D-Day was June 6th, my Grandfather's unit landed on Omaha beach

[Roon]

onjune the 11th. They still had to wade to shore with their rifles and packs held above their heads. There was still trucks carting around the dead stacked like cordwood. There was a cow in a pasture that took some shrapnel. Poo was coming out of her stomach wound but she seemed fine. My Grandfather said they saw her drinking and eating.

Anyway, that's my closest connection to D-day. My Grandfather was anti-aircraft and went on to fight in the Bulge as well as being bombed by the first jet they have ever seen in their life. How intense!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dear Roon...

How often we forget that there were more troops coming ashore after the big day...

And they had their parts to play too...

I thank you for reminding me of this fact, sweetie! And I thank your Grandfather for his service.:patriot:

:hug:

[Roon]

2. Thanks Peggy...I needed dimensions to this house the other day

and my 89-year-old Grandfather did the math in his head and figured it out really quick. He and my Grandmother just keep chugging along!

[Old Troop]

8. Good point Peggy. My dad was hacking his way throught the

jungle on the other side of the word on that day. My father in law was training at Camp McCall, NC not knowing he'd be horribly wounded six months later at the Battle of the Bulge. Mom was teaching school and working in a GE war factory and my mother in law was a telephone operator in a huge Army hospital in Framingham, MA.

[Swede]

3. My dad came ashore a few days later also.

He was with a Canadian signal regiment attached to Monty's British Army Group.

[Brickbat]

4. I found out this year that my grandfather was flying his bomber on D-Day. He died a few months ago.

RIP, Grandpa; I miss you. :patriot:

[Kajsa]

5. To your grandfather and his fellow soldiers,

Thank You! :patriot:

[elocs]

6. My father was a heavy machine-gunner and he landed on Omaha Beach that morning.

I have the letters he sent home to his dad during the war and the one shortly after D-Day simply said, "You almost had one less son that day".

My dad made it all the way through North Africa, starting out with the expeditionary force there, fighting with Patton's army into Sicily. From there he went to England to train for D-Day.

He made it off the beach that day and fought through France and Belgium and into Germany. It was there he was wounded for the first time in September of 1944 and the second time in November finished his years of fighting and he went back to England to recover after stepping on a booby trap.

He only lived to age 49 and was a 100% disabled veteran at the time of his death. It was only after he died that I learned that in the war he had been awarded a silver star and had a purple heart with an oak leaf cluster as well as other combat medals.

That's my connection to D-Day.

[Captain Hilts]

16. Wow. nt

[Seneca]

7. They would call that D-Day +5

Many people do not realize now that the invasion was ongoing for several weeks, since that many troops could not simply land onshore in 24 hours. Your grandfather was as every part of that original day as anyone else, from June 6 onward.

Some years back, I once met a D-Day +18 vet, with who I was sharing a waiting area. The TV showed Bush II walking in the cemetery where most of the D-Day casualties were at rest. The old vet got really riled, saying that Bush was "not fit to walk over the graves of those men." We had a great discussion after that.

Thank you to your grandfather, and hold on to his memories. :patriot:

[denbot]

9. Less then 4 months after your grandfather began his fight across Europe..

My grandfather engaged in the Battle off Samar. We did not know what he went through until his death when I did research for his eulogy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_off_Samar

His ship the U.S.S. Kalinin Bay earned 5 Battle Stars in the Pacific. Thank you to all of those who served.

[Captain Hilts]

17. Leyte was the biggest naval battle of the war. nt

[applegrove]

10. Hard to believe it was only 66 years ago that a monster like Hitler was still alive. Thank god for

all those who fought the good fight.

[Swede]

15. They are alive today,just haven't grabbed power.

This thought should keep us on our toes.

[applegrove]

19. Not in our world. But in North Korea and Africa? Probably. Hopefully brain scans will keep

psychopaths out of power in the future.

[Capn Sunshine]

11. Let us never forget

the forces of fascism that our troops so valiantly fought in World War II were defeated but not broken. Even today they lurk in the gutters and sewers Europe and of this country as they did back then, waiting for the right time...

[femmocrat]

12. My uncle was part of the D-Day invasion, too.

We never knew about it until we read his obituary. The men in our family never talked about their war experiences.

[Roon]

13. Thanks for the responses everyone!

I learned a lot today. :hi:

[grasswire]

14. my uncle was in the second wave at Omaha Beach

....and then he was also in the Battle of the Bulge, and he also was in North Africa -- he said Tunisia was the most beautiful place he ever saw. He was captured by the Germans for a few hours. While he was sitting in the dirt with his hands behind his back, he buried a letter from his GF that he was carrying (against regulations). I told his GF that recently -- my aunt now 86 years old. She hadn't ever heard that story or perhaps just doesn't remember. They were the quintessential WW2 romance story. They met at a roller rink and had one date. He shipped out, a year later he sent her an engagement ring from London.

[Rambis]

18. WWII story my father just started to tell

He is 86 now and never has talked about the war much do to the things he witnessed. He was in the US navy communications division that supported the marines in the pacific.

They were anchored somewhere in the pacific and there were 10-20 Japanese girls that would come out at night and take food from the garbage cans that were left after chow. The GI's would take extra rations and dump them in the cans and leave them on the dock and in the morning they would be clean as a whistle and put back. One of the men under penalty of court martial taught these girls to sing god bless american. When they pulled out the girls came out stood on the dock and sang the song as the US troops pulled away. There was not a dry eye on the ship that day. These were some of the most battle harden men he ever met with "death in their eyes" crying like children. I must admit I can't recount the story without choking up myself.


Story #2 my blow hard brother in law republican arsehole prick- We were at a family gathering and he says...."we never occupied japan after WWII" My dad steps up to him recites his name rank serial # and says.... "we sure did son because I was there" One of the best slap downs of a uneducated rethug prick I have ever seen or heard. The brother in law hasn't spoken to me in 20 years- Thanks DAD!