first sign of a fight"
We would always take him to the cenotaph in Mansfield, where he was from. He was a fantastic man and never afraid to stand up for what was right.

We can never let these men be forgotten, we owe so much to them.
 
St Nazaire raid. If people haven't heard about that go read it. There is a documentary out on it too.

Word can not describe the actions of these men.
 
My thanks go to everyone involved. I will make sure my children appreciate all the events of the wars.
 
balky12 said:
St Nazaire raid. If people haven't heard about that go read it. There is a documentary out on it too.
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im going there again next week - visiting friends / family !

went to the Normandy dock first time I went :D:D:D (its fixed now mind lol)

sub pens are cool too - massively think concrete.
 
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jas72 said:
How come all the news reels from then contain the same voice.

You never hear that voice on the news or anywhere else these days.

Is there an area of the UK where people talk like that?
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It's called Received Pronunciation (RP for short). It's a specifically accent-neutral mode of speaking used so that you can be understood wherever English is spoken. You don't hear the Pathe/Movietone version any more because it's evolved into what the BBC use today - slightly more regional flavour, but equal clarity.

I just saw Francois Hollande giving his speech. He must feel a right prune talking about how 4400 Allied servicemen gave their lives liberating France from the Nazis just so that 70 years later they could send a pack of Nazis to Brussels. :mad:
 
From the BBC
.Police say an 89-year-old British D-Day veteran who went missing after being told by care home staff that he could not attend the anniversary commemorations has been found - in Normandy. The man, who has not been named, was reported missing from a care home in Hove on Thursday. It is believed he went out wearing his war medals under a raincoat. Police say they have spoken to the man and are satisfied he is safe and able to return to Hove once the D-Day commemorations are complete.
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Top bloke. Let's hope he gets looked after while he's there.
 
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