[Closed] 70 years ago tonight

Humbling to think about isn't it?

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Hero's the lot of them.

Yup, nan was telling me yesterday about her uncles having their heads blown off 🙁

Now that's a thought worth spending a moment over - we have so much to be grateful for.

Great post.

My granddad was mine clearer. Went in on the first day and spent months clearing the beaches and countryside with a bayonet and a useless metal detector. I cannot comprehend the things he saw. Never talked much but im now starting to imagine what went on

we have so much to be grateful for.

+1

Recently read (the very long) WW2 book all hell broke loose by max hastings, a real eye opener as written from the perspective of those who actually took part, recommended

Very humbling to think about what they did for us all....

Always try to spend a moment thinking of them.

I can't begin to image how they must have felt, loaded up and waiting to leave landing craft.
Incredibly brave, every one of them. Beyond my comprehension what they went through.

I want to be there with them.

Many of these men were half my age. I get stressed at work in my desk job by tight deadlines for producing sets of numbers on a spreadsheet. People get stressed about queues in supermarkets and their internet connection being a bit slow.

I think a healthy dose of perspective may be in order.

Add a truck load of gratitude and respect and you're probably half way there.

Amen.

Ninfan, where are those images from?

Amazing what that generation did for us, and our country.

They must look down on us and all our petty forum spats and wonder why they bothered some days, let alone what they must think of those who don't think it is worth voting after they gave their lives to preserve that right for us to so casually dismiss.

Neither of my grandfathers were front line in the war - one was an ARP and the other was merchant navy, supposedly on two ships that were sunk.

Did meet a D-Day veteran last year who was blinded by a grenade a couple of days after as they tried to push on from the beaches. He said he remembered the bang, then waking up in the dark, putting his hand up to his face and finding his eyeball hanging there, before his CO said "I wouldn't mess around with that, old chap!" He was a marvellous old gentleman, lived in a home provided by St Dunstans, very under-rated charity.

Just ordinary everyday men. Hope I would have their courage but I very much doubt it.

Great pictures and as already said, humbling.

Read a fair bit of stuff this week, and there's so much I didn't know about that happened on this one single event of a six year war. Made me feel a bit guilty really. Very very brave men that a few of the scrotes knocking around nowadays could've learnt a lot from.

We need to make sure they are never forgotten.
I'm going to educate my kids in the sacrifice those brave men and women made for us.

My uncle who is 95 will just say it was a shambles, and he means it in the proper meaning of a shambles. He was at Arromanches.

What dannyh said..
I've just read about both ends of the invasion campaign - Pegasus Bridge and Arnhem. Very brave men and women. I can't comprehend the thoughts they must've had tonight.

Day of Days- respect.

There was an old guy who lived in a village called Belmont near us. We used to finish our night rides in the local pub, The Belmont Bull. He was called Ron. Some of the stories that gentle, kind, happy old man used to tell us were unbelievable. He was parachuted into Arnhem and fought tooth and nail.

I often wonder if our generation would have been up to what these men and women did for us. I somehow doubt it.

We also need to remember other conflicts and the people that served in them. My dad was a tank commander in Korea. The horrors he witnessed whilst repelling wave upon wave of human assaults by the Chinese still haunt him. Bodies 20 deep. He went to the last meeting of the Korean veterans association and our local paper did not even mention it, despite sending a reporter and photographer.

Sorry, just needed to get that off my chest.

We dont know we have been born.

Due to the intricacies of double summer time... The battle for Pegasus bridge would be in full swing right about now 😯

I had the privilege to meet a man a few years ago who as an 18 year old had climbed aboard one of those gliders heading for Pegasus Bridge. He only mentioned because he was talking about what he'd done after the war and I asked what he'd done during the war. We'll be traveling through Normandy in August and I'll make sure we'll go via the bridge.

My dad was a tank commander in Korea. The horrors he witnessed whilst repelling wave upon wave of human assaults by the Chinese still haunt him.

An almost forgotten war but many of those who served in both WW2 and Korea always say Korea was a far far worse experience.

I am standing on top of a lovely hill in Calderdale (part of my job) and I was thinking how beautiful the view is, watching people on their way to work as the day warms up.

70 years ago at this time I'd probably be either dead on a beach in France or inland wondering if I'd ever see views like I can see now again.

We can never say it enough, and there's not many left to say it to now, but thanks [b]so[/b] much.

My grandfather went ashore on day+1 as an MP NCO and was never in much danger other than from Frenchmen whose food he was "liberating" for his men. Of 9 brothers who went to war, all of them came back whole physically but a few were very messed up mentally. My other grandfather was a train driver in France who was bombed by the British and Americans with a German guard threatening to shoot him if he stopped or slowed down, he was wounded once in a raid and his brother was nearly drowned by the dambusters in a PoW camp.

The ironic thing is none of them thought it was that unusual to have experiences like that. My father's generation is the first that didn't have to go to war and I think that for the people in WW2 it was just the latest in a seemingly never-ending string of wars, large and small to fight in down the generations.

