June 6...

[Mike999]

The father of an old friend died recently.  While going thru his things, his family learned for the first time that he landed at Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944.  He won the Silver Star there.  He never told anybody about that.  Not his wife, not his kids, nobody.  Amazing.

The Normandy landings mostly went as planned.  Many "German" defenders weren't German, but second-string garrison troops, often foreigners drafted by the Nazis. They couldn't wait to surrender to the Allies. 

Omaha Beach was different.  Everything went wrong. e.g., the Duplex-Drive "swimming" Sherman tanks were launched too far out and many sank before they ever reached the shore.   And the German defenders at Omaha were the real deal - the 352nd Infantry Division, a very tough unit who were veterans of the Russian Front. Their weapons were sited in to cover every inch of that beach and they did not surrender easily.

The Robert Capa photo below shows a tiny part of what Omaha cost.   And while I always appreciate responses, I'd ask that you not post any political axe-grinding or personal gripes about the current generation.  That generation is defending us all over the world right now, the same as their grandfathers did.

 

[SfanGoch]

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[StevenGuthmiller]

The sheer bravery of the men who volunteered for the military at this point in our history has always amazed me.

I just can't conceive of what it took to walk into a situation like that without completely losing it!

The men who fought in the civil war were just that much more heroic!

Men of a different breed!

 

Steve

[Belugawrx]

My grandfather was a bombardier in a Lancaster, and survived..greatest man I have known.

Cheers up there Ken

Edited June 7, 2018 by Belugawrx

[HomerS]

Sadly we are losing these heroes and those of us of today never got to thank them for what they did.  I had a great uncle who had a purple heat and silver star and the father of a good friend that had a bronze star (both from WWII) and like you, I never knew until they passed.  When asked their respectives kids, they both answered almost verbatum 'they did what they had to do and never talked about it'.  Humble heroes.....

[Khils]

59 minutes ago, HomerS said:

Sadly we are losing these heroes and those of us of today never got to thank them for what they did.

I give thanks every time......the sun rises....my grandchildren  laugh & play !

[GLMFAA1]

I have been in EMS a long time, I have had the privilege of transporting veterans from the Spanish American war to Desert Storm and today's military, I instruct my fellow EMTs and Medics to thank them all for their service. The greatest generation especially need to be thanked since they are getting to be few and far between, I tell them to ask questions about their service in WWII and amazingly they will open up to you and  you have your own oral history of bravery and even the mundane events of their service. Most will say the heroes are the ones that didn't come home. Big Thanks to all of them because I enjoy my freedoms they fought for.

greg

[OldTrucker]

I lost a great uncle at Omaha Beach. First wave in.

Had several other family members that survived D Day but not without some degree of sacrifice.

My Great Grandma's second husband was wheel chair bound as a result of machine gun fire. He passed when I was 5 or 6 a result of war wounds.

I was a visitor at the local Veteran's Home for about 15 years and had made many friends there mostly WWII and Korean War Vets.

The ones I visited the most and had a close friendship to have all went on to join their Brothers-In_arms now and it finally wore on me so much that I had to stop going.