D-Day 1944

Brave Men | 1944 | Ernie Pyle

[Mr. Dough]

Folks, I scanned this from a copy of the book Brave Men by Ernie Pyle. Highly recommended if you can find a copy. Emphasis above is mine. This was scanned and OCR'd so there may be some errors.
I pray some of this spirit survives for the challenges this country faces today....

[SkyDancer]

And if D-Day was reported by today’s MSM ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px_XBJHrs4I

[skeeter]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2027164/posts

[AzSteven]

Been reading The Steel Wave by Jeff Shaara this week - a very well-done novel of the D-Day Invasion. Last night, I watched the first episode of Band of Brothers with some friends on a nice widescreen HDTV, and tonight we follow with the second episode, Day of Days.

These men who went ashore on Omaha, Utah, Gold, Sword, Juno; they were just ordinary guys, thrust into an extraordinary circumstance. None of them went in to be a hero, but as far as I am concerned they all came out as heroes. The fire in their eyes that day is reflected in the eyes of many an American and British soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan today, and I for one thank God that we are able to produce men like that when we need them.

[J Aguilar]

Thank you America!

[Loud Mime]

BTTT

Does anybody know what ships went into shallow water to direct their cannons against the pillboxes?

[MNJohnnie]

Great post. Can read all of Ernie Pyle’s columns here

http://journalism.indiana.edu/resources/erniepyle/wartime-columns/3/#WartimeColumns

[Fiddlstix]

Thank you. That's a great link you posted.
It serves as a fine illustration why any sane person should never trust todays Lame Stream Media.

[schu]

Ping for later

[SkyDancer]

Thanks, saw it on Little Green Footballs web site ....

[Mr. Dough]

Wow! I never expected that to already be posted. Sorry about that. Oh well great minds think alike I guess...

[MNJohnnie]

http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/wwii/dday/omaha.aspx

Two destroyers had been instrumental in neutralizing strongpoints between Les Moulins to Fox Red and at least 5 destroyers had moved in to support the landing troops. The USS Frankford was especially effective against the strongpoints covering the E-1 and by 1000 hours, it was secured

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4442/is_200401/ai_n16064610

Corry: The Destroyer that Led the Normandy Invasion

[Mr. Dough]

Thanks for the link, that’s awesome. I’ve been collecting copies of these used, out-of-print books when I see them but this much more convenient I would say. Harder to read in bed though...

[skeeter]

Wish I’da thought of posting it:)

[EverOnward]

Thank you to all those honorable, brave souls who gave so much.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

Did they actually ran the destroyers into the ground to get as close to the German huge guns as possible ?
That must have been a sight to see to watch those destroyers take out the huge German gun locations.
If I was there, and knew our guys were in a difficult situation, I too would have ran the destroyers into the beach if I could and take out all the German defenses with the huge guns on the destroyers.

[RoadTest]

“The fire in their eyes that day is reflected in the eyes of many an American and British soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan today, and I for one thank God that we are able to produce men like that when we need them. “

A_MEN !

[RoadTest]

Good job, Mr. Dough! Thank you.

[MNJohnnie]

They scraped bottom a number of times but did not actually beach the destroyers. There is a story, possible fictional, that a tank was on the beach firing at a target. The destroyer used his fire as an aiming point and fired a load right into the German position. The tank commander head popped up, he looked out to sea and waved at the ship!

Can you imagine that? A huge ocean going ship so close to the beach they could see a guy WAVE at them?

[Prophet in the wilderness]

Did they have any battle ships in that location that day ?
I guess not if resources was low and needed were it really was needed.