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69 years ago at this very time 5:38 PM 6/5/44 US time, Operation Overlord kicked off. First, the airborne assault thousands of US and British Paratroopers and Glider borne troops caught the Nazi troops off-guard capturing and holding vital roadways and bridges important for moving the seaborne troops who smashed into Hitler's Atlantic Wall breaching it and pouring into northern France. Less than a year later a defeated Germany lay in ruins. We owe a great debt to the "regular Joes" who were the heroic combatants in this monumental crusade.

They are not forgotten.

We owe a great debt to the "regular Joes" who were the heroic combatants in this monumental crusade.

They did a tough job well and returned home to their everyday lives. I hear story after story of heroic deeds performed by soldiers from WW2. As stated above....they are not forgotten.

My Dad was in the pacific @ the time. I still honor those in Africa & Europe. They are (not were) all heros of Liberty.

My Dad was assigned to the gliders in WW2.......he would hardly ever talk about it though. Wish he was still here to talk to, he passed away at the very young age of 64.

longtooth wrote:My Dad was in the pacific @ the time. I still honor those in Africa & Europe. They are (not were) all heros of Liberty.

Mine too, a gunnery officer on a troop transport hauling Marines around island hopping.

I spent the summer of 1994, the 50th anniversary of the "debarquement" in France, in my wife's village in the Bordeaux wine region. As the summer progressed, each town celebrated the exact anniversary of their liberation. The older ones were especially sincere and enthusiastic. When it became known that I had been a US military officer, my money was no good in any bars etc. When they found out my dad had been one, they couldn't stand it. I became the virtual hero in his place, notwithstanding that he had never set foot in Europe. They didn't care.... close enough. On August 25, my in-laws stayed up all night watching the festivities on TV of the liberation of Paris. It was a "Big Deal!"

My father in law had been made to cook for the German Army officers. The older he got, the higher ranking officers attended his mess. By the time he was 90, he had been cooking for Rommel himself!

The French may have their faults, but lack of gratitude is not among them, as far as I can see.

When I was in the 101st, I was proud to wear the Screaming Eagle patch and the Presidential Unit Citation those in WWII earned with their blood. For today, I'm switching back to my old avitar in their honor

My mother is French North African....Ethnic French, but born and raised in Algiers and Tunis. She lived through great deprivation during the nazi occupation. And when the allies were advancing on her town and shelling the retreating Germans....who were in turn shelling the allies....and both air forces were bombing the other's ground armies, the civilians of my mother's town took the brunt of it. She ate cats and rats for a while, because that's all there was left to eat. To this day, although she is quite wealthy, she has an attitude that there will never be enough for her to feel secure. I had relatives on my mother's side who lived in France during the nazi occupation.

My dad was in the Pacific, WIA at Iwo Jima.

I've lived in France as a child, and have been back there a couple of times since. I've found that the average Parisian has no use for Americans. Not all Parisians are that way, but most seem to be. But the people outside the cities are splendid, and the closer you get to the atlantic coast, the more fondly Americans are treated, and the sharper and longer their memories are of deliverance.

My dad was there. He's 90 as of Dec. ten 2012 and still with us thank you Lord.

JALLEN wrote:

longtooth wrote:My Dad was in the pacific @ the time. I still honor those in Africa & Europe. They are (not were) all heros of Liberty.

Mine too, a gunnery officer on a troop transport hauling Marines around island hopping.

Which transport? My father spend some time being hauled between islands... He joined the Marine Corps in 1939 (and made Sergeant Major in August of 1943), was aboard the USS West Virginia at Pearl Harbor, all through the Pacific, and China after the war. He was probably on Johnston Island on D Day, but may have been at Camp Pendleton or Camp Lejeune as an instructor.

Some documentary that I saw included an interview with a kindly looking German grandfather
who had been part of the German troops overlooking the Normandy landing beaches.

From his pillbox, with his machine gun (MG42??), he fired down upon the Allies.

