Posted on 06/06/2009 6:10:47 AM PDT by txradioguy
We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied peoples joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For four long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps -- millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved, and the world prayed for its rescue. Here in Normandy the rescue began. Here the Allies stood and fought against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history.
We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France. The air is soft, but forty years ago at this moment, the air was dense with smoke and the cries of men, and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon. At dawn, on the morning of the 6th of June, 1944, 225 Rangers jumped off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs. Their mission was one of the most difficult and daring of the invasion: to climb these sheer and desolate cliffs and take out the enemy guns. The Allies had been told that some of the mightiest of these guns were here, and they would be trained on the beaches to stop the Allied advance.
The Rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers -- at the edge of the cliffs shooting down at them with machine guns and throwing grenades. And the American Rangers began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up. When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb again. They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe. Two hundred and twenty-five came here. After two days of fighting, only 90 could still bear arms.
Behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the Ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs. And before me are the men who put them there.
These are the boys of Pointe de Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.
Gentlemen, I look at you and I think of the words of Stephen Spender's poem. You are men who in your "lives fought for life...and left the vivid air signed with your honor…."
Forty summers have passed since the battle that you fought here. You were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet you risked everything here. Why? Why did you do it? What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met here? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith, and belief; it was loyalty and love.
The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next. It was the deep knowledge -- and pray God we have not lost it -- that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt.
You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One's country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you.
My uncle was there - he was a young Navy radio man...
Posted on my Facebook page. Thanks.
My grandpa on my fathers side was there...pushing the soldiers of the 82nd out the door of their C-47’s
- 1 million allies and 700,000 Germans;
- 8.000 artillery pieces;
- 2,546 ALLIED bombers and 1,731 fighters opposed 820 German Bombers and fighters;
- 24 warships and 35 merchant ships were sunk;
- 127 allied planes were shot down;
- 3,500 gliders were in the air behind towing planes;
- 100 glider pilots died;
D-Day casualties were:
- 2,700 British;
- 946 Canadians;
- 6,603 Americas:
- 4,000-9,000 Germans;
- 12,000 airmen were killed and 200 war planes lost in April and May in preparations for D-Day.
By the time the Battle of Normandy ended 425,000 Allies and Germans were killed or wounded.
Today in 77 Normandy cemeteries remain 77.866 Germans; 9,386 Americans; 17,769 British; 5,002 Canadians and 650 Poles.
Again, I stand in awe.
related:
D-Day: Eisenhower and the Paratroopers
Retain Mike | 06/05/09 | Retain Mike
Posted on 06/05/2009 11:24:06 AM PDT by Retain Mike
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2265686/posts
Dogpile
"For over a thousand years Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of triumph, a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeteers, musicians and strange animals from conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conquerors rode in a trimphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children robed in white stood with him in the chariot or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting.” - General George S. Patton Jr.
"Old Blood & Guts" final resting place at the head of 5,075 WWII U.S. Armed Forces graves at the American Cemetery and Memorial in Hamm, Luxembourg. It was a humbling experience when I visited the cemetery and George's grave on a business trip that allowed me to make a side trip to Luxembourg. It was my third major WWII European cemetery to visit. It's a beautiful place and a vivid reminder what it cost to have the freedoms we enjoy.
ABMC administers, operates, and maintains 24 permanent American burial grounds on foreign soil. Presently there are 124,913 U.S. war dead interred at these cemeteries. Eleven of the 24 cemeteries are located in France. There are 60,487 U.S. Armed Forces graves in France with another 7,063 names of the missing inscribed on the cemeteries’ walls and granite tablets. In the France, Belgium, and Luxembourg triangle there are 15 cemeteries with 79,252 graves and 8,389 missing inscribed names. Even if you don’t know much about U.S. war history, visiting cemeteries like Normandy, Lorraine, and Luxembourg will change your life.
From FlAttorney's FR "Straight Talk"
MAR
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