The next stop on our whistle tour of France was Normandy, the site of the landing during D-day, and a somber memorial towards when we actually faced off against Nazis.
You also have to add in The Royal Ulster Rifles, the only regiment to have one battalion arrive by glider with 6th Airborne and the second battalion arrive on Sword Beach with the 3rd Division.
the German battery that is frozen in place was punched out by the 6-inch guns of the light cruiser HMS Ajax. In 1939, she helped bring to book the German pocket battleship Graf Spee at the Battle of the River Plate off Uruguay.
You can read more about her in the article I wrote for WW2 History magazine, which is on the Military History web page.
The British only allowed 30 or so war correspondents in the invasion, none in the first wave. The Americans allowed more than 130, many in the first wave, including the legendary Robert Capa, who took the iconic photographs of Omaha Beach.
So Americans think that they invaded Normandy all by themselves.
Nobody remembers the British 50th and 3rd Infantry Divisions, or the 79th Armoured Division, or the 6th Airborne Division. Or the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division, which made the deepest penetration on D-Day.
As a vet from the 70s, I did the same tour of Normandy in the 80s, out of respect. The trip was a pilgrimage to pay respect to my father's brothers and sisters who lived and died there and in the Pacific. I took all the same photos, just about, but mine were on celluloid and now lost, so thx for the walk down memory lane. I was particularly interested in the bridges, as when I was in, that's what I did, erected Tinkertoy bridges for heavy tanks to cross. I just wish the dream that the bridge would lead to peace in Europe had not crashed and burned so badly in 2014/2022.
Indeed, their youth were conscripted and pushed into the battlefield. I do not blame the individuals, but the whole of society that enabled the rise of Nazism is tainted.
I watched a documentary of interviews with common German folk after the war, and while they uniformly rejected Nazism post war, and said that they weren't supporters during the war, many of them would then rant about those others (aka Jews) who brought this on Germany.
You also have to add in The Royal Ulster Rifles, the only regiment to have one battalion arrive by glider with 6th Airborne and the second battalion arrive on Sword Beach with the 3rd Division.
the German battery that is frozen in place was punched out by the 6-inch guns of the light cruiser HMS Ajax. In 1939, she helped bring to book the German pocket battleship Graf Spee at the Battle of the River Plate off Uruguay.
You can read more about her in the article I wrote for WW2 History magazine, which is on the Military History web page.
The British only allowed 30 or so war correspondents in the invasion, none in the first wave. The Americans allowed more than 130, many in the first wave, including the legendary Robert Capa, who took the iconic photographs of Omaha Beach.
So Americans think that they invaded Normandy all by themselves.
Nobody remembers the British 50th and 3rd Infantry Divisions, or the 79th Armoured Division, or the 6th Airborne Division. Or the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division, which made the deepest penetration on D-Day.
But I do.
As a vet from the 70s, I did the same tour of Normandy in the 80s, out of respect. The trip was a pilgrimage to pay respect to my father's brothers and sisters who lived and died there and in the Pacific. I took all the same photos, just about, but mine were on celluloid and now lost, so thx for the walk down memory lane. I was particularly interested in the bridges, as when I was in, that's what I did, erected Tinkertoy bridges for heavy tanks to cross. I just wish the dream that the bridge would lead to peace in Europe had not crashed and burned so badly in 2014/2022.
RE: “Yeah, we pounded the shit out of those Nazi fuckwads.”
I’ve a girlfriend of German heritage whose father was just one of so many conscripted kids, not Nazis, but cannon fodder.
Indeed, their youth were conscripted and pushed into the battlefield. I do not blame the individuals, but the whole of society that enabled the rise of Nazism is tainted.
I watched a documentary of interviews with common German folk after the war, and while they uniformly rejected Nazism post war, and said that they weren't supporters during the war, many of them would then rant about those others (aka Jews) who brought this on Germany.
Long deep wounds.
Yeah, after April 30, 1945, when Adolf and Eva did the his'n'hers Luger scene in the Bunker, there were no Nazis in Germany.
Even Fatso Goering "condemned this foul series of murders" at his trial in Nuremberg, while defending everything else.
TERRIFIED.