Remembering D-Day.

My dad got there on Day two. He really wouldn’t go into much about telling stories. All he really told any of us was that when they landed (via parachute) he had to step over bodies.

My dad only spoke about his fighting experiences with other vets. He used to tell me that I wouldn’t understand. I guess I only knew from what I saw on the newsreels in the movie theaters and on some of the TV shows.

After I came home from Vietnam, I told my dad, I think maybe I understand at least some of what you went through. But, he told me I didn’t. He said it was a different kind of war.
 
There were so many important battles during WWII that produced numerous heroes. I read about a lot of the battles led by Patton and Eisenhower. Strategy was key to winning those battles, but the bravery of the men from all of the allied nations that came together is what provided the will to win.

It would be a different world if the Germans or Japanese would have prevailed. Can any of us even begin to imagine how different things would be? When I used to watch “Hogan’s Heroes” I used to think if the Germans had been as stupid as they are portrayed on that show, the war would have been over in a matter of months and not years.

I still think about the men on the U.S.S. Indianapolis that delivered the bomb and the hell that they experienced. Such a tragedy, yet it was their sacrifice that help to end the war.
 
Of all the dignitaries on parade only the Queen was a serving uniformed soldier at the time.

Not a veteran of the landings themselves, she is still a WWII vet.
 
Laurie said:
Of all the dignitaries on parade only the Queen was a serving uniformed soldier at the time.

Not a veteran of the landings themselves, she is still a WWII vet.
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cdestroyer said:
When I came home from Vietnam my dad said' he didnt know what we were fighting for' it was a different kind of war!
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That’s the same thing my dad said to me. After I had been home about a week, Dad and I were having a father-son discussion about things in general, but then he asked me how I liked the food we got in the field, which were C-Rations. One thing led to another and I told him that I understood what he went through during WWII. He said, “I doubt it. They were different wars fighting for different causes.” I left it at that. I wished I would have asked him what he meant.
 
Ruthanne said:
My father fought in WWII and was wounded pretty badly.
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While growing up, I was maybe 5, I noticed that my dad was hard of hearing. I asked Mom why can’t Dad hear us like other people? She told me that she would explain it when I got older.

When I was 10 or 11, Mom told me that while Dad was in France fighting the Germans, his unit (as it was called back then) was in heavy fighting for days. Dad told her that as they advanced, they dug one foxhole after another. Most of the firepower came from heavy artillery, which made very loud sounds as you already know. This went on for days.

After the fighting had finally came to a rest, the men were able to clean up, wash whatever parts of their uniform they could, shave and so on. She continued by saying that’s when your Dad noticed that he had terrible ringing in his ears and had a hard time hearing what was being said to him if the other person was more than a few steps away.

He went to the infirmary that was temporarily set up and saw the one and only doctor that was there. The doctor made a diagnosis of deafness beyond repair and they marked my Dad to be sent home. Mom said that broke his heart. When he got back home, they did a more in-depth exam and found that both eardrums had been ruptured and were beyond repair, so they fitted him with a hearing aid (one of the old types that had a string attached to it) and was going to discharge him, but he convinced the doctor that he could still do something to help with the effort.

A few weeks later, Dad found himself in Tooele, Utah and was assigned to work in an underground munitions dump. He stayed there with my Mom until the war ended. After the war, Dad was going to be discharged and was sent to Ft. Lewis in the state of Washington, but he spoke with his Colonel about wanting to stay in the Army. At first, the Colonel told Dad it was out of his hands, but Mom said that your Dad can be very persuasive at times, so Dad persisted and being what things were at the time, Dad fell through the cracks, thanks to the Colonel, and Dad ended making the Army his career.

To this day, as far as I know, I am the only person living that knows this story. Even my sister doesn’t know. My point is that when all of these veterans from WWII die, all of these types of stories of honor and patriotism will go away. There are some stories that have been put into someone’s journal, but there are so many, many more that it’s a shame that there was never a place where these types of stories could be placed, so that history buffs and war historians could go to and read about theses soldiers of honor.