He started the invasion with 12 boxes of ammo containing 1,000 rounds each.
He fired all 12,000 rounds before leaving the pillbox. Can you imagine the number of deaths he caused?

He was captured shortly after, but never disclosed to the Allies the details above. He figured that he would
have been executed on the spot.

Eisenhower decided to go ahead with D-Day's invasion although there were bad seas/storms that day.
That proved to be a good decision. General Rommel, responsible for German defenses, figured that the
weather was so bad that the Allies would never invade that day. So he decided to take a quick road trip back
to Germany. He was out of touch with his staff at the beginning of the invasion, then had to make the long drive back to France.

SIA

surprise_i'm_armed wrote:General Rommel, responsible for German defenses, figured that the
weather was so bad that the Allies would never invade that day. So he decided to take a quick road trip back
to Germany. He was out of touch with his staff at the beginning of the invasion, then had to make the long drive back to France.

SIA

Which lead to his own death by order of Hitler. He was told that if he quietly took the cyanide pill, his family would not pay the price for his failure.

The Annoyed Man wrote:

surprise_i'm_armed wrote:General Rommel, responsible for German defenses, figured that the
weather was so bad that the Allies would never invade that day. So he decided to take a quick road trip back
to Germany. He was out of touch with his staff at the beginning of the invasion, then had to make the long drive back to France.

SIA

Which lead to his own death by order of Hitler. He was told that if he quietly took the cyanide pill, his family would not pay the price for his failure.

From what I understand, that was just the culmination of a long string of events that led Hitler to conclude that Rommel was at least partially-inclined to support the numerous attempts on Der Fuhrer's life.

brhalltx wrote:

JALLEN wrote:

longtooth wrote:My Dad was in the pacific @ the time. I still honor those in Africa & Europe. They are (not were) all heros of Liberty.

Mine too, a gunnery officer on a troop transport hauling Marines around island hopping.

Which transport? My father spend some time being hauled between islands... He joined the Marine Corps in 1939 (and made Sergeant Major in August of 1943), was aboard the USS West Virginia at Pearl Harbor, all through the Pacific, and China after the war. He was probably on Johnston Island on D Day, but may have been at Camp Pendleton or Camp Lejeune as an instructor.

My dad was on the USS Orizaba, as I understand it a converted liner pressed into wartime service. I don't know where he was on D-Day, except on the ship somewhere. This account from wikipedia sounds like what my dad talked about. He was commissioned in 1943, in New York.

Arriving at New York on 22 August 1943, she underwent an overhaul, then took on runs to Brazil and the Caribbean. At the end of the year she left the east coast, passed through the Panama Canal, and sailed on to the Southwestern Pacific. After calls at Samoa, Nouméa, Brisbane, and Milne Bay, she returned to the west coast in March 1944, only to leave again for another Central Pacific run. Back at San Francisco in June, she underwent repairs; completed a run to the Marshalls and Marianas; and then sailed north to the Aleutians. Completing her northern run at Seattle, Washington on 1 December, she carried men and supplies to Hawaii, then returned to San Francisco, later sailing to New Guinea, the Philippines, and Ulithi to add men and materiel to forces gathering for the Battle of Okinawa.

He was also on the USS Fentress afterwards, I think.

I know they were in San Francisco in early 1945, because I was born in October

My maternal granddad was a long time Hughes Tool Co exec, and when my dad was returning to the states in January 1946, Howard Hughes sent his private airplane to Los Angeles to pick up LT. Allen and get him back to Houston on the double, to meet me. He said he had never been in a plane like that before or since.

One more war story. My buddy in high school and I were swapping "what my dad did in the war " tales. My dad had often told about being at Kwajalein Atoll. While the ship was there, some Marine, hungry for fresh fish, threw a hand grenade into the water resulting in a magnificent, and extremely welcome, fish fry. Ron said his dad had told a similar story, and sure enough, he had been a Captain in the Signal Corp, at Kwajalein, for the same fish fry. My dad was from Corsicana, this other fellow grew up in Comal County somewhere, didn't know each other then.