D-Day 70th anniversary

[Ray Sachs]

My Dad served in WWII - briefly in the Atlantic but most of his action was in the Pacific. He'd been at Pearl Harbor about two weeks before it was hit and was the gunnery officer on his ship that came under attack by Japanese kamikaze pilots. Thankfully he survived. He would mention what happened in some of his action when pressed, but he downplayed it and never brought it up himself. His best friend from their time as school kids through old age (and I guy I more or less thought of as an uncle, since I didn't have any actual uncles) was a landing craft pilot at Normandy on June 6th. He discussed the horror of that day a couple times that I remember, the fire he came under on the landing craft itself, which he was fortunate to survive, but mostly seeing so many of the younger soldiers he dispatched cut down before they even got their boots in the water and many more before they reached the beach. He and my Dad were both born in 1917, so they were relatively old men in their later 20s by this point in the war and had just that much more perspective than many of the poor 18-20 year olds who got out of high school and were immediately thrown into the most horrifying imaginaginable combat situations. We can only be thankful to them now. Those of us who are here are, for the most part, the sons and daughters of the lucky ones who came through it alive. My Dad's been gone for about eight years now, his friend who was in D-Day died a year or so before. I'm glad there are a few vets of that time left, but it's already very very few and there won't be any left soon.

The generals realized how basically impenitrible the German defenses were above the beaches and the only way the invasion would succeed would be to take VERY heavy losses and just keep sending wave after wave of soldiers so that finally enough of them would survive and be able to overtake those German positions. It worked, for which we should all be thankful, but the losses were incredible on both sides. For a general to launch an attack like that understanding what he was sending those young men into but also knowing it was the best of many terrible options is a responsibility I'm in awe of. I can't imagine having to make a decision like that.

Thanks for the photos Bill and Barrie. It's a somber and important anniversary...

-Ray

 

[grebeman]

It's a somber and important anniversary...
-Ray

Having watched much of the television coverage of the events on the Normandy coast today I have been left above all else with a feeling of the great humility of the men who took part. Their faces showed pride and the odd moment of reflection, but to a man they were a breed who, having done the job asked of them, left that part of their life behind and rarely spoke about it again, much like my own father to be, who having been a POW at Nagasaki, rarely spoke at length about that part of his life.

Barrie

 

[BBW]

I'll add my thanks to you Bill for the majority of these moving photographs - and to you, too, Barrie, as well as to everyone who has shared their thoughts and stories.

Herbert, I heard that piece on NPR as well.

I agree with whoever it was that said your photos had a very personal feeling about them, Bill.

 

[qhs232]

[h=2]
[/h]Then and Now Photos pay tribute to the 70th Anniversary of the liberation of Paris......nicely done.

Then & Now Photos Pay Tribute to The 70th Anniversary of The Liberation of Paris