We have one of these heroes here on this forum in Falcon, but I don’t remember him ever telling us any of his sagas that he experienced. I’m not one to be intrusive, but I sure would like to read about a few of his exploits.
 
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/the-soviet-union-helped-save-the-world-from-hitler-a7020926.html
In the Western popular imagination -- particularly the American one -- World War II is a conflict we won. It was fought on the beaches of Normandy and Iwo Jima, through the rubble of recaptured French towns and capped by sepia-toned scenes of joy and young love in New York. It was a victory shaped by the steeliness of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the moral fiber of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and the awesome power of an atomic bomb.
But that narrative shifts dramatically when you go to Russia, where World War II is called the Great Patriotic War and is remembered in a vastly different light.

On May 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin will play host to one of Moscow's largest ever military parades to mark the 70th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany. More than 16,000 troops will participate, as well 140 aircraft and 190 armored vehicles, including the debut of Russia's brand new next-generation tank.

It's a grand moment, but few of the world's major leaders will be in attendance. The heads of state of India and China will look on, but not many among their Western counterparts. That is a reflection of the tense geopolitical present, with Putin's relations with the West having turned frosty after a year of Russian meddling in Ukraine. When Russia's T-14 Armata tank broke down at a parade rehearsal on Thursday, the snickering could be heard across Western media.

Unfairly or not, the current tensions obscure the scale of what's being commemorated: Starting in 1941, the Soviet Union bore the brunt of the Nazi war machine and played perhaps the most important role in the Allies' defeat of Hitler. By one calculation, for every single American soldier killed fighting the Germans, 80 Soviet soldiers died doing the same.
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My late Father in Law was a stoker in the merchant navy and served on the Atlantic convoys during WW2. He said that in June '44 he and his friend from schooldays, were aboard their ship in Portsmouth ready to sail when two official looking men came aboard and said they were to go with them. When they asked why, they were just told that they needed experienced men on another ship.

Next day was D-Day, and on the next, F-i-L and his friend were on their way to Normandy carrying ordnance and other supplies as part of the back-up to the landings. He never spoke much about his experiences.
 
I do not remember where dad told me this happened but,,, after a couple of hard days fighting his unit ended up in a circular soccer field for r&r. They set up AA gun emplacements, medical/kitchen tents and were recuping for a couple of days. On one day there appeared a german bomber flying across their area, Dad said a track mounted quad 40mm pulled up to the fence behind where he was and opened fire on the plane.

The concussion from that gun ruptured both of dads ear drums. He was not sent home but continued until the germans surrendered and was then sent to ft missoula montana with hundreds of other soldiers to await transfer to the pacific.
He did remain in the national guard and retired.
 
Dad was in france for awhile and on an encampment they had set up an AA gun on a ridge overlooking the rhine river. On one morning they were standing around eating their breakfast and drinking coffee when they heard a loud sound coming towards them in the river valley below. They stood there in amazement watching this airplane fly towards them, never manning the machine gun because the airplane had no visible propellers. They couldnt figure what kept it in the air. Later they learned it was a jet powered me109.
 
Check out the TV series "The Man In The High Castle". It is about the USA in 1962 after having lost the war to the Nazis. I watched a couple of episodes and gave up on it but the concept was interesting. Thanks to all who defeated the Japanese (remember before PC we grew up calling them J@?s). They truly did save the world. I whip my sharpest military salute whenever I encounter a WWII vet.
 
FYI: When we watch films of D-Day we watch that one poor soul dropping about a third of the way up the beach. I've seen him die many many times. The reason there are no other films is that the officer in charge of filming the invasion rounded up the film cans from the many camera men who were spread out on the beach. When he was returning the films to a ship he dropped the bag they were in into the English Channel.
Forgive me...…….I watch too much AHC. This tidbit was in a documentary about filming WWII.
 
THAT must have taken at least twice as long again before they finally ran out of veterans to interview. I`m sure that there would have been no shortage of them who still had a great deal to talk about that day. As much as they could remember, anyway.
 
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