June 6th 1944 ... Mark Steyn

Steyn Online ^ | June 6th 2014 | Mark Steyn

[Rummyfan]

In Dennis Sullivan's photograph above, a landing craft from HMCS Prince Henry carries Canadian troops toward Juno Beach in the early hours of D-Day. Many years ago, I spoke to someone who'd been aboard the Prince Henry's sister ship, HMCS Prince David, who talked about the subtly different dynamic among the guys on those landing craft. The Royal Canadian Navy men at the front are concerned to make their rendezvous on time: They're in the middle of the mission, and they want to complete it. The infantrymen behind them are waiting for theirs to start. As the Prince Henry recedes behind them, they know they're leaving the best-laid plans, and that what awaits them on shore is about to go agley.

A lot went wrong, but more went right - or was made right. A few hours before the Canadians aboard the Prince Henry climbed into that landing craft, 181 men in six Horsa gliders took off from RAF Tarrant Rushton in Dorset to take two bridges over the river Orne and hold them until reinforcements arrived. Their job was to prevent the Germans using the bridges to attack troops landing on Sword Beach. At lunchtime, Lord Lovat and his commandos arrived at the Bénouville Bridge, much to the relief of the 7th Parachute Battalion's commanding officer, Major Pine-Coffin. That was his real name, and an amusing one back in Blighty: simple pine coffins are what soldiers get buried in. It wasn't quite so funny in Normandy, where a lot of pine coffins would be needed by the end of the day. Lord Lovat, Chief of the Clan Fraser, apologized to Pine-Coffin for missing the rendezvous time: "Sorry, I'm a few minutes late," he said, after a bloody firefight to take Sword Beach.

[Slings and Arrows]

Steyn ping.

[AlexW]

Mark Steyn ranks among my all time favorites. Thanks for posting.

[rmh47]

I noticed the ad at the top of the page, too. “Steyn vs. The Stick.” LOL!

[metesky]

They were young, but they were not children. I was listening to President Obama explain yesterday from Brussels that the deserter he brought home from the Taliban this week was just a "kid". In fact, he's 28 years old. I remember walking through the Canadian graves at Bény-sur-Mer a few years ago. Over two thousand headstones, but only a handful of ages inscribed upon them: 22 years old, 21, 20... But they weren't "kids", they were men.

[Tax-chick]

I knew a chap who was in the second wave of gliders, and nipped out just before they took off to buy up the local newsagent's entire stack of papers - D-Day special editions, full of news of the early success of the landings. He flew them into France with him, and distributed them to his comrades from the first wave so they could read of their exploits.

LOL!

[BBB333]

You understand he’s being sued to poverty by Mann the ‘inventor’ of the ‘hockey stick’? It’s a way for him to raise money.

Steyn is a good man.

[yldstrk]

Great read

[Aevery_Freeman]

I found that very moving as well.

Just after reading that out loud to my wife, my monitor got fuzzy for some reason.

[Nifster]

As always, Steyn delivers a great read

[JLS]

Mark Steyn ping. This is really a nice column he has written about D-Day.

Freepmail me, if you want on or off the Mark Steyn ping list.

Thanks for the ping Slings and Arrows.

[DuncanWaring]

Remember that the next time some crackpot psychologist or some mouthpiece for the regime talks about how more taxpayer-funded goodies are needed by people of that age because they can’t do anything on their own.