80TH ANNIVERSARY OF D-DAY

Oops - let's try this again ... I went way off on a tangent before ... take 3

80 Years ago today some 6,000 men lost their lives in a push to topple a maniac who not only killed his enemies, but his own people - simply because they existed, not for any crimes they did.

D-Day .... as a child, it simply meant the day when WE were supposed to remind ADULTS not to smoke -- you have no idea how hard this was ... not because people weren't supposed to smoke for 24 hours, but because KIDS were telling ADULTS what to DO or NOT do!!!!

I told my parents - who didn't smoke, btw - and they both said "okay" ... my father was too young when D-Day happened to be a part of the invasion, but he joined up shortly afterwards - dropping out of school in his senior year, but he gave up his graduation to join up.

This is THAT important of a day ... it was MAJOR.

It wasn't Pearl Harbor ... it wasn't Lebanon ... it wsn't 9/11 .... this was BIGGER than that ....

It was an all out push by ALL the allied forces to take down Nazi Germany - yes, I make the distinction .... my father explained to me that most of those who joined the party, only did so that they could survive in the tyranny that was going on.

This was BIG.

So when President Biden, et al., went over to France for the BIG ceremony of the 80th Anniversary of the day ... you would think the networks - the big 3, that is - would have MADE TIME to show, if nothing else, the PRESIDENT'S SPEECH!!!!

Fox News (FNC), Cable News Network (CNN), MicroSoft/National Broadcasting Network (MSNBC), and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) all did show the speeches ... only the BBC cut it short, as far as I could tell, cutting out it seemed shortly after the last speech was made.

But ABC .... CBS .... NBC did NOT show anything live of the service, the presentation of the medals, nor any of the speeches ... and I was looking for them.

I will be watching "Good Morning America" later today - so I will let you know.

6000 lives ... in one day ... and that isn't even ALL of them ...

Most people don't realize that there were some pretty tragic SNAFUs that day ...

There was the weather, well you can fix a lot of things, but the weather is just the weather - the seas were rough and even experienced Navy sailors were getting sea sick.
The men had been given large breakfasts that morning, not so much a "Last Meal" as it was, but rather that it was understood that likely it would be some time before they would be able to sit for another meal.
It was going to be a busy day.

And if you watched "Saving Private Ryan", you will remember the scene where they start the invasion - and how many of the men DROWNED .... you see they had FULL PACKS on their backs .... a full pack was around 70 EXTRA pounds on their regular body weight, it would have been easy to get waterlogged and dragged down.

I do not believe they ever got a true count of those who passed this way - I'm pretty sure a lot of them got pulled out to sea.

Then too, where they landed, it seems, was in direct line to a "pill box", that is a turret which is sunk into the landscape to help hide it from view, but they had a great view of the beach.
It was like shooting fish in a barrel.
I don't know how so many survived - but they did ... so many died in the sand ... 

Those who made it through had to climb the "hill" - it was practically a mountain! If you've ever been lucky enough to look DOWN upon a river from a high bluff, you know what these men went through.
It was steep, it was both rocky and sandy, it was hard to get a foot hold ... but they made it up - well some of them did, some of them didn't.

And remember - D-Day was just the FIRST day of this push ...

The action itself took over 3 months ...

When I think of movies that deal with D-Day .... the first that always pops into my mind is "The Longest Day" (1962) - you might recall the line "John Has A Long Moustache" .... it is a bit of levity thrown in to give a little chuckle for those who had lived through this horror.

They say Eisenhower, the American General in charge, had written 2 statements ... one, which was broadcast, if things went well .... the other taking the blame if it had failed, I do not ever remember it being read or printed for public consumption.

IF YOU WISH:
There is an online radio station which is broadcasting the entire CBS News reporting for the day ... it's started at 2am EWT/3am CWT/4am MWT/5am PWT and will continue all day until its done (expected to be 1am EWT tomorrow)
WT=War Time, what we NOW call Daylight Savings Time ... it was used to save on the use of lights and rubber/gas/oil for cars/trucks/buses/etc. because people could walk to get where they needed to go.

here is the link to the station:

ABN Old-Time Radio Antioch (macinmind.com)

This takes you to the main page - the player is on the right-hand side next to the logo.

You will also find a listing of their normal schedule if you like Old Time Radio shows.

I am used to listening to these broadcasts (the D-Day ones) on a differnet station, but I've been having issues with their site .... and they tend to be "updates" at the end of regular broadcast shows ...

In fact, the "Fibber McGee & Molly" show was completely music on this date, so they could more easily interrupt things for updates - and people would miss out (and complain) bits of a joke/routine ...
and I'm sure they were likely very nervous as well.

Let us all take a moment today to THANK those who survived today ... REMEMBER what really happened and why it had to happen ... TEACH the next generation so its not forgotten ... and PRAY for those who passed away on this day. 

Oh - and how do I know all these things about the day?

I had uncles who fought there ... at Normandy - at least that's what my mother told me.  My dad never talked much about the war .... until my daughter interviewed her grandfather's for a school project for Vereran's Day ... 

I am thinking about linking several videos I have sound on YouTube for you to enjoy ...
They all have to deal with WW2, although not about D-Day.

I may wait until later to dao this though ... today is for those who were on those ships headed to Normandy, France.

They all survived ... Adam was in the Army, Leo flew a fighter (I'm not sure if he was Navy, Army, or Marine at the time but later he was Air Force, which wasn't formed until later), Donald was Army (but he fought in the Pacific), and Dan was in the Navy.
There was one more uncle who had been 4-F because he had polio and was in a wheelchair ... he lived with my grandfather, and I'm sure they were both listening closely to the radio to find out the fate of my uncles.