MrsCat's Grandad went in with the 51st Highlanders, he had a busy war - D-Day, North Africa, Italy, Berlin then they shipped him off to Palestine. He was a top bloke, pleased he lived long enough so he could see his grandchildren being born.
My Dad was in Africa when this happened shooting things with his plane.

Amazing things done by ordinary people, keep sparing a thought for how it must have been for the French civilians.

My grandad landed on Gold beach with the Canadians (not sure why, he was english) and was a despatch driver going between the front line and a command centre.

He was a footballer before the war playing top division football for Brighton and Hove Albion and one of my prized possessions is a photo of a Allies vs Germany football match, we think held in Munich stadium just after VE Day, a copy of which is in the D-Day Musuem in Portsmouth along with a pair of binoculars given to him as a gift by a german officer.

My grandad never ever talked about the war, except on the day I passed out of Sandhurst to say he was proud and the day they opened the D-Day musuem where he just went round very quietly, then gradually told a few stories as we sat in the cafe after. My nan talked about it more, she had lost her first husband who was a rear gunner in a bomber and she refused to marry my grandad until the war had finished as she refused to be a widow twice.

Yup, I can only fleetingly imagine for a teeeny moment how any one of those brave lads and lasses felt on this day.

It's pittyfull my single moment of rememberance.

My thought's go with all.

@Harry thanks for posting and @ninfan for the photos. My grandfather died fighting in Burma, he was 21 and never saw my mother who was born after he was deployed. With my own kids now at 20, 23 and 25 and thinking back to what I was doing at 21 I am both very grateful and humbled.

My colleague has just phoned his 95 year old grandfather to remind him to watch it on telly this morning. His grandad went on Sword beach on D Day+2.

Not spoken to many folk who served in WW2 - relatives either too old or too young (my dad was evacuated, as a child, but to NZ !!) - but I do recall asking my dad, who by then worked in our local Council HQ, why the janitor had a messed up face - turned out to have been one of the 'troops at Arnhem, a gentler and nicer man you couldn't wish to meet..

Thoughts and prayers today.

My great uncle was there, and at El Alamein. His best mate was blown up driving a truck off the beach.

Still, I have to object to this comment:

I often wonder if our generation would have been up to what these men and women did for us. I somehow doubt it.

Today's 18 year olds would perhaps need more convincing of the rightness of the war (they are, on average, better educated), but once convinced? I don't doubt they would be just as brave as previous generations.

Had a far more thoughtful hour-long drive in this morning listening to Chris Evans on the beach at Arromanches with the veterans, it was much less stressful because the thought occurred that this rat-race we're all caught up in, it's really nothing to worry about compared to what thousands of people went through seventy years ago in order to allow us the wonderful freedom we enjoy today.

jambalaya -
My grandfather died fighting in Burma, he was 21 and never saw my mother who was born after he was deployed.

My Uncle Lol fought in Burma, captured by the Japanese and spent 2 years as a POW, the pics of him during training and when he came home could be of a different person. However, I have never met a happier man, always the joker, loved amusing kids - my aunt once said to me that if he had stopped being the family comedian he would remember, and that would break him.

My Great Uncle, a Captain in the Somerset Light Infantry, was killed in the bitter fighting near Caen and is buried in Bayeux Cemetery. He left a young widow, pregnant with their only child, and never made it home to his beloved Quantock Hills.

Thanks to them all. We will remember them.

All of the above but also, a couple of thoughts.

This is likely to be the last full flag ceremony. I heard a veteran on the radio saying that despite that, "We'll always be back". Presumably until there's no veterans left to go back. A slow, gradual fade into the history books.

Also, we know that soldiers who return from conflict suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Imagine the cultural depth and extent of the WW2 PTSD suffered, given the immensity of the horror, and how that must have been a part of shaping the nation after the war had ended and we were trying to move forward.

And we should remember that most of the German forces were fighting on the Eastern Front, so the Western Allies were only facing a fraction of the opposition they might have had.

pondo - Member
Had a far more thoughtful hour-long drive in this morning listening to Chris Evans on the beach at Arromanches with the veterans, it was much less stressful because the thought occurred that this rat-race we're all caught up in, it's really nothing to worry about compared to what thousands of people went through seventy years ago in order to allow us the wonderful freedom we enjoy today.

+1. I was listening to this on the drive in this morning and to be honest, the drive just turned into a sub-concious activity while I listened to the radio.
Quite hard to drive with a constant lump in my throat and tear in my eye......!

I've said for years that I'd like to visit Normandy and see the beaches for myself. I think that this will spur me into action. Need to plans in place for next yr.

That point above is true and something the Max Hastings book deals with, we undoubtedly suffered and came good but in terms of losses and scale it was nothing like what happened on the eastern front. Something like 90-95% of German losses were there. The Russians lost an unbelievable amount of people through the conflict (and as a result of Stalin's actions).

My parents are both 70 this month and next, they're the youngest of the family with older siblings involved in the war and my grandfathers working for ROF making tanks and artillery. I saw my dad's elder brother for most of my younger years and he once told me how was stood on the deck of a battleship as all hell rained down on D-Day. Only at his funeral did we hear from one of his Legion mates that he actually landed on that day, not sure why as always believed he was Navy, and they had to crawl in tank tracks to avoid incoming fire whilst those around sadly suffered horrific injuries or died. I always well-up thinking about it and watching/ listening to programmes about it.

There's a comment above about today's generation, at the 2012 Remembrance parade, a young lad (around 20) was stood in only a burgundy t-shirt of his parachute regiment, he spoke, struggling to hold it together about his two mates that had only recently been killed. If it came to it the modern generation would do it I'm sure. Lets hope we never have to because we have very brave men and women who do it daily for us.

Never forget

Bears repeating, I think:

And we should remember that most of the German forces were fighting on the Eastern Front, so the Western Allies were only facing a fraction of the opposition they might have had.

Not sure what point you are trying to make here.

My father, following two years on a destroyer during the 'Battle of the Atlantic' was transferred to minesweepers in the North Sea. They spent many days sweeping the Normandy coast.
Using a quote from 'They led the Way' - ".... but the minesweepers were the vanguard, even before the paratroopers and the gliders; and those of us following behind had cause to be grateful to them for their work that night."
The planners had expected high casualties but in the event the minesweepers were so successful very few ships were sunk that day.

Carry On Up The D-Day.

Apparently, our "master spy" in Europe who helped enable the landing's success was.... A Spanish chicken farmer called Garbo.

Marvellous. Pimms all round, I think. 😀

My paternal Grandfather was in the BEF, evacuated from Dunkirk and then returned to Normandy on D-day + 2. He wasn't frontline though, a cook.

My maternal Grandfather was an infantry Sgt in Burma, the war left some pretty deep mental scars on him though, he was a kind old man but you could tell he was haunted by what he had seen and done in Burma.

They both passed a good few years ago, but I'll raise a glass to them both tonight.

From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother;

Blimey Woppit, that's brought a lump and some dust into the office.

Which?

And we should remember that most of the German forces were fighting on the Eastern Front, so the Western Allies were only facing a fraction of the opposition they might have had.

The fact that the Allies faced 50,000 Germans, and not more than that, had very little to do with the Eastern Front and a hell of a lot to do with the outstanding success of Operation Fortitude - the D-Day deception operation.

It was also greatly helped by the fact that in addition to the hundreds of locomotives the French Resistance destroyed in the run up to D Day they destroyed a further 52 locomotives and cut railway lines in 500 places on D Day itself.

"The dice is on the carpet"

and "It is hot in Suez"

Mr Woppit - Member
Which?
POSTED 5 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST

Carry On Up The D-Day

Sid James as Ike
Charles Hawtrey as Monty
Kenneth Williams as Rommel
Hattie Jaques as the Mulberry Harbour.

My grandad was there, as well as missing the evacuation of Dunkirk (due to an injured companion - they had to hide out in France for some time afterwards) plus fighting in Africa and other places.

I spent a few days touring the beaches and cemeteries of Normandy a few years ago, from the grand impressive but busy American to the small peaceful British ones (still perfectly-kept) in the corners of sleepy villages. I'll always remember a quiet chat (in my very limited French) with an elderly French couple out walking through one of the British ones. Also visited Pont du Hoc which was the closest I've been to imagining what they went through. Would recommend the trip to anyone but spend a few days there.

My grandfather never spoke of his experiences, I was in my early teens when he passed away and wasn't interested in 'history' anyway. But I always wish I'd had the opportunity to talk to him about it, and now that I'm older to express my gratitude for what he and so many others did. As others have said, it's incredible to compare our lives with to the things they went through. We don't know how lucky we are.

Both my grandads had basically finished their wars- one was more or less forgotten about in India, they flew his squadron's planes and flight crew back to europe and left the ground crew behind, too much hassle. He got home for VE day. The other was pottering around the Italian coast- probably a nice change to the arctic convoys. They used to take the piss out of each other something rotten, d-day dodgers...

My grandad spent most of the war in a Stalag Luft POW camp after being captured at Tobruk.

Watched the concert from the Albert Hall last night. Jim Radford was the highlight of the evening. A well deserved standing ovation.

I often wonder if our generation would have been up to what these men and women did for us. I somehow doubt it.

I don't. People will and do still pull together in times of crisis. I hope my children do not have to though...

A maternal great-grandfather was a submariner at the time - his main effort in the war was done. My maternal grandfather was in training and soon to be a Coldstream Guard in 1945 and so missed it. My uncle Eric was as a professional soldier rather than a conscript. He said it was a dreadful experience - particularly the fierce fighting behind the beachheads. I could never see Eric as a trained killing machine, he was a lovely, kind, gentle and humble man...